Page 15 of Love You, Mean It

“There she is,” the nurse said, smiling. “I’ll give you two some privacy. But remember, it’s important that Theo rest.” She flashed a warning look at each of us. “Focus on getting better, okay? Everything will come back to you in time.”

“Definitely,” I said.In fact maybe I shouldalsojust give you some privacy until you’re totally healed or maybe until never, how’s never talking again sound to you, Theo?

With that, she hurried off to her next patient, leaving me alone with Theo and the lie I’d told…which, apparently, he now believed.

Theo and I stared at each other, neither of us sure where to start.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” I finally managed. “Do you want to talk about what happened? Or—”

“How did we meet?”

“Excuse me?”

Theo pinched his eyes tight.

“I mean, I know we met in high school a couple times. Obviously. But…how did we get together?”

“Oh. Umm,” I cast around wildly. What was the right answer to this? Where would a guy like Theo hang out? Shit, when had he even moved back to town? Trying to buy time, I forced an unconcerned look. “We don’t need to go into all that right now. You heard the nurse.”

“I need to know.” Theo fixed me with his piercing stare. “Things might come back to me easier if you tell me some of this stuff.”

I stared at him, sucking my lower lip between my teeth. Honestly, my brain was short-circuiting a little. I hadn’t expected him to wake up missing six-oddyears,extra hadn’t expected to have to sellthe lie to a woman who, whatever she was to Theo now, had once known him well enough to be the person he’d want there if anything bad happened. I was improvising as I went, which is why I said:

“We met at Major MacLeod’s.”

“Seriously?” His entire face pulled back in disbelief. “Why would I be somewhere likethat?”

Right. I’d gone and named the…notdivey,per se, but definitely townie bar a couple blocks from the deli. It was the kind of spot where the bartenders knew your name and order the minute the bell over the door pinged, and if they didn’t, you probably weren’t getting served for a while.

“I think maybe you and your friends were there, like…ironically?”

Theo nodded—That makes sense—and my fingers curled into fists of their own accord, becauseof coursehe thought he was too good for Major MacLeod’s.

“And we…started talking?”

“Actually, I beat you at pool.” Why not. I was already insofar over my head. And he looked so damned smug about my favorite bar.

Theo laughed.

“You seem like you’d be good at pool.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know. You’ve always just had that…‘Who gives a fuck’ attitude, you know? That artsy cool kid thing. People like that are always good at pool.”

For a moment that stopped me short. It was the second time he’d called me a cool kid. And this time he was operating with only half a functional brain. Did Trip Tayloractuallyremember me from high school? And weirder yet…have a not terrible opinion of me? It was possibly stranger than the memory loss.

“I don’t know about that,” I said. “But I’m definitely better thanyou.”

Theo grinned widely.

“Sick burn on the head trauma patient.”

“Not brag, just fact.” I mirrored his grin despite myself.

“Okay, so that was when?” He leaned forward, serious again. I could almost see him flip back into business mode as he tried to spreadsheet our “lives together.” It surprised me—Theo was one of those automatically popular kids in high school, with looks, money, athletic ability. Usually those kids never reallytried. Especially when Daddy had a business ready-made for them to fall into.

“A few years ago.”

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