"Just tell me he's not in my grandfather's bedroom," Bailey said alarmed.
"No. He's sitting at the dining table," Matt said.
Bailey had found a book about the animals of the Outback, but he was worried about other reading material that he knew was around the place. He told Matt, "Grandpa has some het porn mags under his bed. I don't want Joey stumbling over them." But then he couldn't help wondering. "You, ummm...?"
Matt didn't make him put that into actual words. "I wouldn't be into that, the het part, I mean," he said. "But I'll go grab them before Joey finds them."
Bailey was sure his face was red. Why didn't he just grab the porn mags himself instead of having this uncomfortable conversation with Matt about them? As for whether Matt would be into them, instead of bringing it up with him, he could have just waited for a chance to ask Gwen if Matt was gay. Or maybe he just shouldn't have worried about it since Matt was here to do a job and nothing more.
Chapter 3
With some of the stuff in boxes and bags, they could already see more of the living room, as well as the view. Bailey was looking at the beach and the waves, that stretch of blue that included both the sea and the sky, wishing they were out there.
"I found something you'll want to keep," Matt said as he stood over by a shelf he was clearing.
"Not the gnomes," Bailey said seeing a collection of ceramic garden gnomes lined up on the bottom shelves.
Matt laughed. "I already assumed you were keeping those," he joked then he showed Bailey what he actually found.
It was a photo album and Bailey choked up just looking at a few of the photos, mostly of Grandpa on boats with his fishing gear or proudly holding up a fish and smiling. "I'll want to look these over with Joey," he said closing the album. "When I'm sure I won't start crying."
"I wish I had gotten to know you granddad," Matt said.
"I'm sure he would have liked you and then he would have talked your ear off about fishing and then about everything else," Bailey said with a smile. "I can remember so many times zoning out and even falling asleep while listening to my grandfather talk. He never took it personally, just put a blanket over me."
"I hope Joey got to know him," Matt said.
Bailey shook his head. "Unfortunately, he didn't. I didn't adopt him until after my grandfather died. I really wish Grandpa could have met him, taken him fishing, talked his ear off." Bailey could see them together in his mind's eye like it was real and it made him want to burst into tears. He had to grit his teeth so his sadness didn't overwhelm him.
"I'm sorry," Matt said in a deep, quiet voice.
Bailey nodded to him. It was all he could manage and Matt went back to boxing up stuff, while Bailey went to put away the precious album. He knew there would be pictures of his mother in that album too, another loss that he would never get over, another person who never got to meet Joey.
Though Grandpa's house was already looking much better, they hadn't touched the kitchen yet. Going in there, Bailey tried not to think about the past, his loss and Joey's loss, just focused on the practical things. One of those things was the fridge. Had anyone cleared it?
Bailey was about to check, but he was afraid to open it. He just kept his hand on the door handle without opening it.
Poking his head into the kitchen, Joey noticed what he was doing. He somehow got hopeful about what was inside the fridge his dad was too afraid to open. "Is there ice cream?" Joey asked.
"If there is food inside this fridge, it's been there a while and it's not good to eat any more," Bailey told him and made him pout. The mention of food made him realize that it was a little past lunchtime. "I bet you're hungry, and I bet Matt is hungry too."
Putting off whatever horrors the fridge might hold, they went back to the living room. They found Matt wrapping up the garden gnomes in old newspapers and putting them into boxes.
"You sure you don't want to keep these, take them home with you?" Matt asked jokingly, but Joey took him seriously.
He looked over the gnomes that hadn't been wrapped up yet as if he was picking out which ones to keep. "That one has a basketball," Joey said.
"I think that's a squash," Bailey told him. He really didn't want that thing coming home with them. "I'm ordering lunch. Chicken sandwiches OK?"
When the sandwiches were delivered, Matt pointed his thumb outside. "We could eat them on the beach."
"Sure, we could use some fresh air," Bailey said and of course Joey was all for it.
They went to sit with their feet in the wet sand, getting splashed by the waves and ate their chicken sandwiches. "It was a good idea to eat out here. It's still dusty inside," Bailey said.
"If you want, I can clean the place for you after we're done clearing out the stuff," Matt offered.
Bailey had already contacted a local cleaning service, but he didn't actually schedule them since he didn't know when they would be done removing all the stuff. Gwen said that Matt jumped at every chance to earn money for his next year of college classes. That reminded him that Matt had already been working that morning before coming over to do more work.
