Page 33 of You Can Make Me
I pressed a hand to my chest, praying I wasn’t dreaming, that he was actually here, touching me, in front of our friends like it was no big deal.
God, why had I been so stupid? I could have had him all this time.
“Anyway, before we were so rudely interrupted,” Sam said, pretending to be annoyed with Gene before she moved closer to him and turned, presenting him with her shoulders. He got to work massaging them, as if he knew better than to protest. “I know you, Cooper. You process stuff through your work. Maybe one of the ideas on my list will pop out at you.”
Gene snorted, and she barely acknowledged him. I loved their relationship. They’d met shortly after her and I startedworking together, and I’d been very protective of her. I worried what dating a cop would mean for her stress levels, but she had no chance. Gene Ochoa was an unrepentant flirt and charmer. However, once they were serious—and he stopped flirting withme—he forged a campaign for her affections that anyone else would have lost.
The good news was that he was just as good a husband as he’d been a pursuer, thank goodness, and though we bickered, I loved them together.
I’d often wished for someone to pursue me with as much gusto, and then Denny came along. He navigated our courtship head-on, like mastering the process was equally as important to him as winning my affection. He was so careful to do everything right. Strategic. I’d wondered how much of that had to do with his previous marriages. He’d told me the basics and I hadn’t wanted to pry, not until after Austin. I’d been ready to go there…and then I’d foolishly thought he’d changed his mind.
“So the question is whether you’re ready to tackle a story that relates to your assault, or if you’d rather take the focus away?—”
“Sam,” Dennis said, his brow furrowed.
I sat up and shook my head. “It’s okay. We’re just brainstorming.” I smiled at him, and I knew I’d have to reassure him later. “Sam’s right. A lot of my special reports were spawned from things that happened to and around me.” I turned back to Gene. “I do need to face it. I need to know exactly what happened. I was actually wondering about Dee Dee. Do you think he’d talk to me about the carnival? He mentioned it in his interview.”
Denny’s hands stopped moving on my feet.
He and Gene exchanged looks.
“Carnival?” Gene had his cop face on.
“Oh, you mean the one him and Kal worked at?” Sam asked. “I’ve been bugging Walter and this one to bring Dee Dee over. I’dlove to meet him. That would be an interesting story. You don’t hear much about folks working for years at a traveling carnival anymore.” Sam laughed. “They’re usually creepy and rickety and set up in low-income neighborhoods to rob the poor people blind from expensive admission and food. I also remember reading about the prevalence of drugs at those places. Didn’t you guys bust a drug ring once that was operating out of a carnival?”
Gene looked at Denny again, and some unspoken conversation went on between them.
“Something like that,” Gene finally said. “I don’t know if he’d want to talk?—”
“Oh! I just remembered something else I wanted to ask you.” I startled them with my outburst. “Didn’t Dee Dee have a Ouija board at the house? I’ve been so fuzzy on that day, but I just remembered Dee Dee and that blond man with a Ouija board. Denny?”
He looked down and went back to rubbing my feet. “Yeah, they had a board.”
Neither he nor Gene said anything else.
Sam and I eyed each other. Weird. It wasn’t the first time we’d pestered Gene about something for a story, but he usually told us he couldn’t comment, or he’d goof around to get us off topic. It usually worked, too.Jerk. I sometimes wondered if he didn’t have a little bit of whatever the Filipino version of a trickster god was, or some brand of fae in him.
“That was kind of wild. I thought folks only used those things in horror movies these days. I’m curious. Do you think it has something to do with their work at the carnival?”
Denny turned to give me what I could only describe as a pleading look. “I don’t know that they’ll want to discuss it.”
“But Denny! This could be a good story. I know you’re not into woo-woo stuff,” Sam said. She finished a brownie and reached for a second, and as much as I’d wanted to try one—maybe they’d help me sleep better or take the edge off my pain—I didn’t want to take the chance they’d make me feel woozy.
“Who says I’m against woo-woo? Just because I teased you about your raking class?—”
“Reiki, Denny, and it’s powerful stuff.”
“—or whatever it was, doesn’t mean I don’t have an open mind.”
Gene snorted at Denny’s comment and shook his head.
Denny’s eyebrows went up. “Fuck off, Ochoa. I went with Walt Senior to see his psychic. Saw her a couple of times, actually. He believed she was helpful. And I told you about those old ladies.”
“Old ladies?” I asked.
Something flickered in his face, almost as if he hadn’t meant to say anything, but then he continued. “In Laurel Canyon. I keep that Magic 8 Ball they gave me for luck. And I even smudged this place before I brought Cooper out here, what do you think of that?”
This time, Gene’s eyesdidbug out. “Now you’re queerandwitchy? Damn, you think you know a guy.”
