Page 128 of April

“And you can. I just don’t know that webothshould.”

“Do you really not want to, or are you worried about the money thing? I have enough savings to do this for a while, and I’ll get us clients. You have clients. Monica and Bridgette would come with me, and Kyle and Mel would come with you. That’s a start, but I’ve also got a mile-long list of referrals who would follow, and they wouldn’t technically be Carolyn’s clients, so we wouldn’t have to worry about that.”

“I don’t want to,” Linden said softly. “Notyet, at least.”

“Oh,” Asher replied and quickly shifted off of Linden’s body until she was sitting next to her on the sofa, both of them still naked.

“It’s not because I don’t want to work with you. I do. We know we work well together already.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just not what I thought you’d say, so I’m more shocked than anything.”

Linden turned to face her and knelt at her side, tucking her bare feet under her butt.

“Asher, it’s a lot. We just became a couple, and we’d be under pressure right away with this new business. I believe it can work, but babe, I don’t want to putmorestress on this. I only found out an hour ago that you weren’t moving away. That’s one stressful thing we were able to avoid, but running a business together and being in a new relationship would be a lot.”

“You don’t think we can do it? You said you wanted everything with me. I thought…”

“Oh, I do,” Linden replied. “I want everything with you, Asher Hahn. I want that house, and I want to marry you one day because there’s no one else out there for me. It took us ten years to figure this out, but we’re finally here now. I want vacations with you and nights where I cook and we do the dishes together. I want the times where I tell you that you’re eating food that tastes awful, and you do it on purpose and tell me that I should be healthier.” She laughed. “And I want to work with you again one day, babe. I just don’t think that it should be tomorrow. Maybe in a year or two.”

“Wow,” Asher said, but she wasn’t looking at Linden.

“I’m sorry if you thought–”

“No, it’s not that,” Asher added. “I can’t believe she…”

“Ash?”

“Do you remember that fortune teller, psychic woman in the Square?”

“Uh… Yeah. She told me to embrace it. Now, I know what she meant.”

“Huh?” Asher looked at her then.

“She told me to embrace it, my feelings for you, and she was right.” Linden smiled at her.

“She told you that?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Because she told me that you’d say no to something. Well, she told mesomeonewould say no, but she meant you, didn’t she? She said that you’d say no and that it would all be okay.”

“Shit. Really? When did you–”

“I ran into her today,” Asher said. “On my way home after I got your Po-Boy from Henry’s. She saw me and said that. I thought she was crazy, but I think she was talking about this.”

“Maybe sheiscrazy. Who knows? Crazy people can still be right sometimes, though.”

“But how could she know about this?”

“Babe, she guessed,” she replied, shrugging a shoulder. “You know how they all work.”

Linden wasn’t so sure about that statement anymore, though. Given what she’d learned from Bryce and what she’d experienced herself, she was starting to think that maybe this woman actually had some kind of gift or powers.

“Yeah, I guess,” Asher said.

“Hey, will you lie down for me?” Linden requested.

“We’re not having sex again right now, Linden. We–”

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