Clearer in the Night by Rebecca Croteau Read Free Book Online

his lap. I almost huffed out my disappointment. I tried to chant “out of my league,” in time with my heartbeat, like a mantra. “So,” he said, in the same calm, level voice. “How long have you been able to read minds?”
    I didn’t mean to hesitate. I meant to move smoothly to the confused laugh, but I hesitated, and the laugh didn’t play at all. I tried anyway. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “No point in playing around, Cait. I’ve barely said a word out loud since I came in the room. I’d heard rumors, but I had no idea you were this powerful.” He was smiling, still, that calm, easy smile. Not like he was talking about the single most dangerous thing that had ever been in my life. As if he were merely commenting on the weather, or the Red Sox game from the night before. And what rumors? And anyway—I wasn’t reading minds. I’d always been intuitive. That was what Mom called it. Good at guessing what someone was thinking, good at figuring out whether or not someone was telling the truth. But not reading people’s minds, hearing their thoughts. Images, like I’d caught from Liz earlier—that had never happened before. I wasn’t a freak. “I fell,” I said. “I hit my head. The doctors said I was fine, but maybe—I must be imagining things. Obviously.”
    He did reach out and stroke the back of my hand, and I found myself smiling just a tad. “Or maybe the fall knocked loose whatever has been keeping you from realizing your full potential all these years. Or maybe something else has done that. What do you say we go get a cup of coffee and talk about it?”
    “Another time, maybe,” I said. Not for me, not for me, not for me. “The past few days have been pretty extreme. I’d really like it all to settle down and maybe just go away?” God, why did my belly flip out every time I talked to anyone now? I pressed a hand into it, hard, wishing the gurgling and pulling would just stop already. He noticed that, but before he said anything, the door to my room opened again, and Mom came in. Eli was off the bed and extending his hand to her before she was all the way through the door. “Mrs. Murphy,” he said. “I’m Eli Wright. I believe you know my grandmother.”
    Mom was thrown for just a moment, and then she laughed and pulled Eli into a big hug. “Of course, you’re Clara Dennis’ grandson. She mentioned that you were moving back to Vermont finally. But what brings you here, specifically? I didn’t think you and Caitlyn had ever met.”
    “Eli was the one who found me, Mom,” I said. “In the woods. He came to make sure I was okay.”
    For a second, I thought she was going to lose her mind and pinch his cheek or something. She kept her cool and just gave him another hug, although this one was so tight I could hear him wheezing. It felt awkward to be there, suddenly. Like I was trespassing on something very private. And then she moved away from him and took both my hands in hers. “I woke up, scared to death that it was all a dream,” she said. “I should have stayed here last night. Forgive me?”
    “Nothing to forgive,” I said. Because what else was there to say?
    Eli cleared his throat and gave me a goofy little wave. “I’ll clear out of your way,” he said. “Cait, maybe you’ll take me up on that coffee sometime.” It will get worse , he thought. If you don’t make an effort to learn to control it, the voices will get so loud that they’ll drive you mad. And then he turned and left. On an up note, of course.
    Mom watched him go with an appreciative smile. “You wouldn’t be ashamed to tell me that you were dating him. Nice guy, steady job—he teaches math at the high school, Mrs. Dennis told me. You’d be proud to tell me about a boy like him.”
    I sighed. “Mom, Wes and I—”
    She held up a hand to shut me up, which was fine, since I hadn’t known what I was going to say next. “I get it, Caitlyn, I really do. I was your age, once, and