Page 16 of Blown

“Mom was pissed when we got home,” Jake went on. “She had to gut all those fish and then cut them up so they could be stored in the big freezer we had in the garage. Fortunately, that thing was big enough to store twice as many fish as we brought home.”

Jake stopped talking abruptly, still not looking at Rafe.

Rafe shifted uncomfortably on the bench, checking to see if anyone passing was listening to them. Then he said, “Is this the same garage where you had your industrial ice cream machine?”

Jake snapped to stare at Rafe with wide eyes. Color splashed his face, and desperation shone brightly from him. “Yeah, that’s the one,” he said, adding a nervous laugh.

He was lying. The fish story was a complete fabrication. That wasn’t a red flag in and of itself. Plenty of people might have made something like that up, only to laugh when the person they were telling the tale to took it seriously.

That wasn’t what was going on with Jake.

“Why are you here?” Rafe asked in a quiet voice, anxious for the answer.

“Because you brought me here,” Jake said, his puppy-dog smile back. “I never could have found my way here on my own,” he went on, talking too fast. “The roads in England are so narrow and winding compared to the US. And you don’t have enough highways to get anywhere. It’s like your entire transportation system is designed for you all to stay home all the time. It confuses me, really. I don’t know how you live like this. I can’t even drive your cars. I’d be terrified of swerving into the other side of the road. I’ll never get used to it.”

Rafe tensed. “I thought you said you spent a summer driving around the English countryside a few years ago.”

Jake froze. He didn’t even breathe for a second. The silence that fell over him was so noticeable that it was like the breeze had stopped blowing. Rafe was still, too, but inwardly, he wasscreaming and tearing his hair out, desperate to know what was going on.

Surprisingly, he didn’t have to wait long to find out.

Jake turned just his head to look at him, deep shame and sadness in his eyes. Before he could say a word, Rafe shifted his hand to rest on Jake’s shoulder, knowing he needed that contact to ground him.

“I have a problem,” Jake murmured after a silence that lasted a hundred years.

Rafe nodded for him to go on instead of interjecting something.

Jake swallowed. “I…I tell stories,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I’ve told a lot of stories. They…get in the way.”

Rafe frowned. “How so?”

Jake shrugged slightly, gloom starting to settle in on top of the shame that dripped from him. “I’ve lied about how much money I have and skipped out on landlords when I couldn’t pay the rent. I’ve lied to my family about where I am and what I’m doing. That started at an early age, what with figuring out I’m gay and all. I had to lie about that for a long time to keep myself safe.” He sucked in a quick breath before going on with, “I’ve lied on my resume to get jobs.”

“Did you lie to get the residency at Corning?” Rafe asked.

“A little,” Jake admitted.

Rafe shook his head and sat a little straighter. “But you’re genuinely talented. I’ve seen your work. You pissed me the fuck off by stealing attention away from everyone else, but your work is damn good. You can’t lie about talent like that.”

“Glass is the only thing I’ve ever been good at,” Jake said, hunching in on himself a little. “I suck at everything else in life.”

Rafe started to say that couldn’t be true, but he was beginning to get the feeling it was. “Is that why you want to moveto the UK? To leave behind a pack of lies you’ve told and start over?”

Jake nodded, but he also sat straighter and faced Rafe more fully. “It’s not just that, though. I really do love England. I’ve felt like this is where I belong since the first time I heard about England.”

“And when you told your teacher you’d taken a summer holiday over here?” Rafe suggested.

“Yes,” Jake said. “I really did pretend I’d been over here that summer. I’m not lying about the lie.”

“I’m sure you’re not,” Rafe said.

He didn’t know what to do with the situation in front of him. He’d been so angry with Jake for so long. He’d blamed Jake for his residency in Corning failing to lead to something bigger. He’d been certain Jake had sabotaged him on purpose. Now he was beginning to see that the only person Jake sabotaged was himself.

“What is your financial situation like?” he asked, trying to figure out what the biggest problem Jake currently had was.

Jake shrugged. “I’m broke. I maxed out my credit card buying a one-way plane ticket over here.”

Rafe sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Is that your only debt? The credit card?”

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