Reindeer Games
Epilogue
“Hey, Nicky.”
Nick Masers smiled. “You know I hate it when you call me that.”
“No, you only hate it because you think it means I’m going to ask you to do something.”
“Well, there is that,” Nick allowed. “So which is it?”
“Which is what?”
“Are you here to ask me to do something or not?”
“That’s a good question,” Carol said.
“And I notice it’s a question you didn’t bother to answer.”
“I notice you’ve been messing around with my boyfriend,” Carol said.
“Yeah, and you’ve been messing around with my girlfriend.”
“Only after you started messing around with my boyfriend first.”
Nick was about to say something and then he thought better of it. “Yeah well, you’ve got a point there.”
“I’m here to suggest we call a truce.”
“Why?”
Carol didn’t want to say why. She didn’t want to have to be the one to have to admit she wanted her husband back. She wanted him to come back on his own.
Nick looked at his wife. His ex really, but it was still hard to think of her that way. It was kind of exciting and a little bit terrifying. He was used to being able to read other people’s minds, to know what they thought and what they felt, to make them do what he wanted them to do. He was used to having that kind of control but he didn’t have that here. He couldn’t control his wife. Heck, he couldn’t even know what she was thinking. “Why?” he asked again.
“I’m not dating Kris,” Carol said.
“Ah. Found another boyfriend then?”
Carol shook her head. “I’m not dating anyone.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m just not.”
Nick looked at his wife. Anyone else, he would have just looked in their minds and found out why for himself. Anyone else, he wouldn’t have had to ask why. Problem was Carol wasn’t anyone else and this just sucked not knowing what he didn’t know. He wasn’t even good at reading expressions because he’d never had to do it so he was stuck doing the only thing he could think of to do. “Why? he asked again.
“Nick,” Carol said in a harried tone.
Nick looked at his wife. “Something’s wrong,” he said.
“Nothing’s wrong,” she said in exasperation.
“Yeah right.” He was going on intuition and he fucking hated it. How the hell did normal people live this way? This fucking sucked but he was sure he was right. Something was wrong.
Carol said nothing. No quips. No sharp retorts. Nothing.
“Okay,” he said. “You win. Nothing’s wrong because that’s what you say, so now, how can I help?”
“I ... I’m pregnant.”
Nick felt a knot form in his stomach. “What? With him? With Krissy Poo? You’re pregnant with him?”
It was the first time in a while that Nick had seen his wife look like her old self. “What? Do you think I’m stupid? Let a norm get me pregnant. You’re crazy if you’d think I’d do that?
“Then ... wait a minute ... do you mean it’s mine?”
“Ours actually.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, so you can see why I need you back. Raising a kid is hard enough as it is or at least that’s what they say. A telepath kid has to be ten times worse.”
“More like a hundred times worse if he’s our kid.”
“Yeah, so you see why I need you.”
“So you don’t really need me for me,” replied a disgruntled Nick.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that exactly.”
“No?”
Carol smiled a quirky smile. “Well, it’s always been fun when we’ve fought. I’ll admit it. I’ve had some fun toying around with that little dolly of yours.”
Nick smiled, too. “Me too with your little boy toy.”
“But now we have to work together.”
“Hmm. Speaking of Krissy Poo and Holly, what should we do with them?”
“They’re good kids. I say we give them to each other.”
Nick nodded. “I like it. Which leaves us with only one question.”
“Only one? What’s that?”
“What should we name the kid?”
Carol smiled. “I thought you were going to ask me something hard. We’ve already got the perfect name.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s call him Rudolph.”