Her legs moved forward while a feeling of pride rose within Caitlin for this talented man she’d loved and cheered on for so long—and then was stomped flat when Sophia slinked up on stage to give Stefan a kiss on the lips. The enthusiastic fans just about lost their minds. Stefan looked like the cat the swallowed the canary, and then played to the audience when he bent Sophia backward, kissing her deeply.
Caitlin halted, seething. Was that what she should have done all this time? Go up on stage and make-out with her boyfriend after the last song? All of a sudden Caitlin was disgusted by the whole thing, and her heart hardened inside her chest. She feared Stefan and Sophia would be imprinted on her mind forever.
When she got down to the street, Lila slipped an arm through hers. “I’m so proud of you, Caitlin. You’re even dressed in something other than your bathrobe. And you’re wearing that Mary Kay lipstick I gave you for Christmas.”
“Oh, shut up. Let’s get some food, I’m starving.”
Taking the streetcar down to the wharf, they strolled down Pier 39. The rain had finally stopped and the sun was fighting its way through a bank of clouds.
Despite the holidays winding down, there were a good number of people on the streets. A tour group took up an entire sidewalk and a family from Texas with two wiggly children in a stroller were debating about where they could purchase Happy Meals.
“There’s a McDonald’s just beyond North Point on the city side of Embarcadero.” Caitlin said, inserting herself into the conversation. “If you turn left on Powell, you’ll find it, including passing an IHOP on the way, too.”
“Thank you,” the mother gushed, her expression stressed while rummaging for crackers in the diaper bag.
“Speaking of food, let’s eat,” Caitlin told Lila. “I stuck my Snickers into the fridge for later.”
“You should have dumped the evil candy bar in the trash,” Lila said, scanning Caitlin in her outfit. “Those designer jeans have gone beyond being chic to ‘bulgy tight.’”
“Gee, thanks. The least you could do is insult me with a British accent.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“Never mind. I need a real meal. How about that seafood place up there on the corner past the wax museum?”
“Lead the way.”
After an early dinner of baked salmon and fried shrimp with an entire basket of hot, slathered-with-butter French bread and chocolate éclairs for dessert, Caitlin said, “I guess this meal didn’t exactly keep to the diet you’ve been warning me about.”
Lila gave her a facetious grin. “At least you’re eating real food.”
“We need to go walk five miles. I have about 2,000 calories to burn off.”
It was turning dusk when they burst out of the restaurant. A sliver of moon sat neatly on the horizon across the ocean. The lights of the city sparkled in every direction, the Golden Gate glowing under the clouds.
Musicians played on the street corners, hats full of coins. A magician juggled five balls and then promptly made them disappear into thin air. A guitarist on the next corner sang off-key while a fiddler sawed at his violin.
“Want to go visit Elvis tonight?” Lila suggested. “Or the Queen of England? I hear the wax museum has a two-for-one special.”
“You’re kidding, right? The first time my dad took me I thought they were dead people and it freaked me out.”
“Oh, my gosh,” Lila said, halting on the sidewalk. “That is what we’re doing tonight.”
“What are you talking about?”
Lila stared straight ahead, a wicked smile on her face.
Caitlin didn’t trust that look one single bit.
Her friend pointed to a booth decorated with mythical goddess figures on its heavy velvet draperies. Just past Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum. “We’re going to visit Madame Tallulah.”
“No, we’re not,” Caitlin said.
“Madame Tallulah Tells All,” Lila said with awe in her voice. “It’s perfect.”
“You’re making no sense.”
“You need to lighten up and forget your woes. Let’s do a palm reading. I have fifty bucks in my purse that needs burning.”
“Then you can get your fortune told.”
“I’m not the one that’s depressed.”
“Who said I was depressed?”
Lila stuck a hand on her hip. “I’ve been listening to you moan and groan for a solid week.”
“You try finding your fiancé in his bedroom with another woman and not go stark raving crazy. I dare you.”
Lila’s eyes danced. “I dare you to get your cards read by Madame Tallulah. I dare you to find out what’s going to happen in your future.”
