Bookstores were one of Lara’s favorite haunts. “I’m game.” Even though she no longer pursued archaeology, whenever she spotted a new book on the subject, she had to buy it. Digging and discovering things would probably always stay in her genes.
The Bookstore was but a short walk from the hotel. When they got inside, the place was nothing like the stores in Denver. Instead of rows of fiction, non-fiction, and reference books, the small space had a section of beautifully polished gemstones. Along the far wall sat several display cases containing gorgeous handmade necklaces, bracelets, and jewelry. There was no shortage of dragon statues and other gothic creatures either. A third area had note cards and spiritual books of all kinds. If she wanted to learn about enhancing her psychic power or do Reiki healing, she’d come to the right store.
Amy slid next to her. “Anything look interesting?”
“You know I love to read, but I’ve never dabbled in this kind of stuff before.” Of late, she’d spent her evenings reading the damned script and trying to memorize her lines.
“Try it, you’ll like it. We all have psychic abilities, you know. We just need to learn to harness the gift.”
She stepped back and studied her friend. They’d been out of school seven years, but even this behavior was odd for Amy. “Are you telling me you’re psychic?”
Her friend laughed. “I wish.” She slung an arm around her shoulder. “Come with me.” When they passed Krista, Amy motioned that she follow.
They headed into a side room that contained a small seating area, some tables, a phone, and a bulletin board. Amy pointed to the contact board. Notecards were plastered all over the cork backing.
“This lists the psychics and when they are available for readings. I thought tomorrow morning you two could get one.”
Perhaps Lara should have grilled Krista and Amy a bit more. If she’d known the trip was going to be like this, she might not have come. However, this was her last chance to enjoy the woods. “Okay, but afterwards, maybe we can go hiking. What do you say?”
Amy held up her hands. “I have to be at work by noon, but I have maps that show where there are some great trails. We have a lot of abandoned gold mines and several caves around Spirit.”
She glanced over at Krista, who was a big outdoor person, too. Her friend smiled. “Once I get some good shots on top of a mountain, I’ll be up for anything.”
She and Krista looked over the names of the psychics. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. When none of the names popped out at her, she was a bit disappointed. Krista picked her name right away. There were only three more women who were doing readings tomorrow morning. “Amy, you pick one for me.”
“That’s not how it works. One name should
speak
to you.”
She glanced at the board again. “How about Imelda Suarez? She sounds cool.”
“Give her a call. See if 10:00 a.m. works. That’s when I’m getting my reading. You two should get a half-hour reading, and then you can hike.”
“Why would I call the psychic? Shouldn’t she know I want a reading?”
Amy lowered her chin and glanced up at her. “No.”
She and Krista made their calls and got the readings at the same time. Maybe they weren’t as busy as Amy had led her to believe.
“Okay, let’s chow.” Tomorrow, they had a big day planned.
* * * *
Lara was a bit nervous getting a psychic reading. Not that she believed in such things, but what if the psychic told her something terrible? Could she really dismiss it and say it was all hooey? What if she learned the movie was going to be a big flop and ruin her career? Did she really want to hear something like that even it was probably fake?
Amy led the way. “This is where you go, Lara.” They stood in front of an adorable cottage, painted purple with yellow and pink trim with a nice screened-in side porch.
“It’s cute.”
“Go in, and meet us back at The Bookstore when you’re done.”
They’d only walked about two blocks. “Will do.”
She wasn’t sure what to expect from a psychic, but the woman who answered the door wasn’t it. Instead of looking like the grandmother type, she was maybe thirty, tall, blonde, and very pretty.
“You must be Lara. Come in. Do you mind if we sit on the porch? I love breathing the fresh air.”
She didn’t care. The sooner they got started, the sooner they would finish. “Sure.”
Probably just to help her relax, the woman asked her birth sign and where she was from. Lara just wished this woman had been older. That would have implied more experience.
“What do you want me to ask the spirits?” Imelda asked.
“What do you mean?”
The young woman smiled. “Most people want to find out about their future. What aspect are you interested in?”
“Shouldn’t you know?” As soon as those words left her mouth, she wished she could have taken them back. “I’m sorry. I just thought—”
Imelda chuckled and held up a hand. “I get that all the time. We only have half an hour, and I need to know which aspect of your future you want to know about.” She leaned forward. “Personally, I don’t know you, but my spirit guides do.” She moved her hands outward as if to imply they were present around them. “They’re the ones who can see into the future. I’m just a receptacle for the information.”
This was really hokey, but if she walked out, she’d have to tell Amy, and she wasn’t ready for the grief. Okay, she’d play along. If she asked about the movie’s success, any knowledge of the outcome might color her enthusiasm. Instead, she wondered if she and Brad would fall in love. “When will I meet the man I fall in love with?”
Please say soon.
She bet the psychic got that question all the time, too. The woman closed her eyes and inhaled. Her fingers began to move as if she were typing something. At least she didn’t place her palm on her temple and hum. That was so overdone in movies.
“They’re sending me the number two.”
“Two? I’m going to love Mr. Two?” She refrained from laughing. There was no number two in the name of the movie.
Imelda kept her eyes closed, but Lara swore there was a hint of a smile forming. “Perhaps it means you’ll love two men.”
There was only one leading man. Maybe a secondary lead would catch her attention and she’d end up having to choose one over the other. That might be a nice problem to have. “What else?”
The woman’s brows pinched as if in pain. “I’m getting mixed images. That’s a bit odd. It’s like I’m seeing a screen and it’s flickering.”
“What does that mean?” Perhaps the fact that the movie was being shot overseas caused a problem.
