Page 35 of Chasing Dreams
“What do you mean? What ability?”
“To touch things and get impressions.”
“That’s impossible, why would you think that?”
He shooed Daisy away and took her hand. “You told me you started having the dreams of Jack after you’d packed away his and Maggie’s things.”
She thought a minute, remembering the details she’d shared with him. “That’s not exactly what I told you.”
“No, you told me about signing out guests at the inn, and visiting the cemetery, but in there was the part about packing their things.”
She acquiesced. “Okay.”
“You held something of Jack’s, didn’t you?”
She recalled crying all the while she packed the clothing and toys, deciding what to give away, what to keep. Unconsciously her fingers tightened on his. “Yes,” she whispered.
“And after that you dreamed of him.”
She’d been staring unseeingly at the sky, but she focused on him, on his words.
“From childhood you’d trained yourself not to have the visions. As a defense, you learned to shut them out. But whatever you held of Jack’s triggered your perception, and your subconscious released it in the form of dreams.”
Stunned, Shaine clutched his hand until her knuckles turned white. A sudden grasping fear clawed her insides. “What does this mean?” she asked. “What will we do with those files?”
“You’ll touch their things,” he said. “We’ll see if you can get impressions from them.”
Her heart had a frantic workout against her breast. Alarm spread through her body until her hands shook. Lord help her, this was what she’d wanted. This was why she’d left Maya alone with the inn, why she’d made an idiot of herself coming up here and why she’d hammered at Austin tenaciously for the last week.
This was what she’d wanted.
And heaven help her, he was giving it to her.
Chapter 7
The ride to Gunnison was a pleasant one. Shaine had always loved fall, and autumn in the Rockies was a breathtaking sight. Deer bounded across the road, and Austin drove his Jeep Cherokee slowly. Once, a family of porcupines lumbered across, and he waited patiently while they moved aside.
The past couple of days had been revealing, in more ways than one. Not only had he shown her insight into her own ability, but he’d unwittingly revealed his own caring, vulnerable nature, the side of him she’d suspected was there all along.
Austin had a playlist blasting from the rear speakers, and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel to Bread singing Everything I Own. As she’d overheard from time to time since her arrival, he sang a few lines here and there in a surprisingly good voice.
She smiled and leaned back in the comfortable seat. The play of sun through the leaves of the gold and yellow trees dappled the windshield and dash and glinted highlights off Austin’s dark hair.
He plucked a pair of sunglasses from the console and slid them on, glancing over. Instantly he pulled them back off and held them out. “Want ’em?”
She shook her head and he slipped them back on.
“Why this music?” she asked.
“What?” He leaned forward and turned the volume down.
“Why do you listen to oldies and nothing else?”
“I have other stuff.”
“But you don’t listen to it.”
“It’s the only kind of music,” he said with a grin.
