Page 15 of Spike

“Cute? It’s sofucking sweet I have a cavity.” Gemma made a motion to pick her teeth as shemade gagging noises.

“Besides,” Trixieshrugged. “I never thought I’d see you after that night, so I didn’t think it’dmake a difference.”

“Well, itcertainly explains why I could never find you,” I said.

“Find me? Youseriously looked for me after that night?”

“Of course, I did.I wanted to talk to you more, but Sergeant Hopper and that ginger bitch fromyour church kept us separated.”

A deep laugh leaptfrom Gemma’s mouth. “Ginger bitch is right.”

“That was my mom,”Trixie said.

“Oh, shit. I’msorry,” I rushed to say before adding, “In my mind, she’s kind of been avillain in the story of that night.”

“She’s the villainofeverystory,” Gemma grumbled.

“She’s not thatbad,” Trixie countered.

Gemma raised aneyebrow. “Uh, yeah, she is. You’re just still stuck in her brainwashingvortex.” Her friend focused on me. “At some point she’s gonna figure it out,it’s just taking longer than I’d like for her to get away from these psychos.”

“Gemma!” Trixiesqueaked. “Don’t be mean.”

“Being honestisn’t being mean, love. You need to remember that.”

“Anyway.”Trixie rolled her eyes and took a deep breath, fixing a smile to her beautifulface. She had the cutest fuckin’ dimple in her right cheek and even if hersmile might be a little forced, it still transformed her face. “I can’t believeyou remembered me, or that night, honestly. It was chaos.”

“You rememberedme,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’sdifferent.”

“How’s itdifferent?”

“You weren’t likeany guy I’d ever met before in my life. You seemed more full of life thananyone at our church, but also so lost and sad. I prayed for you for a longtime.”

“You prayed forme?”

She smiled andnodded.

“Well, here weare.” I cocked my head. “Maybe thereisa god after all.”

Gemma let out a snort.“Highly doubtful.”

“Gemma, shut it,”Trixie hissed.

Before I could askher anything else, Devlin walked out of the shop. “There you are. I thought youmight have been beamed up or something. I saw you pull up, then, poof, youdisappeared.”

“Yeah, sorry,sweetheart, just met an old friend.” I smiled. “Trix—I mean, Chrissy, this isDevlin. And this is Gemma.”

Chrissy shookDevlin’s hand. “I’m Jenson’s sister.”

“Oh my god,seriously?” Devlin pulled her in for a hug as she glared at me. “Why the helldidn’t you say that first?”

“I didn’t know,” Iadmitted.

Chrissy chuckled.“We didn’t get that far.”

“Well, come oninside,” Devlin ordered, then focused on me. “And you have work to do.”

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