He groaned. “No. It wasn’t obvious to me, all right? Do you think I would just keep pressing the issue if I knew it was going to be that bad?”
Jake sat up and shrugged. “Wouldn’t you? If you knew it would get a rise out of Quinn, wouldn’t you just keep going until you finally got what you wanted?”
“Of course not.” Ozzy squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. It took a few moments before he carried on, but he was calmer when he did. “All right, I don’t always stop poking fun when I should. I flirt with that line, and it burned me this time. It burned Quinn. I burned you. But it’s never something Imeanto do. Except with Evander.”
“It’s not about what you mean to do, Ozzy. I don’t know how to make that clearer than when I was beating the crap out of you. Thought the message might have sunk in.”
He tossed his hands up. “I give up. Whatever. I’ll see you back on the job site or the next meeting or whatever the fuck.” He got up and stormed away, throwing the door open. Then he paused. “Take care of yourself and stop trying to wrangle your way back onto the job you idiot. You have a fucking concussion because you don’t even know how to walk without falling on your face. You don’t need to be back there if it’s going to make it worse.”
“If you knew how to tend to landscaping, I wouldn’t have tripped. Take your bedside manner somewhere else. I bet it’d be a big hit at the morgue.”
The door slammed and Jake turned over on the bed, burying his face in the pillows so the surrounding rooms wouldn’t hear him screaming. Ozzy could get bent six ways to Sunday.
Chapter thirty-three
Quinn
Quinn walked into thelittle corner coffee shop with a knot in his stomach. He’d talked with production a couple times, although mostly over email, but this was his first time meeting up with anyone since he walked away from the house.
Eliza waved him over to a tiny round table in the center of the floor. He took the empty seat and folded his hands in his lap, where she couldn’t see him wringing them so hard the skin turned white. “Don’t really know how to open this talk up.”
Eliza smiled tensely. “Are you okay?”
“What?”
“You ran off because you had a bad experience with my hosts. Are you okay?”
Quinn blinked at her for what felt like an eternity before he finally got his tongue to actually work. “I thought this was aboutto be a meeting about how I shouldn’t have left and I’d ruined the production.”
Eliza shook her head. “You are supposed to be reaping the benefit of this situation. I would definitely prefer that you’d stuck around and that nothing bad happened, but it’s on me and the crew to handle things. Not you. If you want to make a formal complaint about any of them, I’m all ears.”
“What, no.” It shot out of his mouth almost before he could comprehend what she’d said. “I don’t have any ill will toward Jake, if that’s what you’re thinking. We went into…we had our eyes open and things just didn’t wash out the way anyone hoped.”
“And Ozzy? Evander?”
He stumbled a moment on them, then shook his head. “If you need me to sign something that says I’m not going to sue over this, I will. I don’t want to mess with anyone over this. I’m happy to see this all out to the end. All that’s left for me is seeing the final product, right?”
“We can do the walk-through with whoever you’re comfortable with. I don’t even know that we’re going to need much footage at this point.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “Like I said, none of the production stuff should be put on you.”
“So the show’s really in jeopardy now? Already?”
“It’s not your fault. Trust me. It’s between everyone on the back end.”
“Ozzy and Jake.”
Eliza didn’t say anything, but that also meant she didn’t disagree with his assessment. Not directly, at least. “I wanted to talk to you to make sure you were still feeling comfortable, but also to let you know that the timeline got delayed a little. I know you were probably looking forward to moving in a little sooner, but we haven’t been able to get too much work done the lastcouple days, and we don’t want to leave the job half-finished just to keep up with our own schedule.”
“I’m really not upset about it. You all have done so much already.”
“And we’re going to finish.” She splayed her hands flat out on the table. “I also wanted you to know that you can call me at any point if you want to change anything about who you’re around when you’re there. We still would like to keep some surprise, so if you wouldn’t mind staying away a bit longer, but if anyone is bugging you or causing you stress and you need an assist, reach out. No one should have to deal with emotional trauma because of this show.”
Quinn nodded, tightening his hands around each other even more, until it started to hurt. “Any update on Jake? Is he still doing okay?”
Eliza sighed. “I can’t discuss his medical situation with anyone without his permission. That’s not me saying he said not to tell you specifically. He didn’t give me any permission to tell anyone other than our medical team, just so they know what the situation is.”
“Of course.” Quinn finally had to release his hands before he burst a blood vessel or something. “I’m sorry all this went down this way.”I knew better than to let myself get involved.
“Well, I’m not giving up hope. Knew there were going to be struggles bringing everyone together again. I’m still manifesting the TV show I want to see in the world.” Her face tightened a bit, but she didn’t let it dampen her smile. Much.
