He knew this was goodbye.
“Almost there.” Eliza’s voice cut through his stupor, thankfully. “You want me to call in for hair and makeup, get you touched up?”
“That feels a little too vain for my tastes. If I have bedhead or whatever, I’ll just cope with that being on film for the rest of posterity.”
“All right. But you look fine, for what it’s worth. I’ll get everything in position.” The car came to a stop and Eliza’s door opened, a sudden rush of fresh air and chill spilling in. “Someone’ll come open your door and guide you out. Then we’ll make it very clear when it’s time to lift up the blindfold.” She sighed. “We don’t want you to pretend or lie about anything, but if you’re feeling something when you look at it, no need to hold it back. We want that big reaction. You’ve seen this kind of show.”
Quinn nodded. “Does everyone get that little pep talk? No judgment if that’s the case, but…curiosity. I guess I’m one of those people who wants to see how the sausage is made.”And one of those people who wants to stall the inevitable a little longer.
“It depends. Really sort of down to individual producers. Some of them like to head it off at the pass, like I did. Others roll the dice and, if it doesn’t look good, either beg the editors to do something or try to get a new reaction shot.” She laughed lightly under her breath. “I feel like I’ve already taken a pretty big roll of the dice on this show. Not looking to roll them again until I have to.”
Quinn nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
The door shut and he was stuck in there alone with his thoughts once again. The clock was ticking down, only he couldn’t see it to know how much time was left. On the one hand, everything with Jake. On the other, hewasexcited to see the house and see this process finally finished.
He wasn’t sure how long it was before the door finally opened and a soft hand grabbed Quinn’s wrist, guiding him out.
Chapter thirty-nine
Quinn
Quinn’s stomach burbled, tossingwith each blindfolded step closer to the house. Or at least, he presumed closer to the house. This could all have been an elaborate ploy to execute him on a major streaming service, though that seemed pretty unlikely.
Easier to imagine wild hypotheticals than to simply stand with his nerves thrumming, though.
“Hey, Quinn.” Mason’s voice, right up close to him. “Sorry for the odd circumstances. I usually only blindfold men in private.”
Quinn forced a laugh, but didn’t talk. His stomach felt too weak and woozy for actual speech. This was it. The result. The end of this stressful-ass, wonderful-ass adventure.
“We went through a lot of stuff with this house, and you were there for plenty of it. But I think you’ll be impressed with the end result. I know I am. You remember what it looked like before?”
Quinn nodded, but the pause continued on. Clearly, he wasn’t getting off with complete silence. “Yeah. It was quite a scene, that’s for sure. Lots of boxes, garbage. The porch all broken in, covered in rotting furniture. The lawn…had to give up on the lawn at a certain point. Couldn’t keep up with thatandkeeping the house livable.” That itching reappeared behind his eyes and he clenched down everything as hard as he could. They could have his reaction to the house, but they didn’t get his grief. Plus, if he let the grief about his grandpa spill free, that got awfully close to the edges of the grief over Jake. Which was decidedly not on the schedule for the day. “It was in rough shape for sure.”
“Well, I’m hoping we managed to do a decent enough job and really turn this into a place you can stay and feel comfortable. I’m sure there are so many memories all tied into this place. Hopefully, we’ve given you a place they can be preserved for a long time.”
By changing everything. Quinn knew it was his own insecurity, his own rising emotion, manifesting as that snarky internal monologue. Didn’t make it go away, but he at least had the presence of mind not to say it.Better than last time, when I just let go and said what was on my mind.
A hand pressed on Quinn’s back, smack dab between his shoulder blades, and pushed him forward, to the left, forward again. Then the hand moved up to his shoulder and pinned him in place. “All right, I think we’re in a good spot?”
Murmuring from the side, and although he couldn’t make out any actual words, it sounded positive enough.
He got confirmation when Mason piped up again. “All right, whenever you’re ready, take off your blindfold and get a look at what we put together for you.”
Quinn’s stomach lurched. This was it. Not only the house, but Jake. Everything changing. A beginning and an ending. Hishands shook when he reached up for the sleep mask and slowly lifted it.
Light pierced his eyes, blinding him, and he blinked. At first, he all he could see was a vague blue outline of the house. Then the gleam of the windows. The bright colors of the flowers in the garden beds. The large tree off to the right of the driveway.
The more he blinked, the more details clarified of the house before him. The porch was lovely and square, no longer cluttered, and no longer rotting. A small outdoor sofa sat just to the right of the door, a perfect spot for him to sit and look out on the streets in the morning. Without fully realizing what he was doing, Quinn took a deep sniff, filling his lungs with the scent of flowers. The smell he could get every morning with his coffee out there on the porch.
A new pressure swelled through his chest and he smiled at the house.I wish you were still around to see this, Grandpa.
Slowly, he walked forward, taking it all in. “How did you…you couldn’t have done this much work just since the last time I was here.” He looked over at the tree, now surrounded by mulch and little, jewel-toned flowers. “Ozzy covered up the stupid root.”
On they continued. The cameras melted into the background as he climbed the steps up onto the porch. The door was a brilliant blue, and he pointedly didn’t look through the paned window on the top, wanting to preserve the full experience of walking into it properly. So he opened it and gave it a shove, and it glided like it wasn’t a century old hoarder house.
Inside, not much had changed, yet everything had changed. Furniture in place, lights dim and warm, a pleasant aroma, like vanilla and pine. A long, turquoise runner muffled his footfalls along the entryway. The open kitchen to the left, complete with the shelves thathehad helped hang up. To the right, a living room, closed in by a corner sofa. It looked downright cozy. His thoughts drifted to a potential future, sitting there, enjoyingthe view out the window. Or watching TV. Watching Jake’s old videos. Watching jake on this show. Sitting there with Jake. Gaming with Jake.
He closed his eyes and turned his attention back to the kitchen. They really had done an amazing job of it, brought in matching containers for his dry goods, a new coffee maker, shiny appliances. Another turn and he looked at the stairs. Apparentlyreallylooked at them for the first time. “You refinished the stairs, too?”
