The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 433

Garrison Foster?!

Sloane startled herself.

She couldn't understand why, in this exact moment, she was thinking of Garrison—the creepy, stalker doctor she despised and wanted nothing to do with.

She shouldn't be thinking about him. At least not right now. But the sensation of that embrace was so visceral. Thinking about it sent a wave of electricity spreading across her chest, as if something were quietly taking root beneath her skin.

No.

She yelled at herself internally, frantic, flustered, and defensive. She absolutely refused to fall for him. She refused to be swayed by a momentary display of gentleness from Garrison.

He was just a doctor doing his job. He was just playing the role of a savior. It was nothing more than an illusion born from her lingering trauma.

It wasn't love. It absolutely wasn't love.

"Sloane," Josh whispered.

She snapped back to reality.

Josh stood before her, gently clasping the obsidian necklace around her neck. His fingers brushed against her collarbone—warm and comforting, entirely different from the icy chill of Garrison's fingers when he applied her heart monitor patch.

The obsidian pendant settled between her collarbones. It carried a grounding, earthy coolness that slowly merged with her body heat.

"Okay."

The word was so soft it barely registered. It fell right as a maple leaf drifted from the branches outside, and right as the pianist struck the final chord. The restaurant went perfectly quiet for a fraction of a second.

But Josh heard it. He froze. And then, the emotional mist in his eyes exploded into pure, blinding light—the overwhelming, disbelief-filled radiance of someone who had waited twenty years for a single word.

He straightened up, instinctively moving to pull her into a tight embrace, but he caught himself. Instead, he gently, reverently, took both of her hands in his, treating her like the most precious thing in the world.

Watching him smile so carefully, practically buzzing with restrained joy, Sloane felt the spot in her chest that Garrison had disturbed suddenly get pushed back just a little.

She didn't know if this was the right choice. But right now, looking at the stars in Josh's eyes, she was more than willing to try.