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“Sort of,” she admitted. “You already know some of it.”

He did, from Alessandra. He didn’t like to talk about Alec, or his guilt, and he’d said as much to Alessandra—she’d agreed to back off, but she’d encouraged him to talk to Toni about it. “She understands that feeling better than anyone,” she’d told him.

“Everyone says it wasn’t my fault,” Toni said in a small voice, “but the fact is, if I’d gone home with them, the accident may not have happened.”

“Gone home with them?” He only knew they’d been killed in a car accident.

Toni looked down at her hands. “We were looking at a college. A friend of mine, a junior there, convinced me to stay for a party, so we drove separately. My parents . . .”

Were killed on their way back to Stone Haven. She didn’t need to finish.

“Toni, you could not have prevented it.”

She looked up. There was more.

“I didn’t even want to go. They were both doctors, and they wanted me to follow in their footsteps. But I never wanted it. I know college is supposed to be the next step after high school—”

“For some.”

She frowned.

“I’ve never been,” he added. “And I turned out just fine.”

The slightest smile peeked through her sadness. “It just never felt right for me.”

He already knew the answer but asked anyway.

“Why do you even still consider college then?”

She shrugged. “For the same reason I started yet another application for the fall.”

“Because they wanted you to.”

“And it’s the least I can do to honor their memory,” she finished. “Besides, it beats working for someone else, two someones, even if one of them is family.”

“Toni.”

She looked at him.

“What do you want?”

“That’s the problem. I don’t know.” With a deep sigh, she said, “I know you’re supposed to figure these things out by now, but I have no idea. Which is part of the reason college doesn’t make sense, to spend all that money on what? An undeclared major? Pathetic, isn’t it?”

She was way too harsh on herself.

“Of course not. It’s perfectly normal, actually—”

“Alessandra always knew she wanted to be a teacher.”

“‘I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing,’” he quoted. And then added, “I’m sure he meant to say man or woman.”

Another smile. “Then I must be the wisest of them all,” she said softly.

He couldn’t take the look of despair on her face. Standing, he went to her and pulled her chair away from the table. The scraping of its legs against the wooden floor echoed throughout the otherwise silent room as he knelt down next to her. Moving slowly, lest she protest, he reached behind her neck and pulled her to him.

When their faces nearly touched, he looked into her eyes, remembering. He brought her toward him ever so gently, as if afraid she would break.

But he’d underestimated her. Her flashing eyes told the truth he’d sensed all along. Toni was no withering flower in need of nourishment. She was a rose of Sharon, beautiful in bloom and nearly impossible to destroy.

When he brought his lips to hers, it was not with the crashing possession of the night before. This kiss was meant to reassure, though as she opened for him, Lawrence questioned exactly who was being comforted. Toni touched his soul with a gentleness that reassured him as much as it did her.

He pulled her head even closer, wanting to consume her, to relish each and every thrust and retreat. Then, reluctantly, he pulled away. He’d not meant to bring them to this point, only to distract her. Toni didn’t need his amorous attentions as she recounted the most painful moments of her life. She needed his support.

And perhaps a bit of lighthearted fun.

“You mentioned games, my lady,” he said, extending a hand.

She took it, licking her lips in a promise of what was to come. One he’d hold her to.

“Be aware, a few hundred centuries have lent me an edge of competitiveness not so easily curbed.”

“Then you should be aware that no one has ever beat me at a game of Risk in my life.”

“In that case, this should make for an interesting day indeed.”