Chapter 873 Think About It

• Passing time with Aris is the equivalent to watching butter melt on freshly baked bread. It’s perfect. Like nothing will ever be the same again between us but in the best way. I don’t think many people get to see this side of him. The serious side. The side sitting on the ground with an old book, explaining his conspiracies and opinions about the past wars with animated detail. The side that laughs into the sun as we look for freshwater clam shells on the shore. The side that listens intently when I talk about my garden back home and the little trinkets I’ve made using alchemy. The quiet, contemplative side. His warm body. The rhythmic beat of his heart as we look up at the stars, sprawled out on a blanket in nothing but our skin.
• He checks everything off my list and then some, until the morning of our third day at the cabin dawns, and my heat slips through my fingers.
• Reality doesn’t seep in until the sailboat meets the dock at his manor in Ruby. We’re still laughing, smiling and telling silly jokes when he helps me off the boat, and we turn toward the house.