All Chapters of The Knowing in Her Blood: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

By the time I was twelve, I had already learned not to tell people about certain things.Not because anybody had ever called me crazy.Not exactly.But I'd seen enough strange looks to know that some things were better left unsaid.Like how I could meet someone for the first time and somehow know things I had no business knowing.Or how there were moments when life felt familiar, as if I had already lived them before.Grandma Mae simply called it remembering ahead.She never acted surprised when I finished her sentences or answered questions she hadn't asked yet.She'd just smile and say, "Some folks hear thunder after the lightning. Some of us hear it before."I didn't know what that meant.Truthfully, I wasn't sure Grandma did either.But when I turned twelve, something happened that frightened me enough to stop asking questions altogether.For seven nights in a row, I dreamed of the same house.It wasn't fancy.Just an ordinary house sitting somewhere in town.Only I couldn't find

By the time my shift ended, I had convinced myself the heavy feeling in my stomach was nothing more than greasy diner food and leftover annoyance.That was easier to believe.Much easier.Dani tried to make me stay and split a slice of pie, claiming sugar solved most emotional issues and made the rest more entertaining. I told her no, mostly because if I ate one more bite of anything from that restaurant, I was going to start smelling permanently like fryer grease and regret.Outside, the evening air had turned cool, the kind of cool that made the little hairs on your arms stand up and made every sound seem sharper. Cars moved slow through town, headlights glowing against storefront windows. The whole street looked normal.Too normal.I hated when things looked normal.That was usually when life got cocky.I tightened my jacket around myself and stepped off the curb.The horn came first.Loud.Violent.Close enough to split the air in half.I froze.Which, for the record, is not what

I woke up mad.Not sad.Not scared.Mad.Which was probably an improvement, considering the dreams I’d had were the kind a decent woman had no business having about a man whose name she didn’t even know.I stared at my ceiling and covered my face with both hands.“Nope.”The dreams had been warm.Too warm.Dark curls.Coffee eyes.A hand at my waist.A voice close to my ear.I sat up so fast the room tilted.“Nope,” I said again, louder this time.Dreams like that meant nothing good.Not for women in my family.Grandma Mae used to say dreams were letters from places we couldn’t visit while awake.I had always thought that sounded beautiful.Until I started receiving mail I never asked for.So I did what I had always done best.I ignored it.I got dressed in jeans, a clean shirt, and the kind of bra that said I had accepted adulthood but not joy. My curls had decided overnight to expand in all directions, so I wrestled them into something that looked less like a fox had nested in my he

The strange energy racing beneath my skin wasn't painful.It wasn't even unpleasant.That was the problem.It felt too good.Too alive.Like electricity and sunshine and every embarrassing thing a woman should not be feeling over a man she'd spoken to exactly twice."Nope."I covered my face."No."Absolutely not.I was thirty-four years old.Not fourteen.Not sixteen.Not some teenager losing her mind over a pretty smile.I was a grown woman.With bills.And a bad knee.And cholesterol.I knew better.Or at least I was supposed to.But the harder I tried to breathe...The more I remembered being fourteen.I was mad.Not regular mad.The kind of mad only teenage girls and betrayed cats could achieve.Mama had picked up husband number two.And I hated him.Not disliked.Hated.The man wore enough cologne to kill small animals and looked at women like he was doing them a favor by breathing in their direction.Which, in my opinion, made him a nasty old pervert.I sat beside Grandma Mae o

Danger.That was the problem.This was dangerous.Not because he was frightening.Quite the opposite.And that was somehow worse.Without another word, I turned abruptly and started walking.Fast.Or at least fast for a woman with a bad knee and dignity hanging on by a thread."Hey!"I ignored him."Hey!"Footsteps.Long footsteps.Which wasn't fair because God had clearly gifted him with legs that belonged on a giraffe."Ruby!"I froze.Then kept walking."Is this normal for you?"I stopped.Slowly turned around."What?"He finally caught up.Breathing normally.Which offended me."Is what normal?"He smiled."Just abruptly walking away from conversations."I felt sheepish."No.""No?""No."I looked away."I just realized this was dangerous."He blinked.Then looked genuinely shocked."Dangerous?"I nodded."Kinda."His eyebrows rose."Talking to me?"The way he said it was almost sarcastic.Like he couldn't imagine such a thing.I chuckled."Kinda."His expression changed.Confused