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The phone rang while I was in the shower Friday nored it As I was reaching out forthrust intothere in his altogether
"Phone&039;s for you," he said, handing me the portable phone from the kitchen He left
I put it to my ear automatically "Hello?" I said weakly I didn&039;t knohat to think about first:me naked, or the whole fact that ere related and naked in the same room
"Sookie? You sound funny," said a faintly faot a surprise," I said "I&039;hed, and it was a warm and friendly sound "This is Remy Savoy, Hunter&039;s dad," he said
Remy had been married to my cousin Hadley, as now dead Their son, Hunter, and I had a connection, a connection that we needed to explore I&039;d beento call Remy to set up a playdate forit off "I hope you&039;re calling to tell ot to work Sunday afternoon, but I have Saturday off To to ask if I could bring hiht"
That was a lot of time to spend with a kid I didn&039;t know; more important, a kid who didn&039;t know ?"
"Yeah My dad&039;s sister died yesterday, and they&039;ve set the funeral for toht I hate to take Hunter to the visitation and the funeralespecially considering, you know, hisprobleht be pretty hard on him You kno it isI can&039;t ever be sure what he&039;ll say"
"I understand" And I did A preschool telepath is tough to be around My parents would have appreciated Remy&039;s predicament "How old is Hunter now?"
"Five, just had a birthday I orried about the party, but we got through that okay"
I took a deep breath I&039;d told him I&039;d help out with Hunter&039;s probleht"
"Thanks I et off work today That okay? We&039;ll be there about five thirty?"
I would get off work between five and six, depending on ave Remy my cell number "If I&039;m not home, call my cell I&039;ll be back here as soon as I can What does he like to eat?"
We talked about Hunter&039;s routine for a fewup By then, I was dry, butin damp rattails After a few minutes with the blow-dryer, I set off to talk to Claude once I was securely dressed in my work clothes
"Claude!" I yelled from the bottom of the stairs
"Yes?" He sounded totally unconcerned
"Come down here!"
He appeared at the head of the stairs, his hairbrush in his hand "Yes, Cousin?"
"Claude, the answering machine would have picked up the phone call Please don&039;t co, and especially don&039;t co!" I would definitely employ the door lock from now on I didn&039;t think I&039;d ever used it before
"Are you a prude?" He seeenuinely curious
"No!" But after a second, I said, "But et to decide who sees , you have beautiful points"
I thought the top of my head would pop off "I didn&039;t expect this when I told you that you could stay with me You like men"
"Oh, yes, I definitely prefer men But I can appreciate beauty I have visited the other side of the fence"
"I probably wouldn&039;t have let you stay here if I&039;d known that," I said
Claude shrugged, as if to say, "Wasn&039;t I smart to keep it from you, then?"
"Listen," I said, and then stopped, because I was rattled NoClaude nakedWell, your first reaction wouldn&039;t be rage, either "I&039;s, and I want you to takeonly politely attentive
"Number one I have a boyfriend, and he&039;s a va on hiuys nakedinof twoeys of all sorts "If you can&039;t respect that, you need to leave, and you&039;ll just have to cry all the way hoht, a little kid I&039;, and you better act appropriate around hi down?"
"No nudity, be nice to the huht"
"Is the child yours?"
"If he werehim, you can bet your hter of irlfriend of Sophie-Anne You know, the former queen? And she became a vampire, eventually This little boy, Hunter, is the son Hadley had before all that happened to her His dad&039;s bringing him by" Was Claude related to Hadley? Yes, of course, and therefore to Hunter I pointed that out
"I like children," Claude told me "I&039;ll behave And I&039; contrite
"Funny, you don&039;t look sorry At all"
"I&039; a wicked s away to complete my bathroom routine alone and unobserved
I&039;d calht, Claude has probably seen a gazillion people naked in his ti deal The fact that Claude and I were distantly related - randfather - wouldn&039;t make any difference to him; in fact, it wouldn&039;t make any difference todeal When I hit a slow tie to tell hiht "If you can coreat, but I wanted you to know ahead of time that someone else will be here," I told the voice mail Hunter would ht about ot to tell you so to like it e ti what I would&039;ve said next
The tracker, Heidi, was supposed to arrive in Bon Teht It seemed like a year since Eric had decided to send her over to check ht of her arrival Would Re the funeral was so bad, if he kneho else was dropping bythe child at risk?
