Pieces of Home

52. Chapter Fifty-One

Chapter Fifty-One

Jake

Friday morning was chilly and slightly overcast when Jake and Rye pulled into the parking lot at Shasta College. Rye sat quietly in his seat, staring out the window. He hadn’t said more than a few words all morning, but as soon as Jake parked his car in one of the few remaining open spots, Rye blew out a shaky breath.

“I’m so nervous. I feel sick.” He bent over and rested his elbows on his knees and his forehead in his hands. “Maybe... this isn’t a great idea.”

Jake turned off the car and gently reached out, placing his hand low on Rye’s back. “You’re ready for this,” he said, repeating the words he’d told Rye the night before when they’d finally gotten around to studying a bit. “You’ve worked so hard, and I just know you’re going to do great.”

They weren’t just rote words; Jake believed them. And he’d repeat them as many times as Rye needed him to.

He glanced up and across the parking lot toward the building. Small groups of students hung around outside, despite the morning chill, and a couple of people headed up a walkway leading to the building’s entrance. Jake was just about to look back at Rye and offer him more reassurance when he spotted it.

A news van sat parked right along the front row of cars, blocking at least one or two of the accessible parking spots in front of the building. A woman in a neat dark-blue business suit stood outside the van, alongside another person shouldering a large video camera.

A string of curses nearly slipped out. This was not what Rye needed. Not today. Not any day, actually, but especially not today, when he was already nervous about taking his exams.

They’d been lucky in Rocky Cove. Even when Rye had first shown up and then again when Raymond Hirsh had been identified, the media hadn’t really stuck around terribly long. Everyone in town had been so tight-lipped, and Rye and his family had obviously had no interest in talking to any reporters. Rachel and Wayne and the other law enforcement officers had made sure Rye and Shirley had round-the-clock protection at the beginning, and that had included keeping unwanted attention away from them.

Who might have tipped off the media that Rye would be here, Jake had no idea. Maybe they weren’t there for Rye anyway, Jake hoped, but it seemed unlikely. Especially since the woman reporter seemed to be scanning the parking lot, looking for someone.

Jake turned back to Rye and lightly rubbed his back. “Ready?”

“No. Yes. No.”

With a weak huff of laughter, Jake let his hand stop and pressed it into Rye’s back gently. “It’s okay. You’re gonna do great,” he repeated. “But I have to warn you—”

His cell phone rang then, a buzz followed by his familiar ringtone, and Jake frowned. “Hang on. I need to silence it anyway,” he said, but when he reached out and picked up the phone, which had been sitting face down in the space in front of the gearshift, his frown turned into a grimace.

It was Wayne. And he had two text message notifications from Shirley and one from Rachel. All sent in the last ten minutes or so.

Shit.

“Wh-why’s Wayne calling?”

“I’m not sure.” Jake hesitated for a second before swiping to answer and lifting the phone to his ear. He glanced over at Rye, and his stomach dropped. Rye’s normally pale complexion looked even paler, and now he clutched at his stomach. Jake shook his head gently, hoping Rye would know what he meant— don’t worry, everything’s okay, you’re safe .

“Hello, Wayne?”

“Ah, good, I caught you. Shirley and Rachel said you hadn’t answered their texts, and Shirley thought maybe you’d had to turn off your phone while Ryan was testing.”

“No. Well, I mean, yes, I will, but he hasn’t started yet.”

“Okay, okay,” Wayne said. There was some rustling on the other end, and Jake frowned again.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing bad, but you need to know. I’m sure it’s gonna be all over the news, if it’s not already, and it’d be better for Ryan to have it coming from you than from the media.” Wayne paused, and there were more muffled sounds on Wayne’s end of the line. “No, no, tell ’em we’re not issuing a statement right now. That’s all,” Wayne said, clearly talking to someone else .

Jake’s chest tightened, and his eyes darted back to Rye. The younger man was now staring down at his lap, still clutching his stomach.

“Sorry, Jake. So, seems like there’s been a sighting. Raymond Hirsh, I mean. Someone recognized him hanging out around an elementary school down in Tucson. They went to the police just this morning about an hour ago.”

