Page 77 of Misadventures with a Duke

“Hey.” She holds up both hands. “No judgments, chica, especially not from me. Things happen when one is dealing with a naked De Leon.”

Drue tosses a cracker high and again catches it in her mouth. “I don’t know whether to order you both for details or puke up everything in my stomach.”

I stop and let a laugh burst free. “And I don’t know which one of you should get a harder hug.”

“Probably her.” Allie thumbs toward D. “Because I’m not letting this subject go so fast.” She endures my frustrated groan while sitting on the edge of the bed. “Don’t get a rash, Tavish. You’re a grown woman and have every right to your ultimate decision. You also don’t have any obligation to share that with us. But if you really haven’t chugged that pill yet, it does say a few significant things.”

I settle onto the couch with folded arms. “Only a few?”

She presses her hands together in her lap. Her nails are a stunning shade of Roma Red. Of course. “Well, one in particular.”

“And thank God someone else said it.” Drue sidles over and leans on the threshold between the two spaces. “Well, not yet, but…” She jabs up a thumb in Allie’s direction. “Take the shottie, Hemline hottie. Right here for you, missy.”

Allie throws her a grateful look. The expression solemnifies as she swivels it back to me. “This possibility…” she says, “of what might already be going on in your body, because of Bastien… I think it’s your way of still being connected to him. A tangible way, that you can understand—instead of all the other ways, which are freaking you out.”

I look down. Like that’s going to confirm…what? That I spilled a stupid amount of dumpling gravy on my soon-to-be-burned yoga pants?

Or maybe…that she’s hit my emotional bull’s-eye more accurately than I thought and now has glaring confirmation of it?

“I’m not freaked out.”

“No?” Allie returns. “Because you know, I was the megaphone for freaked when all I had to deal with was a two-hundred-plus-year-old lover. If he’d also told me I was a ringer for his dead fiancée, who then started uploading scenes from their life into my mind, I’d start—”

I hiss in aggravation, pushing again to my feet. “That’s not—she’s not—that’s just—”

“Sounding very much like the truth,” D comments. “At least from where I’m sitting.”

I scowl. “You’re not sitting.”

“And you’re not accomplishing anything by running,” Allie asserts. “And before you start, you know exactly what I mean.” She moves fast, reaching and grabbing my hand before I can step back. “Dearest wench whom we love so much. Would you just come and sit down? You too, Drusilla.”

While we’re all readjusting against the headboard, Drue snickers. “Is this the part where I get to turn the room into a winter fantasy bower?”

Allie groans.

I giggle, and it feels so damn good. “Don’t stress, Allie-rific. She’s got a long way to go before this place approaches a bower.”

“We’re not talking about her right now.” She drapes a comforting arm around my shoulder. “So what makes you so sure that you’re not the miracle reincarnation of Magique De Lys?”

At once, I sit forward. “And what makes you so sure that I am?”

“Seriously?” Drue tilts her head back, regarding me from the top of her cute pop star nose. “The man is clearly knocked on his ass for you.”

“The man doesn’t know me. It’s been two days.”

Allie spreads a wide smile. “It was about the same blink of time before you two saw the same thing in Maximilian.”

Drue nods. “And there are a lot more flukes going on this time.”

“Okay, Jesus toast is a fluke,” I volley. “That doesn’t mean it’s got to be tossed in a manger.” I scoot up and then turn around, regarding them with crisscrossed legs and my chin on my knuckles. “I have a life, you guys. And full memories of my own. Birthdays and snow days. Old schoolmates and new heartaches. Vacations with my parents to Vermont and the Vineyard. One time, they even bit the bullet and took me to Orlando. And yes”—I press at the middle of my sternum—“I even remember every second of how I got this. So if all that’s legit, then what’s another woman doing in my psyche? And why?”

Allie unleashes a long breath. “If any of us knew that, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Because maybe it’s a pointless one?” I nervously rub at my kneecaps. “Bastien… He’s as charismatic as his brother. It’s in a lot of different ways, but it’s still there.” God help me, is it ever. “Maybe, in some way, I’m experiencing his psychic overflow. His recollections, pushing out through the air and hitting me. There’s probably even a word for that, right? Like telekinesis, only with memories?”

For a long moment, they’re both silent.

Finally, Drue snorts. “And you think our theories are whack?”