Mr. Perfect (Sinister in Savannah #2) - Aimee Nicole Walker Page 0,1

most. Irrationally so, since he’d told Jude on graduation day to never speak his name again, let alone talk directly to him.

Ree’s sigh was as thick as the humid June air hovering over his beloved city. Felix knew what she was going to say, or at least what she wanted to say. Holding on to his grudges seemed unhealthy to her, but they fueled Felix to push harder, kept him hungry and in fighting form. Felix never again wanted to be the butt of anyone’s jokes, or the emotional punching bag for bullies, and he refused to spend another day in poverty.

He might not be wealthy, but Felix was far removed from the always-hungry kid with the hand-me-down clothes from Goodwill. Some days it felt like his childhood was a different lifetime ago or had belonged to someone else entirely. Whenever he started to forget, Felix made himself remember by pulling out his school photo from second grade. Staring at his hollow eyes in the gaunt, dirty face would ground him.

Felix remembered getting himself ready for school as best he could without running water, food, or clean clothes. Hell, sometimes they didn’t even have electricity. Even if his mother had stayed sober long enough to buy food with her monthly stipend, it would often spoil when the power company disconnected their service for delinquent payments.

On that picture day, he’d picked his favorite shirt up off the floor and put it on, even though he’d worn it the day before and knew his classmates would tease him mercilessly. Felix had held his head high and pretended their barbs hadn’t landed.

The scrawny kid with the haunted eyes wasn’t the only thing Felix noticed when he looked at the old photo. He saw determination in the straight posture and squared shoulders. He’d wielded that fortitude like a shield, deflecting as many jabs and poisonous barbs as possible. His strategy worked. Most of the bullies had lost interest in picking on a kid who hadn’t given them the reaction they’d wanted. Todd Dartmouth was the only one who’d made it his personal mission to singlehandedly destroy Felix’s spirit, but he never could. Not on picture day in elementary school when he’d teased Felix about the shirt. Not in high school when Todd recognized the jeans Felix wore were a pair Todd’s mother had donated to Goodwill when the knees started to wear too thin. Not ever.

“I know, Ree,” Felix finally said. Because he did. There had to be healthier ways to stay hungry than clinging to the most hurtful times in his life. “Enough about me. My life is as boring as watching paint dry.”

“You and your podcast friends were interviewed on Good Morning America. You find that boring?”

“No,” Felix said. He loved every aspect of producing Sinister in Savannah. As much as he loved the content, his favorite part was the brotherhood he’d formed with Rocky and Jonah.

“The podcast is going great, and ‘Ride the Lightning’s’ success has blown us away,” Felix said. The story of the 1982 murder of a drag queen and the coerced confession that followed thirteen years later had become an overnight sensation.

“But?” Ree prompted

“Something is off or missing. I can’t quite put a finger on it.”

“Maybe you need to get laid.”

Felix was in the middle of a particularly lengthy dry spell. Was that it? “Or maybe a man turns thirty-five and starts seeing the world differently.”

“Is your biological clock ticking too?” Ree teased. She and her husband, Stephen, had been trying to get pregnant for over a year. The last time they’d spoken, Ree mentioned looking into fertility specialists and adoption.

“That’s all you, gorgeous. Have you and Stephen reached a decision?”

“We have,” she said after a pause. “I know people think we’re crazy, but we decided to seek help from a fertility specialist.”

“Why would anyone fault you for doing everything you can to become pregnant? Whose business is it anyway?”

“Our families are just worried about the expense,” Ree replied.

“Are you asking them to pay for it?”

Ree laughed. “Of course not, but we will have to take money out of our retirement accounts, or refinance the house, and there are no guarantees it will work.”

“It definitely won’t work if you don’t try. I could lend you the money,” Felix offered.

“I love you with all my heart for offering, but I can’t accept. You have no idea how much money I’m talking about,” Ree said. “I won’t even know how expensive it will be until after Stephen and I have