Hannah watched him for a long moment after he said the word.
Same.
The noise of the restaurant filtered back in slowly but it all felt strangely distant.
“There’s someone else there,” she repeated quietly.
Jason nodded once.
Hannah hesitated, then let out a small breath through her nose, like she was deciding whether to say something ridiculous out loud.
“In my dream,” she said, “the man turns toward me.”
Jason’s attention sharpened immediately.
“And?”
Hannah gave a small, nervous laugh. “This is going to sound really weird.”
Jason waited.
She rubbed her thumb along the edge of her napkin, avoiding his eyes for a moment.
“The man looks like you.”
Jason blinked.
For a second he didn’t respond at all.
“You mean…” he said slowly, trying to process it.
“In the dream,” she said quickly. “Not like I think you’re secretly haunting my subconscious or something.”
Jason leaned back in his chair, stunned.
He had never seen the woman’s face.
Not once.
In the dream she had always turned just enough that he knew someone was there but never clearly enough to see who she was.
And now—
It could be her.
The thought slipped into his mind before he could stop it.
It could be Hannah.
He tried to dismiss it, but the feeling settled in his chest with strange certainty.
It’s her.
Across the table Hannah suddenly laughed again, louder this time.
“Okay, this is ridiculous,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not buying into this silly dreams-and-past-lives nonsense.”
Jason smiled faintly.
“That’s fair.”
“I mean,” she continued, gesturing lightly with one hand, “two people have a weird dream about a beach and suddenly we’re supposed to believe we were tragic lovers in another century?”
Jason chuckled softly, but he didn’t answer.
Instead, almost without thinking, he reached across the table.
His hand closed gently around hers.
The moment his fingers touched her skin, something inside him shifted.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
The movement felt so natural it startled him. Like something his body already knew how to do. Like he had reached for her hand a thousand times before.
Jason looked down at their hands, briefly stunned by the ease of it.
Across from him, Hannah had gone completely still.
Her eyes dropped to where his hand held hers.
She stared at it, silent.
Neither of them moved.
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