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How could she know what had happened when he was seven? The question chased Jack’s thoughts round and round until he could barely concentrate on the path they were taking.
Alice had urged her mount forward after his last remark and kept going without looking back. She was angry, or disappointed, or… something. He couldn’t start their relationship off on a lie, though. Maybe she’d fooled everyone else in Chance Creek, but not him. He simply couldn’t play along with some mumbo jumbo ruse.
Not for a whole lifetime.
The truth was too important. The truth righted wrongs. Explained puzzles. Caught criminals. It was lies that left things in the dark—
But he didn’t want to lose his chance with Alice. Surely there was some way to make her see she could tell him anything.
He urged his own gelding forward, hoping she wouldn’t try to get away. To his surprise, Alice slowed down and waited for him.
“I’m not lying,” she told him matter-of-factly when he caught up. “I don’t expect you to believe that now. You have to figure it out for yourself. When you do, just remember I was always telling the truth.”
There wasn’t any answer to that, so Jack kept silent. Alice sighed, and they rode on for a time without speaking.
“Are you ready for your father to come home?” Jack asked finally.
“No. I thought it would never happen. And to come now of all times, when I’m so rushed. I should probably be getting back,” she added, looking up at the sky as if there might be answers to all her problems there. “I need to finish those dresses.”
“This is a big deal for you, huh?” Jack asked, urging Button even closer. The crisp air was doing him good as they moved through the snowy landscape. Ahead of them, the land fell away to reveal mountains in the distance. There was something about an open vista that put things in perspective, Jack thought.
“The biggest. I’m usually called on by local and regional theaters. Occasionally I’ll get a commission from a movie company for something unusual. My costs are low in comparison to Hollywood costumers. This takes it to a whole new level. I really want this job. I’ll be in charge, for once,” she explained. “The lead designer.”
“I’m sure you’ll get it,” Jack said cautiously. It was what he dreaded.
“If I do, I’ll have to leave.” She studied the mountains, too.
“Isn’t that what you want?”
“Yes.” But she didn’t sound at all sure, and Jack’s heart began to beat faster. He’d mistaken her as being aloof when he’d first come and had been quickly proven wrong. Now he was assuming she wanted to leave Two Willows for good. Was he wrong about that, too?
“How long would you be gone?”
“Months. Possibly more than a year.”
“What about us?” He couldn’t help himself. He had to know.
Alice turned on him. “Us?”
“You. Me. Wedding bells. I’m supposed to marry you, remember? I’ve already sent out my save the date cards.”
“No, you haven’t.” The corner of Alice’s mouth quirked. “At least, I hope not.”
“All right, I didn’t send out cards. Still a bit of a let-down.” He liked to see her smile. “I was getting excited for our wedding night.”
Alice blinked. Her mouth opened, but no words came out, and Jack laughed long and loud, until he realized she’d gone funny again. She was gazing into the distance, but he’d bet she wasn’t seeing those mountains.
“Alice?”
She snapped back, blinked again, took in his proximity and blushed furiously. Jack cocked his head. “What were you thinking about just now?”
Alice turned her horse around and began to ride back the way they’d come.
She’d never had a vision like that.
When they overtook her, Alice saw, smelled, heard—even tasted things. They were so realistic it was jarring to come out of them and find herself back where she started.
This time, though—
This time her vision had been all about touch. Jack touching her. Undressing her.
Pulling her close.
She’d been cold, and Jack’s body had been fiery hot.
Her body had ached with need for him. She’d wanted him inside—
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Jack called, struggling to get Button to turn around so he could come after her. “Another one of your visions? Did you get a glimpse of our wedding night or something when I mentioned it?”
Heat flushed through her again, and she thought her cheeks must be scarlet. Of all things to guess—although she had no idea if it had been their wedding night. As usual, the vision was far from clear.
She urged on her mount, but Jack kept pace. “You’re blushing. You did see us together!” he crowed. “I didn’t know you were that kind of clairvoyant—”
“Shut up!” He was insufferable. He didn’t even believe in her visions, and he was mocking her.
“Where were we? In bed? In a hotel? In a tent?” He was still laughing. “In the maze?”
Another vision tried to catch hold of her, but Alice kept it at bay through sheer will. They had been in the maze. She didn’t know how he knew that, and she tried not to let her face confirm his suppositions, but—
“You sure blush a lot.”
Alice let out a sound between a groan and a cry of rage. “Leave me alone!”
