5. Chapter 5
Chapter five
Quinn
I’ll take care of you . As Quinn stood in the living room, sorting through the piles of his grandparents’ stuff, Jake’s damn voice played through his head over and over. He couldn’t excise it, just kept hearing it and seeing his deep blue eyes and soft pink lips. Dangerous.
Somehow, Jake kept pulling Quinn into his orbit. Sure, it wasn’t exactly easy to avoid him while they were working on the property. But still, Quinn needed to be cautious. No matter how much he wanted to run his fingers through Jake’s hair, he knew better. It wouldn’t be the first time Quinn got caught up in a pretty face and a hard body that he knew would lead nowhere.
He almost hadn’t survived the last time.
They’d already cleared out most of the trash indoors, though of course more kept being revealed. Under boxes, in the couch and chair cushions, everywhere. But it meant that he could start going through things, looking for mementos, finding stuff that he might actually want to keep. His grandpa’s compulsive spending was a problem, and he would have traded all of this stuff in a heartbeat to get him a more comfortable life toward the end. But throwing it out made no sense. If he could remember his grandpa a little bit when he used that fancy trash can or the new vacuum cleaner…silver linings weren’t the sort of things to toss aside.
Quinn slid his box knife through the tape on a plain brown package, slicing through the shipping label as he opened it. When he peeled it open, he smiled, shaking his head. “Found it.”
He set the box on its side and slid the foam packing out. A tight fit, but once he got it halfway, it slipped easily. He tossed the box aside, only barely aware of the camera focused on him—it was shocking how easy they were to mostly forget about in such a short time—and took the foam off, revealing the air purifier. Brand new, shiny white, still covered in plastic.
Tears pricked again and Quinn took a couple steps back, looking up at the ceiling as he tried to get himself under control. Over a fucking air purifier? Really? But Quinn could remember it. He’d gotten a call from his grandpa, asking for help. Quinn was the only other person he would actually let come over. He never said as much, but he was clearly embarrassed about the state of the house. It had been on the last cleaning jag before his grandpa went downhill, and he’d done a passable job in his own bedroom, leaving it cluttered, but usable.
When Quinn got there, his grandpa was knee deep in the living room, sorting through boxes. He swore up and down he’d bought an air purifier and he wanted that in the bedroom to help keep the dust down, maybe remove some of the musty smell. But they never found it, even after hours of sifting through stuff.
There was just always too much stuff to deal with.
Quinn checked the delivery date on the box. Five years ago.
“Quinn?” Eliza walked up, smiling softly. “This seems important. I don’t want to press too hard—”
“It’s fine.” He took one final steady breath, then looked back at the air purifier on its side on the floor. “Something my grandpa was looking for. There’s always a part of you that wonders, at his age, living like this, if he was a hundred percent there. If he was remembering stuff that didn’t happen. But the stupid air purifier is here.” Quinn sighed, then pulled himself back. He needed to keep his shit together if he wanted to get through all this intact. What was inside was his, after all.
And if Jake sees me upset, I don’t know if I could say no to a hug. He would definitely do it, too.
After a few more seconds, Eliza nodded and the cameras backed off. “We’ll want to get more on that in confessional later. But take some time if you need it. We have to catch some footage of what’s going on out back, then set up a good spot to get the confessional footage. But you know that, if you need to step out—”
“I’m here to help. It’s still my house. Can’t let you do all the work.” He smiled, then turned back around to continue addressing the pile…after setting the air purifier to the side. It won’t hurt to have that on hand.
A long day. Quinn couldn’t keep taking days off from his actual job, but they’d gotten a ton done on the house. Not that it was easy to see the progress. At the end of the day, it felt a lot like they’d just moved a bunch of stuff around. It was only when he walked out to see the heap in the garbage bin that it actually really struck Quinn.
That and his sore back. And shoulders. And sides. And arms. He flopped down on the sofa in his apartment and groaned. “I’m not cut out for that kind of work.”
Knock knock knock.
