“Katherine.” Toni’s voice was low. “Let us—”
“At first I had no control.” She rushed on, certain that if she didn’t get the words out, she would lose all her courage. “It came to me in snatches. A cup of coffee I barely caught. I asked you to move your mother’s vase away from the edge, so it didn’t fall. But then I didn’t try to fight anymore. I sat in the grey area and tried to stretch myself. Could it be longer? I tried to stay in the grey a little longer to give myself more time.”
This time when she paused to take a breath, no one spoke. Everyone was watching her with wide eyes.
“I saw Kaylee in my office today. I saw her standing on the edge of the architecture building with the wind whipping her hair back, and she was crying and crying. I knew where she was.” Katherine felt her heart start to race at the memory. “I knew how long it would take to get there, so I stretched and I stretched as far as I could until I couldn’t keep the present away, and then I ran.” She pressed a hand to her aching knee that she’d covered with a pair of loose cotton pants so Baxter wouldn’t see how swollen it had become. “I ran as fast as I could because I saw what Kaylee was going to do.”
Katherine’s eyes locked with Baxter’s, and she couldn’t look away. “Just like I saw what was going to happen at the gym with Justin McCabe. Just like I knew that car accident on Highway 1 was going to happen in front of us. Just like I saw Megan’s coffee spill and your mother’s vase fall and break into a hundred pieces that we couldn’t put back together.” Her eyes were wet, and Katherine pulled the words up from her chest like she was dragging them from the waning tide.
“I’m having visions, Bax.” She blinked and felt the tears roll down her cheeks. “I’m not imagining it. I don’t know why it’s happening. I know how it sounds, but it’s the truth.”
Please. Please please please, my love…
Baxter was leaning both his elbows on the table, his eyes intent on her and his chin resting on his folded hands. “You saw Kaylee in a vision, standing on the edge of the architecture building, ready to walk off, and you ran across campus fast enough to get to her?”
Katherine laughed through her tears. “Yeah, you should see how big my knee is right now. It’s like the size of a melon.”
Baxter stood abruptly and walked into the house without a word.
Everything in Katherine’s body felt like it collapsed in on itself. She sat back in her chair and her shoulders sank. Her chest felt like someone had punched it.
Megan grabbed her hand. “We’ll tell him about us. My thing is way more visible, and he won’t be able to deny—”
“Do you want me to make him more receptive to the idea?” Toni asked. “I think I can do that. I’m not saying I’d manipulate his brain or anything, but I could make him just a little less… stubborn maybe? Shit, that’s probably manipulating his brain, isn’t it?”
“Just let me move something,” Megan said. “I’m getting pretty good, and he can’t deny…”
Their voices fell away, blending into the sound of waves crashing against the stone-strewn beach. They were white noise. Part of the grey.
Please, my love…
The doors to the house swung open again, and Baxter was there, holding something wrapped in a towel. He walked over and knelt next to Katherine.
“I kept wondering why you were limping when you got home, but I didn’t want to ask in front of your friends.” He nudged her leg over and lifted it. “My God, Katherine, you should have iced this hours ago.” He looked at Megan. “Can I borrow your chair, my dear? She really needs to elevate this.”
Megan quickly scooted away. “Of course!”
Katherine’s heart had started beating as soon as he opened the door. “Baxter.”
He looked up. “I’m processing. Let’s focus on this right now. Is your ankle hurt too?”
“Yes. I pulled it.”
“Of course you did.” He stood and walked back into the house, returning a moment later with another ice pack wrapped in a towel. He lifted her ankle, set it on the ice pack, and stood with his hands on his hips.
All four of them were silent for a few minutes.
Baxter looked at Toni, then at Megan. “The gym.”
All three of them exchanged glances.
Baxter nodded at Toni. “You?”
“I’m empathic, I guess,” Toni muttered. “I can, like, make people calm down. Or get pissed off. I’m kind of a combination of an emotional sponge and—”
“A nuclear reactor, I imagine.” Baxter turned to Megan. “And you?”
Megan picked up a pistachio with her fingers and, with a flick of her wrist, floated it to hover in front of Baxter’s nose. “Pistachio?”
“Well…” He swallowed hard. “How about that?”
Chapter 21
“I just want to thank you both for sticking around for my husband’s low-key meltdown.” Katherine peeked through the glass doors to the living room. Baxter was still pacing.
Toni asked Megan, “Hey, Katherine thought you might have contacted Justin McCabe’s family. Did you?”
“I did! I was able to get in touch with them through Justin’s attorney. They’re being real protective right now, but they agreed to talk to me next week. He’s not in jail anymore, but he is in an in-patient psychiatric facility. It was the only way a judge would let him out before the trial.”
“I don’t find that surprising. And he probably needs the help right now.”
“His lawyer says he’s devastated. So are his parents. They only agreed to talk with me because I told them that I thought he was in an altered state. I’m sure they probably think I’ll be good for
