Read First Visions Online

Authors: Heather Topham Wood

Tags: #young adult, #paranormal romance, #abduction, #new adult, #psychics, #upper ya

First Visions (18 page)

BOOK: First Visions
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“Seriously Dad? That’s your big argument
against it?” She covered the phone and whispered to her mother.
“Dad doesn’t believe I’m psychic because I haven’t won the
lottery.” Her mom shot her an exasperated look and Kate could tell
it was killing her to overhear parts of the conversation and bite
her tongue.

“Kate, you’ve been overindulged for too long.
You’re twenty-one and it’s time for you to grow up,” he said with
steel in his tone.

“Overindulged? What do I have a trust fund I
don’t know about? Last time I checked I have a part-time job and go
to college,” she snapped back.

Things had always been pretty easygoing
between her and her father. Even in high school, she avoided the
wild parties and bad boys most of her friends seemed so fond of.
Her grades were good and she had worked since she was old enough to
drive and wanted her own set of wheels. Her dad rarely felt the
need to break out the “why god did I get stuck with such a
degenerate?” voice he was currently using on her.

“You need to begin facing reality and learn
how to take responsibility for your actions. Your mother has
allowed you to stay hidden away in the house and catered to your
every whim. From what I can see, you two have had a codependent
relationship for some time. I think it would be best for everyone
if you left Franklin for awhile and moved in with me. You’ll be out
of the media spotlight and we can set out to get you back on
track.” The thought of living with her father and his new squeeze
was almost enough to make her puke up the contents of her lunch in
her mouth.

“No,” she said simply.

“It wasn’t a request, Katie.” Her father’s
voice was hard and firm.

“Dad, like you said I’m twenty-one, you can
hardly tell me what to do. My life is here and I’m not leaving.”
She couldn’t help, but add, “I’m not you, Dad—I actually have a
hard time deserting my family.”

Her mother saw her becoming distraught and
walked over to her. “Do you want me to speak with him?”

Kate shook her head in response. Her father
had been partially right. For too long, she had depended on her
mother entirely. She needed to learn how to start standing up for
herself and not leaving her mother to do all her dirty work.
Although her mom would do anything for her, Kate couldn’t always
exploit that side to her advantage. Her emotional growth had been
stunted since the day she left the hospital. It was time for her to
play catch up and begin acting her age. This was especially
important if she wanted her father to respect her and accept her
decisions.

“That’s out of line, Kate…”

“What’s out of line is I haven’t seen you in
months even though you live an hour away! Or how about the fact you
have a secret girlfriend I’m supposed to know nothing about? If you
want me to grow up and act like an adult, stop treating me like a
child and be honest with me.” She left her father speechless and
she knew their conversation was taking a quick downturn. “Dad,
we’ll talk another time. I have to deal with this story breaking
and don’t want to fight with you on top of it. Love you, bye.”

She did not wait for his reply and instead
disconnected the call. Her mother gave her a questioning look. Kate
moaned, “Looks like I completely alienated my limited circle of
friends and family.”

“Your father will come around. He’s not a bad
man. I don’t agree with everything he does, but I know he loves you
and is only trying to protect you. But you were right to hold your
ground and explain to him that you are an adult and can manage your
own life. When things cool down, arrange to have dinner and talk
about everything,” her mother advised.

Agreeing wholeheartedly, Kate decided she was
going to tackle everything in her life head on from now on. For
months, she’d been tiptoeing around these feelings about her dad
and it felt good to tell him exactly how upset she really was with
him. It made her realize that she needed to apply this doctrine to
the rest of her life and it would help her avoid a lot of
problems.

Chapter Fifteen

 

Aimlessly, Kate stared at her ceiling as the
night wore on. Claiming a massive headache, she told her mom she
was going to crash early. Holding her phone in her hand, she peeked
again at the text that had come about an hour ago.

It was from Jared and it simply said, “
I’m
sorry.”

Debating whether to reply, she was trying to
piece together what to say. A part of her craved to call her mother
in and tell her she must make Jared promise to never call or text
her again. However, the insight from earlier plagued her and she
knew she was done with hiding from confrontation.

