Along Came A Prince (36 page)

“Come sit closer
to me,” Clay said a few days later when they finished meditating at the
waterfall. He patted the space next to him on the blanket. “I want to talk to
you. We need to get some things settled.”

“Like what?” she
asked as she moved over next to him.

“I’m assuming you
haven’t changed your mind, and you’re still afraid to marry me.”

“I don’t recall
you ever proposed to me, so how could I change my mind?”

“That’s a fair
enough question, but you knew I intended to, or at least, wanted to.”

She looked down,
wishing he hadn’t brought up the subject. “Can’t we continue as we are now?
Except for your father’s death, I’m happy just being with you.”

“We’ve been over
this before. I feel as if we’re back in California, the night I left you
because you couldn’t make a commitment. It doesn’t seem as if we’ve gained any
ground since then as far as deepening our relationship. I want to marry you. I
want to have children with you. I want to spend the rest of my life loving only
you. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I want to reach out and find you
next to me. I want to kiss you whenever I feel the urge, not hold back because
of some restrictions you’ve set up. I want it all, and I want you. Stacia, will
you marry me?”

I’d love to...I
want to…but I can’t
... she thought, before speaking out loud. “How can I,
feeling as I do?”

“No. That’s no
good. The time has come when I need an answer, not a question. Stacia, you have
to get over this idea you can’t marry. If you don’t love me, then say so now,
and we’ll end our relationship and move on. But if you do, be brave enough to take
a chance.”

“Loving you has
never been the obstacle. I’ve loved you for so long, I don’t know how it would
feel not to love you.” She reached up and placed her hand on his face.
I
want you to kiss me all the time. I want to know how it feels to make love with
you. I want everything you want. Your children. Your love. Forever.
She
wished she had enough courage to tell him her thoughts.

“You’ll lose me
quicker if we don’t move on in our relationship, than if we would get married
and your prophecy came true. Does that make sense to you?”

She nodded, her
fatalistic feelings ready to rain down on her
.
“So, I lose either way. Is
that what you’re telling me?” She pulled her hand away.

“In a way
,
you’re
probably right. It seems you’re stuck with picking the lesser of two evils, as
the old saying goes.”

“The last time I
was at SwissDen, I left with every intention of solving this problem with
Josie’s help. And she did help me, but then everything started happening, and
we didn’t get a chance to finish what we started.”

“Then your answer
is still no? Is that what you’re saying?”

“I’m saying I
can’t give you a yes or no answer now. It’s up to you to decide what you want
to do from this point on. I love you, Clay. I don’t want to lose you, but...”

He stood up. Stacia
thought he was going to walk away from her, but instead he knelt down on one
knee in front of her. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small black
velvet box and flipped the cover open. A huge diamond sparkled in the sunlight.
“I’d like to make a new proposal,” he said. “I’d like you to accept this ring
in
case
you decide to marry me.”

She was afraid she
might burst from the love swelling up inside her. How could such an amazing man
exist, and how could she be lucky enough to have him love her? “Clay, if I say
yes, would that be fair to you, knowing it could turn out to be no in the end?”

“I have to give
you every chance possible to say you’ll marry me. If I don’t, I know I’ll
regret it as long as I live. I believe you and I were meant to be together. There
can never be anyone else for me. I’m so filled with love and passion for you,
there’s no room for anyone else to take your place in my heart.”

She threw her arms
around his neck, almost knocking him off balance. “Oh Clay, I love you so very
much, and even though it’s only a tentative yes, this is still the happiest
moment of my life.”

“And mine.” He
lifted her face to his and kissed her. When the kiss ended, he took the ring
out of its box and slipped it on her finger. “Here’s to
happily
ever
after
,” he said and kissed her again.

♥♥

“I’ve been
thinking,” Stacia said to Clay the next morning as they sat in the atrium alone
eating breakfast. “Josie said if I wanted to go deeper than what she could take
me, we’d call in the ‘big guns’ – meaning her mom. I think I’d like to try
hypnotherapy. I’d want Josie there with us, of course.”

