Page 67 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

In his sleepy state he was forgetting about the rest of the rumors. “Maybe."

His eyebrows lowered. “Or we can just skip town and start over somewhere new. We can have a normal life somewhere else.”

“I thought normalcy was overrated?”

He smiled. “It is. But your reaction made it seem like you didn’t want to stay.”

Because you don’t know everything yet. “Isn’t it a little fast for a we?”

“I’m not some 18-year-old kid trying to add notches to my bedpost. Last night meant something to me.”

“Did you do a lot of things you regret when you were 18?” I did. I ruined my life. I sabotaged any chance of a life with you.

He closed the laptop. “Enough. But I try not to live in the past. We all make mistakes. It doesn’t mean we can’t have a better future.”

I wouldn’t classify the things I had done as mistakes. Doing something once was a mistake. I hadn’t just done it once. But I did regret it. Well, parts of it. I stared into his eyes. “You want a future with me and Zeke?”

“And whatever that new lizard’s name is.”

I smiled. “Lizardnoceros I think? I don’t know where he comes up with these things.”

“But yeah. I can picture a future for us. Can’t you?”

I nodded without hesitating. I could. It was easy. He was already so good with Zeke. And he didn’t look at me like I was a monster. Yet. It was possible that I could keep everything a secret for a little longer. But it felt like I was running out of time. With the FBI still sniffing around and Damien pressing things? It was only a matter of time before my secrets rose to the surface anyway. I needed to get out ahead of it.

He leaned forward like he was about to kiss me, but then pulled away before our lips touched. “Do you have a toothbrush I could use?”

I laughed. “Yeah. I have spares in the bathroom vanity. Help yourself. Actually, do you mind heading downstairs pretty soon? I don’t want Zeke to know that you spent the night. It will lead to way too many questions.”

“Not a problem.” He slid the laptop onto the bed. “Do you think you will talk to him at some point? About us?”

“Yeah.” Probably. We’ll see how the rest of the d

ay goes.

“In the meantime, I’ll just pretend that we’re still only friends.” He winked at me and walked toward the bathroom.

He was only wearing a pair of boxers and I found my eyes wandering over the muscles in his back. I didn’t realize how sexy a back could be. He turned around at the last second. He smiled when he caught me staring. “Zeke definitely looks more like you than Joel. He’s a cute kid.”

His words made my heart race. Sometimes it was like he already knew the truth. “Yeah.”

Tucker smiled again.

As soon as the bathroom door closed, I opened my laptop back up. I typed “how soon is too soon to trust someone” into the search box. I needed to know if I was crazy for feeling this strongly about him so quickly. The last thing I wanted was to do to him what I had done to Zeke’s father.

Chapter 24

Tucker

Violet was just as gorgeous in the early morning. Although, we didn’t exactly wake up together. She’d been up for a while, scouring the internet for her ex. I felt like a dick for not showing her that I believed her earlier. I felt worse for not telling her what I’d done before sleeping with her. We were supposed to talk last night, but I stopped thinking when she put her hands on me. She was even more gorgeous when she was angry. Luckily, any trace of anger was long gone now. And I had until tonight to tell her about poking around her childhood home. It wasn’t going to be a fun conversation, but I had to do it. I was too far gone. Even if I wanted to, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to reel in my feelings for her. I was in trouble with her.

I opened up one of the drawers in her vanity. Three tubes of toothpaste. Three containers of floss. Three lighters. Three hair brushes. It was obsessive to have three backups of everything. But I knew she had compulsions. She probably couldn’t resist the purchases.

I pulled open one of the other drawers. I was expecting to see more bathroom supplies, not three sets of binoculars. Really high-tech ones. I had used a pair like this on a hiking trip once. I lifted a pair up and walked over to the window. After pulling the blinds open, I put them up to my eyes. Most of the leaves had fallen from the trees now, giving me a clear view of the woods. The lake in the distance glistened in the morning sun. It was a beautiful view. I turned my head. Huh. I lowered the binoculars. I could also clearly see the house that had blown up. It was easy to make out even without the binoculars. It was a perfect vantage point.

Which means nothing. I lifted the binoculars back up and looked at Vi's childhood home in the distance instead. Would she really want to leave this place? The trail from the back of her home to the lake meant something. But how could she love it here when the people were so cruel?

I lowered the binoculars. I needed to tell her I went to her old house. And I needed to flat out ask her what happened all those years ago. There was more to the story of Joel. But it was a relief that he was alive. It put that little voice in the back of my head finally at rest. Violet was a good person. I put the binoculars back where I found them and I pulled open the cabinet at the bottom of the vanity. There was a lot of toilet paper, stacked in columns of three. There were three of the same shampoos. Three conditioners. Three body washes. Three deodorants. Maybe a doctor could help her with her compulsions. Had she ever been to one? It was worth asking her about. Mixed with everything else I was going to bring up later, asking about a doctor didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

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