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“That one doesn’t look like the others. It’s an important one, right?” Oz asked.
Most people treated this like a party trick. The fact that both men were asking genuine questions warmed me. “Major Arcana, and yes. This is The World. It’s a happy ending after a rough journey.”
“There’s no conflict in perspective there.” Graham focused on me. “Who doesn’t want a happily ever after?”
“The issue isn’t wanting it, it’s that you see each other as an obstacle to achieving it,” I said.
Oz looked thoughtful. “That’s true.”
The next card, the Queen of Swords reversed, glared at me, accusingly. “Which leads us to what my role is in that conflict. You’re letting your feelings for me drive you to bitterness, vindication, malice, and pessimism.” The words hurt.
“What’s wrong?” Graham asked.
I didn’t want to be a catalyst for those things. “Introspection hurts sometimes.” But that was why we were doing this, wasn’t it? To move past the hurt.
“That one looks more positive.” Oz pointed to the Ten of Coins. “It feels like success.”
It was. “That card says what you should keep in mind as you work with Graham. It’s hard-earned accomplishment after a difficult venture.”
Graham snorted. The first derisive sound I’d heard from him since we started.
I didn’t blame him in this case. “Cole has those things. Graham has been cut off from them, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting the same.”
“Which is reasonable.” Graham sounded defensive. “I haven’t exactly been a slacker in life.”
“It’s totally reasonable.” I focused on Oz. “Imagine you were in his shoes. You’d decided to help the wrong person, and it cost you the future you’d built for yourself. You wouldn’t begrudge him that, would you?”
Oz clenched his jaw. “You’re not the wrong person.”
“If I’m not wrong for you, I wasn’t for Graham, either.” I didn’t realize that could be taken a couple ways until the words crossed my lips, but I wasn’t going to clarify. “Speaking of…” I looked at Graham, and gestured at the Three of Wands reversed. “You’ve worked hard, and been on a tremendous journey, without having to leave home. Now that your probation is over, you see the things you worked for, the things you wanted, and you can’t reach them. At the same time, Oz has a lot of them. Don’t hold that against him.”
“I can’t just flip a switch and change the way I feel,” Graham said.
“No, but you can make a conscious effort to see things from each other’s perspectives.” I studied the last card—the Queen of Cups, and mentally dragged in a deep breath. “You’re both here because you say you want to help me. You need to work together.” How could I phrase this? “If you trust me—my thoughts, my intuition—then you need to trust that I’m okay with both of you.”
Oz hovered his fingers over the cards, never making contact. “You make it sound simple.”
“I know it’s not.” I looked over the spread one last time before gathering the cards and tucking them away again.
I needed to call Violet, if we were going to be here for a while. Let her know I was all right, Oz was amazing, and that I needed a favor or two. I wandered away from the blanket as I pulled up her number, but not so far that Oz and Graham were out of sight.
The tarot card reading was insightful, but that didn’t mean I trusted them to play nice.
“Hey, Lucky Lady.” Violet was cheerful. “Did Cole untie you long enough to say hi?”
Would he tie me up? Probably so if I begged. Wowza that was hot. I stashed the fantasy for future reference. “More or less. I got your text. Wanted to check in. And I need a favor.”
“Anything. What’s up?”
“I need to talk to Sadie. Grayson. See if I can be on their shows. Maybe Hunter can hook me up with people who want to interview me.”
“Whoa.” Violet’s tone shifted to serious. “Yank the reins, L. Second of all, you’re going to need to back up and tell me why, but first, you can’t just do that. You can’t launch into random requests, and pretend you didn’t have that bear of a man you adore in your apartment overnight. You’re still with him, aren’t you?”
I looked over at Oz to see him staring back. Geez, I liked the way he looked at me. “Oz and Graham both.”
“Uh, what?” Violet sounded amused. “You owe me so many details. What kind of story is there? A juicy one.”
“No.”
