She shuddered.“Blake, you shouldn’t say things like that.”
“Why?It’s the truth.”
“You don’t necessarily mean me.It could be someone else.”
“Are you done, baby?”
She looked down at her plate and then nodded.“Yes.”
They cleaned off their plates and set them in the sink.He reached for her hand and led her out of the kitchen and down a hall.
“I’m taking you into my office.Please don’t freak out.”
She stiffened.“Why would I freak?”
He stopped right outside the door.“When you asked if any woman would do, I’d have to say with one hundred percent certainty I could only want you.”
He pulled her the rest of the way in.She looked around and then froze.He’d made two pictures into eight-by-tens and a painting of her above the mantel.
One of the pictures was her yearbook, and another one was her reading in the library.He’d had someone paint her from those pictures, which looked so much like her that it was eerie.
She turned toward him after she studied them.“What does this mean?”
He sat on the edge of his desk with his arms crossed.He looked relaxed, but she could tell he was tense.
“After graduation, hell, before, I had a picture of you on my bedside table.It was a small one.I still have it on my nightstand.My dad thought I was crazy, but I wanted you to be the first thing I saw in the morning and the last thing I saw at night before I went to sleep.When I couldn’t find you, I had these blown up and then a few years later had the painting done.”
She inhaled as she looked back and forth.
“Why?”
“Come here, baby.”
He pulled her between his legs with a hand on each shoulder, so her whole focus had to be on him.
“I’ve told you.When you walked into that classroom, I knew in my soul that we were supposed to be together.Did you feel anything for me?”
She nodded.“Yes.Even when you were mean to me, I prayed you’d ask me out, and I never stopped thinking about you.”
“I’ve got a story to tell you.I was in Denver buying some cattle.A friend of mine took me to this street festival.There was a fortune teller there, and as a fluke, I sat down.She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them up, her gaze seemed to ...I don’t know how to describe it.It felt like it pierced my soul.I know that sounds crazy, but let me tell you what she said.She told me that I was destined to be with one woman.One I had already met.She told me I had to ask for forgiveness when our paths crossed, but then our souls could finally come together like they are supposed to.”He stopped and swallowed.
Hanna had chills running up and down her spine.
“She said we were soulmates and had been for many lives, and it would be next to impossible to have another relationship with another person.”
“I was married.Remember?”
“Yes.I don’t like to think about it, though.She said next to impossible, not impossible.Let me ask...did you feel things you thought were abnormal?”
“I...Well, yes.He wanted to have kids right away, and I just couldn’t.He once asked me if I was having an affair.I couldn’t believe it.I was hurt and asked him why he would think such a thing.He told me that he knew— God, this is spooking me out.”
“I know how you feel.Tell me the rest.”
“He told me that he felt he didn’t have a hundred percent of me, and I would sometimes zone out and get this look on my face.”
“What look?”
“He said it was a type of happiness he’d never seen with him.”
