“What made Mom stop believing in this stuff?”

“Joining the Catholic Church.” Her grandma held out the astrology book. “This will be a good one to start with. See if it speaks to you.”

“You’re not Catholic?”

“Oh, heavens no. I don’t believe in organized religion.” Alice pulled another book off the shelf. “Here’s another good one. Read these two and then we’ll decide where to go from there.”

“How did Mom become a Catholic? Her dad?”

“No, your dad. She joined his church.”

“Why?” Katie couldn’t imagine willingly going to church.

Alice hesitated, and Katie thought she saw a flicker of sadness in her eyes. “That’s a question for your mom to answer.”

“Have you done my chart?” Katie asked.

“Of course.” Alice tossed her hand towards the opposite wall, which was covered in file cabinets. “Just look under H.”

Katie pulled out a folder with her name on it and then noticed one for Phillip Hunter. “You did Dad’s?” She looked into his folder, trying to make sense of all the different colored lines and triangles.

“I did your father’s within the first week of meeting him. I wanted to see if it was more than sex between them. They were like bunnies.”

“Grandma!” Katie pulled back her lip in disgust and put her hands over her ears.

Alice raised her eyebrows. “How do you think you came about?”

“I don’t want to think about it.”

“Your parents are cosmic soulmates. The only pair I’ve ever found.” Alice laid Phil’s and Lina’s charts side by side on her desk and began pointing out all the trines and sextiles to Katie. “They’re halves of a whole, bound together for all eternity. They couldn’t part even if they wanted to. The universe would never allow it. They only feel complete with each other.”

“Wow.” Katie stared at the charts, her thoughts shifting to Matt as she wondered if he was her cosmic soulmate. “Does everyone have one?”

“Only very advanced souls. Your parents probably lived dozens of lives before they found each other. It’s really something to behold.” Alice stared down at the charts as if captivated by them anew. “Your father is very powerful, psychically, which makes his disbelief in anything occult related all the more puzzling.”

“Does that mean he knows what I’m thinking?” Katie wondered if she could stop thinking in front of him.

“It’s possible, but I think it’s more centered on your mom. If she needs him, he knows it. No speaking necessary.”

“How come I never heard about this before?”

“I don’t know. Ask your mom.”

“You’re not just saying this to get me to talk to her, are you?” Katie asked.

“No, everything I said is true,” Alice said.

“What’s true?” With curly dark hair falling just past her shoulders and in cut-off shorts and a tight tank top, Shiloh Rayburn was dressed more like a teenager than a thirty-nine-year-old woman, and thanks in part to never having had children, she had the body to do so.