“She did how-to videos during the lockdown,” he said with a shrug.
Morgan looked at him. “Anything else I should know about your family?”
“Absolutely,” he said easily as he refilled her wine glass. “But we’ll work up to that. Exposure is best done in small doses.”
She looked at her plate. The almost-smile appeared, then she sipped her wine.
The duckspecial arrived and the dining room grew quieter around them as the evening deepened. The conversation between them flowed as it had from the beginning. Easily. Effortlessly. Like they’d known each other their whole lives.
When the mignardises—small dessert sweets—arrived with cups of decadently rich coffee, she looked at him across the table.
“Okay, enough stalling. Tell me why,” she said.
For a while, he’d entertained the thought that perhaps she’d forgotten the condition of a full reveal. He should have known better.
As he was trying to work out the best way to present it without scaring her off, she beat him to it.
“Does it have anything do withcroies?”
“How do you know aboutcroies?”
“Riley explained the concept to me when we had lunch,” Morgan said.
“She did, huh?” Patrick didn’t know if he wanted to thank his cousin or replace her imported coffee beans with dirt. It would depend on how Morgan reacted.
“Yes. She said it’s basically the same thing as a soul mate. That one right person.” Morgan turned her demitasse cup slowly between her fingers.
“What else did she tell you?”
“I asked if she thought that was what was happening between us, and she said that was a question only we could answer.” She paused. “The thing is, I’m not sure I believe in soul mates.” She lifted her eyes to his. “Do you?”
“I’ve seen it happen too many timesnotto believe it.” He leaned forward slightly, elbows on the table, closing the distance without closing it entirely. “It’s not like getting hit with a bolt of lightning. It’s far more subtle than that. The moment you find the right person, everything realigns. Not dramatically. Just… like something settling into its proper place.”
“Do you believe there’s acroiefor everyone?”
He held her gaze. “No. It’s not guaranteed. It’s a gift. And certainly not somethingIexpected to experience when a woman walked into a café and I ended up wearing my coffee. But there it was.” A pause. “Thereyouwere.”
Morgan was very still.
“Riley said I’m not imagining things,” Morgan said, after a long moment.
The tension in his chest eased. “You’re not imagining things.”
“I’ve been trying very hard not to hope for more than what was in front of me.” She looked at the table, then back up at him. “Because historically, hoping hasn’t worked out very well.”
“This is different. I can’t explain the hows or the whys, I just know it’s real.”
She wanted to believe thatcroieswere real. That there was a possibility that he was hers and she was his. He could see it in her eyes. But this was a big ask for someone who hadn’t grown up surrounded by them.
“Listen, Morgan, I know this is a lot. I’m not asking you to say or do anything you’re not one hundred percent comfortable with. All I’m asking is for you to be open to the possibility.”
She looked at him, and there it was. Real hope. Real vulnerability. Real fear. “That’s the thing, Patrick. You make me want to believe that it is more than just a possibility. That maybe… maybe it’s already happened.”
He reached across the table. She put her hand in his without hesitation and smiled, her expression softening.
Pine Ridge had a way of keeping the people who belonged here, his grandfather had said.
It appeared that the old man was right again.