Chapter Twenty-Nine
CLEARING THE air with Joe didn’t immediately solve all the problems at the Taylor-Romano household.
Will still had the occasional mood swing, the timing of which Austin couldn’t predict, though Joe sometimes could.
“It’s his sister’s birthday tomorrow,” he said once, and then, one Saturday in early April, “His brother’s getting married today. ”
But Austin wasn’t hiding his phone therapy appointments, or the fact that he was driving ten minutes into Essex instead of twenty in the other direction, and when he came home, he didn’t have to hide his branded work shirts.
Joe’s work picked up too, as his uncles were putting the final touches on a few houses in an upscale residential development.
They offered a package that involved a credit to have Joe do a custom landscaping design or put toward a service, and with the spring rains, it was the perfect time to lay sod and plant boxwoods.
On the whole, things were going well. They had the fruits over for dinner twice a month, and Starling and Linda invited them over once a week to play cards and shoot the shit.
The Austin of a year ago wouldn’t recognize this weirdly domestic parody of himself.
The Austin of today only wished he’d let DeeDee Mitchell set him up on a date a little sooner.
He was thinking about his life in vague, satisfied terms as he brought Pepa into the breezeway from a damp Sunday morning walk.
She was probably due for a proper bath, given the amount of mud she’d managed to fling all over herself.
He was wondering if he could coax her into the tub or if he should risk the moldering upholstery of his car and take her to the self-serve dog wash in town when Will came cursing down the stairs.
“Austin?”
“Breezeway,” Austin answered. “Bring me a towel from the linen closet?”
Will appeared a moment later. “Hey.” He handed over one of the rags they used for Pepa.
“Thanks.” He was kneeling to run the towel over Pepa’s legs and belly when he registered the state of Will’s clothes. His T-shirt clung to his scrawny chest and shoulders with damp. “What happened to you?”
Will winced. “I woke up like this,” he said. “I think the roof is leaking.”
Some part of Austin was vaguely impressed he’d slept through getting that wet. Teenagers really would sleep through anything.
Then the implications sank in, and he sighed. “Ah.” He finished drying Pepa and unclipped her lead. “Why don’t you put on something dry and I’ll make coffee and we can figure out how to handle Joe.”
WHEN JOE arrived home from a long day gardening, he found Will moping at the kitchen table with his textbooks splayed out in front of him, and Austin tossing a salad at the counter.
“Honey, I’m home,” Joe teased, and was rewarded with an eye roll from Will and a wink and a kiss from Austin.
Figuring he might as well eke out the one true joy of living with a moody teen, Joe jumped Will, wrapping his arms around his shoulders, kissing his head and ruffling his hair.
“Joe! Get—off! Joe!”
Cackling, Joe stepped away, and Will’s pouting rearrangement of his hair did nothing to dampen his grin.
“God, you’re so embarrassing.”
“I try,” Joe said amiably. “So what’s with the homework in the kitchen? Keeping Austin company?”
“Uh.” Will shot a look at Austin, who snorted.
“Subtle, kid. Will’s been temporarily evicted from his bedroom.”
Joe paused, his hand frozen mid-reach to steal a piece of pepper from the cutting board. “What?”
“The roof pissed on my bed.”
“What?” That statement was more nonsensical than Austin’s.
“Will kindly discovered a leak in the roof this morning,” Austin finally translated.
“It woke me up,” Will added.
“The roof leaked?” Dread curdled Joe’s stomach. Any roof leak powerful enough to wake someone up wouldn’t be a cheap fix.
“Yeah,” Austin cut in. “It’s not as bad as you’re probably imagining, but it’s not great. Before you start panicking, you’re going to sit down to eat dinner and I’m going to tell you what I learned today.”
“What you learned.” Joe had been one step behind on this conversation ever since the roof was mentioned.
“Go grab us drinks while Will cleans up his homework and I fill up plates.”
Figuring he might as well do as ordered, Joe saluted Austin and joked, “Sir, yes, sir!”
Five minutes later, they sat round the table and Joe picked up his fork and hesitated to tuck in. Austin rolled his eyes and motioned for him to eat.
“I already called Marco,” Austin began. “He swung by to take a look on his lunch break. He insisted. He stuck his head in the attic but couldn’t be sure about the full extent of the damage. He’s sending someone tomorrow morning to cover it with a tarp and take a closer look.”
Joe blinked, surprised. His uncle had already been by?
