Page 155 of Flirty Fall Fling

Blaire talks low on purpose, quiet enough that only the one in the chair hears what she says. She even covers her mouth, like she’s telling a secret. I could watch her all night.

A few whispers into the reading, Blaire stops moving. She bends over, bringing the hand closer to her face, tracing the branch in the love line. She says the rest, holding the woman’s hand in both of hers. The mask stays still while the shoulders under it shake. Sniffles follow. When it’s over, the woman takes her hand back and walks away without saying a word.

She makes it as far as the kitchen hallway before she pulls the mask off. It’s Maren, the same woman who warned me about Blaire being a witch. She wipes her eyes with the back of her wrist. Doris Jean goes to her, pulling a handkerchief from her inside pocket.

The reading line thins toward the end of the band’s first set. Blaire works through a vampire and the front half of the horse without once looking past them to me. When my turn comes, I sit down in the mismatched chair.

“And what are you supposed to be?” she asks loud enough for the line behind me to overhear.

“The Big Bad Wolf, ma’am.”

Her brow lifts, and a smile plays on her lips. “Palm or card?”

“Card.”

“Ah.”

She sets the deck in front of me to cut. Under the table, she hooks her boot around my ankle. I split the cards in the middle, and she turns over the top card.

The Wheel of Fortune.

She leans across the table and gives it to me in her secret voice. “Everything works out. Luck, love, seasons. The wheel promises one thing only—that nothing stays where it started. It always stops where it’s meant to.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“Always good.” She taps the card once and slides it back into the deck with a grin. “Next.”

The scarecrow’s wife takes my chair before I’m fully standing. She watches me walk away.

Halfway through the next reading, she glances up at the clock over the mantel. Our final hours together are coming to an end, and I want her all to myself.

Blaire’s head comes up from a stranger’s palm, and she finds my gaze. When the last person sits down, she pulls a card, then closes the table. Once the mask is back on her face, she returns to me. Her fingers slide against mine, and we move onto the dance floor. The song is slow, sexy, as she grinds against me. I’m brought back to the bar, back to that moment where it was just us alone, surrounded by strangers.

I spin her around and dip her. Just as the song ends, my phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out and see it’s David.

“I have to take this,” I tell her.

“Okay,” she says with a smile, giving me a thumbs-up before finding her best friends, Autumn and Julie.

I slip down the hallway and inside the dark study. A few lanterns are glowing, but I don’t think anyone’s been in here all night. The band is muffled.

I answer. “I will be there tomorrow. I won’t be late. I don’t need a reminder.”

The line behind him is dead quiet.

“I’m giving you a warning, Cross. This meeting isn’t going to be in your favor. Nothing has changed. Be ready for them to offer you an ultimatum.”

“This could’ve waited until tomorrow morning.”

“Nah. I wanted you to have time to get your shit together. Don’t show up tomorrow hungover.” He’s very direct.

I stay in the study until the drum solo gives out.

The board can have me tomorrow. They don’t get tonight.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say.

“Get some sleep,” David says and hangs up.