23. Exposed
EXPOSED
Jake didn’t have much time to think about how his last conversation with Robbie had ended.
In the days that followed, he had to meet with Carson, pay a visit to the hardware store, then meet with Carson again after he called Jake at seven in the morning telling him he forgot to mention a few things and could Jake meet him for breakfast.
In whatever downtime might have ordinarily remained, Isabel kept him busy maintaining a house so clean it sparkled.
It wasn’t being shown for another few days, not until after Isabel had her reunion with the other half of the Wynn sibling duo, but she insisted that they not get behind on the cleaning.
“Otherwise, it will be a nightmare when we start having open houses,” she told Jake when he got back from breakfast with Carson. “And neither you nor I need that stress right now.”
“You could say that again,” Jake mumbled, toeing the edge of the rug in the living room.
He pulled open the yellow plastic bag sitting on the coffee table and took out a roll of white tape, from which he cut a piece to size and pasted it under the spot where the rug kept lifting.
It’d been a problem for a while, but Isabel had mentioned once what might happen when someone inevitably tripped and fell, and that was enough to get Jake to make that unpleasant trip to Eaton Hardware.
“There.” He smoothed out the corner. “No one’s gonna trip now, although you can always peel it back up if you’re in the mood for sabotage.”
As he stood up, Isabel gave him a funny look, cocking her head. He’d fucked up with that little quip. It would’ve worked with Robbie, but it was too dark for her.
“You’ve been in an odd mood lately,” she finally said.
“I’m just preparing for when Alex gets here.”
“What time are you picking her up tomorrow?”
Jake pulled his phone out. Above a photo of a dog she’d met at the park and a two-paragraph-long recounting of a recent mishap at the coffee shop she frequented, Alex had sent him a screenshot of her ticket.
“She’s supposed to get in at three, so I’ll try to be there a few minutes early.
Trains are always late anyway, so I’m not too concerned. ”
“Not always, sweetie,” Isabel warned him gently. “You should leave at one-thirty just to be sure.”
“Uh-huh.” Jake had just noticed that Robbie had sent him a message a few minutes earlier, and as he pretended to listen to his aunt, he debated opening it so soon after it was sent.
Finally, he tapped his thumb on the screen and held his breath. It was merely a press release about the new cafe:
Coming soon to Eventide’s historical downtown district: the new Eaton Cafe will be replacing the old bookstore, with full renovations including a drive-thru window and a charming little outdoor seating area.
Attached to the press release was a photo of a slightly younger-looking Robbie with perpetually waxen Madeleine and Robert Jr. on either side of him, standing on the beach.
“Jake, are you even listening to me?”
“Huh? Oh, um, sorry, Aunt Isabel. I was reading something.”
“From Alex?”
Jake hesitated. “No. Robbie.”
Isabel’s expression lightened, much to Jake’s chagrin. “Ah, I see. Well, never mind then. It wasn’t important. Are you seeing Robbie tonight?”
“No,” Jake said much more quickly this time. “He’s busy.”
He stuffed his phone back into his pocket and took the bag full of brackets, furniture pads, and rug tape into the mudroom to put away.
At just five minutes shy of two the next day, Jake headed out to his car with a bottle of water and a small bag of snacks Isabel had packed for Alex in case she was hungry and thirsty after her journey.
It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon—the first in days.
Alex was lucky that she’d just missed the storm Jake had to deal with.
He made to close the backseat door when he saw the gray hoodie balled up on the floor. He took it out and shook it off, making sure it looked presentable for when he gave it to his sister. He’d almost forgotten about it, and seeing it now brought back memories he wasn’t ready to examine.
The hoodie he’d worn, the same exact kind one size larger, had gotten stuffed in the closet as soon as he got home that rainy night.
He couldn’t let Isabel see it and wonder what in Mier’s name had happened for him to get a hoodie from Robbie, and he couldn’t wear it around town, either.
That name was pure poison, and everyone would question why Jake, of all people, didn’t mind wearing it.
He shook his head and set the hoodie on the seat. He needed to get going lest he make his sister wait outside a train station for her worthless brother.
Alex was indeed waiting outside the small brick-walled train station on a rough wooden park-style bench, duffel bag plopped down beside her.
She sat with her legs crossed, swinging the top one back and forth impatiently as she scrolled on her phone.
Her face brightened when she saw Jake’s car, and she jumped up, running over to it before he’d even pulled into a parking space.
