Page 51 of No Such Thing as Serendipity
“Actually, Emma said it.” I smiled, thinking of all the times Emma had pushed me to lighten up and stop trying to control so much.
“I like your sister.” Robyn paddled closer to me as she avoided a large rock on her side of the creek.
“She’s the best.” I meant it. I couldn’t imagine what I’d do without her. “She’s got the patience of a saint. I know I disappoint her sometimes.” I let out a sharp exhale from my nose. “More like a lot, but she just keeps being Emma.”
“I see how much she adores you.”
“Sometimes I wonder why.”
“I’m betting she knows your heart. What’s underneath that thick exterior of yours.”
I turned and met her gaze. Our kayaks were only a few feet apart, much closer than I’d realized. Being so near, my thoughts jumbled. I wasn’t used to talking to someone like this. “So you’ve diagnosed that already?”
“The first day.” She winked at me before she looked ahead at the water. “I’ve been doing this for a while. I feel people’s energy.”
What the fuck did that mean?I couldn’t resist asking. “What kind of energy do I have?”
“Most attendees are eager to be here. About ten percent are skeptical, having been coaxed or coerced by someone else.”
I belonged in the latter category, but I didn’t know where she was going with this.
“Of those who don’t want to be here,” Robyn continued, “now and then, something magical happens. It’s like fate or serendipity.”
I groaned.
Robyn shot me a look. “Did I say something wrong?”
I shook my head. “Sorry. You just used an Emma word. She said I needed to be less controlling and let serendipity happen.” I chuckled. “I told her there was no such thing as serendipity.”
“You and I will have to agree to disagree,” Robyn said. “I’m a big believer in serendipity.”
“For me, it’s just like luck, which I also don’t believe in. Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity, so we make our own luck.”
“So can we make our own serendipity?”
“Hmm.” I let go of the paddle and put my hand against my chin. “Interesting question.” I was just playing with Robyn. Even so, the question gave me pause.
“Oh, no,” Robyn said. “Giving me your thinking pose won’t get you out of answering.”
“Damn it, you don’t miss much, do you?”
“I try not to.”
I returned my hand to the paddle and rowed for a few strokes before I said, “I doubt it since serendipity is just stuff that kinda falls out of the sky. Comes from nowhere.”
“What if I counter and say it’s just like your definition of luck?”
“How so?”
“Serendipity happens when you open yourself up to new experiences. When you allow yourself to let go.” Robyn held out her paddle and motioned to their surroundings. “Coming to a place like this.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. I’ll have to contemplate that.” I turned to her. “But I won’t admit any of this to Emma because she’d never let me live it down.”
Robyn pretended to zip her lip. “I’m not saying anything.”
“Hey, you never answered what kind of energy you think I have.”Jesus, what was my problem?The water and the sun must be making me loopy. I didn’t have conversations like this with people, and I certainly didn’t ask them what kind of energy I had.
“Your internal energy doesn’t match your external façade,” Robyn began. “Your energy is as pure as Emma’s, but you hide it.”
