Epilogue Domestication
“Welcome to the Book Nook!” Jake said as the cascading string of bells at the top of the door jingled.
“Hi,” a young woman responded.
“Can I help you with anything today?” Jake was not a natural salesman, nor was he the best with customers when they asked questions or complained about a lack of something important to them.
All his previous jobs had been in an office, sitting behind a computer, and while he had a computer before him now, it wasn’t the focus of his work.
“Um, do you have any recommendations for mysteries? I like the kind with murders where the killer is revealed at the very end, but I forgot to bring any books with me on my vacation.”
Jake looked past the woman, catching another man’s eye where he stood in front of a shelf, stocking books. “We can definitely help you with that,” he said. “If you just go talk to Robbie over there, he’s our mystery expert.”
“Okay, great. Thank you so much.”
Compared to Jake, Robbie was the expert in every genre, not just mysteries.
And, as it turned out, he shined when he wasn’t stuck behind the counter all day.
The Book Nook was selling more books per day under Isabel’s co-ownership than it had before in a full week during the peak summer season when tourists abounded.
Jake got back to work packing their monthly book subscription boxes while Robbie helped the mystery woman.
The subscription boxes had been Robbie’s idea, and excited as he was to pitch it to Isabel, just as Jake had expected, his aunt was happy to give it the greenlight with only the briefest of descriptions.
In practice, people loved it. It hit a market beyond tourists, and in the first month alone, Jake recognized several names and addresses of people who had signed up.
It only grew from there, and now, in their fourth month, they were discussing hiring someone part-time just to help with managing the subscription boxes.
It helped that Robbie knew exactly what books almost every person would want to read without even looking at the form they filled out when they signed up.
“All ready to check out?” Jake asked as he looked up to see the young woman standing in front of the counter.
“Yes, please.” She smiled, whatever shyness she’d had when she walked in fully erased. Robbie tended to have that effect on people. “Your partner over there, he’s so sweet.”
Jake grinned. “Yeah, he is. So, what books did you get?”
She handed over her stack, and Jake pretended to recognize them. Robbie shot him a withering gaze from across the store, but Jake continued on blithely.
“And would you like to add a tote bag with your order? If you buy three or more books, you get one fifty percent off.”
The woman glanced down at her pile of half a dozen books. “Oh, yeah, that would be great. Thank you.”
Jake pulled a beige canvas tote bag out from under the counter.
Gone was the poisonous name from the emblem, replaced with the less obvious design of the cat and books that had been on the hoodies.
The main difference now was that the cat was a real cat, and though she stayed at home while Jake and Robbie worked, they’d tacked up photos of her in her fluffy tuxedo all over the bookstore for people to fawn over.
“Is that the cat from the bag?” the woman asked, pointing to the bulletin board behind Jake.
“It sure is,” Jake replied. “That’s Marin.”
“Aw, she’s so cute.” The woman’s gaze moved from the photos down to the merch display. “I’ll take a hoodie, too.”
“You got it. What size?”
“Large, please.”
Jake rang up the woman’s books, bag, and hoodie, tucking everything neatly into the bag before handing it to her along with her receipt. “Thanks for stopping by today. Enjoy your books.”
“I will, and I’m going to tell my friends about this place too. They’ll love it.”
The woman left with a spring in her step, and Robbie sauntered up to the counter. “Who would’ve thought that a stray cat would be our best salesperson?” He leaned over the countertop and kissed Jake. “We’re already looking at record sales this quarter.”
“Aunt Isabel will be happy about that. Oh, and speaking of which, don’t let me forget to mail Alex one of our new hats. She’ll kill me if I leave it another week.”
“I’ll make sure she gets it.” Robbie chuckled and stepped behind the counter to help Jake load boxes onto a nearby handcart.
“Hey, Robbie, I know we don’t talk about those people anymore, but have you heard anything interesting lately, like through Safiya or, I don’t know, in the news?”
“No, why?”
“When I drove by Eaton’s Gas and Groceries yesterday, it looked like it was closed.”
“Could be,” Robbie said. “I know they’ve had a terrible time retaining employees lately.”
“In summer, though? There’ve gotta be plenty of high school and college students looking for seasonal work.”
