No Good Deed - Marie Sexton Page 0,88

knife or a razor blade.

It was a momentous victory.

Phil and River arrived shortly afterward. Phil rang the bell, as predicted, but River knew to come right in. He fussed over Duke even more than Taylor. He sat in the grass, scratching Duke’s neck, talking to him in that voice that everybody used with dogs and small children.

“Ever considered a dog?” he asked Phil.

Phil blinked, and Warren had to laugh. He knew Phil well enough to know he was trying to hide the horror that came with that thought. Dogs were hairy. Dogs were messy. They chewed shoes and licked people’s faces. Dogs went against all of Phil’s ruthlessly tidy rules. “Uh…no.”

“We could take a dog camping with us.”

Phil was saved from answering by the arrival of Charlie and Jonas, but Warren had a feeling River would get his way. Phil wouldn’t deny him anything so simple. But Warren wished he could be a fly on the wall for those first few days, just to see how many times Phil freaked out over dog drool.

They all milled around, laying out whatever food they’d brought, checking in with each other. River and Taylor whipped up virgin pineapple daiquiris in the blender. They poured one big portion for Phil before adding a fair amount of rum and passing out glasses. Despite having made the daiquiris, River opted for a beer, along with Warren and Gray. Warren loved the fact that River and Taylor stuck together and had become close friends. As unlikely as it seemed, Avery and Jonas seemed to be growing closer as well.

“The better I know him, the less reason I have to distrust him,” Avery had once said to Taylor. And it seemed to be working.

Sometimes Warren couldn’t believe how well they all worked together. The four subs got along far better than the old group had. There was no rivalry. No jealousy. No bitterness. The only awkwardness came from Gray and Jonas, who were still a bit overly polite around each other, but not enough to make things tough for the rest of them. Given time, Warren knew even that would fade.

Once they’d scarfed down some hamburgers and started on the second or third pitcher of daiquiris, Phil rounded them all up and used the timer on his camera to get a picture of the group. Warren knew they’d all have that photo hanging on their wall before the month ended.

“Okay, come on,” Charlie said. “Somebody make a toast.”

They stood in a rough circle, all of them smiling. All of them finally on the right path. River hung his arm over Taylor’s shoulders. Avery and Jonas stood side by side. They all glanced around, trying to decide who it would be.

“Okay,” River said. “I’ll start.” He lifted his beer. “To new friends.”

Warren lifted his. “To old friends.”

Gray’s turn. “To new beginnings.”

“I like that,” Charlie said. “To fresh starts.”

Phil raised his glass. “To hockey.”

They all turned his way in surprise, some of the laughing. “What?” Warren asked.

Phil shrugged. “It’s playoffs. I had no idea it would be so exciting.”

“Okay,” Gray said, laughing. “To people who I barely recognize anymore, they’ve changed so much.”

“Not the things that matter,” Phil said.

Gray smiled at him, and Warren had a feeling he was missing out an inside joke between them. “No. Not the things that matter.”

“Okay then,” Charlie said. “Here’s to the things that matter.”

“To us,” Warren said. “Here’s to us.”

Everybody raised their drinks to that.

Keep reading for bonus Heretic Doms Club content.

Dear Reader,

Sometimes, things happen behind the scenes.

As a writer, I’m a stickler for point of view. Once I decide which one or two I’m using, I never stray. If I can’t fit some bit of info into the story’s point of view, the reader will never see it.

But I still know.

What you’re about to read aren’t short stories so much as deleted scenes. Or, to be more accurate, scenes that were never written until now because they were the wrong point of view for the original story. For example, in Spare the Rod, Gray drives to Phil’s cabin to tell Phil he’s been in love with him for years. River walks in on them and is understandably suspicious. Phil sends Gray and River to the hockey game together, hoping they’ll talk and make peace, which they do.

As far as Gray knows, that’s the end of it, and therefore that’s all the reader sees. But unbeknownst to Gray, that was definitely not the end of the story for Phil and River. The first