Page 40 of Home Town

“It’s obvious you’re not fine.”

“I was just running.”

“And…” she prompted.

He could lie. Say he pulled a hamstring or something. Or got overheated and was afraid of a heat stroke so he’d called her.

Or he could suck it up and tell the truth.

It’s not like any of the options were ideal. Besides, this was Josie. She had no stake in his future. In his career. In his health. He might as well tell her the truth.

“I didn’t—don’t—know where I am. Or which direction home is.”

Having one person he didn’t have to lie to and pretend with felt like a huge relief. Until he got a look at her expression. Shock mixed with fear, if he had to put a name to it.

It was an honest reaction and it showed him, objectively, that things were as bad as he figured. His panic was justified.

He let out a resignation-filled breath.

“I’m like a block from home, aren’t I?” he guessed.

“Two and a half blocks but yeah, pretty damn close. Is this because of your…” She tapped her forehead with one finger.

He nodded, miserable.

“Has this happened to you before?”

“Memory loss? Yeah. Once or twice.” That was a huge exaggeration as he underestimated how often his memory had failed him of late. “The not knowing where I am. No. This is the first time for that.”

Great. A new symptom. The Navy doctors were going to eat that shit up.

He might as well start planning for his medical retirement now. Then what? What was he qualified to do that didn’t involve a damn drone?

Maybe the local supermarket was hiring baggers or door greeters…

She was still staring at him not saying anything, which was somehow worse than if she’d been talking.

He felt compelled to fill the silence. “Back in the beginning, when the explosion first happened and I couldn’t remember something, I figured it was because the injury was so fresh. New. And I thought, a couple of weeks out, you know, I’d be better. Healed.”

“It takes time. You might?—”

“Never get better?” he finished for her.

“No. You’ll get better. But I was going to say you might never get to one hundred percent.”

“Josie. I have to be at a hundred and ten percent to do my job.” Otherwise, people would die. Didn’t she realize that? He set his jaw in anger.

“I’m sorry.”

He laughed bitterly, not quite believing her. “Yeah, I’m sure. It doesn’t matter. I’m just a screw up anyway, right? No one in town will be shocked when the Navy kicks me out and I come home with my tail between my legs.”

“They’d kick you out for getting injured while on duty?” she asked.

“It’ll be officially a medical retirement but…” He lifted one shoulder like it didn’t matter even though he knew everyone in town would assume he’d screwed up.

Why wouldn’t they? Josie had it right when she’d pointed out his checkered past. It wouldn’t be a far stretch for people to believe he’d stolen that compass or gotten booted out of the military.

The compass. This recent trauma had momentarily knocked that disaster out of his head but it was back full force now.

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