Page 69 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

le I was sleeping. This is Lizardopolous. See? He has the tummy spots.” He put him right in Violet’s face and pointed out the spotted belly.

“Right. It’s definitely Lizardopolous. He has all the right spots.” She looked pleased with herself.

Zeke shook his head. “You’re not getting it. The one you found wasn’t Lizardopolous. This is.”

Violet nodded. “Of course.”

“I’m being very clear and you’re just not getting it.” He pushed Lizardopolous into Violet’s hand, reached into his pocket and pulled out a second lizard. “Lizardnoceros,” he said and lifted up the pocket lizard. “Lizardopolous.” He pointed at the one in Violet’s hand.

“Oh.” Violet’s smile turned into a frown. “He came back?”

Zeke jumped up and down. “Yes! He came home!”

“So you have two lizards now?”

“Yup!” Zeke grabbed the lizard out of his mother’s hand and started to shove both the lizards into his pockets.

“Zeke. What have we talked about?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “We talk about a lot of things.”

“Put the lizards back in your room. Now. I want to get going early so we beat the crowded drop-off line.”

He nodded. “Okay. I’ll be good. I don’t want to ever have to take the bus again.” He ran back out of the room, a lizard in each hand.

“How the hell did that happen?” Violet asked. “I thought you threw Lizardopolous into the woods?”

“I did,” I said with a laugh. “He must have found his way back home.”

“Now he has two of those awful little things. God.” She started fidgeting with the lunchbox even more. She bunched her lips to the side like she was deep in thought.

It reminded me how she said sometimes she’d get lost inside her mind. I put my hand on top of hers. “It’s fine, I’m sure he’ll take good care of them.”

“It’s not that.” She shook her head. “It’s just…I kind of want to get him a third one now even though I hate them. Three would be better.”

I could feel the stress oozing off of her. The way she was behaving was starting to wear off on me, stressing me out too. “You know what? How about you stay here and relax this morning. I’ll take Zeke to school on the way to work.” I’d offered the other day, but that was before we’d slept together. Surely she trusted me enough now.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I can even pick up another lizard before I come back if you’d like.”

She shook her head. “No, I know that’s ridiculous.”

I didn’t say anything. There were a lot of ridiculous sets of three things in her house, but it didn’t feel like a good time to point it out.

“Were you going to show Damien the pictures of Joel?” she asked. “I want him to believe me too.”

“Yeah, I can show him.”

She removed her hand from beneath mine.

Last night had been great. This morning as well. But something seemed off now. I didn’t know if it was something I did or the stress of there only being two lizards. “I really enjoyed last night, Vi.”

“Me too.” Her cheeks flushed in the sexiest way.

We were good. For at least a few more hours. Until she realized she was a little fast to trust me. I needed to do something grand. Maybe I’d stop and get her some flowers before lunch.

Zeke came running back into the kitchen.

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