“My future is delivering babies at the hospital and wolfing down Snickers bars. The End.”
“Don’t be so predictable.” Lila pulled her arm, yanking Caitlin’s sticky feet from the sidewalk.
Chapter 2
Eerie Middle Eastern music wafted from the fortune teller’s canopy.
“I feel silly walking in there,” Caitlin said, her feet slowing the closer they got.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’ll hold your hand,” Lila told her.
“If I know you, you’ll pull me inside and then desert me. And then post pictures all over social media.”
“Cross my heart I won’t.”
Caitlin raised a quizzical eyebrow, knowing her friend much too well.
“I promise!” Lila reiterated when they entered the dusky booth.
A rich voice came from the depths of the curtained tent. “Good evening, ladies. The voice had a decidedly Southern accent. Deep South. Not Dallas, more Alabama or Mississippi.
“Are we in the right place?” The woman’s accent was throwing Caitlin off. She’d expected someone Egyptian or Moroccan.
“Oh, honey, you are definitely in the right place. I simply can not wait to read that palm of yours. I’m gettin’ strong vibes from you already.”
Caitlin gave the woman a small smile. “I’ll bet you say that to everybody.”
Madame Tallulah gave a tinkling laugh, not at all rattled by Caitlin’s attitude. “You’re just too adorable. Come, girls, sit, sit. Who’s going to be the first up?”
Lila sank into an oversized armchair and pointed toward Caitlin. “She’s your victim tonight, Madame Tallulah.”
“Actually, I have to go to work,” Caitlin said as the woman guided her to a table overflowing with colorful scarves and yellowing lace shawls dripping down the corners. “If I’m not on time, I’ll get fired.”
Madame Tallulah brushed aside her protests.
The tent was larger than Caitlin expected. Old-fashioned lamps were strategically placed on a variety of end tables scattered about the room giving off a dusky, dreamy air of mysticism.
Perfumed incense burned in bowls and brass urns. It was pleasant, even if the rest of the décor was overdone and cheesy.
“You girls are just too darling for words,” Madame Tallulah said in her charming voice.
Idly, Caitlin wondered if the accent was real or fake. The woman was about forty–years-old with dramatically beautiful dark eyes and impossibly long eyelashes. A cascade of black curls fell to her waist, so thick it might have been a wig.
She wore voluminous skirts and was swathed in a lace blouse. Heavy necklaces adorned her throat and earrings the size of small boats dangled from her ear lobes.
“Tell me your name, sweet thing,” she said.
Caitlin found herself already sitting at the woman’s table, although she didn’t remember folding her legs into the padded chair. “Um, Caitlin.”
“I’ll bet you get called Kitty Cait, right?”
Caitlin was startled. That was the nickname Stefan had always liked to call her. Score one for Madame Tallulah. But it was an easy assumption. The hated nickname reminded her of every annoying thing Stefan had done to her.
Madame Tallulah was saucy as a bowl of gumbo, and unlike any other fortune teller she
’d ever known. Not that Caitlin had ever actually met a fortune teller before . . .
“So what’s your specialty?” Lila asked, inspecting the trinkets scattered about the tent. “Tarot cards, palm reading, prophetic visions, or your basic crystal ball?”
Before Madame Tallulah could answer, Caitlin asked, “How much do you charge?”
“One question at a time, ladies,” the woman said, pouring a steaming tea pot into three cups.
Lila snapped her fingers. “You’re a tea leaf reader!”
Tallulah’s laugh was charming. “No, I’m an orange blossom tea drinker. And you will join me for a cup.”
“Do you add a little hallucinatory drug to it?” Caitlin asked suspiciously.
“Of course not! Who do you think I am? You’re in the presence of an Alabama girl with a strong sense of southern comfort and hospitality.”
She sounded genuinely insulted so Caitlin quickly murmured an apology. Face flaming with embarrassment, she picked up one of the china cups with tiny roses painted on the sides. The flavor of the orange blossom was wonderful and before she knew it she’d drained the cup and held it out for more. Ensconced in an oversized armchair, Lila looked more relaxed than she had in years.
