Connecting (Lily Dale #3)(21)

Which is odd, considering where they left off that night on Odelia’s front porch, when Calla was 99.9 percent sure Jacy would have kissed her good night if Evangeline’s brother, Mason, hadn’t ruined the moment.

A few nights later, Jacy jogged by Odelia’s house as she was waiting for Blue Slayton to pick her up for a date. Of course, he didn’t know that was where she was going . . .

Or did he?

Jacy, like everyone else around here, is a gifted psychic.

Anyway, Lily Dale isn’t just a small town filled with psychics; it’s a small town, period. Word gets around.

So Jacy probably knows all about her and Blue—maybe he saw her talking to him in the cafeteria yesterday, even—and now he’s giving her the cold shoulder, because . . .

Well, because he’s jealous, which seems out of character. What else can it be, though?

Anyway, if he’s such a gifted psychic, shouldn’t he realize that Calla isn’t only interested in Blue Slayton? Doesn’t Jacy realize that she likes him just as much? Or maybe even more?

There’s something about lanky, soft-spoken Jacy—with his sensitive mouth and exotic dark hair, eyes, and complexion— that has physically appealed to her from the first time they connected, back in August.

Yes, and even then, as they shook hands, Calla was literally jolted by . . . something. Some kind of static electricity, sizzling up her arm.

Early on, Jacy—bronzed and usually barefoot—had a way of popping up when she least expected it, kind of like the many spirits who tend to hang around Lily Dale. And, like the spirits, his presence tends to rattle Calla—tie her tongue in knots and make her heart beat faster, though not for the same reasons.

The foster son of a pair of local male mediums, Jacy’s a relative newcomer to the Dale himself. But Calla never would have guessed that, considering his insight into how things work around here—and on the Other Side.

Until she spilled her suspicions to Lisa the other day, Jacy was the only one who knew about Calla’s theory that her mother’s death was no accident. He’s the one who helped her decipher the spirit messages that led to that conclusion, and he’s been helping her try to track down the long-missing Darrin Yates, her mother’s long-ago boyfriend.

Maybe he’s just being a good friend and nothing more.

He did hold her hand as they walked home together after that troubling confrontation with Darrin’s parents . . .

But that was probably because he felt sorry for her, after the way the Yateses treated her—as if her mother possibly had something to do with Darrin’s disappearance years ago.

Anyway, Blue’s the one who’s been asking her out, not Jacy. It was Blue who kissed her good night, and Blue who invited her to homecoming, and if she had any common sense, she’d get over Jacy right now.

Uh-huh. Good luck with that.

“What’s up with you lately?” she asks him over the chaotic chatter that echoes through the crowded corridor.

“The same. Homework. Running.”

Running. He’s on the cross-country team.

“Is it my imagination, or have you been avoiding me lately?” She waits for him to deny it, but he does the opposite.

“No,” he replies evenly, “it’s not your imagination.”

Caught off guard, she wonders what she’s supposed to say to that.

“Did I . . . um, do something to make you mad?”

“Mad? No.”

Jealous, then?

She doesn’t dare ask that.

She has a moment to think of something else to say as they take opposite routes past a handful of girls gathered around someone’s cell phone in the hallway, laughing about a text message one of them is typing in.

“Hi, Calla,” a voice calls from the group as she passes.

It’s Pam Moraco, a petite, sharp-featured blonde who might be more attractive if her smile ever reached her close-set eyes.

“Hey, Pam,” Calla says briefly, and is glad, and not at all surprised, to see that Pam and her friends are much more interested in the cell phone than in her.

She moves past them and meets up with Jacy again on the other side, still wondering what she’s going to say to him. But before she has a chance to come up with something, he stops walking and turns to her.

“What?” she asks, taken aback by the accusation in his narrowed black eyes.

“I know what happened last Saturday night.”

“Last Saturday night, I was at home playing cards with my dad and my grandmother and the Taggarts,” she tells him, confused. “Is that a problem?”

“No . . . last Saturday night. Not this past one.”

Last Saturday: her date with Blue, and Blue asking her to homecoming . . .

So she was right. He’s jealous.

“Well, it’s not like you didn’t have the opportunity to do it yourself,” she shoots back, not sure whether to be irritated or flattered by his blunt honesty.

Something flickers in his expression, but he says nothing.

“I was actually kind of hoping you would,” she goes on, “but he beat you to it.”

There. Total honesty in exchange for his. It’s only fair.

Now what?

Now, most likely, Jacy will tell her how much he regrets missing his chance, and that he hopes to make up for it.

If he asks her out now, she’ll definitely say yes, Blue or no Blue. They might have a homecoming dance date, but it’s not like she can’t go out with anyone else in the meantime.