Page 42 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

“Wow, that is such a mom thing to say.”

I laughed. But he didn’t understand my meaning. I had meant that I was disappointed in myself, not him. People were inherently untrustworthy. A town outsider was no exception to the rule. Maybe the people here hadn’t manipulated him yet, but they would. I’d enjoy our time together until that happened. Besides, it was probably only a few minutes away from happening. We were about to go to the mall. He’d see the way people whispered and pointed. He’d feel how horrible it was to be me.

“How often do you have episodes like that?” he asked. He said it so calmly that I barely registered the fact that he was fishing for personal information.

“Maybe a few times a month.” I fiddled with the hem of his jacket. “It’s usually only when I’m alone. Zeke is good at pulling me out of my head before I get lost in it.”

“He’s a sweet kid.”

“Yeah, he is.” Zeke was the one thing in my life I had done right. He was everything to me. “Thank you for not arresting me. I’m all that he has.”

“It didn’t even cross my mind to.”

A comfortable silence settled in the car. I still didn’t know why I wasn’t in handcuffs, but I was happy that he trusted me for some reason. I stared at his profile out of the corner of my eye. He already had a five-o’clock-shadow growing along his sharp jaw line. He was beautiful. And apparently naïve, if he hadn’t learned that everyone is inherently untrustworthy yet. For some reason, I didn’t believe my own thoughts though. It was like he trusted me because he had lived. Like he had made his own mistakes. Like he was more like me than I could possibly know.

“So, what kind of lizard are we looking for?” he asked.

I snapped my attention back to the road. “I don’t know exactly. He was orange and yellow with spots. Sometimes.”

“What do you mean sometimes?”

“He changed colors a lot.”

“And you have no idea what kind of lizard it was?”

“No, I made Zeke promise he’d take care of him by himself. I never wanted anything to do with the slimy little guy. But I have the receipt for him. And I remember the location in the store that we found him. I’m hoping there will be replacements in the same place.”

“Right. How hard could it be?” He pulled into the parking lot of the mall.

I glanced at the time display on his dashboard before he cut the engine. It was only a few minutes until noon. This was going to be a disaster. “It’s lunchtime.”

“If you’re hungry, we can grab a bite to eat.” When I didn’t respond, he leaned over the center console and grabbed my hand. “It’ll be fine, Violet.”

I didn’t move to get out of the car. I just sat there reveling in the fact that he was holding my hand. It had been years since anyone had held my hand aside from Zeke. It felt…comforting. I realized I was holding my breath and slowly exhaled. “You don’t understand what it’s like. People can be so cruel.”

“I’m a detective. I know perfectly well how cruel people can be. A few catty women are nothing to even worry about. Fuck them.”

I smiled. He was sweet even if he was naïve. “If you knew what they said, you wouldn’t want to be seen with me in public. Maybe I should just run in real quick and…”

“We need a lizard, a winter jacket, and lunch. I’m not waiting in the car. This is going to be fun, Violet. Just try to live in the moment.”

Live in the moment? I could barely live outside my own head. “Right. But not lunch. There’s no way I’m eating out.” I let my hand drop from his as I unbuckled my seatbelt. I ignored the fact that my body suddenly felt cold despite his huge jacket. It was like his touch could warm my whole body. I held the fabric tighter around me as we walked toward the entrance to the mall. And by walked I mean I practically ran. Because I could already feel all the stares. I could hear the whispers. I wanted Detective Reed to be naïve, at least when it came to me, for just a tiny bit longer. He’d be manipulated soon enough. For just one afternoon, I wanted normalcy even if it was overrated. I desperately wanted it.

“I didn’t realize you were a sprinter,” he said as he caught up to me.

I laughed. “I never did any sports. My mom was pretty strict. I didn’t do any after-school programs at all.”

“Did you want to?”

I shrugged as he opened the door for me. The blast of warm air made me sigh. “I don’t know, I never really thought about it because it wasn’t an option.”

He stayed close to me as we walked through the mall. He somehow seemed oblivious to all the people staring at us. “What happened to your parents?” he asked.

“My father died when I was really young. I barely remember him. My mom married Henry less than a year after my dad passed away. I thought it would make her happy again. It didn’t.”

“That must have been hard for both of you to lose your father when he was so young.”

“I think it was harder on me than it was on her.”

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