Madame Tallulah knew how to charm you right into her cozy living quarters. Despite the cramped space, it didn’t feel claustrophobic. Just homey.
The world beyond the tent disappeared for a little while when the fortune teller took a moment to rearrange her wares on the table. Decks of cards, goddess figurines, a zodiac chart, and a crystal ball sat on a carved wooden stand.
“Do you really use that crystal ball to see someone’s future?”
“Mostly someone’s past,” Madame Tallulah said. “But I think you’re here wantin’ to know about your future, aren’t you?”
Lucky guess, Caitlin thought as she shrugged. “Most people want to know their future because we already know our past.”
“Very true, that.” The woman lifted a finger into the air. “But often folks are curious about their past lives. Past histories through the centuries.”
“As in reincarnation?”
“Something like that.”
The next moment, Madame Tallulah had Caitlin’s hand clasped in hers. The middle-aged woman’s fingers were slender, her palm warm and comforting.
Caitlin felt herself sinking deeper into the cushioned red velvet chair.
Madame Tallulah turned her palms over and inspected them, eyes narrowing. “You have a very interesting hand, darlin’. I don’t see hands like these very often.”
“You probably say that to everybody.”
“I might be a woman who makes perfect sweet potato pie, and adores a good porch swing, but if there is anything I’m not, that is a fraud,” she said. She zeroed in on Caitlin’s face, and her voice softened. “One day you’ll thank me. There is good in your future—as well as the unfortunate.”
“There’s nothing prophetic about that. Everybody has good and bad in their lives,” Caitlin said, but Madam Tallulah was too sweet to continue questioning her. “Often every single day.”
“Very true, but I’ve never seen such specificity in a long time.” Madame Tallulah stared deeply along Caitlin’s fingers, and then the lines crisscrossing her palm. “You’ve had a terrible time lately, haven’t you?” she asked gently.
Tears suddenly stung at Caitlin’s eyes. “I’m okay.”
Madame Tallulah shook her head. “No, darlin’. But you shall have one of my lemon cookies afterward to make you feel better on the trip home.”
Caitlin found herself wanting to giggle. This Fortune Teller was like a cozy grandmother with her tea and cookies and old-fashioned doilies.
Madame Tallulah turned to Lila who was on her third cup of orange blossom tea. “Please get out a notepad. Caitlin will want notes after we’re finished, and she won’t be able to write them down while I’m studying her hands.”
Lila sat higher in her overly fluffy chair and dug around in her purse until she pulled out a red notepad and pen. “Okay, ready.”
“I’m going to tell Caitlin five things that will come to pass over the next few months.”
“Only five?” Lila joked. “Better than three. Threes are never good luck, like the fairy tales say. They only end up dire. Believe me.”
Caitlin had the sudden urge to salute. Instead, she stuck her other hand under her thigh so she wouldn’t be tempted.
“Both hands,” Madame Tallulah ordered, pressing Caitlin’s hands flat on the table and turning over thumbs to inspect them as well. “Hmm.”
“What does ‘hmm’ mean?”
“Never you mind. Click your pen, Lila.”
Lila’s head jerked up. “How did you know my name is Lila? I never said.”
“I heard you girls talking out on the sidewalk before you came inside my little shop.”
“Good one,” Lila said with a laugh. “Next time, you should keep that to yourself and let people believe you’re clairvoyant.”
Madame Tallulah gave her a small smile. “Perhaps.”
“I think she’s trying to show us that she’s honest,” Caitlin suggested.
The fortune teller squeezed her hand. “See? You’re clairvoyant yourself.”
Caitlin laughed, but cut it short when the woman’s eyes suddenly widened. “Well, well, well! I’m afraid there is a curse over your head.”
“I’m here for a good fortune. The kind in the movies where you get a tall, dark and handsome husband and a million dollars.”
The fortune teller spoke slowly, as if she were reading the words across Caitlin’s palm. “You had a cheating boyfriend. No, he was your fiancé. And he cheated with a skanky woman named—” she broke off, her eyes squinting as if her vision had turned nearsighted. “A buxom tart with a name that begins with the letter “S”. The rest of her name is squiggles, I’m afraid.”
