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“Because you’ve been gone for a long time,” Aria explained before Havana could say something else that would set Ember off. “We want to get to know you again. You’re the one who came back home. Why would you do that if it wasn’t to reforge the bonds with your family?”
Ember’s brows raised in an instant reaction, as if she had plenty to say about how wrong Aria’s guess was, but suddenly, she didn’t want to hear it. This was her life too and her sisters were home together for the first time since Aria had been a teenager. Why couldn’t they just all get along and stop sniping at each other?
“Tell us about how Caleb proposed,” she blurted out to Havana, desperate to change the subject.
“It was incredibly romantic,” Havana said sunnily. “He told me that Serenity had predicted we’d be together so that probably meant we had to get married.”
Aria blinked as Ember snorted out a laugh and said, “Boy, that guy’s a prize.”
Havana just laughed along with her instead of taking offense. “I appreciated the point. Serenity had given me a prediction too that almost ruined my chances with Caleb because I was so busy trying to circumvent it.”
“Why would you do that?” Ember asked with what appeared to be genuine curiosity. “Her predictions always come true.”
“They do not!” Both sisters turned to stare at Aria askance and she felt her cheeks heat under their scrutiny. Ugh, why had such an innocent question started up this old debate again? “I mean… I know she believes in them but they don’t always come true.”
Of course, Aria didn’t have a lot of experience with Serenity’s predictions personally, since she’d never lobbed one in Aria’s direction before. Until yesterday. And the less she thought about that, the better.
“They do,” Ember insisted, but she’d long been in the believers of the supernatural camp with Serenity, despite not having any extra senses of her own. “Don’t tell me you’ve been living in Superstition Springs your whole life and haven’t gained an appreciation for the mysticism that practically drips from the rocks around here?”
“That’s not what I’m saying…exactly,” Aria mumbled. “How did we get on this subject anyway?”
Havana’s gaze cut to Aria’s face in the mirror. “She gave you a prediction, didn’t she? A good one?”
“Oooh, come on. Tell us,” Ember insisted, scootching forward on the bed until she was at the edge closest to where Aria sat at the dresser. The colors of the patchwork quilt under her sister’s legs swirled together in Aria’s head, creating a dizzying pattern.
She could hardly think around it. Finally, her sisters were paying attention to her, asking her things about her life and that stupid, ridiculous prediction was what they wanted to talk about.
Spice up your wardrobe or create a new style in order to attract the right partner. You’ll feel intimacy all around so no matter where you go, love will follow.
Could the real prediction please stand up? Because there was no way that was happening. No way she’d breathe a word of it to anyone. Havana had been on her case from almost the moment she’d set her suitcase down in Serenity’s foyer: Let me do something with your hair, Aria. A simple cut. Curlers. Something. Maybe we could try a little mascara, Aria. Please. What about lip gloss? Not a lot. Just enough to give you some color.
If Havana found out Serenity had sensed the need for a makeover, there’d be no stopping her. And the last thing Aria wanted to do was attract a man anyway. For what? Only to be abandoned one more time?
“It wasn’t anything,” Aria muttered. “Hardly worth mentioning.”
“You’re a terrible liar.” Havana’s mouth curved upward in the mirror, where of course they could both see the telltale blush staining Aria’s cheeks like a neon sign. “Curse of the Irish. Sorry. I’ve long wished Mom had given us the luck of the Irish instead but no. We get red hair, no ability to play poker and a crappy hair-trigger temper.”
“I don’t have a temper.” That was the only thing Aria could argue with though.
“Just wait,” Ember advised with a sage nod. “The second you get a man sniffing around you like he means to stay, you’ll develop one. They bring it out in you.”
“Uh, huh.” Havana’s hum of agreement came practically before Ember had stopped talking. “That’s no lie.”
Aria almost did a double take. Had Havana just agreed with Ember like…she’d agreed?
Next, unicorns were going to bust out of the closet and invite them all to play ring toss with a few angel’s halos they’d borrowed.
This was what camaraderie looked like. She was pretty sure anyway. Regardless, Havana and Ember were suddenly getting along and dang it if Aria didn’t want to continue that trend. Why did it have to be the prediction that had done it though? It was like the best birthday present on a day when you had a toothache.
Aria weighed out how badly she did not want to talk about a makeover against how much she craved this sense of belonging inside her family. That was something she hadn’t had in a very long time. Not since Havana had bailed for Austin and Ember had fled for wherever she’d gone, leaving Aria at home to take care of Serenity. Yes, it should have been the other way around, but Serenity had a childlike quality that wasn’t well suited to responsibility. When Havana had left, things like paying bills and shopping for groceries had fallen to the lone Nixon sister still in Superstition Springs, which Aria didn’t mind handling. Serenity had given her a place to live after all.
“The prediction is kind of dumb,” she hedged, hoping that might give her room to wiggle. Or segue into something else if she could somehow convince them it wasn’t worth their time to discuss. “Really nebulous.”
“That’s always the case,” Ember said as if that should be common knowledge.
“Tell us,” Havana repeated Ember’s earlier plea as she twisted a hairband around the tip of Aria’s braid to hold it. “You can’t leave us hanging like this. It’s a love prediction, isn’t it? Is that why you’ve developed a sudden obsession with all things Tristan?”
“I do not have an obsession.” Except she did talk about him a lot.
