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I stepped away, unwilling to taint this beautiful moment with fist pumps and whoops of success no matter how badly I wanted to celebrate that sood no matter how small

Dixie had really put Reyes to work He was busy rearranging her office, the hussy, and I worried about his wound About his darkness And about the kiss I’d given him Was he really frozen in time like everyone else? Was it all just an act? I would die if it was I’d crawl under the table and wither away I’d professed ly lairl’s day Cookie would understand She was psychic, after all Surely I could tell her about ifts Surely she could help advise me on what to do with Mr V With his family With Reyes

I mean, I knehat I wanted to do with Reyes, but maybe she would knohat he was

Please don’t be evil Please don’t be evil Please don’t be evil

Thankfully, the cops hadn’t taken s to see how much I could spend and howto buy itself – and found the hundred nestled a to break it, but realized it had writing on the other side Soht I could barely read it, so I raised it to the sun streaain

There, written in French, were the words Je t’ai aimée pendant ain Je t’ai aimée pendant mille et un –R

I’ve loved you for a thousand and one –R

I spun around, rushed back to Dixie’s office, but he was gone

12

Signs you drink too much coffee:

Your eyes stay open when you sneeze

--INTERNET MEME

Cookie and I did get pedicures and h She’d insisted I wasn’t sure I’d ever had one, but I knew da to becoht have to wait Apparently I was made to be pampered

After my toenails turned a pretty shade of Mocha, which bizarrely matched Reyes’s eyes, we drove to the Rockefellerout there for teeks, but thethe year Thankfully, Cookie got us on a list, and when the caretakers were giving a special tour to a group of third graders, they’d called and invited us to join them

Cookie was a little worried about the kids, but they were third graders I assured her I could take the as they didn’t gang up on us, ere good

The mansion itself, a National Historic Land The Rockefellers had completed construction of Kykuit – Dutch for "lookout" – in 1913 Sitting north of Sleepy Hollow, it was a sprawling, forty-rooardens Every room we entered wrenched a tiny reat Besides a few odd looks, and one kid infor me that he kne to satisfy a worade? – we had a wonderful tis and artwork

"I have to start saving my tips," I told Cookie "I want this" I raised usto of inspiration

"You want this bathroom?" she asked ood decorator He could make your bathrooht? This would rock, but I’m not sure it’s really your style"

"Why not? You think I don’t have enough blue blood?"

She crinkled her nose in thought "I think you don’t have enough of a coance I heard that John D Rockefeller Jr built it only because his brother built a 240-rooreed with you if not for the pedicure"