37. Chapter 37
Chapter thirty-seven
Jake
Absolute god damn madcap nonsense. That’s what the end of the job turned into as they all did their level best to finish everything up. Yet somehow, Jake was getting more sleep than he had during the worst of it, which meant he was getting plenty done every day. The entire gaming room was set up and ready for Evander to finish and style it. Since there was no more real carpentry work left to do, Jake tagged alongside Bunny, filling in with odd bits and bobs. Usually with someone watching over his shoulder, since anything besides carpentry and woodworking was…well, best left to professionals in any other circumstance, but this was all hands on deck.
Literally, as Jake kneeled on the back deck, doing some touch-up work on the staining. Just like with most jobs done at any sort of accelerated speed, things took damage in the process. They’d done the front porch, but plenty of furniture and appliances had been dragged in through the back as well, and some of them had done a number on the wood. None of it seriously got damaged, thankfully, but he’d been doing plenty of wood-filling, sanding, and staining to polish everything back up.
“You got a minute, Jake?”
He looked up to see Evander leaning on the railing, holding two large, iced coffees.
Jake pushed to his feet and dusted his hands off. “What’s up?”
Evander handed over one of the coffees, then took a long drink from the other one, then finally sighed and started talking. “I never actually really apologized for everything. I was running my mouth and I shouldn’t have, and…if I can do anything to make it up—”
“We’re good, Ev. Don’t worry.”
“So you and Quinn are okay?”
Jake nodded, but it was at the very least a little white lie. Maybe more honest even than that. He wasn’t sure. He and Quinn had parted on friendly terms, and Quinn was texting him off and on. But no texts that went as far as those pics did before, and they weren’t talking at all about what was actually between them. If anything, it seemed like they were very much dancing around the subject. But Jake wasn’t going to be the one to bring it all up. He would wait it out, hope for the best, and be ready for them to truly drift apart from each other once this job was done.
That was my idea in the first place. Why am I acting like it’s some terrible fate? No amount of reason and logic soothed the burn of that reality.
Ev didn’t need to know any of that to get them through this conversation. “Quinn and I are keeping things on the level. We’re okay, though.” Jake gestured between himself and Ev. “And we’re okay, too. Don’t freak.”
“Too late.” Evander spread his arms wide and walked forward, and Jake took the hug as offered, squeezing Evander against himself, and inadvertently getting a whiff of him at the same time.
“You smell like paint and that god awful body spray they always used in the boys’ locker room in high school.”
“I know. I’m planning on bottling it and selling it. Eau de Himbo.”
Jake raised an eyebrow at him, backing up. “I think I should get a cut of that. I’m pretty sure I’m the resident himbo.” He tapped the back of his head, where there were still stitches. “Only one of us is such a klutz that he got a concussion trying to walk.”
“Nope. None of that. I’m putting a one month moratorium on you making self-deprecating jokes about your intelligence. For the time being, Ozzy and I are the interim idiots.” He cringed and shook his head. “Like that, where I talk like a dumb fuck? I was not implying you’re an idiot.”
“Don’t worry. I will only hold it over your head forever.” Jake took a sip from his drink, sweet and cold and nutty. “Good coffee, though. Thanks. I’ll grant you a one-day stay of sentencing.”
“Oof. That’s from some local coffee shop, though. Not sure what I’m going to do when we head out.”
The suggestion stung Jake just as badly coming out of Ev’s mouth as it did in his own head. Or worse, maybe. They were leaving. No doubt about that. No way around it. He could make up with Quinn six ways to Sunday, but it didn’t shift the reality of the situation.
He forced that into the back of his head, to live with everything else he was ignoring at the moment. A big, cluttered space, and he was running out of room in there, but he shoved it away and kneeled back down on the deck, returning to his staining. “Good talk. Put me down for a bottle of your cologne when it comes out.”
“I’ll give you the GBD.”
Jake chuckled, shaking his head. “Haven’t heard anyone bring up the Good Buddy Discount in a long time.”
“Well, don’t offer it much. But that’s a lifetime membership.”
The GBD was the crew’s agreement with each other: free work on their projects as long as there was pizza and drinks at the end of every day. They’d all gotten more than enough work done on their houses through the GBD.
When Ev walked back inside, sipping his coffee, Jake sat down on the porch…then realized something was wet and sticky and he’d just dropped his ass into several splotches of fresh wood stain. I’m definitely the himbo.