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I laugh loudly when Katrina turns to glare at Carter. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know!” He scrambles to look at the cards laid out on the table, actively looking for some kind of clue into his own potential future actions before giving me a panicked look. “Mia, why would you tell her that?”

Laughing, I gather the cards, the offending Five of Wands the last to be picked up. “Do you think I have any say in what cards are going to show up? Besides, it doesn’t mean something will happen, just suggests there could be disagreement or tension in this situation.”

“Besides, even if it does come true, it doesn’t mean you’re the one who will mess up, dude,” Bryce comforts. “It could just as easily be Katrina.”

Kat crosses her arms over her chest with a scowl. “What makes you think it’ll be me?”

Bryce holds his hands up in defense. “See, this is why group tarot readings are dangerous. It’s bad enough when Josie does her own and ends up scowling at me but never tells me why.”

“I can’t believe any of you are taking this seriously. ”

We all turn to face Ronan, who has been silently watching the whole exchange from the corner of the kitchen. It hadn’t been lost on me the way he kept his distance, with a look of uncertainty directed at the cards, like the deck could curse him from afar or something.

“What? You don’t believe in having your future read?”

“No, Katrina, I don’t.” He pushes off the counter, but then his steps falter when I start shuffling the cards. I bite back a smile. “It’s not realistic to think a deck of cards can give you any insight into what’s coming next.”

Bryce is shaking his head before Ronan even finishes his sentence.

“Hey, man, I don’t know if I believe in it all, but I know Josie’s been doing this since before we got back together.

And I spent enough time at her apartment back in Omaha to know that between the tarot cards and the friendly ghost who lived there, to learn there are definitely things out of our depth of understanding. ”

“We don’t know if I had a friendly ghost for sure,” Josie protests.

Bryce gives her an unimpressed look. “My shoes moved overnight, babe. As I recall, we were too busy with other activities to do it ourselves. You tell me how they ended up neatly lined up by the door.”

“Your apartment was definitely haunted,” I tell Josie before turning to Ronan. “And you are being extremely closed minded.”

He gives a casual shrug, then sits at the barstool Kat just freed up across from me, eyes tracking my every movement while I shuffle the deck. “I think we’re in charge of our own destiny, and using something like tarot cards helps us make excuses for our own shortcomings.”

“Oh, shit,” Bryce mutters under his breath. “They were starting to get along. ”

I tilt my head as I look at Ronan, saying, “That’s pessimistic. The cards aren’t meant to be excuses; they’re meant to help amplify the voice within that you should already be listening to.”

“What kind of voice is that?” He smirks, tone teasing. “My heart?”

“Ew, no.” I make a face. “Your intuition. Most of the questions asked in tarot readings are things you already know the answer to. The cards help you trust your gut.”

“Yet it told Kat she’d have a small spat with her boyfriend in the future. How do the cards know what to say about my future?”

“She asked for a past, present, future spread based on her love life. The goal in this kind of spread is to help sort out your priorities. It doesn’t mean they’ll fight five minutes or years from now, but it is a reminder to not let something simmer under the surface,” I explain.

“The longer you let agitation simmer, the more likely it is to blow up in your face and be worse. Maybe one of them has picked up a new habit that the other finds annoying, but if they don’t talk about it soon, it could blow up. ”

“Oh, my god.” Kat gasps, spinning to face Carter. “She’s right, you have picked up a new habit. You haven’t been closing the drawer on the dresser all the way. Dust is getting on the clothes; I keep tripping over it and getting things snagged. It’s been really annoying.”

He blinks, a small frown on his face. “I didn’t even notice I’ve been doing that. I’ll try to be better about it.”

Leaning back in my seat, I motion to our friends like they just proved my point. Mainly because they had.

Ronan, however, is not convinced. “You could have planned that or, at the very least, you put the idea in her head, and she went searching for something. ”

“Okay, now I’m getting offended,” I reply, setting the cards down. “How could I have planned to pull that exact card? How could I even know something petty like that could be bothering Kat?”

“ Hey !”

I flash her an apologetic smile but keep my focus on Ronan. “Do you want to know what I think is going on here? I think you’re intimidated.”

He snorts. “By what? You or a deck of cards?”

