“Sounds to me like you’re just being a big ole scaredy cat, big brother. And if I remember correctly, it was you who said when I was unsure about buying this place that if I never take a risk, I’ll never reap the rewards.”
“Doesn’t sound like me.”
She laughs. “Well, it was you. So maybe you should take your own advice. I have a good feeling about this girl even if you don’t.” Dropping a kiss on my cheek, she says her goodnight and shuffles off to bed, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the echoes of Ava’s laughter drowning out the constant memories of my past.Maybe I should stop by and check on her?
AVA
Aknock on my door pulls me from my sleep the next morning, and I jump out of bed and rush to it in the hopes it’s Duke. I really want the chance to try and talk to him again because I feel like last night was a bit…awkward.
If I’m honest, it was worse than that. I got so nervous that I couldn’t stop myself from talking, and the poor man couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Then I was so busy staring at him that I walked directly into the door and…ugh…I wish we could just have a do-over.
“Hey, I brought you some breakfast,” Jade says with a smile when I open the door.
As happy as I am to see her—she was so good to me last night after the door incident—I can’t help but feel a little deflated.What if my clumsiness scared him away, and he doesn’t want to see me anymore?
“Oh…thanks. Come on in,” I say, stepping back and opening the door wider to let her in. She gasps.
“What?” I ask, turning around in case the place is messier than I realized, or worse—a wayward racoon had gotten in and looked like it was about to attack us!
“It’s nothing,” she assures me, touching me on my upper arm. “I just wasn’t expecting your face to be so…swollen.”
“What?” I say again, my vocabulary reduced to high-pitched variations of the same word.
Rushing to the bathroom, I flick on the light and look at myself in the mirror. Not only is my curly hair a tangled bird’s nest, but my eyes and the bridge of my nose are swollen and bruised. My eyes are so tiny, I could stand in for the character of Mole inThe Wind in the Willows.There’s no way I can see Duke again when I’m looking like this. He’ll think I’m hideous and run screaming in the opposite direction—if he hasn’t done that already.
I let out a long groan.
“It’s notthatbad,” Jade says from the doorway. “A few days of ice and rest and you’ll be back to your beautiful self.”
“I don’t have a few days. I’m leaving on Tuesday and…” I press my lips together and let out a sigh. “Maybe Clementine was wrong.”
“About?” She steps closer and I lower my eyes.
“About me, meeting my twin flame. I went to her and had my cards read yesterday afternoon, and the moment I walked out of there, it’s just been one disaster after another. At first, I thought I backed into Duke’s car because it was destiny forcing us to meet. But then we went out to dinner, and I bungled it all up by talking so much he couldn’t even speak. I knew I was doing it too, but my damn mouth just kept running and running, and I couldn’t stop myself. And then when he was kind enough to still want to walk me to my car, I was a klutz who walks into doors, I bled all over his nice shirt, and now, when I was hoping to see him again and try to salvage things, I look like a mole and should probably just take that as a sign that the cards were wrong, there’s no twin flame, and I should hide out in the dark away from people where I belong.” I pout and wipe under my eyes with the backs of my hands. Jade just looks at me with her eyebrows raised.
“Well, that’s one hell of a pity party you’re having there with yourself,” she says, putting her hands on her hips and making me laugh a little at her directness. “You sound like my five-year-old when she’s used up all the screentime on her iPad. The world isneverfair when screen time is over, let me tell you.”
“You have a kid?”
“Two, actually. My oldest, Abby, is in kindergarten, and my youngest, Lourdes, is at home spending some daddy, daughter time while I run errands and visit my new friend.”
A slow smile creeps over my face. “We’re friends?”
“Unless you don’t want to be.”
“No! I mean, yes, I’d love to be friends—no, I don’t want you to think I don't want to be friends.”
Jade smiles. “Then why don’t you get that swollen face of yours out here, and you can tell me all about yourself while we eat some delicious treats from my sister-in-law’s bakery. Yvette, is her name, and the woman is cute as a lemon drop, meaning her creations are even sweeter. Dig in,” she says, gesturing to the pink bakery bag on my counter after I’ve followed her into the kitchen. “There’s coffee too. I wasn’t sure how you took it, so I just got her to make a regular ole latte with the sugar on the side.”
“This is perfect. Thank you,” I say, standing next to the counter while she unpacks croissants, danishes, donuts and muffins. “I’m not sure how we’ll eat it all, but it all looks and smells amazing.”
“Yvette likes to over supply whenever we’re bringing a new girl into the fold.”
“The fold?” I ask, frowning a little as she passes me my coffee and a couple of sugar sachets.
“It’s more of a club. It’s called the Whisper Valley Soulwink Society, and we haven’t had a new member infiveyears. Can you believe that?”
“Umm, I don’t know. I suppose it depends on what the criteria is,” I say, wondering what the hell is going on. Have I somehow found myself in a small-town secret society? Am I going to have to go through a hazing? Because if I am, then I’m going to have to bow out because Idid notsurvive rush week in college and therefore never became even close to joining a sorority. Nope. It was basic dorm girl all the way for me.