No, it was paranoid to think so Heidi was coling worry by the ti to leave Merlotte&039;s Kennedy had arrived to work for Sairl, Jannalynn, to the casinos in Shreveport and out to dinner I hoped she was real good to Sa herself in front of the ht loss I looked down at hs Jannalynn was really, really slienerous with me in the bosom department, but Jannalynn was the possessor of little apricotlike boobs she showed off by wearing bustiers and tank tops with no bra She gave herself so fantastic footwear I earing Keds I sighed
"Have a nice night!" Kennedy told ledsood manners had to be put on But I knew Kennedy was sincere She&039;d been trained by her pageant-queen ood word on her lips I had to hand it to her; Danny Prideaux didn&039;t faze Kennedy at all, and I felt like he&039;d ht up to expect the world to beat hier to me to second Kennedy&039;s farewell He had a Coke in front of him, because Danny didn&039;t drink on duty He seemed content to play Mario Kart on his Nintendo DS, or to simply sit at the bar and watch Kennedy work
On the other hand, lots ofwith Kennedy since she&039;d served tihter Solad Sam had stepped up for her It&039;s not that I approve ofto be killed, don&039;t they? After all I&039;d been through, I was forced to siot home about five minutes before Reh time to pull off my work clothes, toss them in the hamper, and put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt before Reh the peephole before I opened the door, on the theory that it&039;s better to be safe than sorry
"Hey, Reood-lookingclothes suitable for an evening visitation at a funeral home: khakis, a white-and-brown-striped broadcloth shirt, polished loafers He&039;d looked more co the first tirown since I&039;d seen him last He had dark hair and eyes like his mother, Hadley, but it was too early to say who he&039;d favor when he grew up
I squatted down and said, Hi, Hunter I didn&039;t say anything out loud, but I sotten His face lit up Aunt Sookie! he said Pleasure ran through his head, pleasure and excitehed
"You gonna show it to et you settled"
"Thanks, Sookie," Remy said
"Do I look like my mama, Dad?" Hunter asked
"Why?" Remy was startled
"That&039;s what Aunt Sookie says"
Remy was used to little shocks like this by now, and he kneould only get worse "Yes, you look like your ," Re irl," Hunter said doubtfully
You don&039;t "Not a bit," I said "Hunter, your rooht here" I indicated the open doorway "I used to sleep in this room when I was a kid," I said
Hunter looked around, alert and cautious But the loin bed with its white bedspread and the old furniture and the worn rug by the bed were all hoht here, across the hall," I told hi the door toOr you can coht"
Re his son absorb all this I didn&039;t kno often the little boy had spent the night away fro up from the boy&039;s head
"The bathroom&039;s the next door down from your room, see?" I pointed in He looked into the old-fashioned roo open
"I know it looks different frohts "This is an old house, Hunter" The claw-foot tub and the black-and-white tiles were not what you saw in the rental houses and apartments Remy and Hunter had lived in since Katrina
"What&039;s upstairs?" Hunter asked
"Well, a cousin of ht now, and he comes in so late you o up there and look around?
Maybe toether I&039;ll show you the roolanced up to see that Re from Hunter to me, and he didn&039;t knohether to be relieved or worried that I could talk to his son in a way he could not
"Reot easier I know this is going to be tough, but at least Hunter is a bright boy with a sound body His little problehtforward than ood way to look at it" But Remy&039;s worry didn&039;t diminish
"You want a drink?" I said, not sure what to do with Remy now Hunter had asked , and I&039;d told hi was fine with me He&039;d already unloaded a little backpack full of toys onto the bedroo"
It was unpleasant to realize that I spooked Reht need ht I was a pretty woave him the creeps "Is the visitation in Red Ditch?" I asked That was the tohere Remy and Hunter lived It was about an hour and a quarter&039;s drive southeast from Bon Temps
"No, in Homer So this is kind of on the way If you run into any problems, just call my cell and I can come pick hiht in Hoo to the funeral at ten tomorrow, stay for the lunch at my cousin&039;s home afterward, and pick Hunter up later in the afternoon, if that suits you"
"We&039;ll be fine," I said, which was sheer bravado on my part I hadn&039;t taken care of kids since I&039;d sat with&039;uns, way back when I didn&039;t want to think about that; friendships that end bitterly are always sad Those kids probably hated ot videos we can watch, and a puzzle or two, and even so around like he expected to see a Toys "R" Us
"You say good-bye to your daddy, and we&039;ll go looking for the a casual hand at Re, champ?"
Hunter held up his arled Remy smiled over the child&039;s shoulder "That&039;s ood for your aunt Sookie Don&039;t forget your manners I&039;ll see you tomorrow" He put Hunter down
"Okay," Hunter said, quitefuss, since he&039;d never been away frolanced atat hiood reaction
I wondered how long Hunter&039;s calm acceptance would last Hunter looked up at me "I&039;ll be okay," he said, and I realized he was reading h I&039;d had this experience before, it had been filtered through an adult&039;s sensibility, and we&039;d had the fun of experi our telepathy to see what happened Hunter wasn&039;t filtering and rearranging ain, Re books It turned out that Hunter liked to colorelse in the world I settled him at the table in the kitchen and turned my attention to supper preparation I could have cooked athat required little attention would be best the first tier Helper? I asked silently He looked up, and I showed hi the picture He seemed to turn all his attention back to the turtle and butterfly scene he was coloring The turtle was green and brown, approved turtle colors, but Hunter had gone to town on the butterfly It was reenand he hadn&039;t finished it yet I noted that staying in the lines was not Hunter&039;s er Helper, he told irlfriend Remy had told me he and Kristen had broken up over her inability to accept Hunter&039;s special gift Not so surprisingly, Kristen had coht I was a weird kid, too Though I understood that now, at the time it had been painful She was scared of me, Hunter said, and he looked up for a second I could understand that look
She just didn&039;t understand, I said There aren&039;t many people like us
Auy He&039;s a grown-up He lives in Texas