Page 52 of Endurance

“Maybe. Chip?’ I offered, holding out the bag.

“Sure.” As she crunched away, her expression was thoughtful.

“What are you thinking about, Gabby?”

“Honestly? I’m thinking about you and Sloan. I’m still a little surprised by it. I mean, I’m not judging you in the least bit—that man is fine as hell. But I am curious about what’s going through your mind. Is this just a fling to get over Dean, or is it something more? Rebounds can be fun but also destructive if you aren’t careful.”

I considered her question for a moment, not entirely sure of the answer.

“It can only be a rebound if I had a broken heart. The crazy thing is, I never felt like I did. Sure, I was sad for a few days after Dean and I split, but I wasn’t sad because I missed him. I was sad because I felt like I wasted two years of my life with someone who didn’t make me happy. As for how I feel about Sloan… It’s tough to say. It’s not just a fling, but it’s too early to tell if there’s more to it. I just know I felt something strong the minute I met him. I’ve been thinking about the gypsy’s warning a lot too. You remember Madame Lavinia, right?”

“Yeah. How could I forget? She predicted I’d have a tragic accident, and then I broke my arm the next day. I know it was just a coincidence, but it was super spooky at the time.”

“What if it wasn’t a coincidence?”

“You can’t be serious.” She paused and looked at me incredulously. “Kals, please don’t tell me you’ve been carrying around what she said to you about sunsets and doomed love for all of these years.”

“I can’t help it. There are just too many coincidences to ignore. She’s one of the reasons I spent a month avoiding being anywhere alone with Sloan. I was nervous. But I have to wonder—”

“Kallie, listen to me. It’s not—”

“No, hang on. Just hear me out. I recently began to think I misinterpreted the warnings. Getting lost in my emotions and worries may be the reason she predicted destructive love. Perhaps I’ve been the one who’s been getting in my own way by overthinking everything. Maybe it has nothing to do with Sloan—or any other guy who may have kissed me at sunset—and everything to do with the way I let my emotions rule me.”

Gabby’s eyes grew wide, and she looked genuinely worried. When she spoke, her tone was apprehensive.

“Oh, no… You’ve been stressing way too much about this, Kals. I need to tell you something, but you have to promise you won’t get mad.”

I chuckled.

“How can I promise that if I don’t know what you’re going to say?”

“Good point,” she responded with an ironic smirk. “What I have to tell you has to do with Austin.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Oh, God. What did my brother do now?”

“I swear, Kallie. I thought you knew, or I would have told you. I didn’t know you were carrying this around all of this time and—” She stopped short, and I narrowed my eyes.

“And what? What did my brother do, Gabby?”

She sighed and shook her head.

“When we were in high school, the two of us used to play Charlie-Charlie all the time. One of the times we were playing, Austin wanted to join in. Do you remember that?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Austin sort of… well, he moved the pencil to make you believe that the guy who kissed you during a sunset would be your soulmate.”

“Sort of?” I said with a laugh. After taking another sip from my wine bottle, I smiled. “When we were playing, I suspected Austin of deliberately pushing the pencil. Why would I be mad about that? It was just a silly game. I haven’t really thought about it since.”

“Well…that’s not all, which brings me to the psychic gypsy. Austin knew how freaked out you were about my so-called tragic accident, so he may or may not have paid off the psychic to tell you all of those things.”

I froze, unable to find words as I processed what she was saying. When I finally found my voice, the words came out slow and laced with disbelief.

“May or may not have paid her off?”

“Kallie, as I said—I swear I thought you knew. I would have told you before now had I known. Austin thought it would be funny to get the gypsy to say the opposite of what the Charlie-Charlie game said. He knew it would mess with you. His logic was to make sure you didn’t get too serious with a guy when you went away to college. I suppose it was his twisted way of being an overprotective brother, but I thought he would have told you the truth by now. Are you mad?”

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