Alexʼs eyes darted towards the living room where a voice called out, “Go ahead. Tell her.” I would have wondered about Seers and super-hearing, but since I could hear her mutter, “Like I could stop you,” I attributed her ability to eavesdrop on thin walls.

“Do you remember when I was telling you about Seers and I said that some of them could See what you were thinking just by touching you?”

“Yeah. Thoughts, emotions, deepest secrets.” They were the Seers that most freaked me out. I liked for my private thoughts, emotions, and secrets to stay private. The idea that someone could know those things about me without my permission was not exactly comforting.

“Talley is that kind of Seer. Theyʼre called Soul Seers.”

“Or, as Jase prefers, a Touch-and-See,” Talley added from the living room.

“And that explains why you were holding hands how exactly?” I didnʼt really care which one of them answered. I assumed that Alex had pulled me into the laundry room for a private conversation, but that had proven to be pointless.

“Talley just happens to be an extremely powerful Touch-and-See. Most of them can only glean random images or thoughts from the people they touch. They canʼt control it. Little Miss Diligent in there has been conducting experiments and has figured out a way to take only what she wants and block out everything else. I donʼt think sheʼs got it down to an exact science yet, but if youʼre thinking direct thoughts, like an elaborate lie as to your girlfriendʼs current location so that her family doesnʼt know that sheʼs been hanging out in your bed all morning, she gets the message loud and clear.”

“So you were just telling her what to say to Charlie?” It made sense. He wouldnʼt have been able to speak out loud without Charlie hearing him. And somehow knowing that Talley hadnʼt suddenly morphed into an expert liar overnight made me feel better.

For the first time since Talley arrived, Alex smiled as he nodded his head in agreement.

“And you couldnʼt have touched her shoulder or something?” I tried to sound annoyed, but my lips were turning up in response to Alexʼs newly elevated mood.

He stepped up and placed a hand on the small of my back. “You know, Iʼm finding the whole jealousy act very endearing.”

“Iʼm sorry about the wall,” I said. Now that my anger was diminishing I had the emotional capacity to feel very foolish over my earlier outburst. “Iʼll pay to have it fixed.”

“Donʼt worry about it. Werewolf homes have a tendency to attract destruction. A little hole is nothing compared to the time Liam ripped the kitchen counter off the cabinets and threw it through the French doors.”

Was that supposed to make me feel better? Knowing that Liam was strong enough to rip up a kitchen counter with his bare hands? “Oh good. Maybe heʼll decide weʼre kindred spirits and stop hating me.”

Alex just laughed and used his favorite diversionary technique. The kissing was just getting good when Talley called from the living room to remind us we had less than two hours before the coyotes came looking for me.

Chapter 16

The car was silent as Talley carefully navigated the pothole riddled road that led back to the highway. I had never actually been in the Lake View Trailer Park before. I recognized Garrett Carrowʼs ghetto-wannabe 1984 Lincoln parked outside a trailer that sported Transformer sheets in the place of curtains and automatically slumped down in my seat. A couple of lots down from Garrettʼs place I watched a girl that graduated the year I was a Freshman try to juggle her three small children as she unlocked her car. I was too busy making sure that she didnʼt drop the infant on its head to hear what Talley had said. “Sorry, what was that?”

“I asked if Alex was a good kisser.”

Of all the things we needed to discuss she wanted to talk about Alexʼs make-out skills? “I donʼt kiss and tell.”

“Since when?”

“Since you decided not to See and tell.”

I thought that would shame her into discontinuing her current line of questioning, but she was relentless. “At least promise me that youʼre using protection.” It took a few minutes for me to answer since I managed to suck the piece of gum I was chewing down my windpipe. Talley had to stop the car and pound on my back a couple of times before I was able to quit coughing.

“Weʼre not doing anything that requires protection!” I said, adding “thinks Iʼm a ho” onto my list of reasons to be angry with Talley.

“Really?” she said, finally pulling onto the main road. “Because Alex let a memory of what you guys were doing before I got there slip while I was talking to Joi, and --”

“We were making out!” Holy cow, was everyone privy to my romantic forays? Maybe I should start charging for the show.

Talley stared thoughtfully out of the windshield. “Do you love him?”

“Have you met Alex? I would be crazy not to love him.”

“That doesnʼt really answer my question.”

I sighed dramatically, collapsing back against the headrest. “Maybe? I mean, I care about him a lot. Heʼs like fifteen shades of awesome, and when Iʼm with him it just seems right. He makes me happy. Like, really, truly happy. I think I love him but...”

“But Charlie.”

The Methodist church was letting out as we drove by, reminding me I had skipped Sunday morning services to roll around in bed with a half-naked boy. As if I needed another reason to feel like a bad person. “Yeah. But Charlie,” I said. “I mean, if I was truly in love with Alex, I wouldnʼt still feel this way about Charlie, would I?” Talley attempted to pass the octogenarian driving 25 mph in front of us, but gave up when he made it clear he required both lanes of traffic. “Scout Donovan, I canʼt believe that you, of all people, would actually buy into that one true love stuff.”

“Why not?” Was this another one of those ʻScout is unable to connect with real peopleʼ

things?

“Your mom and dad are the best example in the world of how itʼs possible to truly love more than one person.”

“They are?”

“Of course they are. Your dad loves Becca, right?”

“Obviously.” Mom and Dad rarely fight and are always doing really sappy stuff, like holding hands and kissing each other for no good reason while theyʼre cooking dinner. Itʼs unnatural.

“But he still loves your biological mother, doesnʼt he?” My parents donʼt talk about their first marriages often, but once a month Dad goes to the graveyard to put fresh flowers by my motherʼs tombstone. Sometimes I go with him, but not often. I feel like Iʼm imposing on their personal time. He talks to her when heʼs there, telling her about all the things going on with our lives, and how much he misses her. “Yes, he still loves her.”