“Oh shit,” Jake mumbled, and he immediately regretted it as Rye flinched, hunching his shoulders over and screwing his eyes shut. Jake pulled the phone away from his ear and slowly reached out to touch Rye’s back. “Sorry, sorry, Rye. I’ll do better. And everything’s okay, alright?”

Rye was trembling—Jake could feel it as he lightly rubbed Rye’s back. Yet Rye nodded.

Jake brought the phone back to his ear. “Is there anything else, Wayne?”

“That’s it, really. At least for now. They’ve got a partial plate and a description of his vehicle and probably the whole Tucson Police Department out searching for him. But nothing else yet.”

“Okay, thanks, uh, keep me posted.” Jake let his hand press into Rye’s back a little more. “Although I won’t have my phone on except during Rye’s breaks between exams.”

“Will do. And just as a reminder, Tucson is plenty far away from—Redding is where you are, right?—and Hirsh was seen just this morning. So there’s no danger or anything. We just didn’t want Ryan to find out from the TV or something, you know?”

“Yeah, thanks, Wayne. I gotta go.”

“Alright. Tell Ryan good luck from all of us.”

“Will do.”

Jake waited for a second until he was sure Wayne had hung up, then he pulled the phone away from his ear, hit the power button to turn off the screen, and stuffed the phone in his pocket, glancing up toward the news van. A second news van had pulled up, and two men were climbing out.

The timing was just awful, even though the news was good—the first real lead they’d had on Raymond Hirsh’s whereabouts since they’d discovered his identity back in December. But now, he needed to tell Rye, and Rye had to somehow be okay enough to go inside and take his exams, even though he was already nervous.

Jake shifted to look at Rye, who was breathing a little fast, his eyes still screwed shut. “Hey, you okay?”

Rye immediately shook his head.

“Did you hear what Wayne said?”

He shook his head again, and Jake’s stomach twisted into a knot .

“Okay, okay. Um.” God, he didn’t want to do this here, sitting in the parking lot, right before Rye’s exams. And they probably only had a few minutes now, even though they’d been perfectly early getting here. Still, he didn’t see any other way. Rye needed to know. So he took a deep breath and shifted slightly to face Rye, then he started lightly stroking back and forth with his hand low on Rye’s back as he quietly relayed Wayne’s message to Rye.

Rye didn’t move or respond the whole time, but Jake could feel him trembling.

“You’re safe, and I’m here with you,” Jake said, and when Rye gave a small nod, Jake’s heart clenched. “There’s one other thing. Two news vans are here, and we have to walk past them to get into the building. And I’m not sure if they’re here because they found out you’re going to be here or for something entirely different, but you’re safe, and I’m here with you, and we can just walk right by and ignore them. Okay? Whatever they say, don’t listen or try to answer, just keep walking. Because you’ve studied hard for this test, and you’re ready for it, and you’re going to pass.”

And I don’t want him to take another thing away from you.

Rye almost seemed to be thinking the same thing, because he nodded a little more clearly this time, and then he forced out a sharp breath and said, “I will.”

“You will,” Jake agreed. “You ready?”

Rye didn’t answer this time, but he unfastened his seat belt and started to get out of the car. Jake copied him, and by the time Jake had climbed out and shut his door, Rye was already around at the front of the car, his hands shoved into his pockets and his shoulders hunched. Jake joined him, and they silently started forward, Jake positioning himself on Rye’s right side, ready to put space between Rye and the reporters, should it come down to that.

They were about halfway across the parking lot when they were finally spotted, and both reporters and their camera crew jumped to attention. Jake kept half an eye on them, but most of his focus was on Rye, and when Rye’s steps faltered for the first time, Jake quickly lifted his hand to gently touch Rye’s back, encouraging him to keep going.

“Ignore them, we’re almost there,” Jake said softly, even as one of the reporters—the woman who’d been there first—approached, already firing off questions.

Had Ryan heard the news about Raymond Hirsh being sighted down in Arizona? How did Ryan feel about the fact that Raymond Hirsh was apparently stalking elementary school children? What did Ryan think about Raymond Hirsh still being at large ?

Rye’s hands flew out of his pockets and up to cover his ears, but he kept walking, moving forward with Jake.