“Both. But definitely the cards. You’re pretending not to be curious because you’re scared of what they’ll say about you.”

“I’m not scared of anything,” he replies coolly. “Especially witchy fortune cookies.”

I keep a cool, even expression, reaching for the deck again. “Then prove it. Let me do a reading for you.”

I can instantly tell how much he hates the idea, but I know him well enough to know he hates being challenged even more. “I think I’m good.”

“I repeat, you’re scared of the cards.”

“Seriously, dude, just let her do the reading,” Carter comments, arms slung around Katrina.

“Yeah.” Bryce smirks. “Letting her give you a reading will prove you’re not scared of them.”

For a brief moment, I think we have him cornered bad enough that he’s going to give in, admit he’s unsure of my hobby, and what it might make him examine. Then he gets the same cocky, confident smirk I’m used to seeing on him, and sits up straighter. “Let’s do this.”

“Seriously?” I cough to cover up the light squeak my voice gave.

He leans closer to me. “Seriously, let’s see what you’ve got, Sheridan. ”

“All right.” I reach up with trembling hands to push my hair back out of my face. “It’s best if you get comfortable. Try to relax.”

Ronan makes a show of getting more comfortable in the seat across from me while I try to calm my rapidly beating heart.

I’ve always found reading tarot for someone else to be a little intimate, which is why I only do it for the people I truly know and love.

Whenever I do this, I’m asking them to take a deep look at their own lives, seeing if anything I’m getting from a line of cards resonates with them.

Because of this, I can’t promise it’ll be something they want to hear.

“The first thing I always do is remind people I’m not a professional,” I begin, which only makes his brow arch more.

“Yes, I’ve been doing this for years, and I taught Josie, but I primarily only do it for myself, not other people.

Hopefully, something will resonate with you, but I can’t make promises.

That would be true even if I was a professional. ”

“Do people really get paid to do this?”

I ignore his dig, focusing on his green eyes even though they make my heart beat even faster. “Now, what do you want to know? No yes or no questions; the cards don’t work that way.”

“I want the same kind of reading you did for Kat, for scientific purposes.” Of course, he’s taking this to such a level, trying to determine how much he believes in it.

But it feels a little like he’s determining how much he believes in me.

“But I want to know about my life. My past, my present, and where I’m going with my future. ”

My eyes widen. “You don’t want to zero in on anything specific? Maybe your career or your love life?”

“Nope,” he declares, eyes alight with amusement. “I want to see what you come up with for my entire life. ”

“I should have known you’d make this as difficult as possible,” I mutter under my breath. I raise it to say, “Such a broad topic may mean the cards don’t feel as relevant as they could. Are you okay with that?”

“I think I’ll be the one who judges that, right?” God, why is he being so cocky? And why is it making my heart beat a little erratically and my stomach twist in an annoying way? “So, what’s going to happen here?”

“I’m going to shuffle the cards, focusing in on your question, and the pattern of the spread.

” Instinctively, I start a casual shuffle, the cards moving easily through my hands.

“I feel I give the best readings if I’m in control of the cards the entire time.

I want to avoid breaking the intention behind the reason. Does that work for you?”

Ronan nods, but the wary look is back in his eye as he watches the cards move. “And how do you know which ones to pull?”

“I use the fall technique,” I tell him. “Which basically means I keep shuffling until three cards fall out. Now, as for turning over the cards, I’ll give you a choice. I can either turn them as they fall or turn them after all are pulled. I turn them; I don’t flip them.”

“There’s a difference?”

“Cards have different meanings if they’re reversed,” Josie explains from my left. “If she flips them instead of turning them, the meaning of the reading could change.”

Ronan glances my way, and I nod in confirmation. “All right. Turn them as they fall. I like watching the story play out in real time.”

Shifting in my seat, I zero in on Ronan’s question. The room goes almost eerily silent as I start shuffling with more intention, building the connection with the cards, and letting my intention flow through me. The first card falls within seconds of starting .

In the past position, I turn over the Four of Cups reversed. I take notice, immediately finding it interesting. No one says a word as I start shuffling again. The Seven of Wands falls up to take the present position. My breath catches in my throat when I turn over the final card, The Lovers.