Meditating. She was meditating, the amethyst held loosely in her grip.
He was safe, at least for the moment.
Shutting his eyes yet again, he attempted to doze. But after a few minutes of listening to her inhale and exhale, he grew restless and disgusted with himself.
He was not only a coward, but a ridiculous one. A grown man who’d feign sleep in his own bed, rather than face his best friend the morning after she became his lover.
Unless he pretended to nap until she left Marysburg, which she’d probably find somewhat alarming, he had to have a conversation with her sooner or later. Better for it to be on his terms, on a subject of his choosing. Something that would distract her from the fact that they’d woken in the same bed together for the first time in their long relationship.
Okay. He could do this.
He sat up and looped his arms over his knees. “Do you really think that stone helps ease your worries?”
Despite his interruption of her quiet meditation time, she looked at him and smiled. Then she opened her fingers, revealing the amethyst on her palm. “It’s not a matter of what I think or don’t think. It does ease my worries. I know, because I’ve experienced the relief.”
“But your degree is in kinesiology and health sciences. Data-driven fields. How can you reconcile that with the idea that a stone has special mind-clearing powers?”
He’d kept his tone gentle but interested. An invitation, rather than a challenge, because he didn’t want her to interpret his curiosity as disdain.
She didn’t bristle at the line of inquiry in any visible way. Instead, she tilted her head, looking pleased and surprised that he’d broached the topic. That he was interested in her thoughts.
He never asked her personal questions. Another way of deflecting any suspicion that he cared too much, hung on her every word, or hungered to know her inside and out.
How had she even tolerated him for so many years?
“I could answer your question a few ways, depending on whether you want the science or my own experiences, or a mixture of both.” She thought for a moment. “I could cite studies that show the efficacy of meditation when it comes to various health concerns. I could describe how handling my stone helps me reach a meditative state. I could tell you the stone serves as a reminder, not an active force whisking away my worries. A tool, rather than something powerful in itself. I could argue that we don’t have a full understanding of many matters related to physical and emotional health, so rejecting a possible avenue toward wellness would be shortsighted. Or I could discuss the power and ramifications of the placebo effect, and how it can be harnessed to ease pain and improve lives.”
Sebastián considered her arguments. “In other words, if you believe it can help, it will help.”
“Sometimes. Not always.” Her intent gaze pinned him to the bed. “But believing matters more than people think. What you believe influences how you think and how you act, and that can change your reality.”
When he started to say something, she held up a hand. “To be clear: I’m not rejecting science. I’d certainly never debate evolution or the efficacy of vaccines or the reality ofhuman-made climate change. But I’m also not going to dismiss things like worry stones as unrealistic and unsupported by scientific data when they’re harmless and may actually help people.”
“Believing matters,” he repeated.
She nodded, rubbing her thumb over the slick surface of the stone. “It does.”
A silent minute passed, and he had no idea what to say. The two of them might as well exist on separate planets. In separate galaxies.
Belief had no place in his cosmos. No value. But for her, it was obviously crucial.
She gave a little nod, seemingly to herself. And when she spoke again, her voice was steady. Confident. “For instance, I believe we were always meant to be more than friends.” She smiled at him again and scooted closer. “I believe I made a mistake when I accepted that job so quickly after my breakup with Jarrod.”
He stopped breathing.
She maintained eye contact, clearly unwilling to flinch from the import of what she was saying. “I believe I should talk to management and see if there’s some way I can stay here in Marysburg, close to you.”
With those words, Sebastián’s brain exploded into chaos, joy and terror detonating within every cell. He sat frozen in bed beside Lucy, completely dumbstruck.
Last night, she’d given more of herself than he’d ever dared to request, and now she was offering him…everything. Absolutely everything.
The woman he loved was telling him she wanted to stay in Marysburg. Wanted a future together. Wantedhim.
And she was waiting for his response, her eyes bright with hope.
He couldn’t utter a word.
She laid a gentle hand on his arm. “Seb?”
