“I know. I’m planning on bottling it and selling it. Eau de Himbo.”
Jake raised an eyebrow at him, backing up. “I think I should get a cut of that. I’m pretty sure I’m the resident himbo.” He tapped the back of his head, where there were still stitches. “Only one of us is such a klutz that he got a concussion trying to walk.”
“Nope. None of that. I’m putting a one month moratorium on you making self-deprecating jokes about your intelligence. For the time being, Ozzy and I are the interim idiots.” He cringed and shook his head. “Like that, where I talk like a dumb fuck? I was not implying you’re an idiot.”
“Don’t worry. I will only hold it over your head forever.” Jake took a sip from his drink, sweet and cold and nutty. “Good coffee, though. Thanks. I’ll grant you a one-day stay of sentencing.”
“Oof. That’s from some local coffee shop, though. Not sure what I’m going to do when we head out.”
The suggestion stung Jake just as badly coming out of Ev’s mouth as it did in his own head. Or worse, maybe. Theywereleaving. No doubt about that. No way around it. He could make up with Quinn six ways to Sunday, but it didn’t shift the reality of the situation.
He forced that into the back of his head, to live with everything else he was ignoring at the moment. A big, cluttered space, and he was running out of room in there, but he shoved it away and kneeled back down on the deck, returning to his staining. “Good talk. Put me down for a bottle of your cologne when it comes out.”
“I’ll give you the GBD.”
Jake chuckled, shaking his head. “Haven’t heard anyone bring up the Good Buddy Discount in a long time.”
“Well, don’t offer it much. But that’s a lifetime membership.”
The GBD was the crew’s agreement with each other: free work on their projects as long as there was pizza and drinks at the end of every day. They’d all gotten more than enough work done on their houses through the GBD.
When Ev walked back inside, sipping his coffee, Jake sat down on the porch…then realized something was wet and sticky and he’d just dropped his ass into several splotches of fresh wood stain.I’m definitely the himbo.
Chapter thirty-eight
Quinn
Quinn piled into theSUV in the parking lot of his apartment complex. Eliza was in the back seat, and two of the camera crew were there. Another member of production had hooked him up with a lav mic, then piled into the back and laid low, so the cameras wouldn’t catch her. Not exactly alegalsetup, but they had tinted windows, so no one would be able to tell she wasn’t buckled into a real seat. Hopefully.
Once he was strapped in and they pulled out, Eliza started with her questions and explanations. “So, are we excited to see the final result?”
Quinn nodded. He’d barely slept the night before, even if it felt silly. He knew what the house looked like, was part of the entire planning process, helped with the yard work and the building with his own hands. By all accounts, the crew had fully worked within the parameters and choiceshegave them.
Yet sleep still eluded him, and he’d only managed to stuff half a banana nut muffin down his gullet and slam down a quarter of a cup of coffee before climbing into the car and heading out.
“You need to talk, Quinn.” Eliza smiled and tilted her head toward the camera peering at him from the front seat. “TV and all.”
“Right. Yeah. Really excited. The work’s been going on…I don’t know. It seems like it’s been so long, but also like you all just got here.” That stung to say. He was still distancing himself from Jake, though not as strongly as before. Being reminded how temporary it was while driving closer and closer to him…he slapped a good smile on his face for the camera. “I’m just really looking forward to seeing the house back in good shape. It got so out of hand for so long.”
Eliza nodded. “Well, that’s what we’re aiming for. Things got a bit rocky there, but all’s well that ends well. And I can’t spill the beans on this too much, but it ended very well, in my opinion.” She laughed, and her excitement was plain. And a little bit infectious, if Quinn was being real, although he didn’t need any help. His excitement was there for sure, tempered by the overwhelming rush of nerves.
Eliza reached into the little pocket on the back of the seat and pulled out a night mask. “Now, I don’t want you getting the wrong idea about my intentions. But when we get close, you’ll have to put this on for the big reveal.” She rolled her eyes as he took it. “I know it’s cheesy and overdone, but there’s really no more effective way to have that moment.”
“I’m down for a little cheese.” Quinn slipped the blindfold over his head and let it hang around his neck. “So, is the crew going to be there?”
A glint flashed over her eyes, only for a moment. Then she nodded again. “Yes. Everyone’s going to be there for the final walk-through and reveal for the camera. Plus they’ll all want totalk your ear off about everything after the cameras are done rolling. How to care for things, what they put in. I know Ozzy wrote pages of notes on how to take care of the landscaping once he’s gone.”
Thinking about that still rankled. Ozzy had certainly put in some effort to make up for his attitude, but that didn’t mean Quinn relished the thought of having an in-depth, technical conversation with him. Especially not when he could be soaking in those last minutes with Jake.
“Okay, probably time raise the blindfold.” Eliza winked and gestured toward his neck. “I promise, we won’t let you fall on your face. God knows we’ve had enough head injuries as it is.”
Quinn smiled, then raised the mask up and secured it over his eyes. Instant darkness. It snugged up to his face, so there wasn’t even light leaking in around the edges. “This is a good blindfold.”
“Oh thank god. If this one wasn’t full-coverage enough, we were going to have to visit a sex shop and pick something up. Imagine explainingthatto the accounting team.”
The rest of the ride wasn’t long, but it was mostly quiet. Eliza talked to the camera crew, and she was texting something, the stuttering clicks from her phone giving that away. But beyond that, all Quinn had were his own thoughts and the rumbling as the road passed beneath them. So inevitably, his thoughts turned not to the house he was heading over to see, but to Jake. Always Jake. Incessantly Jake. Not unwelcome on the face of it, but if he dug beneath the surface even a millimeter, all the pain and worry resurfaced.
With nothing else to focus on, he couldn’t help but dig down. This could very well be the last time he ever got to see Jake, spend any time with him. Maybe they could get online together and game…but that felt like a big maybe. Different time zones, different lifestyles, different work schedules.
