Page 102 of Full Contact

“I know where my audience is at all times.”

“So, the whole speech.”

“A large part of it,” Varga said.

Adrian set his bag down beside the couch, well clear of the hallway. “Pickle has the same skill.”

“It’s a gift,” Pickle said.

“It’s something,” Adrian said.

I took coats. Hog’s was heavy enough that I hung it on two hooks. Pickle’s had a pocket full of something that rattled, and he took out a box of candy and put it in his jeans before handing it over.

Snowmelt ran off the hems onto the entry mat. Peaches tucked her nose under her tail, then got up and went down the hall.

Mark came out of the kitchen with coffee and went around the room asking how everyone took it, which meant he had to ask Pickle twice, because Pickle started telling Varga about the drive down halfway through the first answer.

“Hog and Rhett drove,” Pickle said. “Twelve hours. Juno filmed the lake.”

“Which lake?” Varga asked.

“Superior,” Pickle said.

“Michigan is the one you should film,” Varga said.

“She filmed both.”

“Then she should lead with Michigan.”

“She leads with a moose.”

Over Pickle’s shoulder, Mark looked at me. He handed Hog a cup with two hands. Hog sat in the chair by the counter and stretched his legs out across open floor.

I took my coffee and sat in the middle of the couch, where I could see everybody. Mark left the arm and sat beside me.

“Did they pay you?” Pickle asked Varga. “The radio people. For the opposite-of-strategy thing.”

“Nothing.” Varga spread his hands. “Two million views. They sold advertising next to my face.”

“Send them an invoice.”

“I’ve considered it. I don’t know what to charge.”

“A penny a view,” Pickle said.

“That’s twenty thousand dollars.”

“Exactly. You start high.”

Adrian hadn’t touched his coffee. He was watching the window.

“Rhett got paid in pie once,” Hog said. He didn’t take his eyes off the hallway, where Peaches had gone a few minutes earlier. “For fixing a porch.”

Varga turned in his chair. “Was it good pie?”

“He still talks about it.”

“Then I want pie,” Varga said.