Chapter 3
With some of the stuff in boxes and bags, they could already see more of the living room, as well as the view. Bailey was looking at the beach and the waves, that stretch of blue that included both the sea and the sky, wishing they were out there.
"I found something you'll want to keep," Matt said as he stood over by a shelf he was clearing.
"Not the gnomes," Bailey said seeing a collection of ceramic garden gnomes lined up on the bottom shelves.
Matt laughed. "I already assumed you were keeping those," he joked then he showed Bailey what he actually found.
It was a photo album and Bailey choked up just looking at a few of the photos, mostly of Grandpa on boats with his fishing gear or proudly holding up a fish and smiling. "I'll want to look these over with Joey," he said closing the album. "When I'm sure I won't start crying."
"I wish I had gotten to know you granddad," Matt said.
"I'm sure he would have liked you and then he would have talked your ear off about fishing and then about everything else," Bailey said with a smile.
"I can remember so many times zoning out and even falling asleep while listening to my grandfather talk.
He never took it personally, just put a blanket over me. "
"I hope Joey got to know him," Matt said.
Bailey shook his head. "Unfortunately, he didn't. I didn't adopt him until after my grandfather died.
I really wish Grandpa could have met him, taken him fishing, talked his ear off.
" Bailey could see them together in his mind's eye like it was real and it made him want to burst into tears.
He had to grit his teeth so his sadness didn't overwhelm him.
"I'm sorry," Matt said in a deep, quiet voice.
Bailey nodded to him. It was all he could manage and Matt went back to boxing up stuff, while Bailey went to put away the precious album. He knew there would be pictures of his mother in that album too, another loss that he would never get over, another person who never got to meet Joey.
Though Grandpa's house was already looking much better, they hadn't touched the kitchen yet. Going in there, Bailey tried not to think about the past, his loss and Joey's loss, just focused on the practical things. One of those things was the fridge. Had anyone cleared it?
Bailey was about to check, but he was afraid to open it. He just kept his hand on the door handle without opening it.
Poking his head into the kitchen, Joey noticed what he was doing. He somehow got hopeful about what was inside the fridge his dad was too afraid to open. "Is there ice cream?" Joey asked.
"If there is food inside this fridge, it's been there a while and it's not good to eat any more," Bailey told him and made him pout. The mention of food made him realize that it was a little past lunchtime. "I bet you're hungry, and I bet Matt is hungry too."
Putting off whatever horrors the fridge might hold, they went back to the living room. They found Matt wrapping up the garden gnomes in old newspapers and putting them into boxes.
"You sure you don't want to keep these, take them home with you?" Matt asked jokingly, but Joey took him seriously.
He looked over the gnomes that hadn't been wrapped up yet as if he was picking out which ones to keep. "That one has a basketball," Joey said.
"I think that's a squash," Bailey told him. He really didn't want that thing coming home with them. "I'm ordering lunch. Chicken sandwiches OK?"
When the sandwiches were delivered, Matt pointed his thumb outside. "We could eat them on the beach."
"Sure, we could use some fresh air," Bailey said and of course Joey was all for it.
They went to sit with their feet in the wet sand, getting splashed by the waves and ate their chicken sandwiches. "It was a good idea to eat out here. It's still dusty inside," Bailey said.
"If you want, I can clean the place for you after we're done clearing out the stuff," Matt offered.
Bailey had already contacted a local cleaning service, but he didn't actually schedule them since he didn't know when they would be done removing all the stuff.
Gwen said that Matt jumped at every chance to earn money for his next year of college classes.
That reminded him that Matt had already been working that morning before coming over to do more work.
Bailey couldn't reject his offer, but he told him, "OK, but there's no rush. If you want to do it, the job is yours. I'll give you the spare key and you can just do it when you have time."
Matt looked way too happy about it, and that open, beautiful smile of his made Bailey want to just give him money and tell him he didn't have to do anything for it. Of course he didn't, that would have been weird.
After lunch, Bailey let Joey splash in the water. "He doesn't know how to swim and we left his water wings at the hotel," Bailey told Matt.
"I'm sure he'll pick it up in no time," Matt said. "I don't even remember not knowing how to swim."
"When I came here, I envied you guys who got to live here year round.
I had the idea that it was like an endless vacation.
" Thinking back to those days, Bailey tried to remember Matt, but he only had a vague memory of a blond kid that he saw with Gwen sometimes.
What was the age difference between him and Matt?
Maybe five years. So why did it seem like more than that?
Maybe it was a difference in hotness, not age, in how vibrant Matt seemed compared to him.
Bailey had been accused of being boring more than once, usually when a guy was breaking up with him.
"You can go in and have a swim," Bailey told him.
"Nah. I want to go back in and pack up more stuff," Matt said and got up, brushing sand off him.
Bailey wasn't in a hurry to see Matt get back to work. It was kind of nice sitting with him there, watching Joey play in the water. But Matt probably wanted to finish up and go. He might have plans. A hot guy like him must have tons of people who wanted some of his time.
Bailey called Joey over and they all went back to the beach house. First they had to stop on the porch and wash the sand off their feet. Getting his feet splashed while he wiggled his toes, Joey looked up at Bailey, "Daddy, I like it here."
As Joey went inside, Bailey looked after him and sighed. "I hope he doesn't fall in love with the place."
"What if you do?" Matt asks him with a teasing smile.
Looking at Matt, at the sun shining off his blond hair, his blue eyes sparkling, his smile gorgeous, Bailey absolutely forbade himself to fall in love with anything or anyone here.