Jordan couldn’t help but grin as well. “What was it?”
“Sweet Valley High.”
“Bullshit,” Jordan said without thinking. He covered his mouth and looked around, immediately relieved that there weren’t any children around that could’ve overheard him. “You’re lying,” he insisted.
“No lie.” Rex took Jordan by the hand and led him through the stick-covered archway leading into the children’s section. An older Latino man sitting behind the counter looked up at him, and recognition crossed his face instantly.
“Is that little Rhett Bailey?” he demanded, his voice husky and booming.
“Yes, sir,” he said.
“You remember what I told you?” Mr. Diaz narrowed his eyes at Rex with faux severity.
Rex nodded almost obediently. “One hour of books, one hour of games. I sure do. Also, by any chance, do you still have those books I used to read? You know…the ones I didn’t want anyone else to know about?”
“Something tells me we might have one or two somewhere in here. We got rid of most of them when we updated a few years ago. Let me see…” The man rose from his chair, straightened out his argyle sweater over his round belly, and disappeared behind a shelf of books in the back of the room. A moment later, he returned with a copy of On the Edge. “This work for you?”
“This is perfect, thanks, Mr. Diaz.” Rex led Jordan to a small alcove in the back of the room, hidden from view. He took a seat in one of the armchairs and flipped through the weathered paperback until he got to the right page. “Aha,” he said, turning it around for Jordan to see.
Written in green pen at the bottom of one of the pages were the initials “R.B.” in handwriting that could only belong to a child.
Jordan traced his finger over the letters and smiled softly. “You know this is adorable, right? Like, almost too cute for me to believe that this was you?”
“We all have our dark pasts, JJ.”
Jordan cocked his head inquisitively. “JJ?”
“Do you hate it?”
After a moment of consideration, Jordan said, “Not at all.”
“Good.” Rex reached over to take the book back, flipping through it absently. “If I remember correctly, this is the first book in the series where things get very after-school special. The protagonist in this one does one bump of coke and straight up dies. Maybe not the best thing for me to be reading at nine, but it was far from the craziest shit that happened in this series.”
“And this was for kids?”
“Technically, it was for young adults, but… And in Francine’s defense, this was tamer than the following books. I haven’t even gotten to the girl that killed her foster sister and an old lady to pretend to be one of the twins, or when the girls thought there was a real-life werewolf in London killing people…”
Utterly fascinated with the mildly unhinged storylines of the series, Jordan got comfortable in the armchair facing Rex, smiling and nodding as the man went into great detail about the entire six-part miniseries leading to the 100th book or the three-part miniseries about the girls studying in England. He’d never seen Rex this animated before, and in the back of his mind, he had to wonder if this was what he looked like when he talked about Patricia Hayes. Did his eyes go wide like that? Did he move his arms around that much?
At the beginning of the afternoon, Jordan had wondered why Rex brought him to the Riverside library. For a moment, he’d worried he was bringing him here to tease him and show him “good” books, the same way he might have when they first met at Millerstone. But the more Rex went into detail, reading from On the Edge and other books he hopped up to collect, it was clear that this was Rex’s way of sharing his own love of stories with him.
For the first time, Rex dropped all pretenses and seemed to just be letting himself have fun, and despite the way he’d been left breathless in the kitchen after their first kiss, Jordan felt his heart race even more now.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Rex asked suspiciously, his mouth tugged into a lopsided smile that showed his slightly crooked teeth.
“No reason.”
“Bull—” He caught himself. “BS.”
“No BS,” Jordan insisted. “It’s just that I’ve never seen you be this excited before. About anything.”
Rex sat back in his chair and shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
“It is a big deal. I think it’s really cool that you get this interested in these books. It’s actually really dang cute, too.” Cute was probably the last word he’d ever have used to describe Rex, with his rugged appearance and the aura of a troublemaker practically pulsating around him. Sexy, sure. Maybe even fine. But not cute.
Yet here he was, ready to reach over, pinch his cheeks, and call him a “wittle baby.”
“I’m not cute. You’re cute,” Rex said, muttering his compliment. “Are you having fun, though? I hope I’m not boring you too much.”
“Not at all. I can’t wait until you start talking about all the young adult books you read.”
Rex’s eyes went wide again. “Those are upstairs. C’mon, I’ll show you.”
Like before, he took Jordan’s hand in his, lacing their fingers together, and led him up the grand staircase in the middle of the first floor. Jordan almost couldn’t believe how excited he was to learn more about Rex, but in this moment, nothing mattered more than walking down memory lane with the man, hand in hand and wearing the widest, cheesiest smile he’d put on in weeks.
Seven
Jordan was starting to think that surprise trips were Rex’s thing. After their date to the library last week, Rex had insisted that he take Jordan somewhere else, and just like before, he refused to tell him anything about their destination. Even when Jordan begged and pleaded over the phone, Rex’s lips were tight.
“Just one hint?” Jordan asked as he climbed onto the back of Rex’s motorcycle.
“No hints, stop asking. I promise you’ll like it, alright?”
“Fine.” Jordan’s dejection was over the minute Rex revved up his engine and pulled away from the curb. Immediately, he was hit with the same rush of adrenaline that left him giddy with excitement. Even better, the ride took longer than before, giving Jordan time to admire Sweet Rose for just a bit longer.
At the stop light on Main Street, he turned his head to watch the Donovan Activity Center fill with people from all over town, some of them sporting workout clothes while other artsier types walked around with bags full of painting supplies. He’d only been to the building once before, for a birthday party when he was younger, but from what he remembered, it was a nice place to meet up with friends and become more social.
With all the free time he had after quitting his job, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to stop by sometime.
The thought of being unemployed still filled Jordan with existential dread, but Rex had become quite the distraction. They’d started talking on the phone even more, skipping texts altogether. Groundbreaking it wasn’t, but with how call-averse Jordan and his generation seemed to be, it felt like it held more weight than a simple Snapchat message.