Page 5 of Uncharted

And not because he was an ‘idiot,’ as our boss always referred to him, but then again, Xander referred to all of us at the outpost that way save for our dispatcher, Cait. To me, his heart was forever in the right place, or at least he tried when it counted. He could be impulsive, not read a room or a mood right, but it was hard to be upset with someone who was just being friendly or was genuinely trying to help.

I realized it had grown quiet between us, but that was okay. Both of us had a reputation with the rest of the crew for being motormouths, which, uh…well, it wasn’t an unfair assessment. With the recent addition of Aidan, though, we had someone else who was getting the reputation as a chatty Cathy, so that helped. But really, there were moments when silence settled between Jake and me, and it felt…natural.

The first time I met him, I had been so taken aback by the sheer size of him I’d lost all sense of balance and control. Well, sleep deprivation hadn’t helped much either.

My feet tangled around one another, and I’d been sent sprawling in front of him. There were still enough jokes about that to last a lifetime or two, but Jake, being Jake, had helped me up with a chuckle. And then a hug…which had been weird at the time, but now? Well, Jake hugging me was about as normal as Jake breathing, or speaking at a volume normally reserved for live concerts.

“I guess it is a little weird,” Jake said after a moment, and I didn’t bother to hide the smile. He glanced at me and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I was thinkin’ about it the whole time, so what?”

“So what?” I repeated fondly.

“I mean, it makes sense for it to be weird, don’t it?” he asked, but I didn’t bother to respond because I knew an answer wasn’t required. “It’s not somethin’ I had to go through, hell, it’s like…the total opposite of what I went through growin’ up. So, of course, it’s weird.”

“To be fair, that’s why I asked,” I said with a chuckle. “Not because I thought you thought my childhood was fucking freaky or whatever, but because it’s just…not what you’re used to.”

“Kinda sucks how often I’ve heard about how bad parents can be,” he said softly. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work, ya know? Your parents are supposed to protect ya from the world, not hurt ya. And when they teach ya about the world, they’re not supposed to be an example of how bad it can be. It just…don’t make sense to me.”

“You ever thought about having kids of your own?” I asked, realizing that in the couple of years I’d known and worked beside him, I had never asked anything like that before.

“God,” he groaned, “ya sound like my ex.”

“Which one?” I asked dryly, laughing when he shot me a dirty look. “What? Even I don’t know when you’re actually with someone or if you’re just doing a friends with benefits thing. You never tell me.”

“Stelle,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

That was a name I knew, but… “Geez, that was like…over a year ago. You haven’t been seeing anyone else since?”

“I dunno, it just…I still take care of things,” he said slowly, and anyone who knew him would probably be confused why he was taking his time answering. I knew he was uncomfortable, though. Despite how he often didn’t think before he spoke, or just didn’t care what came out of his mouth, he was surprisingly prim about his sex life. He didn’t mind mentioning it to me, though even then he could be reluctant. “I just haven’t found anyone I wanna date. Or, like, I guess I should say, someone I wanna be in a relationship with.”

“Right, I almost forgot you distinguish between dating and a relationship,” I said with a chuckle. He was surprisingly old-fashioned when it came to dating. He would always wine and dine the women he took on dates, from what I heard, and more than once if there was something there. But he was never one to lead a woman on. He might charm them, he might sleep with them, but if he genuinely thought there was no more than that in their future, he let them know and allowed them both to move on. “You really haven’t been serious with anyone in over a year?”

“Nope,” he said, then glanced at me. “Not like I’ve been hearin’ about any ladies that caught your attention in a long time. It was what…last year you had a thing with that cutie at the store.”

“Oh, right,” I said, thinking back. “Emily.”

“I know ya went out with her for a bit,” he said. “Never explained why ya stopped.”

“You never asked.”

“I ain’t askin’ about your love life.”

I laughed. “Seriously? Ever since Colin and Xander started acting kind of weird around one another, you were sniffing around. And ever since Aidan and Mika started being able to be in the same room as each other, you’ve been nosing around there too.”

“First, it gets everyone’s attention when Xander starts showin’ like he might be interested in someone,” Jake pointed out. “Especially another guy. How do ya spend a hundred years as a straight guy and then boom! Dick.”

“How do you know he’s the one giving the dick?” I wondered. “He could be taking it. Or they could take turns.”

“It’s kinda hard to picture Xander bending over.”

“Eh, one of Mika’s exes was a lot like Xander, just…quieter, just as grumpy, just as big.”

“And?”

“C’mon, Jake, put two and two together. I believe in you.”

He shoved me, almost making me sprawl in the dirt. “Why do you know what your brother gets up to in bed?”

“Because you learn things about people when you’re around them all the time,” I said with a laugh. “That’s how I know you have a thing for boxers when most guys don’t even bother⁠—”