Page 26 of Finding My Forever

Sophia leaned forward and took the pendant from me and began examining it. “Really?”

“Yeah, it was made by my ancestors and has been passed down through the women in my family.”

“Cool. An old heirloom.” She dropped it and met my eyes again.

“It’s a special heirloom.”

“Special how?”

Oh, boy. I decided if I spoke fast, she might not catch everything and would be less likely to run away.

“It’s clear until the woman wearing it meets her true love. Then it turns red.” I waited for her to tell me I was crazy or delusional. She kept her face expressionless so I kept going. “I noticed it had changed after I ran into him. Since it turned red after meeting Liam, I’m fairly confident he’s mine. I couldn’t let him leave without talking to him, so I did what I had to and chased after him. Now I have to make him fall in love with me before we head back home, or the spell will break in less than a month.”

I didn’t breathe once while I got it out. I watched her face closely, waiting for a sign of her getting ready to make a break for it.

She didn’t move. Her expression morphed from confusion to thoughtful to disturbed before it settled back on confusion.

“What?”

I shrugged. “I told you everything.”

“I’m supposed to believe that little jewel there just told you that Liam, a complete stranger, is your true love?”

I looked around at the other benches, making sure no one else was listening. “Yes.”

She was silent for at least a minute before nodding a few times. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

Sophia shrugged. “It’s not any crazier than some of the things my abuela’s told me. My family once had a lucky coin. It was passed down from father to son for generations. My family was wealthy and had a successful textile business. My great uncle lost the coin and a year later the company went out of business and the family money ran out.”

“Wow. That’s crazy.”

“No crazier than your story.” She looked down at the red jewel again and smiled. “There are crazy things in the world, and not believing in them doesn’t make them any less real.”

“True.”

I wanted to hug her. Thank you for believing me. It wasn’t an easy thing to swallow, but she was still by my side. I wished Katie or my sisters were here to help me navigate this, but Sophia was turning into someone I could confide and trust in, hopefully.

Chapter 9

“It’s very strange what’s normal in New York.”

There was a lone man standing between us and the enormous fountain that was the center of the park. He was shirtless. Wearing sunglasses. Blasting music. Sweating. And stretching. Maybe he was doing a form of yoga, but it mostly seemed like he was bending in ways to flex as many muscles at the same time as possible.

I turned back to her. “So, you believe me. That’s step one.”

“And step two?” She stood and took my empty cup from me before walking to a nearby trash can. When she returned, I cringed.

“Step two is getting Liam to believe me.”

“Well, you can’t just tell him. He definitely won’t take it well. I mean, you’d come across as certifiably insane.”

“Agreed.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

I really hoped she’d be on board with this plan. “We’re going to hang out with him and his friend. Hopefully, things will go well and they’ll want to see us again.”