“Sophia,” Caitlin breathed.
“See?” Madame Tallulah said triumphantly, but her triumph was short-lived as her voice softened. “I’m hearing music and fighting and a long trip. For both of you. I mean you and your ex-fiancé.”
“Well, he’s going on a long trip, but not me.”
“Perhaps I’m wrong, but we’ll see what the next few days bring.”
“I’m officially starting my midwifery job, not jaunting off to South America.”
“No,” Madame Tallulah said with a shake of her head. “Something like a job, but not exactly.”
“Yes, it’s true,” Caitlin insisted. The woman was completely, utterly wrong. “I do have a job. It’s expanding because I just finished my certification to be a midwife.”
“Well, we shall see,” came the vague answer. “Is your fiancé a musician?”
Caitlin let out a gasp. “Um, yeah, he is.”
“He’s going on tour, correct? That would explain the travel.”
Shivers raced down Caitlin’s back. That was specific enough to be almost creepy.
Madame Tallulah’s eyes shot up, followed immediately by the next prophecy. “You have a curse that needs to be broken, but before you can break the curse, it appears that you’re going to have an accident.”
“What!” Caitlin cried out. “I didn’t come here with a death wish.”
She glared at Lila who was scribbling notes like a mad woman, then tried to rise from the table.
Madame Tallulah pulled her back down. “Relax, my dear, don’t be alarmed.”
“Are you telling me I’m going to die? Or get paralyzed for life? What kind of fortune is this?”
The woman flung the end of her veil around her neck. “Nobody is hurt. But the accident is with a very large, very loud truck.”
“I don’t believe it.” This woman was getting more and more specific, and it was making her nervous. “Isn’t this supposed to be for fun?”
“Even so, I’d say that’s pretty bizarre, Caitlin,” Lila said dryly, jotting the last fortune in the notebook nevertheless.
“
Where is this accident supposed to happen? Here in San Francisco?”
Madame Tallulah frowned. “No, not here. Somewhere far away, but I’m not sure.”
“I just won’t go anywhere. I’ll stop all travel plans for the next year.”
“Aha, look at this line on your hand! It’s telling me that from the cusp of death a new day will appear and all your dreams will come true.”
Lila stifled a snort. “Nice come-back.”
The fortune teller squared her shoulders. “Miss Lila, I would like to convey the rest of what I see in the unusual palm of your friend. We can continue or say goodbye while I go cut a piece of my sweet lemon pound cake.”
“Well,” Caitlin said, drawing out the word. “I want to get my money’s worth, right?”
“Of course you do, Sugar, and it will all be worth it, I promise.” Tallulah’s voice was smooth as honey. She lowered her impossibly long lashes over Caitlin’s palm again while Lila wrote down the latest cusp of death/new day predictions on the notepad.
“Miss Caitlin, the man of your dreams will be strong and tough, but nothing like what you expect.”
“Just tell me he won’t be a prima donna or an artist. Or one of those big city metro guys. I can’t stand men in skinny jeans and tight t-shirts.”
Madame Tallulah gave a flirty wink. “You and I think alike. His name will be—oh, never mind, his name, you’ll figure it out.”
“That’s not fair,” Caitlin protested. She suddenly, desperately wanted to know his name. It would sure make life a whole lot easier.
“Ooh, you will also come into an unexpected fortune.”
That made Caitlin laugh. “So a trip to a distant land, an inheritance or windfall, and a tall dark and handsome stranger. You hit all the points in the land of fortune telling. At least you have flair and a southern accent.”
“I gave you more than just typical fortune teller clichés,” Tallulah said, pressing her palms flat against the table. “I gave you the details of a cheating musician boyfriend and a Death that will bring Resurrection. Or call it New Life if you prefer.” She said the words with definitive capital letters.
“But I brought the cheating boyfriend with me. It probably showed on my face. I mean, who else visits a fortune teller?”
Winter in Snow Valley (Snow Valley Romance) Page 11
