Page 3 of Charm School

“Oh, I don’t think it’s weird,” I said quickly. “I suppose I was just surprised that you read the Tarot like I do.”

“My dad says it runs in the family,” Chloe returned. “Or at least, he heard from my grandmother that her grandmother supposedly had the Sight. He says he’s not psychic at all, but it must have popped up in me.”

She sounded entirely blithe about the situation. But then, if Chloe had been living with her powers for most of her life, then I supposed she was probably used to them by now, even though she looked as though she was about ten years younger than me and therefore barely out of her teens.

Because that was pretty much all I knew about my half-siblings. I knew that Chloe and her brother existed, that her brother was about eight years my junior and Chloe had followed a couple of years later. Jordan Fairfield — my biological father — had made it clear that, while he was willing to pay child support, he hadn’t planned for me to be born and didn’t want to be part of my life beyond making sure I was provided for. Early on, the realization that he’d basically cut me out of his life had hurt a lot, but as time had worn on and I’d gained some perspective, I’d decided it was better that way. Why try to force someone to love you when he viewed you as nothing more than a mistake?

But Jordan had gotten older and wiser after that time when he’d been drumming in a metal band, had gotten his degree in music, had ended up teaching school and having a family of his own. From time to time over the years, I’d wondered if I should try to reach out to my half-siblings, and something had always stopped me. Not my mother; she’d made her peace with the situation, and while she might have tried to gently let me know that we were all living our separate lives, she would never have outright forbidden me to make contact. Instead, I’d let it go.

However, it appeared that Chloe had no intention of doing the same thing.

“So…the Tarot told you where to find me,” I said. “That’s interesting, because the Tarot is kind of how I ended up in Globe in the first place.”

My newfound half-sister beamed. She was a very pretty girl, with the kind of smile that made her light up from the inside. Because the only photo I’d ever seen of my biological father was a grainy snapshot someone had taken of him at the club where he’d been playing when he met my mother, I’d never had a very good impression of his looks, except that he might have been halfway handsome if it weren’t for that ridiculous heavy-metal shag he’d been sporting.

Ah, the ’90s.

So maybe Chloe took after him in looks, or maybe she favored her mother. Since I knew nothing about the woman, not even her name, I couldn’t hazard a guess.

“That’s exactly what led me here,” Chloe said. “I mean, I turned twenty-one in February, and something about that birthday made me start thinking about things. Like, I graduated from college a semester early because of my AP credits and all that, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life. Then I remembered how my dad said once that you were a professional psychic, but everything I tried to look up on you was out of date, and your website was gone altogether.”

“Yes, I took that down after I moved here,” I said, a smile of my own tugging at my lips. Maybe some people would have been annoyed to have an unexpected sibling pop up like this out of the blue, but something about Chloe’s enthusiasm was infectious.

She nodded, dark hair slipping over her shoulder. Like mine, it was straight and thick, although much longer than I’d ever worn it. “That was when I decided to consult the Tarot. The first card I pulled was The World.”

Just as I had several years ago, scared to death that Lucien Dumond was after me and knowing I needed to get out of L.A. as fast as I could. The cards had led me to Globe back then…just as they had for Chloe now.

I tilted my head, indicating she should go on, so she continued.

“First I tried Googling your name and ‘the world,’ but that didn’t pull up anything. And there are more Selena Marxes out there than I’d thought there would be, so I didn’t find anything right away.”

I’d learned that same thing several years earlier, so this particular piece of information didn’t surprise me too much. “But then….”

Chloe’s shoulders lifted. “I kept thinking about it, though, and I had a flash of inspiration. Like, I remembered that the world is a globe, so I looked up that word combined with your name. And bam — there was the link to your store’s website. At first, I couldn’t believe I’d been that lucky, but then I realized it was my intuition that had guided me here.”

Again, since I was someone who generally heeded that same inner voice, I couldn’t fault my half-sister for following her gut, even if doing so was the kind of following blind belief that a lot of people would have considered foolish at best.

“Does your father know you’re here?” I asked.

Her shoulders lifted in a too-nonchalant shrug. “I’m an adult,” she said. “I don’t need to ask his permission.”

Maybe not, but she seemed like a very young twenty-one to me. At that age, I’d been on my own for several years.

But I reminded myself that comparisons were a waste of time and energy, so I put that somewhat judge-y thought aside.

Instead, I asked, “You’re out on your own?”

Her slate-hued gaze slid away from mine. “Well, not exactly,” she said after a long pause. “I mean, I kind of still live at home. But I pay rent. It’s not like I’m sponging off my parents or anything.”

The tone in her voice was just defensive enough that I knew I’d better leave it alone. “That’s your business,” I said lightly. “I suppose I just meant that it was a long way to drive without letting anyone know where you’ve gone.”

At once, Chloe’s expression lightened. “Oh, I told my mom,” she said. “And she told me I just needed to be safe, which I was. Had my phone on the whole time, and didn’t make eye contact with anyone when I stopped for gas. And see? I made it to Globe just fine.”

“That you did,” I replied. “And I have to say it’s a very pleasant surprise to see you here. Do you have a place to stay lined up?”

Her pretty white teeth tugged at her lower lip, and then she said, “Not really. I guess I was kind of hoping I might crash at your place.” Again, her gaze slid toward my rounded stomach. “But I suppose that’s probably not a great idea.”

I couldn’t help smiling, even though I knew some people might have been annoyed by her assumption that it would be just fine to couch-surf at her previously unknown sister’s house. Right then, I could only imagine Calvin’s reaction if I brought Chloe home. Technically, we had the space to put her up, since we still had a spare room even after converting one of the extra bedrooms into a nursery, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t be too thrilled to have a houseguest when our first child was ready to meet the world in less than two weeks.

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