Lucid by P. T. Michelle Page A

nodded. “Of course. Matt thought it would make our flirtation seem more realistic.”
    I rubbed my temples to clear my original thoughts. Matt was a part of this craziness? Peering at Lainey, I couldn’t help but trust my gut. “I don’t know, Lainey. Either Matt’s a great actor, or I think he might really be into you.”
    Lainey’s eyes widened, and then she began to laugh so hard she bent over and curled her arms around her stomach.
    “What’s so funny?” I grumbled.
    Tears trickled down Lainey’s cheeks when she looked up at me. “Wow, maybe I should enroll in acting classes too if we’ve got you convinced. Matt really can act.”
    “You didn’t see the way he looked at you today,” I said, straightening my spine. “Lainey, the look in his eyes was…he likes you. I mean, really likes you.”
    Lainey flicked her hand, snickering. “Matt’s fun. We’ve had some great laughs while plotting together, but he doesn’t like me that way, Nara. He’s still stuck on Tarra.”
    I opened my mouth to say something else, then clamped it shut. She didn’t believe me. She was so blind. “Whatever,” I huffed. Throwing my hands up, I flopped onto the couch.
    Lainey joined me, sliding across the soft brown leather to face me. Her eyes brimmed with excitement. “Since you’re busy tomorrow after school, you’re going to come dress shopping with me on Thursday then, right?”
    “I’ve got a lot to do this week,” I hedged. Dress shopping might be fun for Lainey, but since I wasn’t attending the dance, I saw no point in going. Lainey started to frown, so I changed the subject. “You don’t like Harper very much, do you?” I said with a half laugh.
    Lainey stiffened. “She’s not your good friend.” A scowl creased her brow. “No, I don’t like her. At all.”
    I shook my head. “Why? She hasn’t done anything to you.”
    “Pretending like she’s known you forever…” Lainey screwed her lips into a sour pucker, then slit her gaze. “I don’t trust the starched-shirt prissy.”
    She thinks she has you pegged too . I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere with Lainey about Harper, so I slid my hand into my jacket pocket and retrieved the lone tan leather glove. Rubbing my thumbs across the soft material a couple of times, I held it out to her with an apologetic look. “Last night, I went to pull your mom’s gloves out of my jean jacket pockets to give them back to you when I saw you today, but there was only one.”
    Blood drained from Lainey’s face and panic crept into her eyes. “Oh no!” she whispered as she took the single glove from my hand, crushing the soft leather between her fingers. “Dad is going to freak out. Those were a Christmas present for Mom he’d ordered from a specialty store in Ireland.”
    Even though I’d already heard this same reaction from Lainey in my dream last night, I wasn’t prepared for it. My nerves were wound so tight, my shoulders ached. In my dream world, I’d called Lainey to tell her about the lost glove. I wasn’t at her house, which is how she ended up going to look for the missing glove in the woods by herself. Apparently, she’d taken the wrong path, going in the opposite direction than Drystan and I had the day we’d found Loch.
    That’s when she got shot in the arm. They’d found her bleeding and unconscious not that far from her house. She was still wearing my red pageboy hat she’d swiped from my head earlier in the day at school. Had the poacher been lurking in the woods and decided it was payback time for his traps being taken? Or was the shooting some random accident no one wanted to confess to?
    “I’m so sorry, Lainey,” I said, coming back to the present. “I stuffed the gloves in my pockets so I could comfort Lochlan with warm hands. He was so pitiful, his little leg caught in that trap. I guess I didn’t tuck in the gloves as well as I thought. One must’ve fallen out on our way back to your house.”
    Lainey took calming