He groaned again, louder, and even considered not answering the door at all. But if someone was knocking after eight o’clock at night, it was probably important. He pushed himself back up and moved to the door, popping it open to see blonde locks and blue eyes and a big smile. “Jake?” His belly tightened. “What’s wrong? Is it the house?”
He shook his head. “No. Shit no. Sorry. Not trying to panic you.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar, slim phone. “I figured you might want this.”
“Right. Fuck.” Quinn patted his pockets, confirming it wasn’t there, then took it with a nod. “Thanks. Where did I leave it?”
“Porta-John.”
“Oh god.” Quinn set it down on the table by the door, then headed into the kitchen to wash his hands. “Thanks for the assist.”
“No problem,” Jake shouted from the doorway. “I’ll be off. I just wanted to make sure that got back to you, but I don’t want to keep the driver waiting.”
“You paid for a ride here?” Quinn quickly rinsed and dried his hands, then stepped back over so they didn’t have to keep their voices raised. “You could have just given it to me tomorrow. I have to do some work, but I was coming over in the afternoon.”
Jake rolled his eyes. “Come on. I can barely make it five minutes without my phone. Can’t very well force someone else to endure that kind of hell.”
Quinn smiled in spite of himself. “Well thanks. Um, listen.” He rolled his shoulders, trying to work out the kinks and pain from the day, since it very suddenly looked like he wasn’t quite ready to lay down and zonk out. “I’ll give you a ride back. Least I can do. Save you some money.”
“I don’t mind. Trust me, they’re paying me plenty for the show.” He winked.
As he stepped back from the door, pulling it closed behind him, Quinn reached out and kept the door from shutting. “Seriously. Let me drive you. It’s not going to feel right if I make you pay to get back to…” Quinn tilted his head to the side. “I don’t actually know where you’re staying. I guess it’s not my business.”
“Same hotel we met you at. Should make it easier to meet with you when we need to. When we’re not across town working on the house.” He glanced over his shoulder. “You know what, I’ll take you up on the offer.”
Quinn grabbed his keys off the table. “Great.” He snapped his wallet up too, then joined Jake on the porch. “Not good to start our relationship off with me owing you.”
Jake tapped on his phone a few times, then a car pulled off. Presumably his ride. He looked at Quinn. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind if you owed me a favor.”
Clearly, Jake was trying to be smooth about it, but Quinn was not unfamiliar with the experience of getting checked out. And he really didn’t hate Jake checking him out, that was for sure. When Jake headed down the stairs ahead of him, he took the opportunity to return the favor. He has a great ass. Quinn reached back and surreptitiously felt his own through his jeans. I sit at the computer too much. Flat-ass central. His hair flopped up and down with each riser on the stairs, catching the pools of light scattered around the parking lot and the wrap-around balcony of his apartment complex.
At the bottom of the stairs, Jake spun, arms out, stumbled on a lip in the concrete, and barely caught himself on the railing from very likely knocking his teeth out with a fall to the pavement.
Quinn shook his head. “How dangerous are you when you get drunk?”
“Not at all.” He righted himself, still smiling wide like nothing happened. “It’s almost impossible to get me to move when I’m drunk. All I want to do is cuddle. Hard to hurt myself too much giving hugs on the couch.”
I bet he gives great hugs. Quinn picked up the pace a little, as if he could escape those thoughts. What fucking spell does he have over me? Quinn had a soft spot for blondes, sure. But this was going on a full day and he was utterly smitten.
Quinn tapped the unlock button and his car flashed, then he climbed into the driver’s seat. Jake piled in next to him and buckled up. “Seriously, thanks for this. I can give you directions if you need them, but, like, no promises we won’t get lost. There’s a reason I’m not the designated navigator on road trips.”
“It’s the same hotel. I can get us there.” Quinn backed out of the space, then pulled onto the road and headed along. The traffic wasn’t dead-dead, but it was past rush hour at this point, so not too stressful of a commute. The longer they drove, the heavier the quiet weighed down.
