Page 81 of P.S. It’s Always Been You
“Yeah, about that.” I point from Vikas to Corinne to my mom to Pat to the woman from the Exploration Society. “I get the distinct feeling you’re all in on this.”
“Maybe you are smart after all,” Pat puts in, one gray eyebrow shooting up. “What gave it away? Was it, say, when I mentioned ‘the best ones’? Or was it when I disappeared ever so conveniently to let you read love letters in my shop?”
Presley can’t stop grinning. “Just the fact that you sold us a moon-pie sign whose price turned out to be the address for this place.”
“I did?” Pat says scrubbing his chin. “Hmm. Interesting.”
“And you hinted at the brush,” I add pointedly, but I’m not mad anymore. What I am is downright curious, a dozen cats’ worth. “And the ‘folklore’ bit. Not to mention the sign on your store. Follow the path that leads to curiosity. You were talking about the compass with that sign, weren’t you? That sign was for us?”
“Was I?” Pat acts shocked. “Was it for you?”
“And the compass hint was too.” Presley turns to Corinne. “Is your brother in on this? Is Joseph going to join us?”
Corinne waves a hand. “He’s in Prague, seeing Cirque du Soleil. He and his wife love to travel and go to shows. You can only imagine where that came from. But he said to send his regards. He was the one who suggested I mention, if you called, that I was cleaning the compasses.” A sly grin sneaks across her face.
Presley grins too. “You were all guiding us, weren’t you?” Presley’s eyes roam from Corinne to the woman from the society, Melody. “That’s why you answered our email so quickly, Melody. You made sure we got in right away. You even said emails like mine were the”—Presley stops to sketch air quotes—“‘kind you live for.’ Why would an email like that excite you so much unless you were waiting for us?”
“Waiting for you? What a concept,” my mom says, that knowing tone in her voice. “How would they know you’d find it? How would they know you’d be looking?”
I heave a sigh and hold out my hands. “Obviously, you guys were all in on it.” I waggle my fingers. “Give me the goods.”
Vikas steps forward, a twinkle in his eyes. “Remember that time you saved my life?”
I roll my eyes. “I thought we were over that.”
Vikas taps his sternum. “And yet, I can’t seem to get over the fact that I’m still here. And when you told me about Presley a few months ago after your parachute incident, when you told me how you couldn’t get her out of your head, it occurred to me that I could return the favor.”
My brow furrows. “How so?”
Vikas’s voice is warm and thoughtful as he gestures to the woman by my side then back to me. “It seemed you needed saving. From yourself. From your own ambitious, driven, incredible, but sometimes hardheaded self.”
“So you repaid the life debt. You know you don’t owe me a life debt.”
His eyes twinkle. “I wanted to do something for you. Something you needed desperately. You’ve accomplished so much, lived so hard, so well. But once you told me about Presley, it was clear what was missing. You were longing for her, Hunter,” he says, setting a hand on my shoulder. “You regretted leaving her. It seemed obvious to me you wanted a second chance, and you’re so damn pigheaded that God forbid anyone in your life suggest you actually pick up the phone and apologize.”
“Hey!”
Presley laughs, nudging me. “You are a little stubborn.”
I shrug, conceding, “Fine. Maybe a little.”
“So I thought perhaps there was a better way to show you. A way that would appeal to a man who loves adventures. And that’s why I felt you would be a most perfect candidate to receive a certain story that some of us here have been keeping to ourselves for this very reason: to bring two people together who needed a little nudge. Or a big one.”
My gaze swings from him to my mom to Corinne. “This whole thing was orchestrated?”
Vikas scrunches his nose. “Yes and no. The project was real.”
“Yes, I absolutely wanted the home cataloged,” Corinne stresses. “But once the project was assigned . . .”
Vikas picks up the baton again. “Then your involvement was orchestrated. But not guaranteed. You had to impress Daniel on your merits, though that wasn’t hard.”
My mom raises her hand. “That was my job. Once I heard about the estate from Vikas, and the possibility of the letters, I passed your name to Daniel, since I know him and he’s a friend. I knew he’d want you for the project with your credentials. But that wasn’t my only role. Daniel knew nothing of the letters, so I made sure to mention secret compartments in old furniture several times, and he became quite fixated on those details, passing them on to Presley. So perhaps you had secret compartments in your head from the start.”
