She studies my face. There are twenty years of this woman beside Lucas that I cannot match, and we both know it. I try at least to match the steadiness she’s showing me.
“He is a different person this morning,” she continues, her voice low so that only I can hear her. “I have known Lucas a long time. I have never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you.”
I feel my throat constrict. “Lydia…”
“I was just trying to help when I offered to be his mate. That’s all. I hope things work out for you two.”
She’s hurting. I can see it under her composure.
“You are his oldest friend,” I offer carefully. “I’m his mate. Those are two different things, and neither of them needs to crowd the other out. I would like for us to remain friends, if you would.”
Her eyes shimmer for half a second before she blinks the tears away. “I would like nothing more,” she answers with another smile.
She lifts her tablet in a small gesture I read as a goodbye, and then, she steps past me and is gone.
I stand there for longer than I mean to, breathing in and out.
Lucas appears at my elbow. “What was that about?”
I look up at him. The sun is coming through the tall windows and catching the line of his jaw and the dark blue of his shirt, and I think, not for the first time this morning, that I have never seen Lucas properly in daylight before. Not like this. Not standing close to me without the walls up.
“Nothing,” I murmur.
Ever since our talk yesterday, my chest feels lighter, a lot of my anger having faded. But I’m still not ready to deal with him.
“Let’s go,” I say. “I have a lot of work to deal with.”
He nods and falls into step beside me. We move out of the breakfast room and into the corridor, where the household around us has already started moving differently. Eyes flick toward and away from me with a new kind of attention I’ll have to get used to.
“Would you like to work from my office today?” Lucas offers after a moment.
“No.”
He waits.
“I have my own office,” I remind him.
He ponders this as we turn the corner. “You could at least consider getting female assistants now,” he grumbles.
I roll my eyes. “I like Jason and Eric.”
He mutters something under his breath, and I glance up at him.
“Care to say that out loud?”
“No.”
My lips twitch lightly.
We walk past the long window that overlooks the gardens. The oak tree is visible in the middle distance, the early sun cutting through its branches in the same green-gold color it does every clear morning.
“Will you be sitting under it during your break?” Lucas asks suddenly.
I slow down and don’t say anything for a few seconds. “If you’ll join me,” I finally murmur.
Beside me, I feel him go still. It’s the first step toward him I’ve taken. I can feel his love through the bond that connects us.
“I will.” He’s smiling down at me.
