Page 14 of Stone Seduction
He wasn’t a fan, which was okay. We were all allowed to be wrong sometimes. I mean, he loved salt and vinegar crisps, so he didn’t have a leg to stand on.
I smiled at him, moaning my approval and offering a thumb’s up.
“Cool. I’m gonna light some candles and focus.”
He lit three lavender candles at various points in my open plan kitchen/living room, the scent quickly filling the room.
Those were some potent candles.
He fetched a shard of rose quartz and sat cross-legged on the living room rug. He closed his eyes, holding the crystal in his left hand, going to his special place.
I envied Asher for finding comfort in crystal healing and candles. He always seemed so at peace when he meditated, drifting away from his baggage. But I guess I just did things differently to make the days easier to swallow. Like snacking on strawberry creams, swimming, listening to jazz, making cocktails, kissing Asher. Sometimes standing outside in the freezing cold.
Dismissing another round of What’s Wrong with My Brain, I popped a second strawberry cream and picked up my phone from the kitchen table.
Oh. Wow. Thirty missed calls from my friend Tom, along with a string of texts.
Tom: Talk to me!
Tom: LUKE! OMG!
Tom: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?
Tom: SHIT! ARE YOU OKAY????????????
Ping!Another came through as I read them.
Tom: LUKE!!!!!!
He called me before I got a chance to hit the green button.
“Hey, I?—”
“Oh, thank goodness!”he yelled.“You’re not dead.”
He didn’t sound like he was at home.
“I’m okay.” I quickly told him what’d happened.
“Bloody hell. Those shitheads. Dane said there was trouble.”
Wind whistled down the line.
“Dane said? Did he call you?”
A pause, a clearing of the throat.“He was over at my place playingMario Kart.”
“I see.” Interesting. Dane had eyes for Tom, and I wasn’t sure if Tom knew that.
I banked this new fact for later, to see if things would develop between them.
Good for Tom if things did go somewhere. Seriously good for him. He deserved so much happiness.
“Anyway, I’m glad you’re not hurt,”he added.
“Where are you?”
“In a cab on my way to you.”
