Page 78 of The Fate Factor

Kate leans over the table, somehow instinctively knowing this is secret-worthy.

“Remember the vision I had at the bar?”

“The one with his tongue in your mouth? Yeah.”

“The one where we were on Nana’s porch. It was summer.”

She wrinkles her nose. “Okay?”

It seems like a small detail, but it’s been swelling in the back of my brain since the other night when I met Cara. And this new perspective is asking: What if it’s connected? Me and him and me and here. Me and Cara’s mural.

“Kate, if I convince Vi to give me this job, I won’t be here past Christmas. Even if I don’t get it, come May, I need to have tenants here. I haven’t been back here in the summer in years because I can’t afford to.”

Kate tilts her head. “You think that was the point of the vision? That you should stay longer?”

“I don’t know. Except for the one about Jamie’s career, they’ve all just been the two of ustogether.”

I’ve been searching this thing for rules, some sort of pattern. I thought it was the touching at first, but Jamie and I toucha lotnow. All of this time, all of this closeness, and nothing. And I couldn’tmakeit happen when I tried.

But they do have something in common. Every time I’ve had one, it’s been when I tried to walk away from him.

That’s exactly what I was doing when I first saw us up on that roof. The very first thought I had about him before I even lit that candle was: Not for me. I chew my bottom lip, playing it back. Isaw Becca. I saw the money. But I didn’t see me and Jamie until I tried to run away from him.

At the beach that night, his hands were all over me and nothing, until I bolted from the water. That night at Fortune, I was running away too. Because he scared me, the way he wanted to dive into this thing instead of cower. Then, I thought he was reckless, foolish.

Now…

I glance at Jamie across the room, then back to Kate. “I just started thinking maybe there’s more to it than just, you know, the horny part.”

We already know Jamie’s career is tied up in whatever is making me see these visions. What if mine is too? What if I have proof that I could have this? What if I alreadysawmyself having it: Kissing Jamie in the rain in the summer. Here.

I wouldn’t have met Cara if I wasn’t with Jamie. And I wouldn’t have been there with him—holding his hand, meeting his friends—if I hadn’t seen it. If the visions hadn’t set us on this road.

“Do you think that’s crazy?” I ask Kate.

She gives me a look that sayswhat about this isn’t?

“Colin said he thinks this thing is trying to tell you something. If he’s right, maybe this is it. Kiss Jamie. Don’t leave. Boom. Universe Achievement unlocked.”

I laugh, but Kate’s face is oddly serious. “What?”

“It’s just… It was always this easy, Noel.” She waves a hand, gesturing to the whole of this transformation I’ve been through in the last weeks, from matte and colorless to filled to the brim. “You just had to let yourself want it.”

This hits me with a quick pang of longing for time lost, but just as quickly I decide to allow myself some grace for this too. I may have needed a kick in the butt from some unknown power, but I’m here now, letting my heart lead me by the wrist.

The guys come back with their beers, and I slide over, letting Jamie in beside me. His arm wraps around my shoulder, his lips finding the top of my head, and once Kate has him engrossed in a conversation, I quietly pull my phone from my purse and send Cara a text.

Noel: I’d love to talk to you more about your project.

twenty-three

Jamie

“Jamie,focus.”Wessnapshis fingers in front of my face, and I jerk out of the trance I’ve been in for the last few minutes. It’s his own fault. He put like seven spreadsheets in front of me and my brain instantly scrambled them all.

I’m running on about six hours of sleep total this weekend between Noel and a couple of shifts at the bar. This morning, I woke up to her in my bed, the blanket slipped down her body, showing me everything from her dark hair spilled over her shoulders to those sexy dimples above her ass. My body was spent and wrung out, and I still couldn’t decide if I wanted to slip back under for another few hours, or climb over her, wake her with my mouth, and go again. I chose the latter.

“Yeah, looks good, man.” I shove the spreadsheets away, hoping he can’t tell I have no idea what I’m agreeing to.

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