Page 117 of Fish Out of Water

“Mine too. Well, sort of.” Jake closed his eyes, the memories flooding back all too easily for something he’d tried so hard to forget. “We were two very different people back then, weren’t we?”

“Entirely different. I wouldn’t want to go back to that now that we have this.” Robbie’s head rested in the crook of Jake’s neck, and Jake began to stroke his hair.

This was where he was meant to be: with Robbie, a man so opposite him it was comical, in a house he’d hated as a kid and resented as an adult, with a job he wouldn’t have dreamed of holding a year ago.

It was perfect. Not too perfect, though. Just perfect enough for Jake to know he was doing the right thing.

“Thank you for giving me a chance,” he murmured. “Lots of chances, actually. Way too many.”

“Thank you for giving me a chance too, Jake.” Robbie’s breath was warm on Jake’s neck, and the scent of his cologne wafted up to his nostrils. “It means the world to me.”

“We’ll do just fine,” Jake said after a moment.

“Yeah, we will.”

Robbie’s breath evened out while Jake continued to stroke his hair. Life was hardly ever fair, but perhaps this one time, when Jake had finally let go of his own stubbornness and let someone different into his life, and Robbie had finally found the courage to stand up to people who’d never cared about him as much as they should have, it had played out exactly how they needed it to.

EPILOGUE: DOMESTICATION

“Welcome to the Book Nook!” Jake said as the cascading string of bells at the top of the door jingled.

“Hi,” a young woman responded.

“Can I help you with anything today?” Jake was not a natural salesman, nor was he the best with customers when they asked questions or complained about a lack of something important to them. All his previous jobs had been in an office, sitting behind a computer, and while he had a computer before him now, it wasn’t the focus of his work.

“Um, do you have any recommendations for mysteries? I like the kind with murders where the killer is revealed at the very end, but I forgot to bring any books with me on my vacation.”

Jake looked past the woman, catching another man’s eye where he stood in front of a shelf, stocking books. “We can definitely help you with that,” he said. “If you just go talk to Robbie over there, he’s our mystery expert.”

“Okay, great. Thank you so much.”

Compared to Jake, Robbie was the expert in every genre, not just mysteries. And, as it turned out, he shined when hewasn’t stuck behind the counter all day. The Book Nook was selling more books per day under Isabel’s co-ownership than it had before in a full week during the peak summer season when tourists abounded.

Jake got back to work packing their monthly book subscription boxes while Robbie helped the mystery woman. The subscription boxes had been Robbie’s idea, and excited as he was to pitch it to Isabel, just as Jake had expected, his aunt was happy to give it the greenlight with only the briefest of descriptions.

In practice, people loved it. It hit a market beyond tourists, and in the first month alone, Jake recognized several names and addresses of people who had signed up. It only grew from there, and now, in their fourth month, they were discussing hiring someone part-time just to help with managing the subscription boxes. It helped that Robbie knew exactly what books almost every person would want to read without even looking at the form they filled out when they signed up.

“All ready to check out?” Jake asked as he looked up to see the young woman standing in front of the counter.

“Yes, please.” She smiled, whatever shyness she’d had when she walked in fully erased. Robbie tended to have that effect on people. “Your partner over there, he’s so sweet.”

Jake grinned. “Yeah, he is. So, what books did you get?”

She handed over her stack, and Jake pretended to recognize them. Robbie shot him a withering gaze from across the store, but Jake continued on blithely.

“And would you like to add a tote bag with your order? If you buy three or more books, you get one fifty percent off.”

The woman glanced down at her pile of half a dozen books. “Oh, yeah, that would be great. Thank you.”

Jake pulled a beige canvas tote bag out from under the counter. Gone was the poisonous name from the emblem,replaced with the less obvious design of the cat and books that had been on the hoodies. The main difference now was that the cat was a real cat, and though she stayed at home while Jake and Robbie worked, they’d tacked up photos of her in her fluffy tuxedo all over the bookstore for people to fawn over.

“Is that the cat from the bag?” the woman asked, pointing to the bulletin board behind Jake.

“It sure is,” Jake replied. “That’s Marin.”

“Aw, she’s so cute.” The woman’s gaze moved from the photos down to the merch display. “I’ll take a hoodie, too.”

“You got it. What size?”