Page 47 of The Outline


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“Are you sure? Is it possible you just forgot the last time you moved things?”

“No.” Robbie’s face turned red. “I have a…um…picture…in that drawer. I know I put it under my swim stuff, and it was definitely on the wrong side.”

“What kind of picture, Robbie?” Renn questioned gently.

“Just…a picture. It’s not bad or anything. It’s a comic, but there’s…uh…it’s some women and they’re drawn with…um…you know.”

I appreciated the unwanted latte keeping my hands and mouth busy. As I put the green straw to my lips, I tried not to smile. I’d never been part of alovingfamily, and watching Renn deal with Robbie’s struggle to hide pornographic anime in his room provided the chance to experience one from the periphery.

Renn put his hand on Robbie’s shoulder. “There is so much for us to talk about here, and I want to have a longer discussion about you looking at pictures like that. It’s natural to be curious, but I think we should have a conversation.” Robbie glanced up at the fans forever circling on the ceiling, looking like he wanted the earth to swallow him whole. “Later,” Renn clarified. “But soon. A question for right now is how you got here.”

“Oh…um…Lydia dropped me off. She knew something was wrong because I kinda socked Gage in the car, but I wouldn’t tell her why. I told her I needed to talk to you, so she said you could drop me off at her house later, but she still has Gage. She texted you.”

Renn reached for his phone, scrolling quickly through his messages before turning back to Robbie. “Okay. I get you’re mad. And I’ll help you have a conversation with Gage about respecting your privacy. But you also just admitted that you hit your brother. That’s not the way to handle things.”

“It wasn’t hard,” Robbie protested. “You’ve gotta tell Gage he needs to stay out of my room.”

“You didn’t ask him about seeing the picture?”

“No. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Lydia or Ryder, but he knew why I was mad. He was acting weird when I asked to stop off for the suits, like he knew I’d notice. Little shit.”

“That’s a week, Robbie.”

Robbie groaned and hurled himself into a chair. Archie went over and sat next to him, speaking softly so no one else could hear, but whatever he was saying seemed to calm the boy down. Pete stood off to the side, surveying the scene in contemplation. When Robbie finally noticed me, he offered a questioning glance but wasn’t openly hostile.

Renn chuffed as he came my way. “At least we had five minutes to enjoy finishing up the major work on your tattoo before Hurricane Robbie came in.”

“I’m also enjoying Pete’s guilt coffee.” I raised the straw to my lips again.

Renn laughed. “Never a dull moment around here.”

He wasn’t kidding. They were lucky Archie’s customer had already left, because the scene with Robbie probably wasn’t the kind of thing clients expected in a tattoo studio. Never mind wondering whether Renn had space for me in his life. I wasn’t even sure he had space for me in this day.

Still, I wanted to offer comfort if I could. I motioned toward Robbie. “He’ll come around. Don’t worry. Everything’s hard at his age.”Did that sound helpful? I knew nothing about parenting a teenager.

Renn ran his hands through his hair and spoke quietly to me. “I keep reminding myself that none of this is easy for Robbie. I don’t blame him, but God, he’s tough to handle these days.”

“Sorry. You’re doing the best you can.”

“It’s so not fair to him, what happened to his parents. But I don’t want to play that card, you know? I don’t want to remind him how much more time I had with our dad than he did. Or make his whole life about that tragedy… Like, hey, Robbie, your grades suck. Ourdead fatherwould hate that. Robbie, you never do your chores. Ourdead fatherwould be so disappointed. Robbie, your language sucks and so do all your rude little friends. Ourdead fatherwould not approve. I don’t want to say it, so I don’t. But in this case, it is really, really true. Robbie being so at odds with Gage? Our dead father would absolutely hate that.”

Renn gripped the back of a stool with the heavy effort of speaking about his dad for the second time that day, closing his eyelids forcefully before opening them again. Although what he’d explained after the 5K was true—he did seem to manage it a little easier when it was his choice, as opposed to when others brought up Thomas out of the blue.

“Maybe I can help,” Pete interjected from where he’d been leaning against a table, a thoughtful look on his face. Archie grimaced and Renn eyed him with skepticism, but Pete pressed on. “You’re right, Renn. Thomas was the world’s greatest brother and he would hate that his boys weren’t getting along. Not just Robbie and Gage, but you and Robbie, too.”

“What are you thinking?” Renn asked grudgingly. I imagined he was at his breaking point to be considering anything Pete had to say.

“Hey, Rob?” Pete spoke to his younger nephew.

“Yeah?” Robbie’s sullen expression remained.

“You know how to take the bus to my apartment, right?” Robbie nodded. “Well, how about I give you a key and then you can go there whenever you want? Just to chill. My roommate is almost always gone, or in his room playing video games with a headset on, so there’s plenty of privacy if you need it.”

Robbie still looked suspicious, but the worst of his surliness had abated. “Why?”

“So you can just get away for awhile. Have time to yourself. I think that’s preferable to murdering Gage.”

“For real? You’d let me just go there?”