“The great what?”

“Drabami. It’s a carnie word for fortune-teller. I tell fortunes, read your palm, lay out the cards, or look into the big crystal ball, and…” She took a deep breath and figured that she might as well spit it all out and hold nothing back.

“And what?” Raylen asked.

“I belly dance,” she answered. “Aunt Tressa taught me, and I took over for her when she hurt her back.”

Raylen took a sip of his tea and didn’t answer.

Liz wondered if he hadn’t heard her before he finally said something.

“You are waiting for me to bite. I’m not going to. You’re not going to catch me with that story,” he said with a wide grin. “You’re just paying me back for not conceding to you over the fiddle contest.”

“It’s the truth. Throw your palm out here.” She reached across the table.

Raylen wiped his hand on a paper napkin and flipped it out on the table. She picked it up with her left hand and cradled it in her right. She’d held men’s hands in hers since she was sixteen when she did her first reading, but nothing prepared her for the way her heart pitched in an extra beat when she traced the curve of his lifeline from the middle of his wrist around his thumb.

“You will have a long and productive life, Raylen O’Donnell. You will have one successful marriage and fate will play a big part in your choice of a partner.” She almost stopped there because her mother had read her palm with the same words not a week before, but she gently traced another line and said, “You let your head rule and not your heart, but that will change. Don’t be afraid. It’s in your future and you will fear giving up control, but in the end, you will see the wisdom in allowing love to come into your heart.”

He pulled his hand back with a jerk. “That sounds like a bunch of hocus-pocus to me. I still don’t believe you, but I have to tell you, if you are putting in a fortune tellin’ shop in Ringgold, you won’t get any business.”

“I’m going to work for Jasmine starting tomorrow morning, and I have hung up my belly dancing outfits, and probably won’t be reading cards for anyone, either,” she told him. “But I’m not ashamed of who I am or where I come from. I own my past, and if that embarrasses you, then I’ll stay on my side of the barbed wire fences separating my land from yours.”

“Hey.” He held up both palms in a defensive gesture. “I still think you are pulling my leg about that fortune tellin’ business, but I believe you about going to work for Jasmine. I’m glad you are. She needs help and she’s my friend. You’ll like working with her.” He laid his napkin on the table and stood up. “I’ve got to get back to work. See you around.”