Read Online Whispering Minds by A.T. O'Connor - Free Book Online Page B

shiver slid down my spine. “I didn’t bring your hat back. I didn’t know we’d be coming.”
    “I’m not concerned. Travis knows where you live.” Clarence indicated two chairs opposite him.
    I sat. Travis did not. “I’m going to check something in the store.”
    After Travis left, Clarence settled in across from me. “How have you been?”
    His question went deeper than casual conversation, and I gave the answer it deserved. “It helps that I have Travis to keep me grounded.”
    “Travis has a way of doing that.” Clarence paused, as if trying to find his next words. He shuffled the papers on his desk, rearranging them several times before continuing. “So what can I do for you?”
    Absently, I massaged my temple with my thumb. “I don’t know, sir. Travis said you were my granny’s psychologist.”
    “Not hers.”
    Yours.
    I didn’t know if he said it, or if I imagined it. Regardless, the effect was the same. My stomach twisted, and I barely managed to keep in my seat. My eyes swept the office, locking in on the stuffed rabbit. I focused on the ratty ears. The patchy fur and the white-turned-gray tail. “No. I’ve never met you before.”
    “Gemini, you’ve known me your whole life.”
    I opened my mouth to protest.
    He’s lying.
    The room swayed.
    Don’t listen.
    I choked on the impossibility of his words .
    Clarence’s eyes found mine, and I turned away from the look on his face. Was it pity? I prayed not. I had to be strong. I had to get answers to the secret that haunted me and my family. “If I’ve known you my whole life, why have I never met you?”
    Even to my ears, the question didn’t make sense. Clarence, however, seemed to understand. “You didn’t want to.”
    “But why? I don’t understand.”
    “I can’t answer that question for you, but maybe your grandmother can.”
    He searched through the pile of papers on his desk, found an envelope with my name on the back in Granny’s looping cursive, and handed it to me. “I’ll give you a moment.”
    After he left, I stroked the silky envelope. It smelled faintly of lavender. Of Granny.
    The corners of the room softened to gray and the thin strains of Bach filled my head. I fought against the urge to close my eyes and concentrated on the stuffed bunny. My breathing settled into a steady rhythm. I made my way around the desk and plucked the rabbit off the shelf. It smelled sweetly-dirty, as if it had been stroked one too many times by sucker-sticky fingers.
    I hugged it close and whispered in its ear. “My name is Gemini Baker, and I am not losing my mind.”
    I ripped open the envelope.
    She’d given me the farm. I could access it when I turned eighteen. Until then, Clarence would act as caretaker. A trust fund had been set up for me. Something Clarence could help with now to ease my financial burden. My head spun. Suddenly, Trav’s family had become the center of my universe, unexpectedly forced on me by my grandmother’s letter and a life I never knew she had.
    Clarence and Granny.
    Clarence and me.
    Clarence and my dad.
    Intertwined by an invisible thread of secrets I didn’t know. And at the center of it, a man I didn’t know.
    Clarence’s words taunted me. You’ve known me your whole life.
    And I forgot you for half of it. I replayed his conversation with Granny in the hospital. Her trust in him—her dependence on him—so complete. How had I missed him being a part of her life? Of my life?
    Because Granny spent time with me when I was with her. We made every minute count, and that rarely included other people. I may have known Clarence long ago, but it had probably been ages since I’d last seen him.
    No secret there.
    But if Clarence had been such an integral part of Granny’s life, what about Travis? Had she known him before he started driving me to her place on Sundays? Had I?
    Impossible. I distinctly remembered meeting Travis after I moved from Granny’s house in Medville back to Prairie Flats four years