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“Do I look that bad?” I ask, smiling tiredly.
He grins back. “Not bad. Just like you’re maybe in your head about something. Is everything okay?”
I sigh and shrug my shoulders. “Yes. Probably. I just didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Bad dreams?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately.”
Xavier’s grin dims and he makes a noise of sympathy. “That sucks. Sleep is supposed to be sacred.”
“I wish it was. It seems unfair that I can be stressed out while I’m awake and while I’m sleeping.”
“You should write an angry letter to someone,” he replies. “‘To whom it may concern, I have a complaint’.”
I laugh at his antics, shaking my head. “I wish it was that easy.”
“It would be nice. But hey, I know you’re too strong to be beaten down by a nightmare, so you’ll be all right.”
My brow furrows as I look up at him. “How do you know?” I ask. “You don’t really… know me.”
Something in his gaze softens, and his lips turn up in a gentler version of his usual smile. “Yes, I do.”
That freezes me in my tracks, and I look up at him with wide eyes. Xavier just gazes back, not hiding anything, looking like he’s waiting for me to speak first.
He could mean that he’s gotten to know me in the time since I’ve worked for Vantage and the time since we’ve been married, but something tells me this is more than that. He must actually remember me from the very first time we met, years ago.
“Wait…” I say, frowning a little. “I didn’t think you remembered. You didn’t seem to, when we met at the office.”
“I didn’t at first,” Xavier admits. “I had that feeling in the back of my mind like I’d seen you somewhere before. You know that feeling?” I nod in response. “I had to think about it for a while, but the more I see of you, the more I’m pretty sure I know where we met for the first time. You looked different back then, but your scent stuck with me.” He taps his nose with a smile.
“I didn’t realize it was that memorable,” I murmur.
“Your scent?”
“Any of it.”
“It was. You were,” he assures me. “I used to think about that day a lot.”
I blink in surprise because that’s the last thing I expected him to say. “Really?”
Xavier nods. “Yeah. It’s just… I saw so much strength in your eyes when we ran into each other. In the way you were carrying yourself. I could tell you were hurting but not broken. And themore we talked, the more I could see it. There’s a fire in you, shortcake. Don’t ever doubt that.”
My head feels like it’s reeling to hear him say all that. That he noticed so much about me and remembered it, after all this time. “I just can’t believe you remember,” I murmur. “That was years ago, and I was just someone who crashed into you on the street.”
“Hey, it’s not every day a beautiful woman crashes into me,” he teases. “But more than that, there was this… connection between us. I felt it right away and it just got stronger the more we talked. It felt like—and I know this is going to sound cheesy—like we were supposed to run into each other that day.”
“Oh.” I swallow hard, still so stunned. “I felt it too, I think. I mean, it’s not every day I would just talk to a stranger like that. You just felt… safe.”
He smiles at me, reaching out to takes a lock of my hair between his fingers. He twirls it a bit, like he just wants to touch some part of me. “That makes me happy to hear. At least it wasn’t one sided. And you know, when you crashed into my life again, some part of me knew I couldn’t let you go a second time. I hadn’t put all the pieces together yet, but I was sure of that.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” I say honestly.
I stare up into his eyes, and he holds the eye contact. Neither of us move, but we don’t have to. The moment is charged with something that I can’t put my finger on. Some unspoken emotion, and definitely a good bit of attraction.
I was attracted to him back then too, but I never would have dreamed that he felt the same way and that it would be this strong between us. So strong you could cut the tension with a knife.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs breaks the moment, and Xavier lets my hair go and takes a step back. Seconds later, Dominic comes walking into the kitchen, and Tristan is close behind.