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“You’re sweet.” He stood up and stepped over to stand in<br />
front of me. “But I feel good as new.” <strong>The</strong>n he bent his head to kiss<br />
me, sending tingles dancing down my spine all the way to my toes.<br />
When he broke away, he walked around to the back of the<br />
counter and pulled out his keys. “How was work today?”<br />
I didn’t need to follow him to continue the conversation; the<br />
store was small e<strong>no</strong>ugh that he could hear me clearly as he headed<br />
to the front door to lock up. “It was fine, thanks. <strong>The</strong>re’s a new<br />
Sherlock Holmes movie that came out on Friday with rave <strong>reviews</strong>.<br />
Do you want to go see it one day this week?”<br />
“Definitely.” He flipped the sign so the store’s “Closed”<br />
status was advertised to the outside world. “Do you want to come<br />
over <strong>no</strong>w? I bought some sage on my lunch break and I’m going to<br />
smudge the place.”<br />
“Yes,” I agreed. “I’d like that.” My reservations about seeing<br />
him had completely melted away. <strong>The</strong>re was <strong>no</strong>thing strange about<br />
his demea<strong>no</strong>r; he seemed to have recovered from the episode last<br />
night.<br />
Tucker turned off the lights inside the little shop, grabbed a<br />
plastic shopping bag containing his sage, and we walked outside. I<br />
realized that his car wasn’t parked at the curb. In the summer, I knew<br />
that he walked, but the sidewalk was covered in ice and the air was<br />
positively frigid. New England wasn’t really the best place for<br />
wintertime walks to work.<br />
“You didn’t drive today?” I asked, <strong>no</strong>t trying to hide my<br />
surprise.<br />
“It’s <strong>no</strong>t that cold,” he shrugged.<br />
Oh, well. Maybe he just needed the fresh air to clear his head,<br />
or something. I followed his example and shrugged it off as we got<br />
into my car to drive to his apartment.<br />
Again, to my surprise, he handed the sage stick over to me<br />
once we were inside. “You want me to do it?”<br />
He smiled as he reached into one of the cabinet drawers and<br />
produced a lighter. “You can get some practice.” His thumb flicked<br />
open the top and he held the flame over the dry herb until it caught<br />
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