I gulp.
She holds the deck out over the table. “Do you have a question?”
I lick my lips. “Um…”
She waits.
I dither.
“Do… Do I need to have a question?” I flap a hand at the deck she’s holding. “Couldn’t we just see what comes up?”
Pen arches a severe brow. “And not know if the cards relate to your fledgling business or Tyler’s recovery or Maisy’s growth or this house or your—”
“Okay, fine. Um…”
A question.What am I doing? Was it a mistake to let Lark into my pants? Why doesn’t he want to do it again? Should I avoid him too? Is this another case of me picking the wrong guy? Am I stupid to be asking a bunch of cards these questions?
Pen sighs in exasperation. “Tell you what. Let’s just keep it simple,” she says, her mouth in a flat, disapproving line. “Concentrate on your romantic life in general. I’ll turn over three cards. Past. Present. And future. And we’ll go from there. Okay?”
I perk up. “Just three cards? No questions.”
“Yep. Think you can handle that?”
I pull a face at her. “Yeth,” I mutter like a mouth-breather with a lisp.
Pen bats her false eyelashes at me in a way I know she’s fighting back a curse. The magic kind, not the swear-word kind.
I tuck my chin in contrition. “Sorry.”
“Close your eyes,” she seethes.
I’m tempted to be sassy and scrunch them up like Maisy whenever we play hide and seek, but maybe acting like my four-year-old isn’t the right play at the moment.
I close my eyes softly. And some of my tension leaves me.
“Now take three long, slow, cleansing breaths,” Pen says, her voice softening with these instructions.
I take one, two, three breaths. And I’ll be damned if I don’t feel lighter. Looser.
“Now…” I hear Pen shuffling the Tarot deck, “find the place in your body where your romantic energy dwells.”
Eyes still closed, I frown. “How do I know where that is?”
Another sigh. “No wonder this is so hard,” Pen mutters.
I crack an eye open and scowl at her.
“Close. Your. Eyes.” Pen says this in her scary voice.
I close them.
It’s Pen’s turn to take three long, slow, cleansing breaths. “Okay,” she says on an exhale. “In your mind’s eye, follow your breath on an inhale.”
I breathe in and feel my chest expand.
“Breathe out.”
I obey.
