you’re a bus driver!” Jenna raised her champagne glass and clinked it against Grace’s, sloshing the fizzy drink onto their hands.
“Thank you, thank you very much.” Grace raised her glass to her lips and closed her eyes, relishing the yeasty taste of her favorite vintage. She had half a case of it left—one of the more valuable parts of her divorce settlement—and the way things were going, she might just work her way through it this weekend.
She raised her glass to her new license, which she and Jenna had propped against a candle in the middle of the table. “To me,” she said with a giggle. “Oh, and to Bob for taking care of all the kids—and the dog—tonight, so we could have a girls’ night.”
“To Bob,” Jenna repeated, raising her own glass again. She took a sip then set it down and asked, “Say, where’s your mom?”
“Bridge club.”
Jenna frowned. “I thought they met during the day.”
“She’s got a bunch of them now.” Grace shrugged. “Several of them meet at night. In fact, they go really late.” Silently, Grace hoped that she didn’t end up at the high end of middle-aged alone and filling her time with card-playing.
“Ooh, maybe she’ll meet someone.” Jenna smiled. “Some dashing, card-playing Omar Sharif type.”
“Please,” Grace said. “Mother hasn’t been on a date since before I was born. I can’t even imagine her starting now.”
Jenna nodded. “It would be weird. But what about you? Think you’re going to get back into dating here?”
Grace groaned. “Who would I go out with? You snagged the only good man in Blue Moon Bay. And he’s not even from here.” Bob had moved into town ten years ago when he’d got a job with a carpentry company. He and Jenna had met when she’d hired him to build bookshelves.
Jenna raised an eyebrow. “I can think of one or two guys here who used to be interesting to you,” she said in a sing-songy voice.
“My track record with old Blue Moon love interests isn’t so good, Jen.”
“Well, Michael didn’t turn out so hot, but maybe someone else would. Let’s do your tarot cards and see,” Jenna said eagerly, reaching for her bag. “I brought them along so I could practice on you.”
“No, no, no, I don’t believe in those things.”
“So what’s the harm then?” Jenna asked, opening a small leather pouch. “Just do it for fun. Here.” She thrust the large deck into Grace’s hands. “Shuffle.”
“This is stupid,” Grace protested, shuffling.
“No, it’s not. Now cut the deck.”
“I don’t believe any of it.” She cut the deck.
“The cards will tell,” Jenna said, in a spooky voice, then laughed. “Pick one and put it here, then put the next one here.”
Grace picked cards according to Jenna’s direction, and Jenna set them up in an elaborate layout. Finally, with ten cards facedown on the table in the shape of a pentagon, she put the rest of the deck aside and started turning the cards over.
“This is where you are right now,” Jenna said. “This card represents whatever is either helping or hindering you. Hmm. The king of cups.” She considered the card. “A man with dark hair and blue eyes. Who could that be?”
“This is rigged.” Grace grabbed the book from Jenna and read the description for herself. Sure enough, it said the card could indicate a man with dark hair and blue eyes. A powerful yet fair man. An honest man.
Or it could represent those qualities, perhaps in someone else Grace knew. That’s what it had to mean, she figured, not an actual man with dark hair and blue eyes. And certainly not Luke Stewart, who, when last she’d seen him, had lambasted her for no good reason. She looked closer. The book didn’t say anything about personal attacks.
“You picked the card,” Jenna reminded her lightly, taking back the book. “This guy looks pretty significant in your life. Maybe a boss?” She winked. “In any event, you should be hearing from him soon.”
“Like on Monday? When I go to work? Remarkable prediction.”
Jenna ignored her sarcasm. “And there’s something about a journey. Maybe that’s driving the bus.”
Grace thought of the long route Luke had drawn up for her. “It’s going to feel like a journey. Every day.” Privately, she thought about her return to Blue Moon Bay and what a journey that had been, both literally and figuratively. What about the future journey back to New Jersey? Was she really going to be able to do that in a year, as she’d planned? Already, she was in a bigger financial hole than she’d anticipated. Grace had a bad feeling that her budget wasn’t going to work out quite the way she’d hoped.
“Well, don’t worry, there’s great prosperity here too. A huge fortune or inheritance.” She looked up at Grace. “Got any fabulously rich relatives I don’t know about?”
Grace flashed her a wry grin. “If I do, I don’t know about them either.”
Jenna looked back at the cards, then at the book she was using to check her interpretations. “Maybe it’s going to be more of a spiritual fortune. Yup, three of cups, here’s another love card.”
Grace watched, sipping her champagne with increasing frequency, as Jenna told her that her entire future was wrapped up with this dark-haired, blue-eyed man.
What if that were true? Grace wondered. Could she even imagine getting involved with a new man? It wasn’t that she still felt stung by Michael. Enough time had passed that she’d grown to realize she and Michael had never had the kind of close relationship she’d pretended they did. He didn’t get her jokes. Didn’t care about her life or her interests. Barely even showed any curiosity about their son. She was better off without him, and she knew that now.
But a new man? It was hard to picture. When she tried to imagine someone like the man Jenna described, all she could see was Luke Stewart.
And he certainly wasn’t a romantic interest for her. Or vice versa. That couldn’t be more plain.
When she was finished with the reading, Jenna sat back and said, “The cards don’t lie.”
Grace brought her focus back to Jenna. “Maybe not, but I’m not so sure about the reader.”
“Hey, I object to that! Out of seventy-six cards, you picked these ten. Check the interpretations yourself.” Jenna thumped her hand on the Mother Earth Tarot book on the table. “It’s very clear.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Then I guess a tall, dark stranger will be coming to town to sweep me off my feet soon.” She shook her head. “Seriously, Jenna, that’d be great for starry-eyed teenagers who want their fortunes told, because you know there’s always romance in their future, but I’m not buying this for me at all.”
“Suit yourself.” Jenna gathered the cards and put them back in the case. “I’m not sure how much
