How the Light Gets In (Cracks Duet #2)(10)

“That old shrew is still alive?” Dylan asked, surprised.

“Yep. She’ll outlive the lot of us. All that gardening keeps her young.”

Dylan smiled, looking out across the water to the city. You could see half of Manhattan from here. Not exactly what you’d expect from a farm, so it was certainly unique.

“Did you ever have time for a boyfriend when you were caring for your gran?” he asked. The question took me off guard, especially how he looked like he’d wanted to ask it for a while.

I swallowed, clasped my hands together, then nodded. “There were one or two.”

“Anyone I know?”

I shot him a look. “Let’s not do this, Dylan.”

“What? I’m curious.”

“Laura seems nice,” I said, playing him at his own game.

His lips twitched, and he turned his gaze to the scenery. “Fair enough.”

“So, how does that work? Do your other employees know, or is it a strictly private arrangement?” She called him hon and texted in the middle of the night as if she knew he’d be available. They must’ve at least been close, even if they weren’t an actual couple.

“Laura and I shared a few nights together when I first opened the store. Obviously, not an ideal move.”

“Why? She’s gorgeous.”

“Just because someone’s gorgeous doesn’t mean they’ll make a good partner,” he said, and I guessed he was right. Dylan had been the most attractive boy I’d ever met, but that still didn’t stop our relationship from falling apart.

“I agree,” I replied. “Chemistry counts for a lot though, and attraction often creates it.”

His eyes warmed and I turned away, looking for a distraction. I wanted to enjoy being here. I didn’t want to talk about either of our love lives.

“Can we go visit the market stall?” I asked.

“Of course,” he replied and gestured with his hands. “Lead the way.”

We quietly walked through the rows of produce, thoughts churning up a storm in my head. What strange, otherworldly force caused Yvonne to walk into Dylan’s shop when she did? You could live in this city your entire life if you wanted and still never meet the same person twice. But I was here only two months and somehow Dylan and I found our way back to one another. It felt serendipitous.

“So, are you living in New York permanently now, or are you only here until the store gets on its feet?”

Dylan exhaled a small breath. “Honestly? It’s been hard to settle anywhere. I’ve been moving from place to place setting up stores, but my favourite city has been San Francisco. That’s actually where I opened my first shop.”

“Do you go back much?”

“Not as often as I’d like, but I have an excellent manager. He keeps things ticking over.”

“And what about New York? Do you like it here?”

Dylan took a moment to consider his answer, his expression soft when he replied, “It’s definitely growing on me.”

My cheeks heated, and I paused to admire the marigolds for sale next to the vegetable stall. I took a second to inhale, memories flooding me. These flowers had been Gran’s favourite.

“It’s so odd how the scent of marigolds always takes me back to Gran,” I said, marvelling. Dylan came to stand next to me, and dipped his head to smell them, too.

“There’s a scientific explanation, if you care to hear it.”

“You always did have an answer for everything,” I teased and nudged him with my elbow.

He inhaled again, as though to demonstrate. “When we breathe in, the olfactory nerve in our brain is stimulated, which is located close to the amygdala.” He paused to tap the side of my forehead. “The amygdala is a group of nuclei located in the temporal lobe of your brain, and it has an important role in your emotional reactions. Also located in the temporal lobe is the hippocampus, which helps to consolidate short-and long-term memory. So, when our olfactory nerve is given a scent, our brain is quickly connecting it to the memory it provokes, but also to the emotion associated with that memory.”

“Wow,” I breathed, unable to hide my fascination. Dylan was still full of interesting and unusual information, just like he’d been when he was younger.

“It’s a survival mechanism we developed through evolution. If we smell smoke, we know to be on alert for a fire. If we don’t smell smoke, we know everything is okay. Scent causes countless nerve signals to be set off in our brains.”

“All happening in the blink of an eye,” I added fondly. Dylan never failed to bring out my affectionate side, especially when he went all scientist on me.

“There are just as many molecules in a single breath as there are stars in all the galaxies. The scent from a single spray of perfume is a much grander experience when you think about it that way,” he went on.

He really had a talent for making this shit sound romantic. “Where did you learn all this?” I was so curious, because there was a confidence in his knowledge now that seemed very sophisticated.

“I studied olfactory science in Los Angeles,” he said. “I learned a lot of the theory behind the things I already had a talent for.”

So that was it. When we learn from someone talking passionately, rather than from words on a page, it creates knowledge that feels more alive.