Page 46 of Don't Forget Me
“I don’t know.”
He set his bowl aside and turned toward her, putting a finger under her chin to force her to look at him. “It doesn’t matter what you do for your job, Liz. You help people because of who you are, not what you do.” Leaning in, he brushed his lips over hers. “You’re helping me right now.”
She smiled against him. “I’ll bet I am.”
His laugh vibrated through them both. “I think it’s safe to say I won the dance contest.”
She pushed him away. “Only because you hustled me.”
“No, I said I don’t dance, not that I can’t.”
“I should have known.” She shook her head. “You Hollywood dorks. Always full of hidden talents.”
“Mmhmm.” He reached for his bowl. “Now, eat up. I worked hard making you dinner.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Liz rested her chin on his shoulder. “Nick… thank you. For dinner. For making me feel less incompetent at life. If I have to be here, I’m glad you’re here too.”
He turned his head just enough to place a kiss on her forehead. Liz was anything but incompetent at life. He’d seen the way she lived with so much joy, even when he wanted nothing more than to ignore how much he envied that.
She was proof of Stephen’s words.
Tragedy didn’t define people. At least, not unless they let it.
16
ELIZABETH
The sun at the lake didn’t suck.
Okay, Elizabeth was from Florida, so she wasn’t a stranger to sun, but she’d spent so much time in hospitals or feeling ill indoors that she never got to enjoy it.
Now, there was only her and the water.
Oh, and the view.
Nick went through a shirtless workout up on the deck, and she sneaked peeks at him over the edge of her journal. A journal that hid the manuscript she read.
She was about halfway through now and completely lost in the story. Stephen used the lake house as the backdrop for a tragic love story about two characters who were never supposed to meet. They weren’t fated to fall in love, but that didn’t stop them from doing just that as the world tried to tear them apart.
A tear slipped down her cheek as she flipped the notebook shut, unable to read more than a bit at a time. It was a brilliant piece of art, but one that made her profoundly sad. The world wasn’t a fair place, keeping two lovers apart.
Yet, it happened all the time.
People who should never have gotten involved found each other, causing immeasurable pain, but the ones who truly knew how to love were hidden.
Leaning back on her towel, Elizabeth tried to let the warmth of the sun take her worries away. She wanted to shake off the feeling of impending doom, that this couldn’t last. It wasn’t supposed to.
There were too many people waiting for her back at home. The kids would love this lake, the swimming and sitting under the stars. Maybe she’d get to bring them here if she ever made it back to them.
She closed her eyes, picturing their sweet faces, wanting to see their smiles rather than the worry they probably carried with them every day.
Without opening her eyes, she felt a presence standing above her. Over the last week, Nick seemed to get past his fear of the dock, no longer hesitating before setting foot on it. But never alone.
He lay down beside her, and she opened her eyes, turning her head to one side to look at him. He mirrored her pose.
Sweat clung to the hair sticking to his forehead and dripped down over his nose. His entire body glistened with it, and she wanted to reach out, to trace the contours of his chest, to feel his heart beating beneath the warm skin.
But she didn’t.