Thankfully, Jake saved him from slipping and saying anything he might regret. Or worse, not regret at all. “Since I’ve got you all to myself for a few minutes, I wanted to run some stuff by you. Just so you have time to consider it. We’ll need some definite answers soon, and Ozzy’s going to want to get started on the landscaping ASAP.”
“Shoot.”
“If you did have a really good outside space, would you use it? What would you use it for?”
Quinn chewed the question a bit before answering. “I don’t know that I’m super outdoorsy. Obviously. But it would be nice to have a space to, like, drink coffee outside in the morning sometimes. Watch the neighborhood go by. Especially if there were some nice-smelling flowers.” A smile pulled at his lips. “Yeah. I think that would be good. I mean, if it’s doable. I don’t want to push.”
“Dream big, winnow down.” Jake had his phone out and was tapping away. “We can totally get you a nice front porch area. You want a back deck as big as the one your grandpa had?” He snorted. “Not that it’s my business how big you want your deck.”
“Well done. Ten out of ten.”
“I do my best.”
Quinn sighed. “I don’t really think I need that big of one.” Maybe it was the late hour, or the proximity to the hunky-ass carpenter, or his exhaustion preventing him from tempering his hormones, but he played along with the flirtatious innuendo. “Don’t need that kind of size at the back door, you know?”
“Totally understandable.” Jake grinned across at him. “So serious talk, you don’t necessarily need a lot?”
“Like I said about the interior, I don’t really do a lot of entertaining.”
“Not a lot outside of the bedroom, if I gather correctly.”
Shit. Did I say that? It was a line he used with his friends online often enough some of them quoted it back to him, but had he let it slip earlier? Must have, if he knows about it.
Quinn shrugged. “That’s not inaccurate. I don’t do much entertaining period, but when I do, that’s the kind.”
“You should talk to Evander about that. If you’re comfortable.”
Quinn takes his eyes off the road and stares at Jake a few long seconds. “I’m…Evander’s not my type. No offense to him.” You are. You’re my type, and if you wanted to talk about my bedroom activities, I’m open. Apparently. Since we’re doing that.
“No. I mean, yes if you want to. He’s a good enough guy. But I mean for the show, and the interior design. It would help him get stuff set up better in your bedroom when the time comes. Discrete storage for personal stuff, a place to keep a guest’s clothes, towel storage. That sort of thing And if you’d be cool with it, I bet Eliza would love to get some risqué talk on record.” Jake sucked on his teeth a couple seconds. “That’s not me secretly passing on information from production, or me trying to pressure you. I just kind of did a show like this already.” He rapped his temple softly. “There’s not much bouncing around up here, but it’s not totally empty.”
“I mean, you’re not wrong.” Quinn cringed. “About making good TV. I’m not saying you’re dumb.”
“I know.” He winked. “You run this tense all the time, or is it just everything going on.”
It’s being alone with a prime hunk like you. “I think it’s being back in the house after this long. Also, everything hurts.”
They pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and Jake unbuckled. “Yeah. Try an Epsom salt bath, if you’ve got a tub at your apartment. If not, I could loan you the one up in my hotel room.” He held up a finger, silencing any potential response. “Totally innocent offer. No decks around the back door, I just know what it’s like living in a studio.”
Quinn did have a tub, and he knew full well he should have said as much. He wasn’t going to let himself get too close, certainly not to the point of using his bathtub, unsupervised, in a hotel room. Not when Jake was going to go back home across the country, never to be seen again. And damn sure not when there were constant cameras filming their interactions. Production would simply love to have something they could play up as sexual or romantic for the final cut. I know myself. I would let something slip.
But he couldn’t quite fess up to it and cut off that possibility. “If it doesn’t get better, I might have to take you up on that offer.” He looked up toward the top of the hotel. “You going to make it up to your room intact?”
“It’s carpeted. If I fall, I’ll be good to go.” He flashed two thumbs up, then climbed out and closed the door, waving as Quinn pulled away.
He’s still too cute for my own good.