“You’re so brave, Rye. We’re almost there,” Jake said again, and he shifted closer to Rye to shield him from the woman’s view. It did little good, however, since the other reporter approached then, too, stepping almost right in front of them.

The man shoved a microphone forward toward them. “Ryan Davis, care to comment on—”

“He has no comment,” Jake interrupted quickly, not caring to let Rye hear Raymond Hirsh’s name spoken even one more time. He pressed his hand gently into Rye’s back to guide him around the man, past the vans, and up onto the cement walkway leading to the testing building. “Almost there. You’re doing great.”

Rye nodded, though his hands still covered his ears, and he kept moving. The reporters followed, but stayed back and didn’t try to ambush them with more questions. They reached the building, and someone else heading inside held open the door. Jake gave them a grateful nod and guided Rye the rest of the way in.

And Rye almost immediately sank into Jake as the door closed behind them. His hands dropped to his sides, and he shook his head, though he stayed quiet.

Carefully, Jake wrapped his arm around Rye’s shoulders and directed him out of the immediate entryway to the building, over to a bench positioned along the wall. As soon as Rye sat, he scooted until his back was against the wall and pulled his feet up onto the bench, hugging his knees to his chest. Then he lowered his forehead to rest on his knees and let out a long, shaky breath.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” Jake murmured quietly, and Rye gave a tiny nod but didn’t say anything. Just that tiny nod, though, held enough meaning. Jake could barely imagine how much courage it had taken for Rye to get this far. “Alright, let’s see where we need to go, yeah?”

This time, Rye didn’t respond, but that was okay.

Keeping his hand on Rye’s back to steady both of them, Jake took in their surroundings. He knew they were supposed to check in by 8:55 a.m. with a woman named Denise, who was to be the proctor for Rye’s exams, and the clock up on the wall showed that they were just a couple of minutes late now. Hopefully that wouldn’t be a problem.

After another minute or so, Jake managed to get Rye back up and moving. A sign on the wall pointed GED test takers down a hallway to the right, and Jake led Rye that direction. About halfway down the hallway, they found the room where Rye was supposed to test—alone and with the door open, per the accommodations that had been approved for him. As they entered, an older woman with short gray hair stood and greeted them, introducing herself as Denise. She was kind and calm, and she took her time getting Rye checked in and reviewing all the rules for the test session, including all of Rye’s special accommodations. Then Rye got settled at the testing computer, and Jake took his designated seat near the door.

There was nothing else Jake could do now except wait. So that was what he did. He sat and watched and waited as Rye somehow pulled himself together and got started on the first of his four exams.

Eight hours later, Jake held open the door to the hotel room with one hand, balancing a pizza box in the other. Rye had chosen to power through all of his exams without a lunch break, and so neither of them had eaten since breakfast. It had probably been the right choice—if they’d left campus to eat, they might’ve had to brave the media again, and Jake wasn’t sure Rye would have been able to handle that a second time.

As it was, he could tell Rye was barely holding himself together now. He walked past Jake and into the hotel room, one arm gripping his midsection and his shoulders tense. Then he stopped just inside the room and took a long, shuddering breath.

Jake followed him in, but held the door handle to make sure the door closed softly. Then he stepped up behind Rye and carefully set his free hand on Rye’s lower back.

“You’re okay?” he asked quietly. But Rye didn’t answer, not even to nod or shake his head. Instead, he moved away from Jake and farther into the room, over to his bed. Jake frowned, but let him have space. Limping a bit more than he’d like, Jake crossed the small room and set the pizza box down on the desk. Then he busied himself with getting their dinner ready, pulling out a paper plate and napkin for each of them from the stash the pizza place had given him and divvying up the small cheese pizza.

He finished quickly and turned around to Rye. “There we go, hope you’re hungry, I—” He paused, his smile fading as he saw Rye, now sitting on the edge of his bed.

Rye had picked up his phone, which he’d left powered down at the hotel that morning, and he stared at the black screen, his expression tight .

“What is it?” Jake asked, though he didn’t exactly expect a response. Rye hadn’t spoken since that morning, since just before they’d gotten out of the car, which wasn’t surprising given everything.

