.
is rigged.” Grace grabbed the book from Jenna and read the description for herself. Sure enough, it said the card could indicate a man with dark hair and blue eyes. A powerful yet fair man. An honest man.
Or it could represent those qualities, perhaps in someone else Grace knew. That’s what it had to mean, she figured, not an actual man with dark hair and blue eyes. And certainly not Luke Stewart, who, when last she’d seen him, had lambasted her for no good reason. She looked closer. The book didn’t say anything about personal attacks.
“You picked the card,” Jenna reminded her lightly, taking back the book. “This guy looks pretty significant in your life. Maybe a boss?” She winked. “In any event, you should be hearing from him soon.”
“Like on Monday? When I go to work? Remarkable prediction.”
Jenna ignored her sarcasm. “And there’s something about a journey. Maybe that’s driving the bus.”
Grace thought of the long route Luke had drawn up for her. “It’s going to feel like a journey. Every day.” Privately, she thought about her return to Blue Moon Bay and what a journey that had been, both literally and figuratively. What about the future journey back to New Jersey? Was she really going to be able to do that in a year, as she’d planned? Already, she was in a bigger financial hole than she’d anticipated. Grace had a bad feeling that her budget wasn’t going to work out quite the way she’d hoped.
“Well, don’t worry, there’s great prosperity here too. A huge fortune or inheritance.” She looked up at Grace. “Got any fabulously rich relatives I don’t know about?”
Grace flashed her a wry grin. “If I do, I don’t know about them either.”
Jenna looked back at the cards, then at the book she was using to check her interpretations. “Maybe it’s going to be more of a spiritual fortune. Yup, three of cups, here’s another love card.”
Grace watched, sipping her champagne with increasing frequency, as Jenna told her that her entire future was wrapped up with this dark-haired, blue-eyed man.
What if that were true? Grace wondered. Could she even imagine getting involved with a new man? It wasn’t that she still felt stung by Michael. Enough time had passed that she’d grown to realize she and Michael had never had the kind of close relationship she’d pretended they did. He didn’t get her jokes. Didn’t care about her life or her interests. Barely even showed any curiosity about their son. She was better off without him, and she knew that now.
But a new man? It was hard to picture. When she tried to imagine someone like the man Jenna described, all she could see was Luke Stewart.
And he certainly wasn’t a romantic interest for her. Or vice versa. That couldn’t be more plain.
When she was finished with the reading, Jenna sat back and said, “The cards don’t lie.”
Grace brought her focus back to Jenna. “Maybe not, but I’m not so sure about the reader.”
“Hey, I object to that! Out of seventy-six cards, you picked these ten. Check the interpretations yourself.” Jenna thumped her hand on the Mother Earth Tarot book on the table. “It’s very clear.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Then I guess a tall, dark stranger will be coming to town to sweep me off my feet soon.” She shook her head. “Seriously, Jenna, that’d be great for starry-eyed teenagers who want their fortunes told, because you know there’s always romance in their future, but I’m not buying this for me at all.”
“Suit yourself.” Jenna gathered the cards and put them back in the case. “I’m not sure how much I believe myself, but you have to admit, it is interesting that all the cards you picked were so consistent about this guy.”
“And so wrong,” Grace added.
“Maybe.” Jenna poured more champagne into both their glasses. “I’ve got an idea! Let’s call him!”
“Who?”
“Luke! Just like we used to in high school!” She dissolved into a fit of giggles. “Remember when we called Kenny Harrison and had him convinced that we were aliens who were coming to get him at midnight?”
Grace couldn’t help laughing with her. Although Jenna had been the one doing the calling and the talking, Grace had listened with fascination on the other line as Kenny had asked what to pack.
“Come on, let’s call Luke,” Jenna persisted, taking the cordless phone from the table and pushing the Talk button.
Grace wrestled the receiver from her grasp. “No way. We’re not teenagers anymore. We’re mothers. Mature women. We don’t pull that kind of prank.” The dial tone blared between them. “Especially not with caller ID and Star-Sixty-Nine technologies out there. And especially not with Luke Stewart. Our relationship is bad enough.”
Jenna took her hand off the phone. “You just had a little spat. You guys always had spats, and, as you know, there was a definite attraction.”
It was hard to deny, at least to Jenna, who had always known the truth. “Yeah, well, we’re not always attracted to the people who are best for us, are we?”
“No, that’s true,” Jenna agreed. “But sometimes you just don’t know until you give someone a chance. Even someone like Luke.”
“Even if I were willing, and I’m not, Luke doesn’t have any interest in me. He hates me.”
“I don’t think so. And I know you don’t hate him.” She wasn’t going to give up. “Let’s go to his house. Look in the windows and see if he has a girlfriend.”
Grace tossed the phone onto the sofa several yards away. “I couldn’t care less if he has a girlfriend or not.” She tried to sound nonchalant, but she did kind of wonder about his private life.
“Come on, admit you’re curious. Let’s go.”
Grace shook her head. “On top of the fact that it’s illegal to spy on people through their windows, we’ve been drinking. We can’t drive.”
“We’ll walk.”
“We’re not interested.” Grace hesitated. “Although there is one thing I’m interested in. Do you have any idea why Luke didn’t go off to college at Stanford, like he was supposed to?”
Jenna looked blank. “I didn’t even know he was supposed to.”
“Yes, you did—he got a scholarship, remember? It was a huge deal.”
“Hmm. That sort of rings a bell. But I don’t know. Why?”
Grace shrugged. “He mentioned the other day that he hadn’t gone but he wouldn’t say why. The whole thing just seems strange to me.”
“So you do care about him.”
Grace felt her face grow warm. “I’m just curious. Aren’t you?”
“Not particularly. But if you really want to know what happened, we could ask the cards.”
Grace snorted. “Oh, come on, the cards don’t know squat.”
“I don’t know, Grace, it seems to me they were uncannily correct for you.”
“About what? About a man in my life? There isn’t one. A journey? Not going anywhere. And a great fortune? Please. If I had that, I wouldn’t be driving a bus.”
“You have to be a little patient,” said Jenna, unflappable. “This is the future we’re looking at. The cards clearly said—”
Fortunately, Jenna was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell, although Grace had the uneasy feeling that she was going to be hearing a lot about what “the cards said” in the future.
“I