Thirty and a Half Excuses
Page 31

“Well, look at you two!” Neely Kate squealed next to me. She must have seen us and ducked into the restaurant, and I’d been too busy in my staring contest to notice. “Got room for one more?”
Mason looked up at her with a friendly smile. “Of course. You must be the infamous Neely Kate.”
She put a hand on her hip, grinning. “One and the same, Mr. Deveraux.”
“Call me Mason, please.” He stood and grabbed a chair from another table, holding it behind Neely Kate and waiting for her to sit. “I know we’ve seen each other before—the time you applauded after Rose told me off outside my office comes to mind—but I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”
If I were in Neely Kate’s position, I’d probably die of embarrassment, but she was an entirely different girl. “It seems to me you deserved every bit of that tongue-lashing. In fact, there are still people all over the courthouse who lament that it wasn’t caught on video.”
Mason burst out laughing. “Maybe next time Rose will alert someone to whip out their cell phone.”
As Mason slid in Neely Kate’s chair, she shot me an amused and surprised look. The waitress gave our table a wide berth, casting a wary glance my direction, but Mason grabbed her so Neely Kate could make her order.
After the waitress left, Mason turned his attention to my best friend. “We were just talking about you yesterday.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Were you, now?”
I laughed, thankful Mason was being so nice to her, especially after her declaration. But there was no denying that several months ago he’d been a bear in the courthouse. He was better now, but he was still the assistant DA. His position was probably considered higher than hers. It could have been awkward, but he was going out of his way to make sure it wasn’t.
“Rose was telling me about all the intel you’ve gathered about the goings on in the courthouse, and I confirmed that most of it was true. You have a remarkable accuracy rate.”
She pursed her lips into a smug smile. “I have a way of knowin’ things. But not like Rose. Hers is a true gift.”
Mason’s smile faltered. “What do you mean?”
Neely Kate was lifting a glass of tea, and her hand froze. “He doesn’t know?”
The blood drained from my head, and I struggled with what to say. How could I talk my way out of this one?
Mason continued to watch me, his face becoming expressionless. Every second that passed made it even more impossible to escape this conversational black hole.
Neely Kate set down her glass and turned to me. “I’m so sorry, Rose. I thought he knew.”
“So I’m not the only one with secrets,” Mason finally said, indecision in his eyes as he scooted his chair back, his gaze on me.
I wanted to cry. I had to tell him now. We’d finally started talking again, and now he was going to either call me crazy or think I was lying. Any way I sliced it, this was sure to end badly.
Neely Kate turned to Mason, steeling her back. “If you want her to tell you, you better wipe that hurt look off your face. She’s only told a few people. I only thought she would have said something since you two are friends…”
“He’s been avoiding me since the trial.” I pushed out.
She rolled her eyes. “Well there you go. You haven’t been around for her to tell, have you?” Her eyes narrowed. “She only tells people she trusts. Can she trust you with her secret, Mason Deveraux?”
He turned to me, leaning his forearms on the table. “You can trust me with anything, Rose.”
The way he said it made me think he meant something more than just this secret. But it still wasn’t easy.
A lump burned my throat. “You know I don’t have a lot of friends here in Henryetta. But you don’t know the reason why.”
“I thought it was because you tried your best to annoy them all,” he joked, but it fell flat. The fact he was trying to help ease me into this gave me hope he’d understand.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve known things I shouldn’t know.”
He watched me, waiting for me to continue.
“I don’t ask for it.” I looked down at the table and took a deep breath. “They’re visions, like a movie playing in my head. But it’s never for me. It’s always for whoever’s next to me.” I paused, still shocked that I was telling him this. “And after the vision is over, whatever I saw just falls out of my mouth.” I bit my lip and looked up to him hesitantly. “When I told you yesterday that your mother was going to like the plant, I’d just had a vision. I saw her—she’s very pretty by the way—and she was thrilled when you handed it to her.”
Mason swallowed, offering me a weak smile. “Well, that’s good to know.”
At least he hadn’t run away yet.
“And the waitress when she took our order?” he prodded.
I nodded, wanting to cry. “That was a vision.”
“She can’t usually control the visions,” Neely Kate added. “They just pop into her head. That’s how she got into the whole Daniel Crocker mess. She was working at the DMV, and he was her customer. She had a vision of herself dead.”
His eyes narrowed in confusion. “But you didn’t die, obviously.”
“My visions aren’t set in stone. They can change if I alter my behavior based on what I see. I saw visions of myself dead three times during that whole mess, and I—or Joe—did something different than what we would have normally done to change things. The second time, Joe disobeyed orders from his supervisor and saved me when I went to meet Daniel at The Wagon Wheel. Crocker had threatened to kill Violet if I didn’t show up. He thought I had a flash drive with information. Joe gave me a flash drive with false information, but he still suspected Crocker was going to murder me, and I think he was right. I had seen a vision of myself lying in the woods at night with a bullet hole in my forehead. Joe snuck me out the back and hid me when Crocker’s men came looking for me.”