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But then it glints in the sunshine and I gasp.

A smile stretches over my face.

I think it’s an earring.

I think it has a diamond in it.

“Ever done metal detecting before?”

I scream. Literally, a complete and total over-reactionaryscreamcomes out of my mouth as I spin around and whap Quint in the shoulder.

“Ow!” he says, stumbling back a step and rubbing where I hit him.

“You scared the daylights out of me!” I say, pressing my hand against my chest. “Why are you standing so close?”

He looks at me like I just asked him why fish swim in the sea. “I was coming to see how things are going. Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare thedaylightsout of you.”

He’s teasing me, but my heart rate hasn’t calmed down yet and I don’t have the willpower to be annoyed. Or amused.

“Did you… see anything?” I say, suddenly self-conscious. What must it have looked like? The snap of my fingers, watching the beachcomber like some obsessed stalker. And then for her to find something so precious…

But Quint only looks confused. “I saw a gyro stand back there, and now I’m starving.” He peers at me, but must be disappointed when I don’t even crack a smile. “Why? What’s going on?”

“Nothing! Nothing.”

His eyebrows rise. Funny how his eyebrows almost seem to speak a language all their own—and I think I’m beginning to understand them. “Two nothings always means something.”

“Oh, you’re a psychologist now?” I glance over my shoulder. The beachcomber has started walking away, still swinging her detector back and forth with as much patience as before. I wonder if I’m imagining the extra bounce in her step.

“So?” Quint says.

“So, what?”

“So, have you ever been metal detecting before?”

“Oh. No.” I tuck a stray hair behind my ear. I’m giddy with the new realization that my power works both ways. I probably should have figured it out sooner, with Quint and that money he found, but I was too irritated then.

But now—oh, the possibilities—I can punishandI can reward. It makes perfect sense. I’d just been so eager to right wrongs before that I hadn’t considered how karma flows in two directions.

I realize that Quint is staring at me and a flush spreads down my neck. I turn my attention to him, trying to concentrate, trying to act normal. “What were we talking about?”

“Metal detecting,” he deadpans.

“Right. Yeah. I don’t know. It seems like it would take up a lot of time just to unearth a lot of junk.”

He shrugs. “I have an uncle who used to be really into it. I went with him a few times. It was kind of fun. You never know what you’ll find. It is mostlya lot of junk, but on one trip I found a watch. Got forty bucks for it at the pawnshop.”

“Wow. Score.”

“I’m not gonna lie. I felt like I’d dug up Blackbeard’s treasure.”

“Do you ever think that you might be too easy to please?”

His eyes spark with a challenge. “Do you ever think you might be too hard to please?”

I roll my eyes. “I don’t like wasted time. You know that.”

“One man’s wasted time is another man’s”—Quint seems to contemplate how to end this aphorism for a long time—“hobby, I guess.”