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Pixie giggled. “You’ve got one wild imagination, Julie. I’m sure Skeeter hasn’t spared a thought for me in years.” She tapped the table. “Now let’s move on to more interesting topics, shall we? Have you picked up any new coloring books lately?” Pixie knew that Julie and her husband had taken a trip to the Boston area the previous weekend to check out antique stores.
It was the right thing to say for distraction. Julie immediately bit.
“You know I’ve been trying to expand mycorporatecollection,” Julie answered excitedly. “And I actually found an old GE, ‘Welcome to New Employees’ coloring book from 1963.”
“Ooh! That’s an awesome find,” Pixie gushed. “I don’t even want to hear how much it set you back.”
“Phht. You know I don’t spend any more than twenty dollars on anything, unless it’s super rare. This one was a steal at $15.99.”
They spent the rest of the hour talking their possible garage-sale trajectory for some weekend soon. With good weather upon them, and with luck, there would be many goodies to be found locally.
They both stood up at the same time, wrapping things up.
“I guess our plans are contingent on when you’ll be hanging out with your new bestie, Doug,” Julie teased.
Pixie prodded her sassy friend right back. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe he’d like to join us? He looks like just the type of guy who’d enjoy a good coloring book hunt.”
“Hah,” Julie countered. “Not everybody is as understanding as my husband.” She chortled. “But I—” She stopped dead, her face taking on a hard cast as she stared out the window over Pixie’s shoulder. “Pix?”
“What’s the matter Julie?”
Her friend had gone from joking to stony in the blink of an eye.
“What kind of car did you say that Harlan character drives?”
“A rusted out white Chevy Impala. Why?”
“Don’t look now, but he’s sitting in his car across the street, watching us.”
Pixie’s mouth went dry. “Seriously? How do you know he’s not just…going to the hardware store or something?”
“Because he’s not making any bones about having his eyes glued to you.”
“Well, shit.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It had been a long day for Doug. After the SWAT intervention, he and Maria had spent some time with the little girl, Melody, buying her ice cream and assuring her everything would be okay before delivering her to Social Services. The people there they knew and trusted would keep her safe until she was cleared by the agency to go to her grandparents—who had already been vetted and given the green light by MECASA.
Then he’d had to debrief with Mason.
Doug had figured that was going to be a shitload of fun.Not.
Without much prompting, Doug felt compelled to reveal his year-long involvement with MECASA, and also spilled about his ongoing therapy—a fact known previously only to his relatives, Mason’s wife Everlee, and the team’s psychologist, Dr. Travisi.
Mason didn’t press him on details regarding either of those two things, obviously figuring if Travisi had cleared him for SWAT, he was okay. But holding back the rest of what rattled around in Doug’s head, suddenly bugged the crap out of him, and he found himself sucking it up and explaining a slice of his past to Mase.
Doug realized the conversation was only taking place because he’d already promised Talia some details about whatmade him the closed off bastard he was. And once it got that far, there was no doubt she’d share with Pixie and a few other close friends, and before he knew it, his old story would have come out all over the place, anyway. Hence, the heads’ up to Mason.
Before he could talk himself out of it, Doug revealed the same parts of his back-story that he’d decided to share with Talia. That his mother had gained custody of him when he was ten, proceeding to abuse the hell out of him for the next four years. He hadn’t gone into delicate details, but Mason was smart. Doug was sure he’d read between the lines.
And the man’s response?
Empathy.
Doug never used that word lightly, but it was the only one he could come up with.
Mason not only listened and growled over some of the lesser details Doug shared, but after Doug finished, Mase had blown his mind. He told Doug that if he needed to take a few days off to decompress from the morning’s events, oranyop from this point moving forward that triggered him, he’d make sure to take Doug off the “call list”.
