After her door shut, Chris and I just stared at each other. “That was interesting,” Chris said.
“Yeah. Do you think Savannah will get over it? I mean… she’s the one who’s been pushing so hard to get a dog.”
He shrugged. “True. But I have to agree with Josh that Savannah tends to get her way a lot more often than he does.”
“Yeah, maybe, but that was interesting. Coco was like a referee between them. Have you ever seen anything like that before?”
“No. It makes me wonder what kind of training he’s had.”
“Yeah, me too.” I agreed.
After checking on Savannah, and locking up the house, we got ready for bed. I’d been holding my worry at bay, but, once we slipped under the covers, I let it all out.
“While we sat on the deck swing, Josh heard us talking.”
Catching my agitation, Chris’s brows drew together. “What did he hear?”
“He overheard you asking me if I’d told Bob that I could read minds. You said that part pretty loud. I think Josh got distracted when Angel came over, so he didn’t say anything. But now he’s wondering if that’s what I do. This is terrible.”
Chris’s lips twisted with the irony. He could hardly believe he was the one who’d messed up this time. It was usually me.
I sucked in a breath. “I heard that.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Well, it’s true. You’ve answered their thoughts more than once, but somehow you’ve always managed to get away with it. To be honest, I’m surprised they haven’t figured it out yet.”
I frowned. He was right. Did that mean I was fighting a losing battle, and it was only a matter of time before they’d know the whole, horrible truth? I didn’t want that to happen. Ever.
Chris wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. “Maybe it won’t be so bad if they find out. At least it would make things easier for you.”
“You can’t believe that. It would make them worse. Just think about how much you hate it. In fact, you were just complaining about how hard it was. Remember?”
His teasing grin turned into a grimace. “Yeah… I guess you’re right.”
“Promise me you’ll be more careful, and if they figure it out, we can just deny it.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “So, when Josh asks about it, what should we tell him?”
“We tell him that part of having premonitions is like reading minds, because I can sense if someone’s lying to me, and I can pick up what they’re feeling. How about that? That would be better than the truth, don’t you think?”
“Yeah… that should work.” It sounded like a simple solution, and he hoped Josh bought it.
I nodded, hopeful it would work, but it was just one more thing to worry about, and right now my nightmares were bad enough. Maybe I should talk to Bob about that, too? It seemed that the things I needed to mention to Bob were getting longer by the minute. I should probably make a list before my next visit.
But right now, I just wanted to go to sleep and forget all about it. Too bad I had nightmares to look forward to. Remembering the meditation app Bob had suggested, I took out my phone and downloaded it.
After explaining the app to Chris, I got started. Curious, he watched me sit cross-legged on the bed, with my hands palm up on my knees. As I tried to concentrate on my breathing, I kept hearing his thoughts about me, and how tempting it was to poke me in the side. Or tickle my neck while my eyes were shut. I’d probably jump right out of my skin.
“Would you stop that?”
“You mean this?” He began to tickle me, and I fought back. With his arms around me, it turned into a wrestling match, ending up with me on top of him, pinning him down. Score one for me. Not wanting to be bested, he took advantage of my inattention and rolled me onto my back. With a glint in his eyes, he soundly kissed away my protests.
I have to say… even though it wasn’t meditation therapy, his kind of therapy worked pretty well, and I went to sleep exhausted, but with a smile on my face.
CHAPTER 4
The next morning, Coco was up early wanting to be let out. With Josh and Savannah still asleep, I fed Coco and decided to take him for a walk. Chris left for work at the same time. “See you at ten.” He gave me a quick kiss and hurried out the door.
After attaching Coco’s leash, we started up the street, and my thoughts turned to the meeting with Chris and Uncle Joey today. What exactly did Uncle Joey want, anyway? Making me a beneficiary might not be so bad, but executor of his estate? How big was his estate? From what I already knew, it could be huge. That seemed like more responsibility than I wanted.
I gave Coco free rein and we wandered out of our neighborhood and into another subdivision that I didn’t know as well. I didn’t mind the diversion and enjoyed the walk. After forty-five minutes, it was time to get back.
“Let’s go home,” I said to Coco. He glanced up at me, but whined and kept pulling forward. That’s when I realized he’d been leading me along the last few blocks. “What is it?” He whined again and pulled harder. “Is there something you want to show me?”
He barked. Yup.
“Okay, but I don’t have a lot of time. I’ve got to get back home.”
This time he barked with urgency. Come. We go.
Wow. That was almost like a complete sentence. “Okay, okay. I’m coming.”
He led the way down a small side street that I hadn’t seen before. It rounded a bend into another subdivision, with homes a little older than those in my neighborhood. I could feel Coco’s excitement, and I began to jog along to keep up with him.
Halfway down
