Page 70 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

“What do you want for breakfast?” Violet asked, turning her attention back to her son.

“I’ll just eat cookies.” He grabbed the plate from the counter and shoved one into his mouth in record speed.

“Zeke, I can make you toast. Or oatmeal. Or eggs?”

“No thank you, Mommy.” He ate another cookie.

“You’re going to turn into a pile of sugar.” She grabbed the plate away from him a second too late. Zeke had already stolen a handful of them. He shoved one more into his mouth and put the rest into one of his cargo shorts pockets.

I wondered if it was the same pocket his new lizard had been in a minute ago.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked. He looked down at her slippers. “I thought you wanted to go early?”

“I’m going to take you, Zeke.” I said.

“Really?” He sounded so excited. “Can we drive with the siren?”

“I’m a detective, not a cop. I don’t have a siren.”

“Oh.” He still seemed excited. “That’s okay. It’ll still be fun.” He grabbed the lunchbox that Violet handed him.

She crouched down to be at eye-level with Zeke. “Be good, okay, little dude?”

He nodded.

“I love you.” She kissed the top of his head. “I’ll pick you up later today.”

He didn’t respond. Instead, he hugged her. “By later do you mean late? Last time you picked me up you were late.”

She closed her eyes. It looked like she was in pain. “I won’t be late.”

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to die.”

The only escape is death. A chill ran down my spine as I remembered the engraving. Had she hoped to die at one point? She’d mentioned that she thought her mother might be suicidal. Maybe the engraving was about her. I’d ask her about it soon enough. I wanted a few more hours to remember how great last night was before I fucked everything up.

She kissed the top of his head once more before releasing him. Zeke ran toward the front door. We both followed, but I stayed back after he ran outside.

“Want me to pick something up for lunch?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I’ll cook again.”

“Are you sure everything’s okay?” I reached out and lightly touched her cheek.

She melted into my palm, like our bodies were meant to be fused together. “Yeah. I’m just a little…tired. I woke up too early.”

“Maybe take a nap then?” I smiled at her as I tilted her chin up. I had waited to join Zeke outside so that I could steal a kiss.

“Sounds good.” She took a step back, letting my hand fall from her face. “I’m going to go do that. Thanks for taking Zeke to school.” She walked away, leaving me standing awkwardly in the foyer.

Last night had been perfect. This morning, on the other hand, she was acting so distant. What was going on with her? I went to open the door, but she immediately came back into the foyer.

“Actually. I need your opinion on something. Do you think people can change? Like if you hated apples because they made you throw up once as a kid? You’d like…give them another chance right? Now that you’re grown up? People can change. You might like apples now.” She was scratching the inside of her wrist as she stared at me.

I could tell that there was a certain response that she wanted, but I didn’t know what it was. Honestly, I didn’t think people changed. I hated to think about all the people that got locked away and then repeated the same mistakes once they were free. It was ingrained in them to be on the other side of the law. But something simpler like apples? I wasn’t going to shoot myself in the foot when it was clear she wanted a certain answer. The vaguer the better. “Maybe if I put some peanut butter on it or something to cover the taste? Then I could slowly acclimate myself.”

“Until you loved apples again.”

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