“Not really.”
Hobbes closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose. “Kid—”
“Give me a break. I’m seven years younger than you.”
“Yeah, the same age as my little sister. Who willalways be a kid.” He huffed. “Jax. Just tell me what’s going on.”
Fuck it.Jax’s eyes felt like sandpaper, and he wanted to go to bed so that it could be tomorrow already. “I’m going to finish it, okay? Next semester. I’m going to go back to Cambridge and defend and just… close the chapter. Move on.”
“This is a bill for four thousand dollars,” Hobbes said pointedly.
Jax sighed. “Yeah, it is. I paid it.”
“You paid four thousand dollars tonot attend?”
“Closer to twelve, total.” He shrugged, not bothering to hide the wince. “It was that or drop totally and then pay forty if I ever decided to go finish.”
Understanding dawned on Hobbes’s face. “Jesus, that’s disgusting. This is why you’re working Sundays now?”
“Every shift Murph’ll give me,” Jax confirmed. “Tuition’s due again in January.” No measly four grand this time either.
Hobbes schooled his expression into careful neutrality, but Jax had known him at his lowest. Hobbes couldn’t fool him. “You know I don’t—”
Jax raised his hand. “Don’t make that offer, please. I know you don’t, but I want to and I will. I’ll pay rent or I’ll find a new place.”
Unhappy acceptance writ large on his face, Hobbes sighed and sank into the couch. “Jax. You were there for me when I couldn’t even get to the john by myself. Would it kill you to let me help?”
It might.Jax’s sense of self-worth was fragile as it was. He didn’t need to grind it into dust. “Youarehelping,” he said instead. “You charge well below market rent. You pay all the utilities and won’t even ask me to do yard work in return.” Jax did it anyway, because he needed to havesomepride, even if he hated pulling weeds. “Plus my rent includes access to a therapy animal.”
Hobbes glanced at the Captain, who was snoring gently in front of the fireplace. “He’s a therapy animal now?”
“I was talking about you.”
“Of course you were.” Hobbes sighed. “Okay, fine. But if you’re going to be working seven nights a week, I’m hiring somebody to cut the grass.”
Jax huffed, but he hated cutting the grass. He was pretty sure he was allergic to it. Every time he finished, he found himself wheezing. Besides, it was already fall; there’d only be a few more cuttings this season.
He could make up for it raking leaves. “Fine,” he agreed.
“Fine,” Hobbes echoed. “Great. Drink your tea.”
Chapter Nine
ARI WOKEup once again to unread text messages, this time with the addition of missed calls, all from his mother, wanting to know when he would be available for a dinner party. The last time he’d spoken to her, she’d suggested he take up internet dating—That’s how people your age find dates these days, isn’t it?—so he was inherently suspicious. He ignored the message and rolled out of bed to start brunch prep.
By the time he had the fruit cut, the cream whipped, and the table set, he had just enough time to shower before Jax arrived.
Should he have changed the sheets?
Then again, they were just going to dirty them.
In the end he didn’t have time to make a conscious decision. As he was buttoning his shirt, there was a knock on the door.
Jax.
Ari brushed his palms quickly over his jeans to smooth them out and strode toward the entryway.
“Hi,” Jax said, smiling a charmingly sheepish smile, his head bent.
