Page 77 of The Fate Factor

“Right. One night… ” He hesitates before blowing out a breath. “I was at a party meeting Wes of all people. I only just walked in when it got busted up by the cops. I hadn’t had a chance to get myself into trouble yet, so it was mostly just a hassle, until they started pulling kids aside, checking IDs. Anyone underage, like me, they started giving those tests, you know? To see if you’ve been drinking. Walk a straight line, all that. I did what the cop said. Then he asked me to count backwards from twenty, and fuck, he might as well have asked me to perform brain surgery. I couldn’t do it.”

“What happened?”

“He took me in. Cuffed and everything. I did the breathalyzer test at the station and cleared myself, but I still had to sit in a cell and wait for Wes’s dad to come get me.”

“Shit.”

“It was humiliating, getting hauled in like that.” He swallows roughly, then as if on instinct, he puts on a smile meant to lessen the weight of that admission. It’s only half of his regular one,though, and my heart throbs with an ache so deep, I feel it in my toes.

I’m suddenly filled with rage at that waitress for the dirty looks, and his mother for hiding him instead of helping, and anyone else who added to this humiliation. It’s something I’ve always struggled with, admitting the things I long for instead of locking them up like a secret. I’m wondering now, looking at Jamie’s half smile and moody eyes, if maybe admitting them is the only way to get them. If Jamie Bishop longs for someone to be on his team, I’ll nominate myself for captain.

“Anyway,” he says. “Now that I’ve told you my most embarrassing moment, wanna make out again?”

I snort and let him have this change of subject. “Funny, I thought your most embarrassing moment was when you passed out on my porch in a puddle of blood.”

He tickles my waist, and I giggle a little too loudly. It makes an embarrassing echo on the glassy water in front of us. Jamie’s delighted by this. “Actually, that was my best moment.”

“How on earth was that your best moment?”

The grin on his face loosens to something softer, a little sappy. “Because it brought me back to you.”

If I needed any more evidence that I’m following my own fate to a tee, it comes the following weekend when Jamie and I go out with Kate and Colin.

“He is smoking hot, Noel,” Kate says. “Those tattoos, that scruffy face.Gah. He wears a T-shirt very well, too.”

We’re sitting upstairs at a vaguely-Irish bar with views of the water and walls painted a moody blue. In the room beside us, a band plays a cover of “Southern Cross.”

I roll my eyes and let her have this objectification because it’s all true and this is the double date of Kate’s dreams. She’s waited years to actually like someone I’m dating, and Jamie has spent the night thoroughly charming them both. Not that I expected any less. I’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t love Jamie Bishop. Besides Fran.

“Eyes to yourself, Katherine, or I’ll tell Colin.” He and Jamie have gone to the bar to get another round.

Kate cackles and takes a sip of her cocktail. “So tell me how it works.”

“How sex works? Kate, I’ve known you way too long.”

She dips her fingertips in her drink and flicks gin at me. “I mean how the psychic thing works. Can you, like, read his thoughts while you’re doing it?”

My cheeks flame and I glance at the bar again to make sure Colin and Jamie are still out of earshot.

“Dad’s not listening. Spill.”

“Ask me a serious question and I will.”

“Are you in love? Is he? You’d be able to tell, right?” Kate clicks her tongue and presses her hand to her heart. “Your face is practically glowing.”

“Oh my God. I highly doubt a few orgasms have changed my complexion.”

“You underestimate what stress can do to your pores. But seriously, how do you feel?”

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly to keep from gushing. It doesn’t work. “I feel… wild. Desperate. Like I can’t get enough of him.”

Kate’s eyes bulge, and I cover my red cheeks with my hands. “God, this wasn’t supposed to happen.” Not this fast. Not this… intensely.

“Seems to me,” Kate says, “this is exactly what was supposed to happen.”

She’s right, of course. According to everything we’ve seen so far, itwassupposed to. I’ve gone from looking for holes in the magic, to letting it wash over me, bring me back to life. And this new perspective has opened up a whole new box of possibilities.

“I have to ask you something,” I say.

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