“What’s that knowing look?” Amber asked, her focus on Clara.
Folding her hands in her lap, Clara replied, “I have my feelings, that’s all.”
Sharon, cheeks pink, asked, “Care to share them?”
Clara was happy to oblige. “You’ll be giving Gabrielle’s daughter a playmate soon,” she said, pointing to Sharon. “And you, not for a while.” Clara inclined her head toward Amber.
Clara didn’t know if she had second sight or just the deep intuition that ran in her family, but Sharon had a glow about her that told Clara the other woman would be pregnant soon, while Amber was too busy enjoying her new husband, her move east from Vegas and her recent job as a concierge in a hotel chain new to downtown Boston.
“Am I right?” Clara asked.
Both women glanced away, neither eager to reveal their personal feelings.
Clara merely smiled. “Time will tell,” she mused.
“Drinks on the house,” the waitress said, stopping by with a tray full of their usual orders. They’d been having these Ladies’ Nights for the past four months and their choices were pretty standard.
“Thank Seth and George for us,” Gabrielle said, referring to the father and son owners.
“Yes, and also remind them that if they don’t stop doing this soon, they won’t have any profits,” Amber said in full business mode.
But they all knew that after nearly losing their business, George and Seth Saybrook were doing all they could to repay people for their kindness during the rebuilding.
“Will do,” the brunette said, laughing. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
Another half hour passed as they filled one another in on their lives, then the subject turned to Jason. Clara was surprised they hadn’t focused on him earlier. These women were so happily settled down they wanted everyone around them to be the same way.
Two Corwin cousins down. One more to go.
“Sharon, you’re the one who found Jason with Lauren Perkins at the festival, and we all know Uncle Edward heard he’s working on restoring her grandmother’s house,” Gabrielle said, eyes gleaming. “So do you know what’s going on?”
“Wait, how does Sharon know Lauren?” Amber asked.
“Lauren used to spend summers with her grandmother and we were friends,” Sharon said.
“Then didn’t you know her, too, Gabrielle?” Clara asked. Sharon and Gabrielle had been childhood pals.
Gabrielle shook her head. “Most summers my family visited relatives in Paris. I really never met Lauren until right before the fire.”
“This is getting complicated,” Amber said, laughing. “But back to Jason and Lauren. What’s going on with them?”
“I know there’s mutual interest,” Sharon replied with her usual caution. “But I also know Lauren’s fixing up the house so she can sell it to waiting buyers. So if you’re aiming to matchmake, I think you’re out of luck. She’s leaving for Paris at the end of the year.”
“Paris? What’s in Paris?” Gabrielle asked.
“Haute Couture Fashion Week. I’d think you would have that on your radar, considering how much you love clothes and shoes,” Sharon said, laughing. “Lauren Perkins is an up-and-coming dress designer.”
Clara saw Gabrielle’s astute mind start to work. The woman loved fashion and anything related to style. “I don’t recognize the name Lauren Perkins…Wait!” She snapped her fingers. “LP Designs, right? She’s with Galliano now.”
Sharon looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think that’s the name of her company. I’m not sure.”
“How could you not know? Oh, never mind.” Gabrielle rolled her eyes at her friend. “I’ll have to get over to the house and reintroduce myself.”
“So you don’t hold it against her?” Sharon asked, obviously relieved. “That her sister and grandmother tried to destroy your husband’s family? That they perpetuated the curse?”
“No, why would I?” Gabrielle said. “She didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Clara smiled, so pleased at the friends she’d made, their wisdom and openmindedness.
“So if she and Jason got together, a Corwin and a Perkins,” Sharon pushed, spelling things out, “you really wouldn’t care?”
“If she made Jason happy, I’d be all for it!” Gabrielle announced.
Sharon nodded. “Good, because I really want her to be accepted while she’s here. I didn’t want anyone to hold what her family did against her.”
“Well, she won’t get that kind of treatment from us,” Gabrielle promised.
“I agree,” Amber said. “Of all people, I know what it’s like to try and outrun past mistakes.”
Clara smiled. Yes, Amber would understand. She’d met Mike Corwin in Vegas, married him on a whim and abandoned him before he even woke up the next day. She’d had her reasons, but she’d spent a long time making up for her choices and still hadn’t forgiven herself completely, even though her husband had.
“As long as Jason is happy, that’s all we care about,” Amber said. “So does she make him happy?”
Clara, who’d been content to let the other women speak, decided it was time she added her two cents. “She makes him more than happy. I think she’s his destiny.” Finally she’d admitted aloud what she’d been keeping inside since the day of the tarot reading.
“Now that’s a mouthful,” Amber said, her eyes wide.
“Tell me about it.” Clara’s biggest problem was that Jason’s chance for happiness reinforced Edward’s greatest fear.
“What do you mean you think she’s his destiny?” Gabrielle asked.
Clara didn’t want to push for this relationship when it would only hurt the man she loved. It wasn’t that Clara was worried about whether or not Edward would eventually accept her love. If they were meant to be, then they’d have a future together. But she knew that revealing her sense of inevitability regarding Lauren and Jason might trigger something in Edward that would lead to further regression or even breakdown.
Still, Clara believed in following the clues of the tarot to wherever they led. She couldn’t keep this to herself. Not if the family could help.
“I did a reading for Jason before the festival and I saw her,” Clara said.
“Saw who? Lauren?” Sharon asked.
Clara nodded. “In a sense. I saw a woman of mystery wearing a red mask-the ultimate expression of undying love.”
She’d also seen the white picket fence and the potential for happily ever after. “A Corwin and a Perkins union would undo the past,” Clara said softly.
“I love it!” Amber said, her blond curls bouncing around her face as she practically jumped up in her seat.
Clara had expected Amber’s enthusiastic reaction, but she glanced warily at Gabrielle. An author who debunked the paranormal, Gabrielle had forged a mutual respect with Clara despite their differing beliefs. Gabrielle’s last work, written in the months following the fire, refuted the Corwin Curse and put forth other more logical explanations for all the tragedies that had befallen the family over the generations.
What Clara had just suggested was contrary to Gabrielle’s commonsense beliefs.
Gabrielle glanced down, then met Clara’s gaze. “I love the notion of Jason’s happiness even if I don’t believe there’s a past to undo,” she said at last.
Clara smiled. “Fair enough.” She admired the other woman greatly. “Sharon?”
She swirled her wine in her glass. “I want Jason to be happy, too, but Lauren’s leaving. She has plans and I can’t see anything that would make her stay, especially in a place where she would have to face all the problems her family caused day in and day out.”
“Women and men do strange things in the name of love,” Clara mused. “I just think we have to wait and see what the Fates have in store.”
“Why wait when we can nudge things in the right direction?” Amber asked.
“As long as things take their natural course,” Clara said warily.