The Locket by Stacey Jay Read Free Book Online Page A

from scratch. She was that mom and I loved her for it. There was nothing like the smell of fresh bread cooking. I’d always thought I’d like to do the same thing for my family when I was a mom. For the family Isaac and I would have. That we were still going to have because of the locket.
    The locket. I tapped the cool metal, once, twice.
    Three hours of research on the Internet hadn’t led me to any information on magic necklaces, but I was sure the locket was responsible. It had to be. There was no other explanation. I had no idea how it worked, but it hadn’t changed temperature since the do over started, which made me think that it had completed its mission. I was in the past, reliving two weeks of my life, my wish for my mistake “not to last” granted.
    Still . . . I couldn’t relax. If only I’d been able to talk to Gran, to see if she knew that the locket had supernatural powers and, if so, how they worked. It would be so nice to be certain that this was real, that I wasn’t going to be hurled back to the present at any moment.
    Once I saw Isaac, I would feel better. Once I saw for sure that—
    “Pacing. Again.” Mom grabbed the mail from my hands and dropped it back into the mail dish. “Why don’t you go help Dad in the backyard?”
    “But Isaac could be here any second.”
    “Church let out less than ten minutes ago.” Mom cracked the stove, checking on her muffins, causing a burst of blueberry and sugar to waft through the kitchen. “He won’t be here for at least another ten. Go help your dad.”
    “But Mom, I—”
    “Go help Dad or you can vacuum the downstairs.”
    I hurried to the sliding glass door and out into the cool fall day before Mom could put me to foul, vacuuming-type work. Sunday was also her cleaning day—a tradition I was not going to continue when I was grown. Cleaning the entire house, top to bottom, including baseboards and ceiling fans, every week , was excessive. Crazy , some might say.
    Maybe insanity ran in my family and this time-travel-inducing jewelry episode was just a schizophrenic delusion. But then, Gran was Dad’s grandmother, not Mom’s.
    Hmm . . . maybe Dad would know something about the locket if I got up the courage to ask. I stepped out to the edge of the patio, scanning the leaf-strewn yard.
    “Dad? Are you—ah!” My words ended in a scream as fingers danced up my ribs, finding every ticklish place along the way.
    Mitch laughed as I spun around, slapping his hands together. “Got you. Again. That’s three times this month.” He smiled. “Your dad went around front to get an extra rake.”
    “You are disturbed,” I said, my heart still racing.
    Mitch loved to lurk just outside our sliding door and scare the crap out of me when I came outside. He’d been doing it since we were ten. I should have learned to watch my back by now, but I hadn’t. I hadn’t expected to see him so soon. Especially today. It seemed . . . wrong for him to be in my backyard.
    I reminded myself for the zillionth time that we had never kissed, never crossed the line that separated friends from more-than-friends. This was fine, normal even. Everything was good. Great.
    “I am disturbed,” Mitch said, a shadow creeping across his face.
    Okay, maybe everything was not so great.
    “You serious?” I asked, voice low.
    “Kind of.” He shrugged. “That’s actually why I came—”
    “Babe? Are you back there?” Isaac’s voice sounded from around the side of the house. My stomach jumped into my throat and sucker-punched my brain stem, making the world tilt on its axis.
    He was here. He was really here!
    “Back here!” My breath caught as I turned to watch the door to the fence open.
    For a moment, my mind flashed on an image of Isaac’s face, seeing again the disgust twisting his features when I’d reached for him on the night of our breakup. I heard him telling me again how I wouldn’t have to worry about him “liking” me anymore, let alone loving me, and