“I don’t kiss that bad,” she’d said.

“No, but I feel like I just kissed my best friend, or worse yet, my sister.” Blaze had shivered.

“Yep, that’s what it felt like,” Liz agreed.

“Guess we know now that we ain’t meant to be together no matter what Tressa and Marva Jo think,” he’d said.

“Guess so,” Liz had told him.

And that was that. From then on, they talked every night about everything. She heard about his women. He heard about her crushes. She knew when he thought he was in real love with that woman from Amarillo. He knew when she lost her virginity to the son of an air conditioner repairman right there in Claude, Texas, during the winter months. Blaze had held her hair back while she threw up after drinking too much the night she broke up with the boy, and Blaze was the only person in the whole world who knew that she’d harbored a long-time crush on Raylen O’Donnell.

“I’d give a whole quarter for your thoughts right now instead of a penny,” Raylen said.

“Sorry, I was thinking about fortunes,” she said.

That was not a lie. She was thinking about her future and Blaze’s, anyway.

Creed Riley drew up a chair across the table from Liz and right beside Raylen. “Is it time for the palm reading to begin? My girlfriend just went to the bathroom but she wants to be first, so she sent me to hold her place in line. You don’t look like a witch. And why do you need old Indiana Jones to protect you?”

Liz looked up and giggled. “I’m not a witch. I’m a Drabami, that’s carnie for fortune-teller. There’s a big difference. And Indiana isn’t protecting me, he’s my wingman.”

Creed couldn’t have looked less like Ace’s brother. He had brown hair, green eyes, and towered above his older brother. “So why do you need a wingman?”

“I don’t tell people what they want to hear. I tell them what I see, and sometimes they’d just as soon no one else heard what I have to say, so my wingman keeps everyone back about ten feet and turns them loose one at a time. Kind of like one of those good-lookin’ doormen at a fancy big-city club,” she said.

Creed nodded. “Makes sense to me.”

His girlfriend, Macy, sat down at the table and plopped her hand out in front of Liz. “Tell me this cowboy is going to make a wonderful husband.” She had a high squeaky voice and blond hair peeking out from behind the Minnie Mouse wig.

Liz fanned the air above the cauldron. “Wind, earth, and fire, descend on us and give us your power to see the future. Show us what lies in the morrow as well as in the distant future.” She shuffled her cards one more time. “Macy, cut them and then lay out the top card on the table.”

The woman laid out the top card and Liz said, “You will soon have a cheerful experience. Your birthday must be nearing.”