Toni looked at her like she was a gullible child. “Of course they’re not supposed to. But he’s my cousin. I’ll find out if that guy was on anything.”
“Okay.” She wasn’t going to argue. Katherine unboxed her salad and poured the thin dressing over it.
Toni paused with her sandwich halfway to her mouth. “Is that your lunch?”
“Unfortunately. There aren’t many options at the student center, and I didn’t have time to go to an actual restaurant.” Her disappointment must have been clear on her face.
“That looks like a gas station salad.”
Katherine looked at Toni’s sandwich. “You didn’t get that from a gas station.”
“Would you believe my mom still makes my lunch for me?” Toni smiled a little. “Not every day. But my dad still comes into the garage a few days a week to walk around and point at stuff. He’s in his seventies, but it makes him happy. On days he comes in, my mom makes us both a lunch.”
Katherine felt warm from the inside out. “That’s lovely.”
Toni’s half smile turned into a full smile. “It is, isn’t it? When I was younger, I was a little shit about it. ‘Mom, you think I can’t feed myself or what?’ Now I’m just glad I still have both of them, you know? And my mom is a hell of a cook, so I can’t complain.” She reached across the desk and handed the other half a sandwich to Katherine. “Take this half. I eat all this and I’m going to be napping under a tree.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep.” Toni leaned back, sandwich in hand. “You do that a lot.”
“Do what?”
“Check with people. Check their reactions.”
Katherine took a bite of the sandwich so she could think. “This is so good. Thank you. And yes, I do check people’s reactions. I’m very good with numbers and theories, and I know how to interact with colleagues and students. But I think sometimes I come across as patronizing to other people when I don’t mean to be.”
“I don’t see you that way. You’re just smarter than about ninety-nine percent of the population, right?”
Katherine nodded. “That would be fairly accurate. I also went to college very early, so normal socialization was stunted. Most of the girls in my college classes didn’t want to spend time with a fifteen-year-old, and I can’t really blame them.”
“Fifteen? That’s brutal.”
Katherine shrugged. “I didn’t get along with anyone in my high school either. At least they mostly left me alone in college.” High school? Not as much.
“I guess,” Toni said. “Megan has you figured out. She doesn’t think you’re patronizing.”
Katherine felt an immediate warmth. “I don’t know why the two of you didn’t get along, but she’s very nice. She’s an honest person. I appreciate that.”
“She has, like, zero filter.”
“Yes. I find it to be a huge relief.”
“You can’t just say everything that comes to your mind.” Toni bit into her sandwich.
Katherine frowned and examined Toni’s assertion more closely. “But you can. You might offend people, but you can actually say everything that comes to mind.”
Toni shook her head. “Not if you want to remain living in my family.”
“Good to know.” Katherine made a mental note to avoid Toni’s family. The thought made her stomach sad, because the sandwich was really delicious. “Megan has an excellent mind and she sees things in interesting ways. I like her perspective, and she’s decided that she and I are going to be friends. We’re having wine on Wednesday.”
“Wine Wednesday? Is this like Taco Tuesday?”
“Maybe? It happens on my deck and we just started, so I don’t really know all the rules. Just that there’s wine on Wednesday and we’re having it at my house because I have a great deck and an ocean view.”
Toni’s eyes lit up. “Hot damn. I should have been a professor.”
“I very much doubt you make less than I do.” Katherine smiled. “We bought our place in North Beach about fifteen years ago.”
“Oh, that’s sweet. You got lucky to get in there before everything went crazy.”
“Yes. Megan enjoyed the view. I think she lives in one of those new developments they built up the hill.”
Toni made a face. “Careful—you have her over for too much Wednesday wine, you might not be able to get rid of her.”
It bothered Katherine that Toni had such a negative reaction to Megan. She didn’t understand the root of it, but she would find out.
“You probably have lots of friends,” Katherine said. “You grew up here. You have a big family. Megan and I don’t.”
“Her? She’s like Suzy Sunshine and Malibu Barbie rolled into one. The chicks who drive their Mercedes SUVs into my garage probably fell all over her when she moved here.”
Katherine enjoyed the way that Toni painted mental pictures. It made understanding her intentions much easier. “You might think that, but I don’t think it’s true. She said she finds people here very cold. I think she’s had a hard time making friends.”
“Huh.” Toni’s eyebrows rose. “Well, maybe I’ll join you for Wine Wednesday then.”
“So you’re admitting that the three of us are all exhibiting parapsychological phenomena and we have something in common?”
“Parapsychological—?”
“Psychic stuff.” Better to stick with layman’s terms. “We’re all doing psychic stuff now.”
“Yes. Fine.” She rolled her eyes again. “Whatever. We’re doing psychic stuff and I don’t understand it, but I’d like to figure out what to do with it. Can I come on Wednesday or what?”
Katherine smiled. “Of course.”
* * *
Katherine didn’t warn Megan that Toni was coming, so two days later when the silver-grey vintage Mustang convertible parked in front of Katherine’s house on North Beach Drive, Megan’s eyes went wide.
Toni stepped out of the car, holding a bottle of wine and wearing a grim expression, dark blue jeans, and a mustard-yellow T-shirt with Shift Happens written on the front.
Megan stood and pointed at her. “I knew it!” She set down her wineglass. “I knew you knew it wasn’t just in our heads!”
Toni looked around and waved her