You can’t possibly believe this crap.
“I’m not sure.” She inhaled. “Here we go. I see arms wrapped around a person.”
She liked that image. “That’s good, right?” The script said there would be a lot of love scenes.
The psychic opened her eyes. “Usually, it means someone wants to protect another person.”
That caught her off guard. “Protect me from what?” She prayed something bad wasn’t going to happen to her, like her plane getting hijacked on the way to Europe or, worse, crashing.
Stop it. This isn’t real.
Imelda held out a palm. “They are showing me snarling teeth. I’m thinking that means someone wants to harm you.”
She wasn’t liking this at all even if it was just an acting job on Imelda’s part. Shouldn’t a reading leave her wanting to come back? “Who wants to harm me?” If her spirit guides could give Imelda a name only Lara recognized, perhaps that would lend some credence to this whole affair.
“My guides send me images that have meaning to me, and I have to interpret them. Sometimes there is more than one meaning.”
She hoped that was the case. Maybe the number two meant an address or perhaps the release date was the second of the month.
Wait a minute!
What did it matter? She didn’t believe in this stuff anyway.
Don’t be rude
.
Listen to what the woman has to say.
Remember, Amy lives in this town.
“Anything else?”
“I’m getting the image of the letter
T
for a name. It sounds like the word
tar
or
tear
.”
How romantic
.
Not
. She had to remember not to go to La Brea Tar Pits in California. A small smile softened her face at her own image. “Meaning?” Brad Wilkens didn’t have a
T
in his name.
Dear Lord in Heaven
. The letter
T
better not stand for terrorist!
Hee, hee.
“They’re now sending me an image of a bull, which to me means great strength. However, it represents a different kind of power than I’m used to seeing.”
Her shoulders relaxed, but she wished the psychic would answer her questions directly. It didn’t matter. This wasn’t real. However, Brad was playing a CEO in the movie, which implied power.
“When will I meet him?” She still hadn’t bought into the concept of
two
meaning two men. Sure she’d heard of a lot of towns, especially in the West, accepting ménage relationships, but something like that would just make life harder to deal with. Hell, dealing with one ego was a road she wasn’t ready to travel.
“Soon.”
Soon was good since Lara was leaving at the end of the month for Monaco.
Imelda inhaled. “The guides are also showing me a dark cloud. Are you troubled?”
Lara placed a hand on her chest, using her best acting skills. “Not me. I’m about to go on the adventure of a lifetime. I got the role of my dreams.”
The woman’s brows pinched. “They’re also showing me a turbulent ocean.”
This was bullshit. “I’m here in Spirit with friends now and am quite calm.” That was assuming this ocean implied her life was turbulent. It better not mean that crossing the ocean would be a problem.
The woman lightly shook her head. She studied Lara for a moment. “They’re gone.”
She was glad. She so wanted to get out of there. Lara stood. She had no desire to ask who these spirit guides of hers were. “Thank you.” She handed the woman the money for the session and rushed out of there.
That had been a bust. She was supposed to have gotten a thirty-minute reading. She lifted her phone to check the time. “Holy shit.” She’d been in there over an hour. How could that have happened?
When she arrived at The Bookstore, both Krista and Amy were seated outside. As soon as she came near, they jumped up.
Amy clasped her hands. “We were worried about you. How did it go?”
She wasn’t sure how to answer the question. “It was weird in more ways than one.” They sat down and she told them as much as she could remember.
Krista laughed. “Two men, huh? You got lucky. Mine told me she saw a man and a woman in my future. When I questioned her about whether I’d be hiring two new people, she acted a bit strange and said she got an image of large animals. When I asked if she believed I’d be photographing animals, she said she wasn’t sure how to interpret the meaning.”
Two down, one to go. “And you, Amy? Was the great Ms. Whitefeather awesome?”
Her chest seemed to cave in. “She was, but she saw tears and a coffin. Her spirit guides wouldn’t tell me exactly what it meant.”
She was not in the mood to discuss anything depressing. She was here for a good time. “This talk of the future is making me hungry. How about a quick bite to eat and then we go hiking?”
Amy stood. “I have to get ready for work, but I suggest the hotel dining room. The food is really good and quite reasonable.”
“Works for me.”
They walked the one block back to the hotel where Amy hugged them good-bye. “Maybe we can get a drink after dinner? I get off work at eight.”
She didn’t expect their hike to take more than a few hours. “Come up to the room when you finish work.”
Krista and she went upstairs after they picked up the map detailing the day hikes from the front desk. Their packs were in the car, so all they had to do was change and fill their water bottles.
Outside, the day couldn’t have been nicer. It was in the midseventies with only a few clouds. “You want to take the lift to the top and go from there?” Lara waved the brochure indicating a few of the routes began at the top and worked their way down to the bottom.
“Sure.”
When they jumped on the lift, she almost wished it had been winter. “Maybe when the movie finishes, we can come back and ski.”
“You’ll be too famous to be seen with me.”
Lara rolled her eyes, hoping that her privacy wouldn’t be breached too much. “That will never happen.”
“You wanna bet?”
No.
She’d already done three television spots in Denver and had one more and a few others around the country next month. She’d been recognized in a few restaurants already. Hopefully, no one here had any idea who she was. This might be the last time she could be anonymous. When she’d been in Europe, she’d been stopped on the streets for an autograph even though her roles had been rather small. She wondered how much more attention she’d get after the movie with Brad was released. God forbid that bodyguards became necessary. She shivered. Maybe she’d just do one film and live the rest of her life on that money.