Page 66 of You Can Make Me
Walter showed us into a guest room, where he laid out extra swim trunks on the bed and left us to change.
“I can’t— I’m not ready. I know they’re your friends…”
Denny stripped out of his clothes and reached for a pair of black trunks. “Woo, these are kinda small, but those look even smaller.” He pulled up the Daniel-Craig-as-James-Bond type that hugged his ass and thighs so well, my tongue practicallylolled on the floor. But it wasn’t enough to erase my near-panic at being mostly naked around his friends.
“Denny?”
“You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with, but I think it would be good for you. Trust me on that. If you don’t want to swim, come outside and sit with us in your clothes.”
“Denny—who is he? Who is that man?”
“That’s for him to tell you. There’re things I haven’t been able to share with you. It’s been so hard, and I worried it blurred our honest-always policy. I need you to talk to him. Listen to what he has to say. I promise, it will all make sense.” He stepped close and put his hands on my face. “Please trust me, baby. I would never do anything to hurt you. I would neverletanyone hurt you.”
“I know you wouldn’t,” I said, but as I spoke, I wasn’t as certain as I should have been. There were things he hadn’t told me? Not that I expected him to have told me every single detail while we were getting reacquainted, but something big was going on here, and I didn’t like not feeling in control.
I kicked off my shoes and shoved down my slacks with a huff. Denny watched me with his brow furrowed, and the helplessness I’d seen in his eyes back at the cabin made a showing once more. Had he walked me into a trap? Not one that would hurt me, but that would force me to face demons I wasn’t yet ready to tackle?
I yanked down my boxer briefs and snatched the swim trunks out of Denny’s hand, kind of rough actually, and the move surprised him. Surprised us both. It broke the tension, and we laughed at my outburst.
“Fine, but I’m leaving my shirt on. And you walk in front of me.”
“Yes, sir,” Denny murmured. “I kinda like taking orders from you.”
I pinched his ass hard, and he yelped so loud it echoed off the walls in the great room as we passed through.
“Okay there, Hamilton?” Walter grinned at Denny from his place in the deep end of the pool on a giant floating flamingo.
“I guess, jeez.”
“I’m sure you deserved it.” Walter splashed Denny, who retaliated by jumping in the pool feet first in Walter’s direction, dousing him and knocking him off his perch.
“I love the way they are with each other. They’re like teenaged boys but not as obnoxious.”
I turned to laugh with Dee Dee—but my breath caught.
He stood in the doorway behind me in a Speedo, with the light behind him bright and the patio light shining on him from the front.
He looked like me.
Those scars.
Deep, thick ropes stood up from the surface of his skin on his thighs and arms in almost identical spots to mine, but it was as if his cuts had been left untreated, not stitched up neatly in a sterile environment by plastic surgeons like mine had been.
“Like looking in the mirror, huh?” He gave me a sad smile, then walked past me.
I gasped when I saw there were more on his backside. He hopped into the pool, went under the water and popped up in front of Walter.
When I could finally move, I shuffled closer to the water. I’d worn a long-sleeved linen shirt, and I left it on as I sat at the edge of the pool and put my feet in.
Dane whispered something to Walter, kissed him, and then swam over toward me. He sat on one of the steps leading into the pool and moved his arms back and forth in the water. I couldn’t stop staring at his wounds.
I was bursting with questions, but I wanted to let this man explain himself.
“I know what happened to you.” He gazed at me with such profound sadness in his eyes. “When I found you, when I realized it was you, my heart broke, man. Your attack was one more failure. I’d left the carnival to stop Hunter Holland from hurting anyone else, but I wasn’t fast enough. He killed Chris Gilman, then Jordan Rhoads, and he nearly killed you before he killed himself, and I couldn’t stop him.”
“It’s not your fault, Dee Dee,” I said, though I wondered if I should call him that. “I shouldn’t have been there. I should have listened to Gene.”
“Hunter Holland came for me at my place of work. What I did, my job at the carnival, involved a bit of scrying, a little psychic phenomenon, some consulting with oracles, but then…you know a little about that.”
