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Sounds—fun?” Gracie’s voice trailed off and got muffled.
    “Wait! Are you talking to me from inside Jake’s mouth?” I rolled my eyes, even though I knew she couldn’t see me.
    “Yes, she is, Becki.” Jake’s voice always made me smile.
    “Hi, jerk.”
    “Nice.”
    “I’m kidding, Jake. You know I love you.”
    “Yeah. Yeah. I’ll let you two ladies alone. I’m gonna go have half a pig with my chicken embryos.”
    “GROSS!” That thought actually made my stomach churn.
    “Ha! That was for calling me a jerk, Veg-head!” Jake he howled with laughter.
    “Why does he say that like it’s an insult?” I giggled. “So, Gracie, any news about Noah and the guys?”
    “Yeah, Detective Peterson called yesterday. They’re going to need Ashley, Chelsea, and me to testify… and they will be using the DVD as evidence. Oh, Becki, I wish you were here. Dammit, I miss you.” I heard a sniffle, and I knew this was probably the worst possible time for her to have to give up her best friend.
    “I miss you, too. A lot! You’re going to keep hanging with Sylvia through all this, right?”
    “Yeah. I will probably hang with her until she dies of old age. It’s hard, Becki, because I feel guilty for some of the stuff I’ve talked about with her.” She turned her volume down to a whisper. “It’s stuff that I wouldn’t ever tell Jake. Not because I want to keep secrets, but it’s just stuff about Noah did to me that he doesn’t need imagery for, ya know?”
    “But that’s all the shit you gotta work through and get out of your head, so you can lessen all those triggers, and, it would do Jake no good to know those things.” I sat up and leaned against the slotted headboard that was bolted to the wall and closed my eyes.
    “Wow. You sound like you’ve been talking to Sylvia, too.”
    “Yeah, we hang out. She’s a wild one, Gracie.”
    “Dork!” She giggled, and I felt the bed shift under me. My eyes darted to the end of the bed.
    “Hey.” Calon’s sultry voice folded around me.
    “Was that Calon?” Gracie’s voice was so shrill it stung my eardrum. I loved that she and Calon had such a cool relationship. Gracie was the only human I would trust to be so close to someone I was so into.
    “Sure was.” I put my hand over the end of my phone and whispered to him, “How’d you get in here so quietly? I didn’t even hear you.” He just wiggled his eyebrows and climbed up the bed toward me.
    “Hi, Gracie! We miss you!” Calon spoke in a sing songy voice near my phone, but his lips were barely an inch from mine. His breath smelled like coffee, and his hair tickled my forehead.
    “I miss you guys, too. But, I’m gonna let you go. I… uh… I need to go eat with the guys.” I knew she was lying. I knew she figured that Calon and I were finally alone with a bed, and she wanted to let me have at it.
    “Bye, Gracie. Talk soon!” It was hard to hang up. I really missed her.
    “Geez, Becki. Hang up already! Go!” Yep, she knew what I was hoping would soon go down.
    I ended the call and put my phone on the side table between the beds, then slid down so I was lying under Calon’s lion-on-the-prowl stance.
    “Hi.” His deep voice, those eyes. My God, those eyes. He lowered his head and rubbed my nose with his.
    “Hi.” I could barely speak. Images that would make Hugh Heffner blush ran through my mind at the speed of light.
    “What are you thinking?”
    “Fuck. Calon, that’s totally not fair!”
    Calon burst out laughing and fell onto the bed next to me. He folded his arms under the pillow I’d slept on and propped it up so we were eye to eye.
    “Listen, I’ll let you off the hook this one time. But, that’s just because I’m feeling generous.”
    “Thank the Lord!” I let out a big sigh. “So, did you not go to Greystar?” I wanted to change the subject before he changed his mind, and I’d have to tell him about the X-rated fantasy I was having.
    “Mr. Barnes met us in the lobby,