“Do you want them
to come here?” Clay asked.

She shook her head.
“No, it’s better if I go home. It’s time to fulfill my new movie commitment,
and I’d like it if you’d go back with me.”

“Will it be the
same way as
London Affair
, and you won’t have any time for me in your
life?” He cut a piece of his French toast and ate it.

“Not at all,” she
said. “It may get rather intense at times, but I’m not going to be the only one
in this movie, so I’m not needed on the set all the time.” She couldn’t resist
giving him a quick kiss. “Besides,” she teased, “there’s some pretty good love
scenes in
the script
.
Maybe you can help me rehearse them.”

“With an offer
like that, how can I refuse? Give me a couple days to put some things in order
here, and we’ll leave.”

“Great. I’ll call
Josie and arrange everything.”

“Stacia, can we
talk about our future?”

“You mean whether
or not the
if
turns into a
when
?” She took a bite of her
croissant. ‘I’m really going to miss all these delicious foods at SwissDen.”

Clay laid his fork
down. He moved his plate away, steepled his fingers in front of him, and placed
his elbows on the table. “I prefer to take a positive spin on the when.
When
we get married, where do you want to live?” he asked.

“With you,
wherever you are.
Where
we live doesn’t matter to me.
With
you
does,” she said simply.

“In SwissDen or
somewhere else?”

“In SwissDen,” she
replied.

“And what about
your movie career after we’re married?”

“I told you before
I can only have one career at a time. The movies wouldn’t miss me. Fame, after
all, is very fickle. It bounces around until it finds someone else to cast its spotlight
on. But I’d miss you every second we weren’t together. All I’d want would be to
concentrate on you for the rest of my life. Remember I told you I couldn’t do
both at the same time.
You
would always be my top priority…unless we
have a…baby. Then you might move down on my list.” She gave him a small kiss.

“I’m glad you want
babies.”

“Well, not too
many.” Her eyes captured his. “I don’t think we need to talk about that now,
okay.”

“And our wedding. Do
you want to be married in Wisconsin, California or here?”

“Whoa! This is
beginning to sound like
Twenty Questions
or
The Newlywed Game
.”
She smiled at him.

He smiled too. “Do
you mind?”

“No. Not if I get
to ask you questions too.” She pushed her plate back, deciding all this wedding
talk was affecting her appetite. It was gone. “You’re really serious about
this, aren’t you? These questions are so hypothetical...” She didn’t know what
else to say, so she stood up and walked slowly around the area of the atrium
they were in, stopping to touch a pink hibiscus bloom and admire its beauty.
Then she went back to Clay again and sat down next to him. “We have some hurdles
to get over before we can think seriously about getting married.”

“As I said, I
prefer to concentrate on the
when
and not think about us
never
getting married. I love you, Stacia, and I don’t know how I can give you
everything you want, if I don’t know what you want? Thus, the questions. There
are no deal breakers here. It’s all about planning for our future.”

She cocked her
head and looked at him. She loved everything he said and was. And she knew
exactly what she wanted. “All I want is you…and to be able to marry you with a
chance of living a long life together. Can you give me your promise on that?”

“Come on, Stacia,
you know that’s not possible for anyone to do, unless we stay engaged forever.”

“Without the
benefits?”

“With you, it is
what it is, and what it has to be. I love you with or without benefits.”

Lighten up,
Stacia. Here we are two people desperately in love, and I mess it up by not
believing love can conquer all. What I need to do is take a chance on him and
on the life we could have together. And forget this self-imposed curse and just
concentrate on the benefits.
She really liked the sound of that last idea.
Following part of her advice to herself, she decided to lighten up. “When
do I get to ask you something?”

“Anytime you want.”

