Page 61 of It's You
“Tell me.”
“We eyespeak.”
“You what?”
“Eyespeak. If my eyes hold his, I can hear his thoughts and vice versa.”
“Jesus. I’ve never heard of that either. What else?”
“The soul flight…going inside? That’s him. It’s related to all of this.”
“Anything else?”
“His body temperature’s higher than mine, I think.”
“Anything else?”
“No.” She decided not to tell Willow anymore. “The way I’m telling you is making it all sound crazy, but it’s not, Will. It’s real. The binding. I…I can’t explain it. But it’s real, I think. I mean, I think we belong to each other.”
Willow stared back at her. Finally, she ran a hand through her short black hair. “Okay. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you kissed Jack Beauloup once when you were fifteen years old and somehow becameboundto him. Where’s he been?”
“Advised to forget me. Tried to forget me. Couldn’t forget me. Returned.”Control.
“Listen, you know that I firmly believe that not everything can be seen and not everything can be explained. I’m just—I’ve never heard of any of this. Let me talk to myNohkom, huh? Ask her about it? See if any of it rings a bell?”
“Sure,” said Darcy, putting her napkin in her lap as their food arrived. Part of her wished she hadn’t said anything. Being with Jack was like being in a bubble, and sharing it all with Willow somehow felt like she wasn’t protecting them.
“Hey.”
Darcy looked up, a fry halfway to her mouth.
“To answer your question? Would it be crazy if you loved him?” Willow smiled gently, shaking her head. “It wouldn’t be crazy. I think maybe you’ve been waiting for him to come back for twenty years. That’s a long time to wait for someone. Why shouldn’t that be enough to grow love? Seems like it grows on much rockier places than that.”
“What’s the deal with Amory?” she segued bluntly, without preamble.
Willow choked on a bite of her sandwich and coughed, putting her glass to her lips for a long sip of water.
“What do you mean?”
“Heuncloggedthething?” She gave Willow a look that said she wasn’t buying it.
“The shower was clogged. Other than that, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Willow pursed her lips, taking another bite of her sandwich and looking out the window.
Darcy reached across the table and placed her fingers on her friend’s arm. “Attends-moi, Will. That’s what I’m talking about.”
Willow jerked her head up to meet Darcy’s eyes, working her jaw, her skin flushing uncharacteristically with color. Her almost-black eyes flashed with anger and confusion and…fear? Yes, fear too, in fearless Willow’s dark eyes. Then suddenly, to Darcy’s horror, they brightened with tears.
Finally, she whispered, “Je suis perdu.”
I am lost.
And then, “He’s too young for me. In a million ways.”
“Like that matters.”
“Itdoesmatter,” Willow insisted. “He’s in his mid-twenties. He’s never left Carlisle. I’m in my mid-thirties. I’ve slept with half of Boston. He’s a contractor. I’m a doctor. He’s your brother. I’d have no leeway. I couldn’t make a mistake. I?—”
“Do you love him?”