“He says we’ll probably have to decide between a patch job and a new roof, but if we go the patch job route, we’re probably just delaying the inevitable.”
“Makes sense.” Joe rubbed at his forehead. New roofs were expensive, but depending on the size of the patch, it probably made more financial sense to chuck the whole thing and pay now rather than later. “I don’t suppose the roof happened to leak gold or diamonds into Will’s bed as well.”
Austin snorted. “Nah. So we’re going to have to make an adult decision.”
“Sounds scary,” Will put in.
Austin reached over and flicked his forehead. “I called the bank and asked what our options were. The advisor said we probably wouldn’t have any trouble getting a mortgage or a line of credit, since we own the house outright.”
Joe stared at Austin. A joint line of credit was a big step for a relationship, but it was a heck of a lot better than many of the alternatives.
“There’s one other thing to know before we make any decisions.”
“Oh God, what else?”
“Marco offered to let us pay in installments. I told him we’d talk about it.”
Damn right they would talk about it. Joe’s knee-jerk reaction was to say no, but he swallowed the urge and tried to think it through. Did he want to reject the offer because of an illogical need to prove himself or because there was a flaw in the plan?
“Since you’re apparently going to keep talking mortgages and I have math homework, I’m going to go do that in my—in the guestroom. At least I get credit for thinking about those numbers.”
Will loaded his dishes in the washer and skedaddled.
“Did Marco mention how much the new roof might cost?”
“Depends on whether we go asphalt shingles or metal, but anywhere from about fifteen to forty, he guesstimated.”
“I don’t want to owe him forty grand,” Joe said. “It’s not about ego. What if something happens and we can’t pay him back? I don’t want to owe family that much.”
“Yeah, I think the metal roof’s off the table, so to speak. Even if it does sound cool as shit.”
Joe remembered the cheerful patter of rain on the top of Austin’s dilapidated trailer and wondered if he meant that literally.
It did sound nice. It would probably also keep Joe up at night until he got used to it.
“So, conventional asphalt shingles. Maybe they’ll have a sale on last season’s colors. ”
Austin nudged him under the table. “That’s the spirit.”
“You’re being remarkably chill about this.”
“One of us has to,” Austin pointed out. He was gentle about it, but Joe still felt it, and it sent his thoughts whirling.
Joe had been chill once, back when they first got the house and Austin convinced him to fix it up. They’d had some setbacks, like the kitchen floor and the septic system, but he’d rolled with those punches.
He didn’t know when he lost that ability, if it happened when he and Austin started sleeping together or if it was later, when Joe got sick and had to rely on Austin for everything, but at some point he’d become so paralyzed that he was no help at all.
He’d only had a handful of sessions with the therapist, but she’d already pinpointed the way he stuck his head in the sand when things went wrong, and while they were just starting to work out why—God knew that tendency hadn’t served him well—that didn’t mean he didn’t need to work on being more present.
He knew if it had been Austin who got sick instead of him, he’d have done the same things Austin did.
He’d have handled it. He leaned on Austin too much now because he could.
But that wasn’t fair; this wasn’t Austin’s burden to shoulder alone. They were partners. It was time for Joe to pull his weight.
He managed to press his foot back into Austin’s. “It shouldn’t always have to be you. Let me talk to Marco too, okay? He’s my uncle, after all.”
AUSTIN PLACED another tray on the picnic table already laden with food. Joe might have gone overboard, not that Austin would say as much out loud. Austin got to reap the benefits, after all.
Yesterday, they had all headed down to Essex District High School to watch the four kids cross the stage and claim their diplomas.
Joe cheered louder than almost anyone else in the audience, much to the kids’ chagrin, but none of them turned away when Joe tackled them later with hugs and congratulations.
Joe would never say it to the kids, but Austin knew the day was all the sweeter for him since there had been times in the past when he had worried some of them wouldn’t graduate on time.
Joe had an excess of joy and energy to share, and with their financial situation more or less handled, Austin had no objections to Joe declaring they would host a late June party.
Instead, he smiled and nodded and offered to do last-minute grocery runs and set up the table and chairs in the yard and even borrowed extra lawn furniture from Linda.
“This looks delicious,” Maria said, rubbing her swollen stomach. She was almost seven months along. Austin thought she looked like she’d shoved a basketball up her shirt.
“Doesn’t it?” Austin shifted a plate, then tucked his hands into his pockets to keep them from fidgeting.