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“It’ll still be here tomorrow.”
“I’m okay,” she said. “Truly.”
“Uh-huh.”
“This hasn’t happened in a long time, but now it’s…back.
They’re back.” She let out a long sigh, then yanked out the rubber band holding her hair away from her face.
“The visions?”
He hadn’t meant to sound dubious but he heard it in his own voice. She turned slowly to stare at him and her eyes seemed huge in the dim glow of the dashboard lights. He asked her for directions to her condo though he knew the general direction from the list of addresses and phone numbers they’d given each other at their meeting at Blue Note. Becca pointed out the way, lost in her own thoughts.
When he pulled into her parking spot and hurried around to help her from the car, she tried to wave him off. “I’m really okay. I can get by on my own power.”
“Humor me,” he said, clasping her hand because she looked like she would refuse any other support.
At the rear door of the condo he handed her back her keys and she slid one into the lock. As soon as the door pushed inward he heard the half growl, half bark of a dog. The black and white scruffy beast glared at him and stood stiffly. Becca bent down to him, grabbing him though he wanted to be the watchdog, cooing to him and massaging his ears while he glared at Hudson and kept growling.
“Hush, crazy puppy,” she said fondly.
“You’ve got a good watchdog there. He’s just being protective.”
Becca smiled. “Don’t make excuses for him until you know him better. He’s known to prejudge people.”
She headed straight to a cupboard and pulled out a bottle of white pills. “Aspirin,” she said. And then, as if anticipating what he would say next, she looked his way, her hazel eyes full of an anxiety she was trying hard to hide. “Sorry you had to see that. I’m-not a freak.”
“Nope.”
“Not a total one anyway.” She swallowed the pills, chasing them with water. Hudson wanted to fold her into his arms again and was about to reach for her when she placed the glass back firmly on the counter, drew a breath, turned to him.
“I used to have these visions when I was a kid. Into my teens. The visions. I hadn’t had one in years and then just recently-bam-they were back.”
“You don’t have to explain.”
“Sure I do.” She waved a hand dismissively, as if she wanted to brush away any and all of his lame protests. “My first one was of Jessie. A few weeks ago. I passed out at the mall. Right there near the food court! Fell down in front of a group of kids and really freaked them out. One of them took pictures of me on his cell phone.”
Hudson made a strangled sound of anger that encouraged Becca.
“Yeah, I know. The kids were reacting.”
“They were jerks. Uneducated morons.”
“I think I scared them half to death, but anyway it was Jessie. She said something to me and put her finger to her lips. She was standing at the edge of a cliff.”
He leaned a jean-clad hip against the kitchen counter while Ringo, in the doorway, still regarded the intruder with wary eyes. “These are different from the ones from your past?”
“Well, yeah. In content. They used to be just about people I knew. Like what they were thinking. Sort of a scenario would play out in my head about my parents, maybe. When they were fighting about something-usually me. They were always arguing about what was best for me, and sometimes I would see their fights in my mind and I think my visions were fairly close to the truth. Then when I got to high school the episodes got more intense and were mostly about boys I liked…or maybe girls who were mean to me…” She drew a breath. “They’ve never really made sense. More like dreams that hit me hard. One second I’d be normal, the next I’d wake up on the floor of the gym or hall or playground or science lab. It was more than a little embarrassing. You didn’t know?”
“I remember rumors about them,” Hudson admitted. “I think Evangeline helped spread them.”
“Did she?” Becca’s mouth turned down.
“She’s never been the nicest person around,” Hudson observed.
“She doesn’t want Jessie to reappear.”
“Maybe she thinks she’ll steal Zeke from her.”
