Page 71 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

“To tolerate them perhaps. I doubt they’d ever be the same, but that’s the theory, yes.”

“I don’t care about theories. I want to know if you think people can truly change?”

“Inherently?”

She nodded.

“No, not really. In my line of work it’s a little hard to believe in second chances as optimistically as a normal citizen.”

“Right.” She started scratching the inside of her wrist again. “Okay, well have a nice day.” Her voice was oddly high-pitched.

“I feel like you set me up for failure there,” I said with a laugh. “What is all this about?”

“Nothing. We’ll talk later. Just…don’t say anything to Zeke yet.”

I tried to think about how the questions had to do with Zeke. I knew she was referring to not telling Zeke about my relationship with her. But was her question about him too? Was she worried he’d always be bullied? I cleared my throat. “I won’t. And you know what? I want to change my answer from before. I do think people can change. I mean, I was pretty different when I was little.”

“Really?” She looked happy again.

I nodded. “I’ve made mistakes, I’ve grown…yeah, people can change.”

The exhale that escaped her lips sounded like it held the weight of the world. “Yeah. People can definitely change.”

“Zeke’s going to be fine, I promise.”

“Zeke?” She started scratching her wrist again. “Right, Zeke. I’m going to go take that nap.” She leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Okay.” It wasn’t awkward when she left me standing there this time. But for some reason I still felt like I had just fucked something up. I shook my head and walked outside, closing the door behind me.

Zeke was standing by my car eating a cookie. He looked up as I made my way over. “We’re going to be late. We should probably use the siren.”

I laughed and unlocked the car doors. “I wasn’t lying to get out of using them. I meant I actually don’t have them.

We both climbed into the car.

“Oh.” He stared at the dashboard. “But what does that do?” He pointed to the volume button.

“Ejector seats. So make sure to buckle up.”

His eyes grew round. “Really?”

I nodded.

He immediately buckled his seatbelt. His feet didn’t reach the floor and he was kicking his heels against the seat. He probably should have been sitting in the back, but he looked so excited to be up front. I’d drive slowly.

Before I even pulled onto the main road he started firing questions at me.

“Do you like arresting people?”

“I like catching bad guys.”

He nodded. “W

hat about bad girls?”

I laughed. “Being bad has no gender.” I turned onto the main road.

“Have you ever arrested someone you wished you didn’t have to?”

---