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They drank tea during the interview, and after the cups were drained, Octavia read the tea leaves that had settled in the bottom of Katie’s porcelain cup.
“You’re involved in an affair of the heart,” she observed, lifting a penciled eyebrow above the top of her thick glasses. “And this man is very special to you.”
Katie blushed to the roots of her hair. “Anything else?”
“Mmm.” Her brow knitted and her lips puckered. “I can’t make it out, but I’d say there was danger in your future.”
Katie’s heart nearly stopped, then she shook her head as she reminded herself she didn’t believe in such nonsense as reading tea leaves, or palms or any other spiritual mumbo-jumbo. Still, the odd sensation stuck with her as, after the extended interview, she explained that she was meeting her half sisters for lunch, and Octavia told her to say hello to Tiffany. “Darling girl,” she said. “The apple of my eye, and her children…so dear. But her mother is such a proud woman—wouldn’t take any help from me when she was raising Tiffany. Insisted on doing it on her own. Kind of a martyr, if you ask me. But…eventually Tiffany will get her trust fund, and Rose will just have to accept it. Well, enough of that…” Her eyes twinkled behind her glasses. “I can’t tell you how pleased I am that she’s marrying J.D.”
“She’s happy, I think.”
“As well she should be.” Octavia clapped her beringed hands and looked skyward. “She deserves it. Now—” her owlish eyes fell on Katie again as they walked to the Jeep “—you be careful.” She touched Katie lightly on the arm. “Whatever it is you’re getting yourself into, it’s perilous.”
“I’ll be fine,” Katie assured her but left with an uneasy, nagging sensation that wouldn’t let go of her. So what if the older woman saw danger in the bottom of a porcelain cup? “There’s nothing to it,” she told herself as she drove through the lazy streets of Bittersweet. “Nothing.” Reading tea leaves was just the older woman’s way of passing time.
But she saw that you were involved with Luke.
“Lucky guess,” Katie assured herself as she wheeled into the restaurant parking lot. She locked the car and half jogged to the front door of the little cottage that had been converted into an eatery. Filled with antiques, books and ferns, Claudia’s was known for its special soup of the day and cozy, intimate atmosphere.
Tiffany and Bliss were already in a corner booth, chatting as if they’d been friends forever instead of wary siblings who’d only recently discovered that they were related. Over the course of the summer, Tiffany had warmed to Bliss, and the animosity that she originally had felt toward John Cawthorne’s only “legitimate” daughter had all but disappeared. Slowly, the walls holding them apart were crumbling.
“We had a fabulous time,” Bliss was saying as Katie slid into the booth and sat next to Tiffany. “I’ve been to Hawaii before, but Mason hadn’t and—” she sighed dreamily, her honeymoon still fresh in her mind “—it was different, being there with someone you love. We want to go back there when we can spend more time. Hi, Katie.”
“Sorry I’m late.”
“Not a problem. I took a chance and ordered you an iced tea.”
“Thanks. So what were you talking about? Your honeymoon, right?”
Tiffany winked at Katie. “I’m trying to get all the details from her.”
“Come on, spill ‘em,” Katie encouraged. “I hear Hawaii is way beyond romantic.”
Bliss’s cheeks turned a soft rosy hue. “It is. We snorkeled and rented a catamaran, and took long walks along the beach. Maui was breathtaking. You’re in a mountain jungle one minute and in a resort on the beach the next.”
“I’d love to go there,” Tiffany said wistfully.
“Why don’t you?” Bliss reached into her purse and came up with a handful of brochures and slapped them on to the table. “Take it from me, it’s the perfect place for a honeymoon.”
“With Stephen and Christina?” Tiffany thumbed through a brochure with a picture of a couple lying on the sand beneath a palm tree and staring at an aquamarine surf.
“No way. They can stay with me,” Katie offered, then turned to Bliss. “You
didn’t take Dee Dee, did you?”
“Not this time, but we plan to the next.”
“See. You can do the same,” Katie told Tiffany as a waitress dressed in khaki slacks and a black T-shirt served them the iced tea. “Oh, jeez, I haven’t figured out what I want,” Katie said, opening her menu while her half sisters ordered.
She settled on a French-dip sandwich, while Bliss ordered a Caesar salad and Tiffany chose a fruit plate and a bowl of soup. Bliss insisted Tiffany keep the information on Hawaii, and Tiffany slipped the pamphlets into her purse. Conversation never lagged. Lunch was served, and they ate and caught up, laughed and talked about everything and nothing. Katie felt a warm glow inside; as much as she’d loved her half brothers growing up, she’d always wanted and needed the intimacy only a sister could inspire.
“Your grandmother says hi,” Katie said to Tiffany, explaining about her interview with Octavia. “She’s an interesting woman.”
“Beyond interesting,” Tiffany observed. “Did she give you a cup of tea, then read your fortune?”
“Yep.” Katie grinned. “How’d you know?”
“She’s done it to me for years. Let me guess… She saw romance in your future, right?”
