A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he finished brushing flour from his hands. “I’ve been thinking about that tracking tart.”
His joy was contagious. I couldn’t help returning his smile. “The one that upended both our lives?”
A quiet laugh escaped him. “I don’t think it upended anything.”
I tilted my head. “No?”
He stepped closer again, his gaze never leaving mine. Almost absentmindedly, he reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my hear. My breath caught.
“I think,” he said softly, “it simply led me somewhere I didn’t yet realize I was searching for.” His eyes held mine with such quiet certainty that my heart forgot how to beat. “I don’t think the spell went wrong after all.”
He now stood too close, his proximity enfolding me with feelings far too strong for my heart to possibly contain. He caressed my cheek with tender, achingly careful movements, giving me plenty of time to push him away if I wasn’t ready. And though these new emotions overwhelmed me, for once I didn’t feel as though I were drowning…but instead like I was truly living for the first time.
Unconsciously, I leaned against his touch, savoring the moment I knew would be fleeting, no matter how much I now yearned to keep it. “How could the tracking tart not have been a mistake when the spell didn’t lead you to where you’ve been seeking?” I asked.
“Ever since being cursed to wander, I didn’t know what I’ve been truly seeking,” he said. “Yet now I realize that all this time, my heart has been searching not for a way to break the curse, but foryou—the person who would end my wandering forever.”
My heart fluttered at his beautiful confession. Though I was still afraid, it was overcome by an emotion far stronger—longing. I yearned to reciprocate with my own confession that I couldn’t put into words, to explore this feeling more deeply until I finally understood what was filling my heart, making me yearn to be close to him forever.
As though sensing this silent wish, he caressed my cheek again, slower this time, allowing me to savor his heavenly touch and discover each wondrous detail. As beautiful as this moment was, it still felt impossibly out of reach.
“You can’t possibly desire someone like me,” I said. “Not when I can’t return what you’re offering. I hardly even know what love is…I’m just beginning to rediscover my love for mygrandmother and I don’t have any idea how to—“ I hesitated, embarrassed but needing to be clear. “I know nothing about the kind of love I used to dream of as a little girl, when I thought I’d one day meet a dashing prince.”
A smile touched his lips, tender and knowing. “I think you understand it far better than you realize.”
As much as I wished for his words to be true, I couldn’t accept them. “How can you possibly know that?”
“Because I’ve seen it.” His thumb brushed lightly against my cheek. “I’ve seen your love every time you care for your grandmother, every time you make certain Nutmeg stays away from sweets that would make her ill, even when she was driving you to distraction. I’ve seen it in the way you spend hours searching for medicinal herbs to help people you’ll never meet again, and in the way you sacrifice pieces of yourself so complete strangers can have what they need.”
His gaze held mine. “I’ve seen it in the way you record every place the bakery visits because you can’t bear the thought of losing them, in the way you map every path and clearing so they’ll be remembered after they’re gone.” His smile softened. “And I’ve seen it in the way you look at me when you think I’m not paying attention.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks. “That isn’t love.”
“No?” His eyebrows lifted slightly. “Then why did you spend days trying to help me break my curse? Why do you worry when I leave your sight? Why did you sacrifice one of the few emotions you’ve recovered so I could have that tart?”
I opened my mouth to answer and found I had none, not when I desperately wanted to believe every example he offered.
“I love you, Cecelia.” The words settled gently between us—not demanding, simply a beautiful truth that until this moment I hadn’t realized how desperately I’d wished for.
The walls around my heart seemed to tremble beneath their weight, inviting the possibility for my heart to expand and open up to him, something I never would have imagined. And yet… “I…can’t,” I whispered. “As much as I might want to?—”
The devastation that briefly flashed through his eyes at my initial rejection cinched my heart, then hope returned. “So youdowant to?”
“More than I’ve ever wanted anything before.” This admission felt terrifying, while also feeling like finally marking an unexplored region on a map after wandering its borders for far too long.
A slow smile spread across his face. “Then perhaps we’re closer than you think.”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand.” My voice emerged barely above a whisper. “I don’t know if I can love you the way you deserve. In fact, I’m quite sure I can’t.”
His expression softened even further. “Cecelia, I don’t need you to love me exactly the way I love you. I only need you to be yourself.”
My breath hitched. He wasn’t asking me to become someone different or to be whole; he was choosing me exactly as I was.
His gentle sincerity made my chest ache. All this time I’d believed love was merely another emotion I had sacrificed, one more precious feeling forever beyond my reach. But perhaps love was something deeper than the fluttering of a heart or the warmth of affection. Perhaps it was a choice, a promise, a willingness to remain.
Despite every fear and careful argument I had constructed against it, I suddenly knew with perfect certainty that if Gabe asked me to follow him anywhere, I would. The realization left me breathless.
His eyes searched mine, as though he saw the answer written there before I could speak it aloud. “You feel more than you think you do,” he murmured. “Please allow me to prove it.”
