SNOW GLOBE Read Free Page A

intuitive gift. Aja hated her own abilities to “see dead people” or see inside a person’s heart. She’d discovered her talent when she was four or five but didn’t realize it until years later. She could see colors in her mom’s angel snow globe, especially after she shook it. Somehow she knew they were from people, but she was never afraid of them. About the same age, when Aja watched TV, she was often joined by a young boy who wore a baseball cap and would sit on the floor next to the couch, never letting Aja see his face. He said he was in a fire and looked weird. Her mom had at first thought he was an imaginary friend Aja had invented, but then sensed Aja was seeing a spirit. As soon as her mom tried to seek his aura, he never came back.
    Aja glanced at Walker. “Apparently, according to my psychic Mom, I’m either an old soul or have a bunch of old souls around me.” Aja closed her floppy denim purse.
    “Maybe you need to come to dinner with me and my grandparents tonight. Make your mom’s ‘old soul’ vision come true.” Walker raised his eyebrows playfully.
    Aja shook her head. “No thanks; old people annoy me. They drool, shuffle, and…I don’t know—it all kind of weirds me out.” Aja opened the car door. “Thanks again for the ride. I’ve got to run. I’m already late.”
    “Maybe another time?” Walker looked hopeful.
    “Sure. I’ve got your number,” Aja said, as she got out. She stood on the sidewalk and watched him drive away. He was pretty cute, seemed nice enough, but the last thing Aja needed was an anchor to hold her to Dallas even though she was hypnotically drawn to his radiant personality.

Chapter 3

    Aja punched in ten minutes late while her manager stood and watched, arms crossed. He made a point to look at his watch.
    “Sorry, I had to get a ride.”
    “Again? You need to get rid of the rust bucket you drive. How many times have you used that excuse?” He looked her up and down. “And why aren’t you wearing our line? You’ve been warned about that, too.” He raised an eyebrow and pointed at her butt. “Please don’t tell me those shorts say Massimo on them. Target?”
    I’m surprised the alarms didn’t go off when I came in, Aja thought, and smiled uncomfortably. “I was in a huge hurry and didn’t have time to change.”
    “Go buy something you can wear, then fold and stock these.” He pushed forward a messy rack stuffed with clothes that customers had tried on. “This should keep you busy.”
    Aja didn’t argue but went to the clearance rack and picked a madras skirt marked fifty percent off. She’d been waiting for it to go to seventy percent, but, oh, well. Aja went to the counter to pay. The perky cashier, Taylor, rang her up at the register. “Got stuck with the rack again tonight?” She tossed her blonde curly hair. “Good, because after the register I get to model the new line.” Abercrombie employees had to be beautiful or they didn’t get hired. The privileged got to stand around and look good for the customers. “Guess you won’t have to worry about that tonight, wearing a clearance skirt.”
    “Guess not.” Aja glowered as she grabbed the skirt and stomped off to the dressing rooms.
    About an hour into her shift, she’d gotten most of the clothes put away, Aja went to the dressing rooms to clean up the new piles of clothes customers dropped on the floor.
    “Slobs,” she muttered, clipping shorts onto a hanger. A kid, wailing and crying, was dragged into the dressing room by her young mother.
    “I want to go!” the little girl cried, trying to pull away from her mother’s tight grip around her arm.
    Aja hated screaming kids but was appalled by the tight hold the mother had on the child. She could see red marks on her little arm from the woman’s fingers.
    “We’ll go when I say.” The mother shook the child. “Do you understand?”
    “I’m hungry.” The girl couldn’t have been more than five or six. Her big brown eyes