When they finished upstairs, it was Jake’s turn to take the lead. They wanted him to deliver on the gaming room. On paper, it made total sense. The gaming room had been his baby for most of the project. He’d even gotten Evander to swap some of the colors around since they all believed he knew best when it came to this particular space, this particular hobby.
He’d have happily handed the entire thing off to Mason or Bunny or Robinson or even Linda if it meant he could go back outside and work with some lumber until Quinn came to talk to him, but he knew that would never fly. So as he opened the door, he finally had to look at Quinn. “It’s obviously not a complete project yet, but there’s enough custom pieces in here, it made the most sense to start installing some of them.”
The corner desk, suspended from the wall. Floor to ceiling bookshelves on either side of the far window. He had plans for a little bench. Not quite a seat in a bay window, but the closest he could manage after they pinned down that a reading nook wouldbe nice. He still needed to put in good storage, especially now that he knew what sort of setup and peripherals Quinn had—
Don’t think about it. Don’t remember it. Don’t go there. Jake pushed that gaming closet out of his mind and just watched as Quinn slowly turned in the middle of the room. The deep teal walls kept it feeling tight and cozy, and Evander had shown him the copper accents he had in mind to keep it from getting too cold. “It’s obviously not the full picture, but a little taste of what’s to come.”
Quinn smiled. It probably looked genuine to everyone else. Jake had seen him fully exposed, fully relaxed, fully engrossed over the course of the last couple weeks. It was a good fake smile, but it was definitely a fake smile. Not that he expected to see his eyes rolling back in orgasmic joy like the other night…it just didn’t land with Quinn. Jake couldtell. Maybe Jake didn’t have the book smarts, and he wasn’t good at metaphors or similes or whatever, but heknew.
Quinn looked at him and nodded. “I love the color. And the desk already looks super cool.” He clasped his hands down at his waist and raised his eyebrows. “Is that it?”
“Outside.” Ozzy leaned against the doorway, grinning. “Have to show you what we’ve done in the backyard here.”
The camera crew pressed against the walls to allow everyone to head out. The door leading out to the deck was right next to the gaming room, so it was short, but Jake’severythingwas tense and tight. Ozzy was in the lead here. Ozzy had everyone’s attention. And Ozzy had recently developed a bad habit of running his mouth and trying to needle Quinn.
They headed out and Ozzy gave a pretty full rundown of the work in the back. They’d kept the giant old maple tree, although they’d trimmed off the dead limbs to make it a little cleaner, safer, and hopefully healthier. Some more flowering bushes like the ones out front. A garden bed ready to be filled with flowers.He even pointed out the little benches Jake had built to make the deck a little bit more of a usable space. The back yard had probably the most work still to be done of any area on the property, but most of the pieces were there, available to be seen even if they weren’t yet fully assembled.
Ozzy sat down on one of the benches and sighed, stretching his arms wide. “It’s a little hard to see it now, but this is going to be a nice place. Maybe take a lucky gentleman out here.” His gaze darted rapidly between Quinn and Jake. Only for a second, but enough to get his point across. Jake turned his attention to Quinn and saw his shoulders tighten, his already slim frame pull in tighter.
Ozzy sighed, put his hands on his knees, and popped to his feet. “Or enjoy it alone. Your call. But you should have options out here. Once we get some nice lighting out in this space, I think it’s going to be killer.”
Jake wouldn’t call Ozzywell-behaved in that interaction, but he didn’t outright embarrass Quinn, didn’t shove private information out in front of the cameras. Just needling. Needling. Needling.
“All right,” Eliza’s voice rang from the fence. “I need everyone to stay ready. Including you, Quinn. Last time we’re going to be able to have you on the site, and we want to be able to get pickup footage while the house is mostly in the same state if we need it. I’ll give the all-clear once we’ve gone through the footage and seen where we need to fill in.” She clapped her hands. “Other than that, back to work for everyone. Quinn, you’re welcome to help out today, or we can set you up in the trailer with us while we watch the footage. If you don’t mind being bored to death.”
“That sounds good.” Quinn nodded, then pointed to Jake. “But I wanted to discuss something with Jake real quick. Is it going to bug you if I have to walk in there a little late?”
“Nope. Do what you need. This is kind of your last chance to weigh in on everything before you’re banished.” She walked off and the camera crew repositioned to catch the actual renovation work going on. One of them stayed focused on Quinn as he approached Jake. Not ideal, but Jake couldn’t delay it. Quinn was finally going to talk to him.
Once he got close, Jake pointed toward the Toyota. “You need some help, right?” He ran his hand over the lav mic on his chest, hopefully getting the point across.
Quinn nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.”
Chapter twenty-nine
Quinn
Quinn’s stomach did abouta hundred-and-fifty back flips on the walk through the gate and back to his car. He opened the back door and gestured for Jake to open the other side, then leaned in. Jake followed suit and they were staring at each other, both bending over the seats. Somehow, an entire car between them was less distance than they’d had the last few days.
Quinn sighed. “You look tired.”
“Working late.”
Quinn nodded and started rummaging through the crap on his back floorboards. If they were going to sell Jake’s cover story, he needed to at leastlookbusy. “I’m sorry I didn’t respond. It’s been…I’ve been dealing with some shit in my head.”
“It’s about Ozzy, I know.”
“No.” Quinn looked down at the seat as he continued. “It’s about me. And you. And how much I’m willing to open myselfup to getting hurt when you leave. Because it’s going to hurt.” He turned his gaze back up, locked onto Jake. “I like you way too much for it not to hurt. So…distance.”
Jake didn’t say anything for a while. When he did speak, his voice was soft, barely carrying across the back seat of the car. “I never meant for you to get hurt.”
Of course he didn’t. Because he’s wonderful. “It’s not about meaning. For either of us. I never intended to hurt you, but I did. I took my frustration out on you. I gave you the silent treatment. And now I’m here delivering more bad news to you, then asking you to keep working on my house, please.” Quinn chewed on what he could say, if anything, to clear things up, make it make sense. But honestly, none of that mattered in the slightest. “I’m sorry. About everything. I think it’s really best if we keep things professional between us. And when I get drunk and maudlin, I’ll watch your old videos.”Like I have been the last three days, since I can’t get you out from under my skin.
Jake closed his eyes, then nodded. “You do what makes you comfortable. I told you this was all your speed, and I meant it.” He smiled wearily, and even though he had some pretty thick makeup on, he still looked tired. Out of it. “I do need to work together with you on one more thing.” He gestured toward the floorboards with his right hand. “I sort of handed you a plan to hide what we were doing, and I don’t know where to go from here.”
Quinn stuck his hand down into the mess and came back up with a pair of sunglasses. “Pretend these are yours and I found them.”
He tossed them and Jake caught them. “Works for me.” He stuck them on top of his head and started to straighten up, then brought his face back down, eyes level on Quinn. “I had a really nice time. For what we got.”
