The Last Groom on Earth by Kristin James Page B

problem.”
    “Oh.” Eileen’s face fell. “You think that’s what the cards meant? That the King of Pentacles was going to be someone you were working with?”
    “Probably. If they meant anything—I don’t think Gloria’s the greatest with the tarot.”
    Eileen shrugged and said in a confidential tone to Bryce, “Angela’s much more into palm reading. She doesn’t think the cards are reliable.”
    “I’m right,” Angela said. “It depends on who’s doing the reading.”
    Bryce watched them, feeling rather like Alice at the Mad Hatter’s tea party. Angela glanced at him and, seeing the wary look on his face, began to smile.
    “We better stop,” she told Eileen. “Bryce is beginning to think we’re insane.”
    He started to make a polite demurral, but Eileen just chuckled, obviously unoffended.
    “That’s okay, so does Max. He’s all into alternative health and natural foods, but somehow he can’t see that there are other forces in the world beyond the rational and the tangible.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’s something about men. Left brain thinking.”
    “Probably,” Angela agreed, casting a teasing grin in Bryce’s direction.
    When Eileen left them, Bryce turned to Angela. “Palmistry, huh? I guess I should have figured.”
    “Hush. You make it sound like some Gypsy fortune-teller thing.”
    “Isn’t it?”
    “I regard it as more of a science, really. There’s quite a bit you can tell about a person by the lines and marks on their hands. You trust fingerprinting, don’t you?”
    “For identification, yes. I don’t believe that you can look at a person’s fingerprints, though, and tell whether he’s a thief.”
    “I didn’t say you could, but the lines on your fingers and in your hands are unique to you, and they tell a lot about you, too.”
    “Indeed.” Bryce held out his hand, palm up. “Tell me about my hand, then.”
    Angela was a little startled by his willingness to engage in something as “off the beaten path” as palm reading, but she reached over and took his hand in her left hand and bent over the table to peer at it. Bryce noticed how warm and soft her hand was against his skin, smaller than his own hand and gentle in a way that made him feel strangely protective. Bryce liked the touch of her palm, but he ignored it resolutely.
    “Well, in general you have the long hand that indicates an air or mental type—a thinker. But your palms are a little more rounded and your lines are deeper, more what people call an action hand or a fire type. So I’d say the two are combined. A thinker, but one who’s also a doer. You see where your fingers are connected to your palm? That’s your finger cast-off. If you ran a line across there, yours would be straight. That’s a strong, even base, you see, so that indicatesyou have drive and self-confidence, assurance—even aggressiveness. And your thumb, well, your thumb indicates that you are an independent sort. See how low it’s set on the hand. Also, it’s long, which supports the cast-off of the fingers—it says you’re tenacious and work hard to achieve your goals.” She looked up at him. “How am I doing so far?”
    He smiled. “I sound great. But, after all, you know me. You’re aware that I own my own business, which would indicate drive and hard work, etc. You could probably tell me those things without even looking at my hand.”
    Angela quirked one eyebrow disapprovingly. “Skeptics always have another answer for anything you show them.”
    “Maybe that’s because there is one.”
    She looked back down at his hand. “Here is your life line. Quite long and steady, although there are some little lines shooting off here at the beginning, and an island, too, indicating, I would think, problems when you were younger.” She looked up quizzically. “In your childhood, perhaps?”
    Bryce shrugged, his face unreadable. “Go on.”
    “Well, your head line is also strong and firm, going straight across your