Three seconds later, it was daylight and I found that sometimes wishes did come true. I woke, startled to find that in my sleep, I had shifted closer to him. My arm was draped across James, and my head rested directly above his heart.

“That was an interesting night,” James said in a voice that told me he was grinning.

“Oh, my gosh,” I said, bolting upright. “I am so sorry.” I scrambled away from the mat, then sat on the fallen log.

James laughed. “It’s okay, um…hmm. What am I’m supposed to call you?”

“Calling me by my name usually works.” I said, smiling down at him. “It’s Leath.”

James gave me a crooked grin. “Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Leath.” He sat up and stretched. “Guess someone was too distracted to keep the fire going.”

“Very funny,” I said. I wrapped my blanket around me, watching as James made quick work in restarting the fire. It wasn’t long before the heat from the small blaze took the chill off the early morning air.

James sat beside me, his hands stretched toward the fire, warming them. “So, I have a question for you, Leath.”

The sound of my name on his voice was enchanting. It had been too long since I’d heard him speak my name. “What’s that?” I asked, happy he was once again in a conversational mood.

“What were you doing in my dream last night?”

The question took me by surprise. We’d shared hundreds of dreams between us over the years, but I thought that connection had closed. There had been no shared dreams since my last night in Woodvine. Had our reunion rekindled his memory, causing our dreams to become linked again? My heart soared. Was what brought us together in the beginning going to be my way back to him?

“I mean, you’re not the first girl I’ve shared dreams with. I shared dreams with my mate. Only, I don’t remember them.” He drifted off, lost in thought. “Or her.”

Try, I silently urged.

I stuck my chin out and arched an eyebrow, testing him. “How do you know we’re sharing dreams? Maybe you just happened to dream about me.”

James smiled. “That’s not how it works. I know you felt it in the dream. You knew I was watching you when you were sitting by the fire.”

Busted.

“The question is why are we sharing dreams?”

“Don’t know,” I said. “Because according to you, we’re strangers.” He took the bait.

“And according to you, we’re not,” James said. He looked at me for a long moment.

Come back to me, I thought.