Err on the Side of Violence: Terribly Acronymed Detective Club Series (Book 3)

Chapter Fifteen: Joe, Summer, 1979

"Joe, can I talk to you?" Rachel asked him one day while they were picking beans together. Lauren didn't join them today, but she did on other days, and he enjoyed knowing she was there because she wanted to be near him, not that she necessarily wanted to make money like Rachel did. She was currently in a counselling session with Al's dad, who was a child psychologist, but she said she might see them later.

After the harrowing events of a few weeks ago, when the Lawrence Street Detective Club had broken into the Trybek house to rescue Rachel, the grown-ups had determined the event must have been traumatic for them, and that talking their feelings out to a professional might do them some good. Joe had had a session with Mr. Mackenzie and hadn't gotten anything out of it, himself, but he didn't think he'd been that traumatized. Not like poor Rachel. Something bad had happened to her, something he didn't know how to describe, but when Joe had pushed over Mr. Trybek after Lauren had cut him with her grandfather's sword, and he'd climbed over him into the living room, he'd noticed Rachel tugging on her shorts, and wondered if they'd been pulled down, and why they would be pulled down there in the living room and not in the bathroom, where she would pull them down to use the toilet. It made him blush in the same way as the thought of Francis O'Rourke trying to touch Rachel's boob made him blush, and he suspected the two events had a connection, just like the hug from Lauren and the swelling in his pants had a connection. He couldn't ask anyone what that connection might be, because he was too embarrassed, and he didn't think his parents would tell him, and he thought Johnny would just tease him if he asked.

Lauren had needed more than one session, apparently. She'd injured Mr. Trybek pretty badly. She'd cut his... Joe couldn't even think about it. Thinking about it would cause the exact opposite of the swelling in his pants, if such a thing were possible. The grown-ups must have thought she needed closer examination than the rest of them, in case she ever felt the urge to hurt someone like that again. Joe thought that was preposterous. Lauren would never purposefully hurt anyone she cared about. She was just defending her friends, and he didn't even think she meant to cut off Mr. Trybek's... he still couldn't think about it.

"Sure, what is it?" he asked.

Rachel looked around to make sure no one was close by to hear them, and kept picking as she spoke. "Look, we're friends, right?"

"Of course we are."

"And as friends, we shouldn't keep secrets from each other, right?"

"Uh..."

"I just want to make sure you know something before it gets out of hand and you can't back out of it."

Joe stopped picking and looked at her. "What are you talking about, Rachel?"

She sighed in frustration. "Sorry, I'm not saying it right. Look, Lauren has the hots for you, okay? I just wanted to warn you."

Joe smiled. Why was Rachel saying it like it was a bad thing? "Yeah, I know."

Rachel blinked in surprise. "You do?"

"Sure."

"And you're okay with that?"

"Of course I am. I like her too. I've had a crush on her for a while, since last Halloween, actually."

She stood blinking at him for a moment. "Oh. Okay," she said.

"Why were you making such a big deal about it, like I should be scared or something?"

Now she looked sheepish. "I don't know, it's just, she's really into you, she talks about you all the time, and she even..."

Suddenly she blushed, and Joe wondered what she was going to say, and if she couldn't say it because it was something naughty, and to his horror he felt the swelling in his pants again.