Free Whispering Hearts by Cassandra Chandler

her poppets, lips pressed tightly together.
    â€œI’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
    She cut him off. “No. You have every right to…feel that way. I get it. I’m flaky and confusing.” Almost under-her-breath she added, “Especially for you.”
    She lifted one of the dolls and started to gently fill it with cotton balls she had found in his bathroom and fluffed up to act as stuffing.
    â€œA lot of things are going to need to change,” she said. “I realize that now. I don’t think I can play the ditz anymore. It’s outlived its usefulness.”
    â€œYou ever going to tell me what the use was in the first place?”
    She set down the doll and gave him a calm, level look. “I hope not.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œFor a start, you wouldn’t believe me.” She picked up another poppet and stuffed it like the first.
    Garrett smiled. He couldn’t help it. He wouldn’t believe her? That was rich. He shook his head and laughed.
    â€œWhat?” she asked.
    He tried to stop laughing. It was hard.
    â€œI think I might surprise you there.” He grinned. For once it seemed that he had confused her. “I’m very open-minded about all sorts of stuff.”
    â€œReally?” She arched an eyebrow. “How about Bigfoot?”
    â€œNever met the fellow. Can’t say one way or the other.”
    She snorted and rolled her eyes, turning back to her work. “See? I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”
    â€œI didn’t say I didn’t believe. I just said I never met the guy. There could be a whole troop of Bigfoots running around in the Everglades for all I know.”
    â€œDon’t make fun of me.”
    She glared at him for a moment, genuine hurt playing across her features.
    Well, damn. She’d given him his first clue about what the hell was going on. And it was…Bigfoot?
    â€œI’m not making fun,” he said. He was sure to keep his tone serious. “As soon as you’re both up for it, we’re having Elsa over. Once you’ve had a chance to catch up, you tell me what I won’t believe.”
    â€œElsa? Come on. If there’s one person in our group more grounded in reality than you, it’s her.” Rachel kept filling the little dolls, stacking them up like cordwood.
    â€œMy definition of reality expanded a while back. I get that there are things going on that we don’t understand yet. That science can’t explain.”
    â€œI’m not talking about things like the placebo effect.”
    â€œNeither am I.”
    Garrett’s best friend had shifted his world view years ago. Finn’s demonstration had knocked Garrett on his ass, as did the follow-up experiments Finn let Garrett run. It had taken a few weeks for the world to feel real again. Garrett was absolutely convinced that the world was full of mysteries well beyond what science could handle at the moment.
    He was grateful Finn had shared his abilities with Garrett for many reasons, not the least of which being that Garrett hadn’t flipped out when Elsa explained her own powers.
    Time travel.
    Once his mind wrapped around that whopper, everything else seemed tame in comparison.
    Maybe Rachel had something going on too. Garrett couldn’t guess what, except that it might deal with the voices she kept screaming about during her psychotic break—if that was actually what it was.
    He looked at the poppets she had finished, a chill sweeping over his skin. They reminded him of bodies in the morgue. White sheets and…
    Ghosts.
    That was it. Had to be. He almost stabbed himself in the thumb as things started to fall into place.
    Rachel had been fine in the ambulance, coherent and taking everything remarkably well. Once she was settled in her hospital room, she went out of her mind with fear.
    She didn’t mention what had happened to her, didn’t ask about her friends. She just kept