Free Finder's Keeper by Vivi Andrews Page A

surprise did she even become aware of what she’d said. Shit . Her anger sucked back in on itself like a supernova in reverse.
    She didn’t want him to find the watch because then she would have to believe him. She would have to face the fact that he could. Mia leaned against her car door, trying to find her mental center.
    She loved science. She loved knowing the why behind things, figuring out how all the pieces came together. Science was order and logic. It was everything good and solid in her world. It was the foundation upon which she’d built her life and she hated the idea of superstition threatening it. She’d spent her entire life defending science against the superstition that ran rampant in her family. She’d gotten to the point where she needed magic to be ridiculous. On an emotional level.
    And that wasn’t scientific, that emotional need. When had she become so irrational?
    “You’re right.” The words tasted sour coming out of her mouth, but she forced herself to say them anyway. “I can’t discount a hypothesis without testing it simply because I don’t like it and I don’t want it to work. That goes against every scientific precept I know.” Mia sighed, studying the grooves in the asphalt at her feet.
    Fifteen minutes ago she’d told Karma that magic was just that which humanity did not yet have the scientific maturity to understand, but here she was being just as willfully ignorant as all those people whose beliefs seemed so foolish to her.
    “True science doesn’t make allowances for what I want the results to be. I have to take my emotions out of this. Treat it like a proper experiment.” She had to really jump in with both feet. Yes, it was ludicrous and unbelievable to think he could psychically conjure her pocket watch, but maybe that was fitting, since the reason she needed it back so badly was pretty ludicrous and unbelievable.
    She lifted her face, tipping back her chin and bracing for the worst. “I want to try again.”
    Chase made a face. “I feel like the firing squad of your beliefs.”
    “I don’t have beliefs. I have theories.”
    He shook his head. “I don’t buy that. Science is a religion to you. It’s a belief system and you hold it just as sacred as most people do their God.”
    She gritted her teeth, hating how true that statement felt. She didn’t want it to be true. Any more than she wanted him to be a real psychic. “Let’s do this.”
    Chase hesitated. “Focus, okay?” he instructed. “Really think about the watch. Block everything else from your mind and just think about how badly you want that watch back in your hands, okay?”
    “I can do that.”
    “You got it? All focused?”
    “I’m ready.” She extended her hand, the fingers held stiff.
    Chase didn’t take her hand this time, just rested his lightly on top of hers.
    Mia closed her eyes, pushing aside every thought but the watch. She pictured it in her mind, the damn thing that was causing all this trouble. If only her family didn’t put so much faith in a stupid collection of gears. If only they would ever forgive her for losing it. It hadn’t worked for her anyway. She didn’t know how long ago it had vanished from the safe, but she’d never had a time in the last year when she felt like her romantic prospects were looking up. She just wished her parents had never forced her to take a turn with the damn thing in the first place. She would so much rather have been left alone. Why couldn’t they just let her be happy alone? Not that she wanted to be alone. She wanted what Gina had, without having to be Gina to get it, but none of this would have happened—
    Chase jerked back and swore. “You aren’t focusing.”
    “I am!” Mia protested—though her focus had kind of deteriorated. He wasn’t listening, anyway. He was too busy pacing and rubbing his hands like Lady Macbeth.
    “I’ve had tough finds before,” he muttered and she wasn’t sure whether the pep talk was for her or