He picked up on the second ring. Without a
hello, he launched into an apology. “Kate, I can’t tell you how
sorry I am about the story. Your mother said reporters were
hounding you two all day.”

“Was it Nikki?”

“Yes,” he replied and swallowed hard. “How
did you know?”

“Lucky guess,” she said dryly. She was glad
to have a definite confirmation—she now could begin working on her
voodoo doll. “It’s not your fault this happened. I just wanted to
call and explain that this doesn’t change anything. I’m still
trying to see into Cori’s head and I’ll pass any info along to
you.”

“Well…I’m grateful for that,” he said
awkwardly. “Kate, about the other night…”

“Oh no, we’re definitely not going
there.
I’ve had a traumatic enough day to not rehash that
particular humiliating debacle. Listen, we’re good, no hard
feelings. I’ll call you, Detective Corbett, if I see another vision
of Cori.” She hoped her formalizing his name conveyed her need to
keep things professional.

She had never heard him sound so off kilter.
“I feel horrible about the news story and everything else…”

“Really, don’t worry, it will work out. To be
honest, I’m getting to the point where I no longer give a rat’s ass
who knows I’m psychic. Talk to you later,” she said and abruptly
ended the call. She was thinking maybe that would be her new
calling card: hang up mid-conversation before anyone had a chance
to say anything she didn’t want to hear.

 

***

 

Julie gave her the silent treatment until
Wednesday. It had been Kate’s prerogative to stay home for a few
days to avoid any reporters. When she requested a week’s vacation
from her job and they didn’t argue, she figured they were probably
relieved she wouldn’t be there causing a stir among the patients.
Reporters had come to the house regularly until Tuesday.
Tragically, that night on the other side of town, an abused wife
had killed her husband after one too many beatings. Kate was
horrified that this was what it took for the media to back off. Her
mother had changed the number of their house line and her cell
phone was never compromised. Not that it mattered since it remained
silent without calls from her father, Julie or Jared.

She was having trouble sleeping. As days
passed without any visions of Cori, Kate prayed she hadn’t been
hurt. In the meantime, the only vision she had was lifted from her
father’s memories. It was a recollection he had of Kate as a
preschooler. She was trying to show off for her parents and slid
down the railing of their stairs. They weren’t impressed and she
landed herself in the emergency room with a deep cut on her knee.
Two needles and five stitches later, she was allowed to leave. Her
father had taken her to the toy store immediately and allowed her
to pick out any toy she desired. A huge dollhouse was brought home
for her that day and it was still stored in their attic after all
these years. The stitches were long forgotten by the time he took
her and her mother out to ice cream.

It was obvious Kate was on his mind and she
had a good feeling their relationship could be mended. He needed to
accept her for who she was and she had to forgive him for his
shortcomings. It sucked her parents were getting a divorce, but it
wasn’t the end of the world. She could still have a healthy
relationship with both of them. Getting along with her father
didn’t have to be a betrayal of her mother. If anything, her mom
encouraged her to work things out with him. She wasn’t a young
child pitted against parents in the midst of a nasty custody
battle. Labor Day was in two weeks and she planned to see if her
father would be interested in maybe planning a mini-getaway.

When someone came to the door around
lunchtime on Wednesday, she was starved for human interaction. She
was almost ready to do a tell-all with a reporter in order to talk
to someone besides her mother. She almost burst into song with the
sight of Julie through the peephole. She didn’t allow her to speak
and instead forced her into an embrace.

“Whoa there, chica. I’m still with Gage. He
hasn’t yet pushed me to play for the other team,” she chided.

Kate gave her an unabashed grin and pulled
away. “You don’t know how good it is to see you. I don’t remember
the last time we went more than twenty-four hours without speaking.
Can you stay and hang out?”

“I suppose I can come in for a bit. I came
here to grant you an audience in order to beg for my forgiveness,”
Julie replied haughtily.

Kate led her into the kitchen before saying,
“I’m ready to grovel, whatever you want. I went to call you like a
zillion times, but I knew the mature thing would be to give you
time.” Motioning to the cold cuts on the counter, she asked, “Do
you want some lunch? I was making a sandwich if you want one.
Anything to drink?”

