Epoch (Transcend Duet #2)(39)

My eyes narrow at him. “It was the wine.”

“I know. If we can figure out a way to get you that enthused about sucking my dick without first intoxicating you, then I think we’ll be onto something really special.”

I laugh. “Wow. That almost sounded like a speech about curing cancer or feeding the world, except the sucking my dick part. You should go into politics, Griff.”

He replies with a naughty grin.

After I shower and brush my teeth, I grab a blanket and cuddle up on the sofa next to him.

“ESPN is not a movie.”

“I was just waiting on you.” He clicks off the TV.

“No movie?”

Griffin angles his body toward me. “I don’t want you to be hypnotized. If you need to talk all this out with a therapist, fine. But I don’t want you to be hypnotized.”

“Griff, we don’t even know if it will work. If you could hear Dr. Albright, I think you’d—”

“Fine.” He rolls his lips between his teeth, eyes wide. “Let me hear this Dr. Albright. Let me go to your next appointment with you.”

“Really? You would do that?”

“Sure. Why not?”

I leap into his lap, throwing my arms around his neck. This is exactly what I need. If Griffin sees Dr. Albright with me, he’ll know I’m not crazy. He’ll see why it’s so important to do whatever it takes to put Doug Mann behind bars.

I’m not going to lose him after all. He will accept the part of me that’s Daisy, and we will be fine.





CHAPTER SEVENTEEN





“Good morning, Hunt family.” I breeze into the great room with a bakery box and a drink carrier with two high calorie over-sugared coffee drinks.

“Someone’s in a good mood.” Nate smirks.

“Yes, sir. I sure am.” I snatch his plain coffee out of his hand and replace it with my sweet one. “Extra caffeine, extra sugar. Your students will find you to be much more fun today.”

He quirks an eyebrow. “And by fun you mean passed out by mid-afternoon when I come crashing down from my sugar and caffeine high?”

“Exactly.” I smile while holding open the box of donuts.

“Vanilla cake donut with chocolate frosting and sprinkles, however did you know?” He takes the donut.

He knows darn well how I knew.

“Griffin agreed to go with me to see Dr. Albright.” I take a glazed donut and sit next to Morgan on the floor. She’s working the army crawl like a champ. “And if it goes well, I think I’m going to try hypnosis with her. Maybe we can uncover something from my memory that will help prove that Doug Mann is a killer.”

Nate sets his coffee and donut on the counter and presses his hands to the edge. “Has she explained any of the risks with you?”

“Yes. I know it could uncover memories that I don’t want in my head, like how I died as Daisy. But I’d rather have those memories to deal with than another murder on my conscience if or when he kills again. And …” I twist my lips to the side and tease Morgan with a teething toy.

“And you’re afraid you could be his next victim.” Concern etches into Nate’s forehead.

I nod.

“I have someone looking into the case again.”

“That’s good.”

“Are you being safe? Not going anywhere by yourself?”

I laugh. “Yes, Dad.”

“No.” He shakes his head several times. “Don’t call me that. It’s too weird.”

“Everything about us is too weird. I’ve been reading Dr. Albright’s book, the same one you have in your nightstand. There’s so much that nobody really knows about reincarnation and so many different opinions. The glitch kind of theory is interesting. Like our souls are hard drives that should be wiped clean before the next life, but sometimes not everything gets wiped from it, and there’s this random information that we bring forth with nothing to connect it to.”

Nate shrugs. “Maybe it’s not that meaningless. What if we all carry something to the next life? It’s possible we just don’t recognize it. Wouldn’t that be the purpose of the soul? Random knowledge. Déjà vu moments. Hidden talents. Oddly familiar faces. Think about it, had you not met me, do you think these memories of yours would be anything more than the occasional weird feeling of familiarity?”

A grin slides up my face. “You believe in fate.”

Nate sips his coffee and shrugs. “Why not? I don’t think everything is fate. I don’t want to believe you dying was fate. I don’t want to believe that Jenna dying was fate.”

“If not fate, then what?”

“Life. Circumstance. We navigate the earth by free will. Every day we have an opportunity to choose our own destiny. But some things are more. What if young Nate and Daisy knew each other in another life? A parallel universe? What if we’re destined or fated to find each other in every life?”

Morgan gets upset at her toys or maybe just too much time on the ground. I pick her up, focusing all of my attention on her because Nate’s words feel like ice tickling my spine. “Sounds like a fantasy book or movie.”

He squats next to me, kissing Morgan on the cheek while I take a slow, hopefully very inconspicuous, inhale of his spicy scent. “What if it’s an epic love story?” Nate’s gaze sweeps along my face, and I feel it everywhere because he’s inches from my lips.