Charlotte takes them, her gaze bouncing over Jenny’s face. “I sense you’re a good person.”
Jenny blinks at her a few times. “Thank you, Charlotte. I haven’t been feeling like much of a good person lately. You make me believe it must be true because you have a violet aura.” Jenny draws an arch in the air with a finger over Charlotte’s head.
“What’s an aura?” Charlotte asks curiously, scooting closer to Jenny.
Jenny’s gaze roams over the little girl. “It’s the color of your energy. Yours is purple, and it means you are wise and empathetic toward others.”
“What does empathetic mean?” she asks, tipping her head to the side.
“It means you’re sensitive to other people’s feelings and their emotions.”
“Like with my bully?”
“Exactly. You know he’s a good kid, despite how he acts toward you. You sense there is something more going on with him even when he’s trying to scare you.”
“He isn’t trying, he’s succeeding. I hate spiders,” Charlotte says, making all of us chuckle.
She isn’t scared of the boy. She’s scared of the spider.
Jenny pats the book and then stands. “Just read about Charlotte, and I think you’ll begin to see spiders in a different light. Will you let me know what you think of the book when you’re finished?”
“I will. Thank you for the books.”
“You’re very welcome.”
Jenny turns away as the wind blows, looking toward Billie Rose’s cabin.
“You’re hearing wind chimes,” Petey says, following her gaze.
Katie begins to tell Jenny the story behind the wind chimes, and how Bill heard them when he passed. “He said they were whispers from Heaven. After Billie Rose shared his final moments with us, every time we hear them, we’re reminded of my dad.”
“That’s why everyone noticed my wind chimes,” Jenny says more to herself than anyone else. She backs up a step. “It reminds them of Bill.”
“Billie Rose was very close to Bill. She struggled for years after his death.”
Jenny stares across the lake and smiles, hugging herself.
“You should walk over there. She has some interesting chimes. She still makes them occasionally. That is, when her kids cooperate,” Katie says, laughing. “They have a bit of their father in them.”
“Maybe I’ll try tomorrow. This was my first outing alone.” She looks at Charlotte who already has her nose buried in the book Jenny gave her. “I picked your house because I knew your daughter would be a safe place to start.”
Petey and Katie walk with her toward the path home. “Thank you for visiting with her. She hasn’t wanted to talk about it. Of course we called the school, and they’ve been keeping an eye on them, but now I understand what’s been going on a little better,” Katie says.
“She’s a very intuitive child,” Jenny responds.
“That she is,” Petey says. “But it takes its toll sometimes. She feels what everyone around her feels.”
Jenny nods because she is much the same. That’s how she knew Lily was pregnant, and how she read Charlotte so easily.
As soon as she slips down the drive, Petey walks over and stops in front of me. “You better get your ass to the other side of the lake, or she’s going to know you were following her.”
Shit, he’s right.
I jump to my feet and start running. Katie flips me off when I pass her, clearly disgusted with my overprotective stalking.
“Love you, girl,” I say, ignoring the scowl on her face.
Chapter Forty-Eight