“I want to know everything. What position. How many times. Was I—”
“Come on, Priscilla. Home.” Amelia had taught Alice to never, ever, ever insert a vision into someone else’s mind. She hoped her mother would forgive her this one time. She conjured up an image of the stable, a bucket of oats, a warm rub-down and a comfortable stall. Priscilla leaped into a gallop. Soon they’d left Jack far behind.
“Meet you in the maze!” he called out, struggling to keep up.
“Good luck with that!” Alice yelled back and left him in the dust.
So she’d pictured them doing it in the maze. And then tried to pass it off as a vision.
If she thought he was going to let her get away with pretending some higher power had sent her the image, she was wrong. Jack directed Button back the way they’d come. If she wanted him, she needed to own it. At least her thoughts were tending in a positive direction. If she saw them together in the maze, sooner or later she’d let him in, wouldn’t she?
In both senses of the word.
The thought tugged at him, turning him on. If Alice was thinking about being with him, she wasn’t as immune to him as she was pretending to be.
He caught up with her at the stable and pitched in to help with the horses, watching her for clues and copying her motions.
“So, what else have you seen us do together?”
“Nothing.” Alice worked at the buckles of Priscilla’s saddle, turning her back to him.
“I think you’re lying,” he pushed on. “You’re supposed to know the future. So—when’s the first time you’ll see me naked?”
“Never, if I can help it.” She kept working.
“We were fully dressed when you saw us on our wedding night? Interesting.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“We weren’t dressed?”
“You are so annoying.” She got Priscilla’s saddle off and put it away. Jack followed her.
“I was dressed but you weren’t?” he guessed.
“Oh, my god, would you let it go? I did not see our wedding night!”
“You’re going to be so hot for me you won’t even let me get my clothes off?” Jack persisted. A stirring beneath his belt warned him he’d better not let this go too far if he didn’t want to get uncomfortable.
“How do you know you won’t be so hot for me you’ll be the one who can’t wait?” Alice faced him down.
“I could see that,” he admitted.
Alice flushed again.
Jack couldn’t help himself. “Are we really going to do it in the maze?”
“Seeing as you can’t get into it, I highly doubt it.”
“Ouch,” Jack said and clapped a hand to his chest. “Direct hit.” He staggered a few paces before straightening again.
Despite herself, Alice laughed. It would be easier to keep her distance from Jack if he wasn’t kind of fun to be around. Her body was thrumming with all this talk about sex. They’d both been partially dressed in her vision, because it looked like it was damned cold in the maze, but other flashes were seeping into her mind—other encounters—
And Jack was naked in those.
Naked and… gorgeous.
There was something about a man who was as at ease in his body as Jack was. His strong shoulders strained his shirt and jacket as he moved. His grin came easily around her, although she wasn’t sure that was always the case for Jack. He was a serious man.
Serious about trying to get in her pants, she thought wryly.
She couldn’t write him off as a good-time guy, though. He wanted more than that, and despite herself, the idea of a long-term relationship with him was more intriguing than she’d like to admit.
She stole a glance his way. Ran her gaze over his body. Getting close to him could be heavenly.
But they weren’t there yet.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to marry me,” Jack went on.
“I’m not. You can’t even get in the maze, so there isn’t going to be any sex—or any wedding, either.” She had to keep her head about her, no matter what her body was saying.
“Is that what it’ll take to change your mind? I need to find my way into the maze? I’m going to figure out how you’re closing the entrance, you know.”
And there they were, back at the problem again. Alice got back to the job at hand. “I’m not doing anything. I’ve already told you—”
“It isn’t magic. That’s not how the world works.”
Ouch, Alice thought, but she didn’t say it out loud or stagger around to make her point. Instead she finished with the horses in silence. Jack took the hint and did the same. She’d been right all along. He wasn’t the man for her and wouldn’t ever be—not if he refused to see what was right in front of his face.
When they were done, she headed for the door.
“Alice—”
She half turned. “What?”
“When’s our first kiss?”
The vision hit her too fast to prevent. Standing in the stable, the horses in the background, the smell of manure and wood. Jack stepping forward, cupping her chin—
When his mouth met hers, vision and reality coalesced in a shock of sensation, and Alice, light-headed, lifted her hands to brace them on his shoulders. Jack tugged her closer, slid his hand to the nape of her neck, and she went up on tiptoe to lean into the kiss.
As his mouth moved over hers, Jack filled her senses. The masculine smell of him, the roughness of his jacket under her hands.
When he finally pulled back, she was breathless.
“Sorry,” he said huskily.
“Sorry?” she echoed.
“I… that wasn’t fair.”
What did fair have to do with any of this, Alice wondered, and went up on tiptoe to kiss him again.