And instead of answering, Rye lifted his eyes and looked up at Jake, frowning. Then he stood, slowly closed the distance between them, and handed the powered-down phone to Jake, his eyes now downcast.

Jake swallowed hard but took the phone. “You want... me to turn it on for you?” he guessed. When Rye nodded once, Jake glanced down at the phone and hesitated. “Are you worried about, uh... messages from your mom, or the news, or your test results?”

With a small huff that might have been a laugh, though he didn’t look amused, Rye nodded again.

“All three?”

Rye nodded one more time and backed up a step.

“Sorry, yeah, I, uh... sure.” Jake motioned to his bed. “Let me sit, though.”

He held down the power button to turn Rye’s phone on, then moved to the bed and sat. Rye took a seat on the edge of his own bed, just across from Jake, wringing his hands together. With a gentle smile, Jake held up the phone. “Let’s see what we got, huh?”

As if on cue, the phone started to vibrate with notifications. A lot of them. Jake paused for a second to scroll through everything.

“There are some email notifications and then three texts from your mom. Another one from Elsie, one from Jon, and another from Janice.” He quickly scanned the texts, smiling as he saw all of the messages of encouragement Rye’s friends and family had sent. “The text messages all just say good luck,” he explained. “Your mom’s”—he tapped again on the message from Shirley and held the phone out so Rye could see—“has a whole lot of exclamation points and emojis, and says how proud of you she is. And there’s the last one here from just a little bit ago asking how the tests went.”

He watched as Rye looked up, his gorgeous blue eyes anxious as he scanned the texts. A tiny, tentative smile grew on his lips, but then he blinked and dropped his gaze.

Jake’s chest constricted as he watched Rye scoot back on the bed and pull his feet up, his shoes still on. Rye then wrapped his arms around his knees and lowered his head.

“What’s...” Jake trailed off as Rye shook his head strongly and tightened his arms around his legs. And suddenly Jake understood Rye’s anxiety. The tests. Why Rye needed to know .

With a short breath, Jake looked down at the phone again and clicked on the first of the email notifications. A link took him to the main GED login page, where Rye’s login credentials and password were saved. Not more than a few seconds later, Jake cleared his throat and grinned.

“Rye, here, look.”

He turned the phone around in his hand and offered it to Rye, who barely peeked up over his knees. Rye’s eyes widened as he saw the phone screen, and he sat up straighter and lowered his knees to sit cross-legged.

“I... passed?” He reached out to take the cell phone from Jake, staring in disbelief at the screen. “I passed?” he repeated, his voice catching this time.

“You passed,” Jake confirmed. “Easily.”

Rye just kept staring at the phone for several more seconds, and he shook his head. “I passed.”

Chuckling, Jake stood and then slowly moved to sit next to Rye on his bed. He settled his hand low on Rye’s back again, though what he really wanted was to scoop Rye up in his arms and give him a huge hug.

“You not only passed,” he said, “but you also got that special College Ready designation for every test. Scores above one seventy-five all around.” Jake shook his head in amazement. “That’s incredible. You’re incredible.”

Jake wanted to say so much more, but he found himself at a loss for words, and he closed his eyes for a moment, both in awe and so damn proud of his friend.

“I... I can’t believe...” With an exhausted sigh, Rye turned and collapsed into Jake, pressing his face into the crook of Jake’s shoulder. “I can’t believe it.”

Rye’s breath was warm against Jake’s chest, the sensation spreading through him like a wave. It felt so good, and for the briefest of moments, it nearly overwhelmed him. Slowly, to give himself time as much as to give Rye time to say no, Jake let his arm slip around Rye’s shoulders, and then he squeezed Rye gently in the softest of hugs.

“You did it, Rye,” he breathed, carefully lowering his cheek to rest against the top of Rye’s head. “You did it.”

Rye shuddered and buried his face deeper into Jake’s shoulder. “I... did.”

“Yeah. I’m so proud of you.”

And Rye shook his head but didn’t say anything else. He just stayed right where he was, right in his place in Jake’s arms, letting Jake hold him.

It was the most perfect thing Jake had ever felt. And he loved every second of it.