Free A Touch of Gold by Joyce Lavene, Jim

knew what he was thinking. He used to be the same way with Tim. Maybe I was more transparent than I thought. Was it obvious to everyone that I had feelings for Kevin?
    I grabbed my purse and headed for the door.
    Kevin was right behind me. “Gloves?”
    “I have to get through this,” I explained when I was sure the door was closed behind us so Gramps wouldn’t hear. “I don’t know exactly how to do that yet. I thought I could wear them for a while. They seem to help.”
    “You can’t figure it out that way.” He followed me down the steps and into the sandy street. In Duck, everyone walks everywhere, but we still don’t have any sidewalks. Sidewalks were on my agenda as mayor. “You have to keep working with it. What did Shayla say?”
    “She said my chakra was messed up. She’s going to try and realign it again today.”
    “I thought she might be more help. That’s why I left yesterday.”
    I smiled at the threads of sunlight that touched the edges of his dark hair. The sun peeked through the heavy shrubs that grew all in one direction along the edges of Duck Road. His eyes were like the Atlantic side of Duck, more gray than blue. I felt like I could walk with him forever.
    “Dae?”
    “Uh-yeah? Sorry. Shayla’s trying to help. I guess she’s not sure what to do with someone who falls over when she touches the wrong things.”
    “You have to keep trying, keep working with it,” he urged as we walked and avoided the few cars that passed us. “You can’t shield yourself from it with gloves.”
    “I touched most of the stuff in Missing Pieces before I left yesterday,” I added, sounding like a child trying to impress a favorite teacher.
    “And?”
    A stubborn, demanding favorite teacher. “Most of it seems to come in fragments that aren’t very strong. Not like the coin and the coffee card. Only the miniature had that kind of energy.”
    “Miniature what?”
    I explained about the portrait, trying to keep the excitement down but failing. Though I was still sad about losing Max, I couldn’t help but be thrilled to find out he’d been right about Theo Burr. “Max thought he had DNA evidence that Theodosia lived here and had a child. He was right, although he was wrong about her not knowing who she was. She didn’t want to go home again. She created a new life here and never told anyone who she was.”
    “You saw all that from touching a tiny picture?”
    “Some of it was like connect-the-dots and intuition. It was like I could feel what she was thinking when that portrait was painted.”
    We walked along the road toward the Duck Shoppes and Missing Pieces. Town hall was on the boardwalk too. Traffic still wasn’t very heavy. As Kevin had said, most of the tourists had gone home, leaving the 567 full-time residents here for the coming winter. We had some Canadian visitors in the fall and winter, but mostly, they went to Myrtle Beach. It was good to have the revenue that the crowded streets and restaurants brought in the summer, but I was always glad for the quiet of winter.
    “Did you start writing anything down yet?” he asked.
    “Sort of. I’m trying to understand what’s happening and why. Do you think there’s a connection between the coffee card, the gold coin and the miniature? Is that what I’m feeling when I touch those things?”
    “I don’t know,” he admitted. “You’re going to have to learn to sort through these feelings you have and see where they take you. Have you tried to see if you can find things yet?”
    “Yes.” I didn’t want to talk to him about seeing Shayla’s missing bracelet. I didn’t like talking to him about Shayla at all. There was always that awkward moment where I wasn’t sure how he felt about her and I was afraid I’d say something wrong.
    “Want to come over tonight and have dinner? We can try to find that cask of wine again.” He smiled at me like it mattered to him. Or was I reading those emotions into it? Maybe he just wanted to find