God's Eye
Page 43
“I don’t know.” Something in the middle distance held his attention. “I just picked up and came here, you know. Looking for something or someone who knew me. I didn’t expect to find you.”
It didn’t scare her that he said it that way. And when he asked if she wanted to go with him, something calm settled inside her and she nodded. “Someday. I’m booked up the rest of this week, though.”
His grin matched the one spreading across her own face. “It’s a date then. Maybe for your birthday.”
This time she laughed as she shook her head. “My birthday’s in November, not a good beach month for the Atlantic. At least not the North Carolina part I’m familiar with. We’ll have to go before then.”
Somehow, here she was making plans with the man she’d met in the coffee shop three days ago.
His fingers reached out and snaked through hers, and it felt like they belonged there. She’d gone back to sleep last night. He’d told her that she was carrying too heavy a burden, and it had lifted a little. The earth was shifting underneath her again. And finally in a good way. It felt more solid and less sad with him here. Even though she didn’t really know what he was, and he didn’t seem to either.
His eyes crinkled at the edges and his voice turned her back to the conversation. “Ah, a Thanksgiving baby?”
“No, the sixteenth. Earlier than turkey day, but close enough to be obnoxious.” As the last words came out of her mouth his expression changed. He was looking at her oddly. “What?”
Aaron tried to shake off the strange expression, but it didn’t quite work. “When on the sixteenth? What time of day?”
“Around four in the morning.” She started to add that her mother joked she’d been contrary from the beginning. But that had always been her problem: she’d never been contrary. So she didn’t say it, and instead asked him again. “What is it?”
What could he possibly tell her that was stranger than that he had no memory?
She found out.
“When I overdosed, apparently I killed myself. I died on the table. I was dead for about fifteen minutes. Then they shocked me back. It was on November sixteenth.”
Oh, that was weird. “At 3:54 a.m.?”
“No. Not even close. Well, aside from the date.” His fingers tightened around hers. “It was at 9:07 in the evening. I remember everything after that. And nothing before.”
She heard his voice as though from a distance.
9:07 p.m. in Michigan was 6:07 here. At 6:07 p.m. she had been at Margot and Liam’s, sitting in front of her lopsided birthday cake. Ever the organized one, her friend had brought the cake to the table at six, just as she had told everyone she would, but it had taken a few minutes to get the candles ready and get everyone singing. At 6:07, Katharine had likely been blowing out the candles.
Oh, dear God.
Her breath came faster and her chest worked to get air as she looked down at their linked hands.
Thoughts slammed through her mind. The jolt the first time he’d touched her.
The look on his face when he smelled the food and how he seemed to enjoy it so much.
The way he absently ran the sand through his fingers.
“Aaron?” Katharine fought through all the images that were rolling back on her. She could practically hear the links finding each other in her brain and clicking together. She forced herself to look at him, to look into his eyes as he looked up at her from where he lay back on his elbows, waiting for her to tell him something of importance.
“What?” The clear, open shade of green told her everything she needed to know.
She had missed it at first.
Just like last time–she hadn’t seen what was right in front of her. But she did now.
She did recognize him.
OTHER NOVELS BY AJ SCUDIERE
Resonance
Earth is Overdue …
Vengeance
There are a million ways to die,
some are just more fun than others
Available at www.AJsAudioMovies.com
Follow the making of AJ’s fourth novel, Phoenix, at
www.PhoenixTheBook.com