New Revelations: Second Sight Book Two (3 page)

“No, we’ve gotten to third base
…”

Julie cut her off with a snort. “Third base? What
,
are we in middle school?”

“Anyway,” Kate continued, “my point was that his equipment is in perfect working condition.”

“Well, I hate to say it, Kate, but it’s your fault things haven’t gotten as far as you want them to.”

Kate countered incredulously, “My fault? Why do you say that?”

“Because you probably gave him your whole born again virgin spiel about how you only had sex one time and it was th
e worst experience of your life,
”
Julie chided.

“
Well…I may have mentioned it,” she said as she pulled out of the
college
parking lot. She had a few hours to kill before Jared got home from work, so she headed to her house.

“It’s actually kind of sweet if you think about it. He wants to erase the memory of your first time and give you
a night that will knock that god-awful memory of Pete completely out of your head.”
Julie paused before continuing, “I don’t know why you even bring that loser up. After you broke up, I heard a rumor that he collects his own belly button lint in a jar.”

“Julie, you spread that r
umor,” Kate reminded her matter-of-
factly.

“Anyway,” she said pointedly, “you normall
y have terrible taste in men.
I think you should appreciate the fact that Jared cares enough about you that he wants your first time together to be
incredible
.”

“I hope that’s his intention.
I’m just concerned that maybe he’s not really ready to jump into something serious again after breaking up with Nikki. Maybe he’s just not into me,” she wondered aloud.

“Believe me, he’s way into you,” Julie emphasized each word. “Remember when I met him? I had totally awesome cleavage going on and he didn’t sneak a peek once. He could barely tear his eyes off of you.”

Kate smiled to herself. Jared and Julie had met briefly a coup
le of weeks ago when he met the friends
for coffee.
Thankfully,
Julie’s boyfriend
Gage hadn’t been around to scare Jared off with his
potent blend of
extreme obnoxiousness
and boorish manners
.

“I am
not used to these boyfr
iend problems,” Kate confessed.
“
Thanks
Julie for letting me vent.”

“No prob—
I
do
really miss our girl talks. N
ow that we both have boyfriends, I feel like we hardly see ea
ch other,” Julie complained.

Kate pulled into her driveway and noted that her mother’s car was parked outside. She must have finished up dropping off her orders. Her mom sold beauty products and had a pretty successful business going.
Along with the money from the divorce settlement, it allowed her mother to keep them in the house Kate grew up in.

“Let’s make plans, I miss you too,” she replied to Julie.

“Why don’t we go on a double date? Maybe the boys will become best buds and we can hang out all the time,” Julie enthused.

Kate would have to dump Jared immediately if he and
Gage
got along like long lost best friends
. Despite this, she said, “Sounds good. I’ll see when Jared is off of work and we’ll
all have dinner together
.”

“Great, can’t wait! Me and Gage n
eed to have more couple friends,” she replied.
“
Speaking of Gage, have you had any visions about him?”

Kate groaned.
Julie had been
asking her for weeks to use her psychic powers to spy on Gage. For some reason, Julie had suspicions that Gage was seei
ng other girls on the sly. Since her best friend
had been accepting about Kate keeping secre
ts from her in the past, she felt like she owed it to Julie
to comply.

“I really wish you would stop
asking me to get into his head,” she pleaded.
“
I did in fact have a vision of him the other night. It was at some party and he was participating in a rousing game of naked mattress riding.
”

Kate
almost gagged at the memory. Gage was tall and blond
e
, but Kate thought of him more as an inbred moron than an attractive human being.
Kate didn’t have guilt over these thoughts since she knew the feeling was mutual.
“
I could
have lived without that visual,
thank you very much. You know I can’t control what visions I have,” she complained.

Julie couldn’t contain her laughter. “Jeez Kate, you have some lame psychic powers, but thanks for trying. I actually was there that night and he was too stinking drunk to even stand up
,
no less get it on with another girl.”

“I promise if I happen to see anything inappropriate, I’ll let you know. I
’d
rather focus on my boyfriend when I lay in bed at night sexually frustrated, if it’s all the same to
you,” Kate
said
before
entering the hallway
to her house. She shut
the door behind her
. “I
actually just got home
, so let me call you back later.”

“Ok
, bye an
d let me know when we can plan our
date night.”

Kate disconnected the call and tossed her keys on the end table. Walking into the house, she made out the outline of h
er mother sitting at the dining room
table.
Kate studied her for a moment before entering the room. Darlene Edwards had the exact same hair coloring and eyes as Kate. In happier times, her father used to joke that they could be sisters. Her tawny hair was now pulled back tightly in a bun and she
had on a
pair of rea
ding glasses that she was usually too self-conscious
to wear
.

