Kate woke uplate and with a sudden start. She instinctively reached for her phone, her heart slamming against her chest. Without even giving herself a chance to question why, she called Simon. When he answered, his words calm and measured, she immediately relaxed. “Jesus, I just woke up and immediately thought of you.”
“Well, that would be a good thing,” he replied, amusement in his voice, “except I don’t think you were thinking the right things.”
“Honest to God, it felt like something was wrong,” she blurted out. “Please tell me everything is okay.”
“Everything is okay,” he repeated instantly.
She took a long slow deep breath and let it out noisily. “Thank God for that,” she murmured. She reached up to rub her face. “I’m not even sure how the hell I slept in, but it is definitely later than I would like it to be.”
“You’ve been running yourself down,” he noted, “and I’m sure your dreams are not exactly peaceful.”
“No, that’s not the word I would use for them,” she stated. “And it’s kind of pissing me off because there’s so much to get done right now.”
“You’re only one person,” he reminded her.
“I know.”
She got up and yawned. “Well, as long as you’re okay… Man, I don’t know what the hell that was, but I just woke up, and my immediate thought was that something was wrong with you.”
“Well, something was wrong a little while ago,” he admitted. “Maybe you’re getting a delayed reaction.”
“What?” she snapped. “Are you serious? What’s the matter? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he said gently. “And I’m really glad to hear you care.”
“Of course I care,” she snapped, then groaned. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
“Just something weird happened,” he began, “but it’s really not a problem, and we don’t have to talk about it now.”
“I think we do,” she argued. “If it had anything to do with that feeling waking me up, we definitely do.”
“Well, that would mean,” he suggested, “that you are getting psychic vibes all on your own.”
Such a note of laughter filled his voice that she glared at her phone. “That’s not funny.”
He chuckled out loud at that. “Maybe not, but I do know that you guys swear by your instincts.”
“And gut feelings,” she added.
“Absolutely. In this case, it’s all good. I just had some weird things happen overnight.”
“Like what?”
There was silence for a moment. “It seemed like I was sleepwalking.”
“Sleepwalking?” she asked in confusion, “You?”
“Well, that’s what I thought the first time, only to realize that it really wasn’t me. It was somebody else. I was just caught inside their vision.”
Then he quietly explained, as she stared at her phone in shock. “Why would you connect with this person who got back into bed and kissed her partner?”
“Do I sound like I have any answers?” he asked in that flat note of finality.
“Look. I’m sorry. It just threw me. I was expecting all kinds of horrible things, and that’s not horrible at all.”
“No,” he replied slowly, “until you consider that maybe she was heading out running and may have been another victim, except that she changed her mind.”
At that, she stopped in midair, one pant leg on, one pant leg off, and sat down hard on her bed. “Jesus,” Kate said, “you mean you’re connecting with somebody else before they die?”