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“Sneaky.”
“It sounds like a strip club, doesn’t it?”
He shot me a surprised look, then gave his head a shake. “Come on. Misty? No way.”
“I know, I know. But why keep it a secret?”
He took a long nasal breath, and his eyes fell closed very briefly. “So, we’re spying on a grown woman because her mom and aunt are worried.”
“Her mom has a bad feeling. And who the hell am I to question mother’s intuition? There’s more shit in the world than just my shit.”
“That’s profound, Rache. You have such a way with words.”
I stuck out my tongue at him, and he laughed. But then I went serious again. “The twins have something like my stuff. Just between them.”
“I know. I’ve seen it.”
“You have?”
“Yeah. I swear to God, one day at Sandra’s, Misty got up and went to the front door as Christy was just pulling up out front. And remember that time Josh was throwing rocks into the reservoir and hit Christy right in the head? Misty yelped as if she felt it.”
“Yes! But she didn’t even see it happen, she was looking the other way.”
He nodded. “I thought I was imagining things. Glad you’ve noticed it, too.”
“Yeah, I have.” I sighed. “I asked Christy what’s up with Misty, for what good that did.”
“She would never tell you,” Mason said. “Not if it’s something Misty doesn’t want us to know.”
“True.”
We drove in comfortable silence for a while. I glanced over at him, and he looked back and his eyes did that thing they did sometimes. They went all soft and dreamy. Nobody in my life had ever looked at me the way Mason did. Everything he felt for me was in that look.
“I can’t wait to be your wife,” I said. “You know that, right?”
“There’s no hurry. No pressure, Rache.”
“I know.” I nodded, took a breath. “My stuff’s been acting weird, and I don’t know what’s wrong. I’m a little freaked out, to be honest.”
“Acting weird how?”
“Mermaids,” I said. “I keep seeing mermaids. One mermaid, really. I think she might be dead.”
“That’s… weird.”
“It sure the fuck is. But it’s worse than that.”
“The wedding nightmare,” he said, nodding slowly. “You said you couldn’t remember it, but you know I can tell when you’re lying.”
“It was… too awful to tell you, Mace. But it’s too awful not to tell you, too.”
He nodded.
I squeezed my eyes closed and the full nightmare returned, washing over me like a tsunami. I saw it as clearly as if I were there, just as I had the first time I’d dreamed it. The sun was glinting off the blue water of the reservoir. Mason and I stood in front of a wooden arch all wrapped in grapevines and tiny purple and white flowers. I didn’t know what the flowers were. They looked like the violets that grew wild on the back lawn.
Part of my thought was that I should look to see what we were wearing, but I was quickly distracted by the lawn full of guests. They sat in rows of wooden folding chairs with red cushioned seats. My sister Sandra was right in front, beside our parents, who’d died long ago. And on the groom’s side, there was Mason’s mother, Elizabeth, and his brother. His dead serial-killer brother whose donated corneas had restored my eyesight seven years ago. What was he doing at our wedding?
Jeremy and Joshua were standing in the back of the crowd, and our house was behind them. They were standing oddly, though, hands clasped in front of them, legs wide for stability, stoic expressions on their faces. Like they weren’t really in there. Like these were tin soldiers without souls, guarding the event.