Julie requested an iced tea and whatever kind
of sandwich she was having. Kate assembled a couple of turkey
sandwiches on wheat and brought the plates over to the kitchen
table.

Julie took the seat across from her. “As much
as I loathe admitting it, I’ve hated not talking to you. No one is
a better sounding board for my numerous complaints about Gage.”

“I always told you, you could do better…”
Kate said while taking a bite out of her sandwich.

“Do you know that for sure? Do you know if
I’m going to end up getting married to Gage?” Julie questioned her
with a wide-eyed look.

Kate almost spit out her sandwich. After a
slight coughing fit, she regained her composure and was able to
swallow. “Oh Julie, it doesn’t work like that. I don’t see the
future, only the past.”

“Damn, you know how awesome it would be to
have a friend who could know the outcome of everything and steer
you clear of every bad decision? Oh well, guess I’ll just have to
settle for you,” Julie said with a smile.

“We’re ok, then? You forgive me?”

“You know I’m terrible at holding grudges. I
tried to figure out why you didn’t tell anyone and I think I
understand a little better. Half the people don’t believe you and
the other half likely want something from you.”

Kate nodded. Julie was typically easily
dismissed because she was obsessed with shopping and had a
reputation for being the life of the party. However, she had a
cunning insight that never failed to surprise Kate.

“I wish I hadn’t kept the psychic thing from
you or my mom. It was even harder because I don’t control what I
see. A few of my visions involved my parents fighting about me.
They were terrified over the possibility I woke up from the coma
with this strange gift. I thought at the time it would be best to
pretend it only happened the one time in the hospital,” Kate said
keeping her hazel eyes lowered.

“Have you ever seen me?” Julie didn’t sound
freaked, merely curious.

“Yes, a couple of times. One of the visions
was when you first met Gage at a frat party and he tried to impress
you with his dynamo beer pong skills. Another involved a time when
you snuck around the back of the middle school and had your first
kiss with Jeff Daniels.”

Julie clapped her hands together and laughed.
“That’s super cool.”

“It’s not going to change anything? Mess up
our friendship?” she asked wearily.

“No way! It only means you know me better
than anyone else and we’re extra special best friends.” Kate felt
some of the stress she’d been experiencing leave her body after
receiving these assurances from Julie. Julie chewed on her
thumbnail thoughtfully. “Anyway, what’s going on with the whole
Preston thing? How did you end up working on that?”

“Remember the mystery guy on the doorstep? He
came here asking for my help,” she explained. Bringing up Jared was
grueling, especially since she hadn’t heard from him. Her mother
had a brief message from him yesterday explaining no new
developments were made on Cori’s case.

“The cop?”

“Yeah, he’s a detective and the girl missing
is his girlfriend’s sister. He heard the story about Matt and I
guessed figured he’d see if I could help.”

“No luck though?”

“I was able to create a sketch of the car and
what the kidnapper looked like. They still haven’t found anything
yet though. It’s very frustrating to not simply reach into the
guy’s brain and pull out an address.” She gave her friend a forlorn
expression. “I feel like I’m letting everyone down—Cori, her
family, Jared…”

“Jared?”

“Yes, the detective.” Kate gave her an
uncertain look and decided she better hold up her end of the
bargain and divulge everything to Julie. “I kind of had a thing for
him.”

“I knew it! As soon as you saw him, I could
tell you were madly in love. What happened?” Julie leaned forward
expectedly.

“We hung out a lot—working on the case and
stuff. He was the one I called for a ride home the night we went
out to the bar. Although he has a girlfriend, it didn’t stop
drunken Kate from trying to seduce him.”

“You slut!” Julie cackled.

Kate placed her head down on the kitchen
table. “Ugh, don’t rub it in. I’m embarrassed enough. Clearly, he
decided to pass on the make-out session. Guess drunk and desperate
girls aren’t his bag.” She took another bite of her sandwich before
continuing. “Anyway, I ended up in hysterics and have kept my
distance ever since.”

BOOK: First Visions
11.63Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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