“I’ll finish
answering your questions first. You asked where I wanted to get married. Well, Wisconsin
was my home when I was a child. Now I’m a woman, and I can’t think of any
better place to start our new life together than SwissDen, that is, if that’s
where you want to live.”

“You know my
mother would make our wedding into a huge affair with all the pomp and
circumstances she could muster up,” he said. “Would you be ready for that?”

“It would be
private, right? I mean, outside of the invited guests. There wouldn’t be any
helicopters filled with the paparazzi buzzing around above the domes, would
there?”

Clay laughed. “You
don’t need to worry about anything with the security we have around the palace.
Besides I thought you’d want to be married in the chapel, and then we’d be
inside anyway.”

“I’m not so sure,”
Stacia said. “The bridge, the forest and the waterfall all have special meaning
to me.”

“Yes, me too,” he
said huskily and grinned. “Especially the waterfall and a certain little green
outfit.”

When he kissed her,
convincing her of his love and passion for her, and before Stacia sank into the
depth of the kiss and responded the same way, she knew only one thing – she had
no questions to ask.

♥♥

“The main
problem,” Claire said when Stacia and Clay had returned to California and were
seated in her office, “as I understand it from everything Josie has told me, is
that because of what you have dreamed, you think you can never marry, or if you
do, it won’t last.”

Stacia nodded.

“I notice you have
a diamond on your finger. Surely, you must have marriage on your mind to have
accepted it.”

“It’s only
tentative
,
based on whether we resolve my problem.”

“I see,” Claire
said. She turned toward Josie. “You believe Stacia and Clay have shared two
past lives together and were lovers and soulmates in them, is that correct?”

“Right,” Josie
replied. “So, Mom, what are we going to do to help them?”

“How do you feel
about this, Clay?”

“That life’s a
risk, but if we love each other, we should be married and take our chances.”

“So, if you could
see into the future, Stacia, and everything was fine, then you’d believe it and
marry Clay?” Claire asked.

“If that were
possible...”

“Has Josie
explained future projection to you?” 

“No, Mom, I
haven’t,” Josie said.

“Since
hypnotherapy works with meditation to go deeper into your subconscious, it’s
possible under the right conditions to see into the future.”

Clay smiled. “You
just used Stacia’s favorite word, Claire.
Right.
Everything has to be
right for her to make a decision. That’s the main reason we’re here.”

“Has your life
always been so structured, Stacia?” Claire questioned.

“I don’t think
anything in my life has been at all like what Clay and I have been through
since we met.”

“So, besides the
usual fireworks between two people in love, there’s been some turmoil happening
also?” Claire stood up from her desk, stuck her hands into her jacket pockets
and walked slowly around the room.

“Turmoil?” Stacia
asked. “I’d say it was more like a tornado whirling around inside a hurricane. We
both have nightmares. Scenes from what Josie calls our past lives appear in our
dreams and even in our meditations. Clay ended up being so depressed he pulled
away from me. And I’m afraid to marry the man I love.” The more she talked, the
angrier she got. “Who needs all that? And why did this happen to us? Why would
we even want it?” Along with her anger, she could feel bitterness rising up
inside her. “Why would anyone want to go through what’s happened to us? And what
should we do with all this information now that we have it? What good is it?”

Claire stopped
walking and stood in front of Stacia. “Whether or not you choose to believe
it,” she said, “what you’ve been given is a gift. I hope you’ll both use it to
enrich your lives together. Draw from it as you need to help you through the
bad times for it’ll be there waiting for you. I hope you’ll use what you have
been given wisely.”

“Do you mean for
our own higher good and the good of the Universe as Josie believes?” Stacia
asked, traces of bitterness still clinging to her words. “Explain to me how all
this blackness is a gift?”

Claire returned to
her chair and sat down. “Even if there were no other positive aspects to this
gift, you’ve gained enormous insight going within yourself, combined with the
power of the psychic world. This
blackness
, as you describe it, means
you’ve advanced since two lifetimes ago, which is the reason for multiple
lifetimes,” she explained.