The woman grinned at him before turning and sashaying away. Brie glowered at her back.
“This is delicious,” Asher said as he shoved bacon in his mouth and poured syrup over his pancakes.
Brie didn’t say anything while she watched him. He looked so young and boyish, so happy and carefree, but death was coming for him… she’d seen it.
Brie closed her eyes as she tried to block the image of his death from her mind, but now that she’d recalled it, she couldn’t get it to go away. Rubbing at her temples, she took a deep breath and reminded herself it didn’t have to happen.
She’d seen other deaths and prevented them before; just because she’d stopped interfering and trying to save people didn’t mean she couldn’t save him.
Her heart clenched at the possibility of losing Asher. She barely knew him, he’d only been a part of her life for such a short time, but he’d come to mean something to her. And considering she’d received visions of him for over six months, he’d been part of her life for quite some time now.
She couldn’t take it if she lost him. She’d already lost so much in her life, she couldn’t lose anymore, but fate had a way of finding its own path. That was one of the many difficult lessons she’d learned over the years.
They didn’t talk again as he cleaned his plates of food before pointing at her toast. She pushed the plate over to him, and though he’d eaten more than she’d ever seen any human eat, he picked up a piece of toast and grinned at her.
His grin caused her heart to flip-flop. She had to keep her distance to protect her heart, but right then, she never wanted to let him go.
She could stop the fate coming for Asher, and when she did… she’d what? Stay with him? Be with him?
She’d never allowed herself to contemplate anything like that before. Maybe she dreamed of love and children and a future with someone at her side when she was a young child, but she gave up such dreams before becoming a teenager.
She wasn’t about to start deluding herself into thinking happy ever after was a reality when it was an impossibility. She was too old for that. But as she thought it, she couldn’t help pondering what it would have been like to have a different outlook on life, to have a differentlife.
Things were far too complicated in her life without adding the extra obstacle of a relationship into the mix. However, every cell in her body screamed for more and clambered to hold him once more.
She shook her head to clear it of the silly, irrational impulses racking her, but they refused to quiet.
CHAPTERTHIRTY
“Okay,”Asher said as he finished the last piece of toast. He licked the butter from his fingers as he contemplated ordering more when the waitress returned. “My name is Asher Brady Graham. I’m six foot one and one hundred and ninety pounds. My birthday is April first, which makes me an Aries. I’m also thirty years old.”
Brie frowned as he sipped his coffee. “What are you doing?”
“I’m telling you a little bit more about myself. I figured, since we still have time until Cabo and Zina get here, we might as well learn more about each other.”
Brie’s mouth flattened into a thin line. She already knew too much about him, or at least one awful detail she wished she’d never seen. She should tell him about her vision, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
They weren’t in the place where it happened, and she wasn’t in the mood to make his charming smile vanish. Not today anyway.
“I like long walks in the woods, campfires, and reading history books in my spare time, but I barely have any of that,” Asher continued. “I don’t have any siblings, though I consider my best friends, Nathan and Logan, my brothers. My parents are dead.”
Despite her every intention not to encourage him, Brie’s heart softened at this revelation. Without thinking, she leaned across the table and rested her fingers on his hand. “What happened to them?”
“My mom died during childbirth with a little sister who also didn’t make it. I was four at the time.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It was pretty awful,” he admitted.
He’d meant to pretend like it didn’t bother him, but there were times when his mother’s screams still haunted his nightmares. She’d labored for days to bring a dead baby into this world before following her daughter into the afterlife.
“I still miss her, but I was lucky to have my dad until he passed,” he said.
Brie’s fingers tightened around his. She was well aware of how horrible it was to be all alone in this world. She had Zina and Cabo, but she’d spent many years without anyone else to rely on because she was too scared to let anyone get close.
“What happened to your dad?” she asked.
“Savages killed him when I was twenty.”