As Kate moved closer, she realized t
ears were str
eaming down her mother’s face as she clutched
a letter she held in her hands. Hearing Kate enter the room,
she
shot her a forlorn expression.
Panicked, Kate rushed over. “Mom, what’s the matter?”

Darlene
took off the glasses and
wiped at the
tears
glistening on her cheeks.
“I’m sorry, honey. I was cleaning and I saw this letter open on your desk. I shouldn’t have pried.”

Kate swallowed hard
and fidgeted with the hem of her tank top
. “It’s ok, Mom. I would’ve told you about it, but it’s pretty depressing. I haven’t had any visions about him so I’m really worried that something horrible happened to him.”

The past week she had been trying to connect with a little boy missing from
Blaine, a town in
Washington
State
. The five-year-old boy
named Max
was taken
two weeks earlier
while out shopping at the mall with his gran
dmother.
There had been no witnesses that came forward and no surveillance footage that showed what happened to him.
His mother had sent Kate
the most heartfelt letter begging for any help she could offer.

Before Kate
had gone to sleep each night this week, she had looked at Max’s picture and tried to concentrate on getting into his mind. When she woke up each morning, she had been disappointed that Max had not been in any of her visions. Alarmingly, o
ne of the patterns she had noticed concerning her psychic gift was that she never had a vision of someone who had died. It made her fear the worse for the little boy’s life.

She sank
down in the
chair next to her mother. “I wish I could do more.
I’ve been reading a lot of books trying to understand more about psychic phenomenon. I haven’t found anything useful yet about how to control my visions.”

Focusing on someone before she went to bed seemed to be the most helpful thing, but it was still no guarantee she’d see a vision of the person. Plus, the visions could be a random memory from their past, not always something useful.
After she had found Matt Spencer two years ago, people from all over the country had sent her letters asking for her help
in finding
their
lost loved ones.
Many also sent her letters as
king her to predict the future—
something she was
thankfully
unable to do.
She would never want to give anyone dire news about their future.

Her mom covered her hand with hers. “You
’
ll
learn more about your power as you go through life
, honey. It may take you a long time to
find
the right book or talk to the right person.”

Kate leaned back into the upholstery of the chair and gave her mother a quizzical look.
“While I try to figure everything out, I still want to help people. I’m just not sure how to go about it, you know? Should I just search for cases online? Or only help those who want my assistance and contact me?”

“I’m not sure, honey,
what’s
the right answer to that question. Have you talked to Jared about it?”

“He actually doesn’t think it’s the greatest idea to go around and chase abduction cases. He’s worried it may be too dangerous and I could end up in another situation like last time.”

“That makes sense. Obviously, it
’
s
a
concern that you would make yourself a target again.” Her mother nodded in agreement. “You should probably try to remain anonymous if you do offer any help.”

“Well, we know how well my
anonymity was protected last time
,” Kate replied dryly
. Re
maining silent for a minute, Kate then gave her mother an earnest expression
. “It’s really great we can talk about the psychic thing now.
It’s nice no longer being
alone
and
trying to deal with all this craziness.”

“You can
talk to me about anything, Katie
,” her mother
assured. After a second’s hesitation, she
gave her
daughter
a thoughtful look.
She ran her fingertips over her pearl necklace before she continued.
“Speaking of
having a talk
…
I was wondering how things were going between you and Jared.”

“Good,” Kate answered before adding,
“
It
still feels kind of unreal. Like I keep waiting for him to realize what a weirdo I am and move on to greener pastures.”

Her mother shot her a scornful look. “Kat
i
e, don’t talk that way. I know I raised a more confident daughter than that.”

“I know you’re right. I just
believe
I’ve been
an open book
with him
while it’s har
d to tell how he feels about me,
”
she divulged.

“Although most of my experiences with men come from my time with your father
, it seems to me that
men are less inclined to discuss
their feelings. Every time I tried to get your father to talk about his emotions, he would tell me I’d been watch
ing too many movies on Lifetime,
”
her mother chuckled.

“Wow, did
n’t know Dad could be so sexist,” Kate retorted.
“
Anyway, it doesn’
t even have to be words though—Jared
could show me that he cared about me.”

Her mother cleared her throat. “
I just hope there isn’t too much showing going on,” she said pointedly.

Her face flushed and she felt momentarily tongue tied.
Kate pretended to have a sudden and intense interest in her split ends as she mumbled,
“Um…no worries there, Mom.”

“Y
ou’re an
adult and I trust your judgment,” her mother assured her.
“
And I like Jared
a lot
. I have a good feeling about the two of you.”

Kate laughed
and
squinted at her mom
. “I hope you’re right. People do say that everyone has a little bit of psychic power inside of them.”

“So, what are your plans for tonight?”