Page 121 of The Art of Dying

“So… we’re going to talk more about you dying, right?” Naomi said, watching Trex and Darby dance. “Because what that FBI agent said was total bullshit.”

“It wasn’t,” I looked down at my kids, “bull. It just wasn’t the full story. Because the full story is… probably illegal.”

“Probably. Did you come up with it? The way it happened?”

“Of course not.”

“You should take the credit. Because your death? That’s how I’d wanna do it. It was a masterpiece. Truly art.”

“Being hit head on by a truck, probably screaming and burning alive?”

“No,” Naomi said. “Walking away without a scratch.”

“I’m sure you would’ve, had it been you.”

“But you’re still going to tell me, right? Because at least at one time we were best friends.”

“Sisters,” I said. “We still are.”

Naomi nodded. “Well, I live in Arizona now.”

“I heard.”

“So, he’s kept you up to date on everything?”

“Like you crawling through air ducts in a highly secured government facility to spring your boyfriend out of some lab straight out of the X-Files?” I glanced at Zeke. “Yes.”

She raised an eyebrow. “His dick glows in the dark now.”

“Naomi,” Zeke said, closing his eyes. “Please stop telling people that.”

“Wait. Really?” I asked, touching my chest.

Naomi laughed and shook her head, and I covered my mouth.

“C’mon,” Zeke said, tugging Naomi’s hand. “Let’s go dance before you get more rumors started.”

“Hi there,” I said, noticing Hailey just a few feet away. She was holding a little girl, maybe a year old, dressed in a white and sage fluffy dress. “This must be Maddie.”

“It sure is,” Hailey said, bouncing her on her hip.

Maddie smiled while pointing behind me. Henry and Miles Harbinger zipped past us and then my kids, followed by Kitsch, who was clearly some sort of cake monster, his fingers outstretched and covered in icing. He stopped and wiped some of it onto my hands, so I raised them and began chasing the kids around Hailey and Maddie in a circle.

Out of breath, Kitsch stopped me by the hands, walking backward until we were on the dance floor. Naomi and Zeke weren’t far away. The twins and their wives, Harbinger and Caroline, and a few others I hadn’t met yet were on the dance floor, too. I watched Trex and Darby dancing, staring into each other’s eyes and then I turned to see Kitsch looking at me just as lovingly.

“How’s my girl?” Kitsch asked. “Hard part’s over, right? It wasn’t that bad?”

My head fell forward as I laughed. “Well, our hands are sticking together from the frosting. But if you mean the reveal and everything leading up to it… babe… there was a lot of bad.”

“Yeah. There was. But never with us.”

“Never with us.”

Thunder rolled in the distance, and Kitsch looked up and then smiled down at me. “I love storms.”

“Well, no wonder,” I said.

“What’s that?” he asked.

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