The murmurs of agreement, and of apology, moved through the room. And eventually, all the eyes in the space left him and moved over to Ozzy. He looked up at the ceiling, shaking his head, fidgeted and squirmed in place. His face tinged pink. Buthe didn’t run off, which Jake had to give him some credit for. Much as it annoyed him to give Ozzy any credit for anything.
“You’re damn good at what you do.” Ozzy said it to the air, not anyone in particular. “I trust you on a job like this. That’s saying a lot. I wouldn’t trust an idiot. I wouldn’t rely on an idiot to help me build out the stuff for my landscaping.”
“Oh, so I’m useful to you.”
“Jesus Christ, Jake. You just want to be mad at me because it’s easier to blame me for this whole thing, is that it?”
Jake shook his head, laughed just at the sheer audacity. “You think I haven’t spent two days blaming myself for the entire mess? I know I fucked up. I know I’m still fucking everything up. I know I shouldn’t have done anything that I did. That’s not the problem I have with you.”
“Then what is it?”
“You’re a douchebag.”
Ozzy rolled his eyes. “I’ve been a douche as long as you’ve known me. Don’t go assuming I’m not self-aware. You’re not the first person over the years to tell me that.”
“Then why don’t youchangesomething and stop?” Jake grabbed hard onto the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. “What is the self-awareness doing for you if it alienates everyone who likes you? Because I do like you, you jackass. Most of the time.”
“Well do you think I’m spending time with you because I don’t like you? Just torturing myself. Almost sounds like you’re callingmestupid.”
“Being locked into a death spiral with someone you don’t like isn’t a matter of smart or not. You’re trapped in this business relationship, and the past relationship.” Now that he was talking, the tension started to release from his chest. He held eye contact with Ozzy and kept on letting everything come out, trying to make himself feel a little less bad, a little more at peace.“I’m sorry if you’re stuck with me. You don’t need to protect my feelings. But that doesn’t mean you get to treat me like a moron. And you know what? It doesn’t make up for bothering Quinn like that. You had to know he wasn’t cool with it from how he was acting.” Jake sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “I’m the stupid one and I was able to figure out to not push stuff with him. I’m sure you could do it.”
“I’m going to prove you’re not stupid, and that I don’t think you’re stupid.” Ozzy jumped to his feet. “Outside. We’re working together on whatever project you’ve got going. We need all hands on deck to get it done, and Linda’s crew can handle the mop-up on the landscaping without me for a day.”
Jake screwed up his face. “I’m not going to lie, I’m feeling stupid. How does helping me prove that you respect me?”
“Trust me. It’ll be clear.” He turned toward Eliza. “I’m not cutting and running on this quite yet. Not going to let the collapse of this whole project land on my shoulders.” Then he marched out, leaving everyone to just stare.
Eliza was the one to break the silence after his departure. “Can…fuck, I’m tried of pretending everything is fine.” Her shoulders slumped and she took Ozzy’s seat on the couch. “One of you who knows him, explain what the fuck is happening so I can slow down my god damn heart.”
Another beat, then Evander spoke up. “He’s attempting to mend bridges. Sometimes it works.” He shrugged. “I don’t know what he has planned, but he’s got some kind of grand scheme he wants to pull off.”
Jake rose with a groan. “I guess I should go see him try.”
Chapter thirty-five
Jake
Ozzy waited out inthe tent, surrounded by lumber and tools and partially finished projects Jake hadn’t seen since the blow-up. When Jake got there, he nodded. “All right. Put me to work.”
“Ozzy, what exactly are you accomplishing here?”
He rolled his eyes. “Believe it or not, I don’t like you feeling like you’re stupid, and I damn sure don’t like you thinking I agree with that assessment. If I gave you that impression, then it’s my responsibility to make sure I do my part to fix it.” He grabbed at some of the plans laid out, squinting. “But I can’t pretend your handwriting is even remotely reasonable, so you’re going to have to explain this shit to me.”
“A-plus grade on not insulting me.”
“I said you weren’t stupid, not that I wasn’t going to give you crap.” He handed over the plan. “What are we working on?”
Jake had less than zero idea where this was going, so he just played along. “Storage units for the gaming room. Most of the boards are cut, but they need to have the blind dovetails put in.”
“Which is what?”
Jake went over to his papers and found one that had minimal info already on it, then scratched out a rough explanation. “Like a regular dovetail, but you don’t cut all the way through the wood. When they fit together, you can’t see the end-grain of the wood, so it looks a lot smoother and more seamless.”
Ozzy nodded. “Maybe that should be for you and I can cut things. Are there things that need cutting?”
In spite of himself, Jake had to smile, listening to him backpedal so damn hard. “What if I told you no?”
Ozzy sighed. “Then prepare to watch over my shoulder. This shit doesn’t make any sense.”
