Page 55

“The whole time, Tessa!”

“I couldn’t very well just tell you I know we’re soulmates—you’d think I was mad!”

“I came here and just told you!”

“Well, for the first time, you were braver than I am!”

Jamie heaved a sigh, but the corners of her mouth twitched upward. “I suppose I had that coming.”

“Be honest with yourself,” Tessa said. “If I had come to you and said, Jamie, I saw a past life regressionist. You and I have had three more tries at being together before we ever broke up. Would you have believed me?”

Jamie chewed her lip. “I suppose not.”

“You’d have thought I was talking balls, so you would.”

“You could have given mesomeindication—”

“Oh, come off it, Jamie. I could not.”

“Alright. I admit that even though I’d seen things too, I would not have immediately believed you. It just seems so outlandish. Soulmates. Literal soulmates from across lifetimes. How can that sort of thing be true?”

“I know it sounds straight out of a fairy tale,” Tessa agreed.

“Hold on, you said you’d seen your friends find their soulmates,” Jamie said. “So you know others that this has happened to?”

“Oh, aye. Billie and Ethan are one. They had a past life from World War II that was sweet. Only he died in the Battle of the Bulge.”

“That’s terribly sad. Who else?”

“Jordan and Laci Frawley. They were lovers in the Regency era, but she was an earl’s daughter and he was a fencing teacher, so her father didn’t approve. She was killed accidentally by a stray bullet in a duel between him and her father.”

Jamie tapped her chin. “They each only had the one life before?”

“Seems to be.”

“Meanwhile, we’ve had three. I wonder. . . ” She trailed off, staring at her tea cup. “Wait. Neither of them got their happy ending in their past life?”

“Correct.”

“And none of our past lives got it either?”

“What are you getting at, Jamie?”

“I think there’s a pattern,” Jamie said. “That our souls will keep finding each other until we get a real life together. A happily ever after. We keep mucking ours up, so we keep having to come back.”

Tessa considered it. It made sense. Time after time, they had not ended up together. Even in this life.

“Jamie, I hate to be an arsehole about this, but the reason we’ve never gotten there is—”

“I know, it’s been me,” she said. “Well, not the first time.”

“Aye, no, that time seemed pretty mutual,” Tessa agreed. “But every time after. . . ”

“Yeah, it’s been my fault. My fears. My cowardice. And that’s the case this time, too.”

“That’s another reason I never brought it up before. I wasn’t sure it would change anything.”

Jamie winced. “I don’t blame you. I’ve hurt you over and over again. And now, even if most of society would be accepting of us together, there’s still my father.”