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by Mark"s teammates. All of a sudden, Ken took off, running and playing with them, his feet flying, every bit as subtle and coordinated as his brother"s. I dreamed Mark looked at me like a kid watching a magic act and I was the magician. He was laughing and crying at the same time, pumping his fist in the air, before he took off after his brother like a puppy.
    I"d never seen such joy, or felt happiness like that in my heart, before that dream.
    I woke up crying and got the pillow wet and stained with spit and tears.
    36
    Z. A. Maxfield
    Chapter Six
    I was at Day-Use in the morning before Izzie even pulled up. She drove a tiny car, smaller even than mine, and seemed to take up the whole thing all by herself. She got out and stood up, and it made me think of clowns.
    “You"re here early.” She unlocked the front door of the gym with a rattle of keys.
    “I"ll get you a key; remind me. Then you can open and close if I"m not here.” I thought it was interesting that she"d trust me, an ex-con, with keys. A lot of people wouldn"t. Even if I"d never stolen a thing in my life, and my prison stay hadn"t been for theft, lots of people didn"t think I was trustworthy enough to wash their cars.
    “Thank you.”
    “Thank you ,” she said. “It"ll be good to take a morning off here and there.” She walked to the switches and started turning on the lights. “You can begin with the men"s locker room, and I"ll touch up the women"s.” She wandered off, and we both worked in silence until the first members started coming in. Izzie made a point of introducing me to clients as they came in, reassuring each one that I was competent to answer their questions. She"d adopted me quickly, I thought, almost ruthlessly, as her chief of staff and spokesperson. I actually hoped she knew what she was doing, because I wasn"t nearly as certain as she was that I"d fit in.
    At one point, a group of three men came in. All of them were bearlike. They had dark, bristly hair and big, stocky bodies. They didn"t look related, but looked alike.
    They each had a thick mustache. Izzie came over, and one of them gave her a hard squeeze, his hands just a little south of what I"d consider a friendly hug.
    “Jordan.” She called me over. “These are three of St. Nacho"s finest. Officer Jim Lundgren, Officer Anthony Brios, and Officer Andrew Callahan. Jordan came in yesterday and I hired him on the spot.”
    Physical Therapy
    37
    They looked me over as only cops can. I felt like they could read my rap sheet, like it was hanging in the air over my head in a thought balloon. I held out my hand to shake. The squeezer, Andrew, was the first to take it. “Nice to meet you, Jordan.”
    “Andrew,” I said, giving his hand what I thought was a manly sort of pump.
    “Andy,” Izzie corrected, putting an arm around him and giving him a peck on the cheek. The others shook my hand and were polite but distant.
    “Jordan is a massage therapist and he specializes in therapeutic massage. I think you all ought to give him a try. Work out some of that tight-ass cop tension.” She grinned at them cheekily while I waited for her to be struck by lightning. I never, ever would have talked to one of River Falls"s officers like that. Not even Bill Leviton, who had married Cooper"s sister, and considered me part of his extended family.
    “I have you for that,” Andy told her, and I finally figured out that there was more to their situation than met the casual eye. I watched them banter for a minute while I pretended to be looking over a leg press machine. They were…adorable. Izzie, who normally moved like a force of nature, went all soft and feminine around Andy, and even though she still looked like nothing so much as a big drag queen, it suited her.
    Andy was letting her spot him while he did presses, and he smiled up at her like she was a goddess. Which, really, looking at her, I guess she was. She wore her unnaturally tinted blonde hair in a halo around her head. Her skin