Page 57 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

“Technically it would be the first time Lizardnoceros escaped. I only just got him.” He hopped off the couch and headed toward the stairs anyway, though.

“That was a disaster,” Violet said and sunk into the couch next to me.

“Really? I didn’t think it went that badly. He didn’t even ask about Lizardopolous or suggest that we look for him. Maybe he’s just content with the new one.”

“He’s momentarily distracted by the new one. I’ll probably wake up to the house ransacked because he spent

all night looking for him again. It didn’t solve anything. Today was a complete waste.”

I tried not to let her words offend me. “Not a complete waste, surely.” I put my arm behind her on the couch, without touching her.

“No.” For a second her eyes fell to my lips. “Not a complete waste.” She shook her head. “I should probably get started on dinner. Do you think ziti is okay? This was kind of sprung on me and it’s about all I have on hand. I’d already planned on making it this week and I think I can stretch it for a few more people.”

“That sounds perfect.” When she didn’t get up to start cooking, I took it as the sign I’d been waiting for. I slowly leaned in.

For a moment she didn’t move at all. Her eyes traveled back to my lips and I swore I heard a sharp inhale.

But then there was a noise upstairs, like Zeke had dropped something heavy on the ground. Violet immediately ducked away from me. “I should probably get started on dinner,” she said again like she hadn’t just said it a minute ago. She started picking up the hot chocolate mugs.

“Would you like some help?”

“No, you can just, um…” her voice trailed off as she looked around the room. “Actually, yes. Do you know how to medium dice vegetables?”

“Do I know how to medium dice vegetables?” I said with a laugh. “Of course.” I didn’t. And I had no idea why I was pretending that I did. I assumed it just meant cut it up pretty small. I could handle that.

“Great.” She shoved some crumbs from the coffee table into her hand. “Do you mind grabbing the plate of cookies? I can’t believe how many Zeke ate. He’s not even going to be hungry for dinner. It’s just so hard to say no to him when he’s upset.”

I picked up the half empty plate. Her son had a pretty big sweet tooth. I did at that age too. “He seems pretty resilient to me. And who knows, in a few years maybe he’ll be the star quarterback and all those kids that are making fun of him now will be sucking up to him. Was his dad good at sports?”

“Yes. I mean…no. I don’t know.”

I laughed. “Did he play anything in high school?”

She shook her head and turned away from me to clean the mugs. “No, he was in plays and stuff. He wasn’t that interested in sports.”

“Oh, right. But you said you were and that you weren’t allowed to participate?”

“I doubt I would have made any teams. I was fast but not that fast. And I’m coordinated, but not that coordinated.” She opened up the fridge and started pulling stuff out.

“And what are your interests now?”

She finally looked back up at me. “In sports?”

“No…I mean like what are you passionate about now?”

“Being a mom.”

Her response made me smile, but it still wasn’t what I was looking for. “Do you work?”

She arched a brow at me. “Being a mother is work.”

“I know. It’s the hardest job of all and also the most important.” I did know that. My mother worked her ass off to give me the best of everything that she could. “But do you have another job? To make ends meet?” There were so many things about her that didn’t make sense. She dropped three hundred dollars on a coat but drove around a beat-up truck. She made homemade tomato sauce out of organic products, based on the labels and items she was moving to the counter, but she lived in a house that was practically falling down around her. Nothing she did made any sense.

“I don’t have to work,” she said as she grabbed a recipe book from a shelf and started to flip through the pages.

“Why is that?”

“I invest and stuff.” She pulled her hair into a messy bun and started rinsing vegetables.

---