“And there are other, better places to get that work. To no one’s surprise, Jake, my parents are not the greatest employers.”
“They must be missing out on a ton of revenue by having to close it.”
Robbie shrugged. “Good.”
“You’re not still holding a grudge, are you?” Jake raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms as if Robbie were a petulant child he had to scold.
“No.” Robbie emitted a heavy sigh. “No, I don’t care what happens to them anymore. We’re doing well, and that’s all that matters.”
“That’s the spirit.”
More customers walked in, and Robbie moved the handcart out of the way. “I’ll take these to the post office if you don’t mind,” he told Jake.
“No, go on. I can handle the store for a few minutes.” Jake turned to the new customers, put on his best smile, and said, “Welcome to the Book Nook! Can I help you find anything today?”
He honestly thought he would hate this kind of job much more in the beginning than he actually did—it was an existence he’d never imagined leading—but as he stood there chatting with customers and waiting for the love of his life to return from a brief trip to the post office, he couldn’t have been happier.
It was still light out when they got back home that evening.
That wasn’t a problem in the summer when the sun stayed up until eight or nine.
It was worse at other points in the year, especially during the winter when they were working up to twelve hours a day getting the bookstore back into shape.
Things had evened out, though, and Jake wasn’t dreading this upcoming winter nearly as much as he had been a few months earlier.
“It’s good to be home,” Robbie said as they climbed out of Jake’s car.
“It sure is.” Jake unlocked the door and they filed in, dropping keys and phones and wallets onto one of the built-in shelves.
A plaintive meow sounded from the kitchen, and Marin snaked her way out to greet them, rubbing her head first on Robbie’s legs, then Jake’s.
Alex, whose apartment up north didn’t allow pets, had been so jealous when Jake sent her the picture of the scruffy little kitten they found on the beach one night.
“I’m coming down to visit,” she’d told Jake over the phone the next morning.
“Hold on, we don’t even know if we’re keeping her yet,” Jake said. “She might belong to someone.”
She hadn’t, though, and once she was vaccinated and cleared by the vet to be in good health, she was all Jake and Robbie’s. And Aunt Alex did come to visit the next week, bringing Isabel along with her to check out the bookstore while she had the opportunity.
“What are we doing for dinner?” Jake asked, scooping up Marin to let her jam her nose and cheek into his chin.
“It’s a little late for anything too fancy,” Robbie said, “but I put some chicken in marinade before we left this morning, so I’ll whip up something with that.”
Jake smiled as he set Marin back down on the floor, and she returned to weaving between Robbie’s legs while he tried to hobble past her. “Sounds good to me.”
Anything would have sounded good to him. In their relationship, Robbie did almost all the cooking. Sometimes Jake felt guilty, but then he saw the way Robbie relaxed whenever he was in the kitchen, and the way his eyes lit up when Jake praised whatever new dish he’d experimented on.
They had both honed their skills, which were still entirely opposite each other, to use them to their advantage: divide and conquer.
They were quickly becoming Eventide’s next power couple, and though Robbie’s last name was identical to the current king and queen of Eventide, whose crowns were at great risk of being knocked down these days, he’d done it without that name—mostly.
His parents held true to their word about cutting him out of his inheritance. The meeting with their lawyer, which took place in cold, gray January, was as unpleasant as it could be. Jake had never seen a family act so nonfamilial before.
Robbie was removed from the will that day, and instead his parents divided up their riches between various groups and charities.
Someday, it might be seen as selfless, both on the parts of Robbie and his parents.
But the day it was done, it was seen only as a bare necessity.
It was the cutting of the umbilical cord that finally allowed Robbie the freedom he needed to live his life.
Jake wished that everything could have been perfect and worry-free after that. In the months that followed, he and Robbie planned their new life together, putting every waking hour into that damn bookstore. Some extra money, support from the almost in-laws, would have been nice.
Robbie did his best to keep a stiff upper lip and move on too, but Jake knew full well he missed his parents—or at least, the idea of parents—more than he would ever let on.
The clues came in the form of quiet nights, when he was more pensive than usual, and long mornings in the bathroom where Jake knew he’d locked himself away to shed a tear or two before he had to face the day.