“Did you want me to run you over?” Jake asked, his voice getting muffled in her hair as she threw herself into his arms.
“Oh, I missed you,” she said, ignoring his jab at her. “It’s been ages, Jake. You look good. The sea air really does wonders, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe so.” Jake pulled back to get a better look at his sister.
Her smile was as contagious as it had always been.
Her hair was still the same rich dark brown as Jake’s, though she’d forced the reluctant waves into more pronounced ones with some sort of product, and her eye makeup was smudged, which meant she’d probably gotten it on Jake’s jacket when she hugged him.
“You know how excited Aunt Isabel is to have you here, right?”
“I know, and I feel super bad that I haven’t been down here since… God, was it really over twenty years ago?”
“It is, and she has the pictures to prove it.”
The heels of Alex’s tall boots clicked on the pavement as she walked around to the passenger side. Why she’d chosen such an impractical outfit for traveling, Jake would never know, but that was just Alex.
“Tell me all about what it’s like living here.” She buckled herself in as Jake threw her bag in the back.
“Oh, y’know. Boring.” They started back to Eventide, the sun just beginning to set. Alex was going to get the best Eventide had to show: golden hour without a single drop of rain. “You have to come here to Grayland to find anything to do.”
“What about the people? You mentioned some guy… what was his name?”
Jake’s knuckles tightened against the steering wheel, turning white with the pressure. “Robbie. Which reminds me, I have something for you in the backseat.”
Alex reached back and picked up the hoodie. “Oh my God,” she squealed, “this is adorable.”
“I knew you’d like it.”
“Eaton’s Book Nook—is that a place in town?”
“Yeah, but not for long. It’s shutting down and being replaced by a cafe, which will probably kill the only restaurant in town too.”
Alex wrinkled her nose. “That’s a shame. I’m definitely going there while I’m here. Eaton, isn’t that your boy Robbie’s last name?”
“He’s not my boy, but yeah. His parents own the store and he runs it.”
“So I’ll get to meet him?”
“I guess.”
A month ago, Jake would’ve been happy to introduce Robbie to his sister. There was no risk of them not hitting it off at this point. But he couldn’t even think about standing face to face with Robbie and giving him another part of his personal life now.
“So it’s a family-owned bookstore? That’s cute.”
“It’s really not,” Jake said, forcing back the disdain that threatened to give away how upset he was right now. “Their family is rich-rich, and they have a tendency to buy up businesses in Eventide to have some kind of monopoly on the town.”
“Oh dear. But what about Robbie? That doesn’t sound like the sort of guy you’d want to be around.”
“Robbie’s…” Jake paused, struggling with how to phrase his appraisal of Robbie. “He’s different. He’s not like his parents, and I guess not much like his grandparents either. I don’t know; they’re dead.”
Alex nodded, though whether she was satisfied with his non-answer wasn’t clear. She moved on anyway, allowing Jake to breathe freely again. “What about restaurants? You mentioned that there’s one in town?”
“Sea Bites. It’s decent, but you won’t have to worry about food while you’re here. Trust me, Aunt Isabel’s been in the kitchen all day, and she didn’t show signs of letting up when I left to pick you up.”
“She really doesn’t need to do all that.”
“Tell her, not me.” Jake chuckled. “She likes it, though. It gives her purpose again now that Uncle Mark is gone. Honestly, Alex, I think it’s the memories that put her off the place more than anything. If she didn’t have to face those every day, she might actually stay.”
“And you?”
“And me what?”
“Would you stay now that you’ve gotten a taste of the coastal life?”
Jake turned off the highway and onto the road that led to sleepy little Eventide. “No. I don’t think so. There’s nothing here for me.”
A brief image of Robbie, the photo of him on the dating app, flashed in Jake’s mind.
He’d only seen it a couple of times; he didn’t know why it stuck in his memory so easily.
That photo wasn’t the same Robbie he’d gotten to know.
It was an artificial copy, a perfect facsimile of the man Robbie tried to present himself as: smart, attractive, and free of all that messy baggage that had gotten Jake trapped.
“What are you thinking about?” Alex asked suddenly.
“Nothing,” Jake answered just as quickly.
Alex didn’t press. She spent the rest of the ride telling Jake as many stories from the past few months as she could remember, filling the car with enough noise to drown out any thoughts Jake might have had if they were allowed the silence required to grow roots.