Page 54 of Don't Forget Me
Nick pushed a hand through his hair. “I know we don’t owe each other anything, but I’m a greedy jerk, and I want everything you are. You know every part of my pain now, why won’t you let me carry yours?”
Elizabeth scooted back from him, disentangling their legs. This coma world was a cancer-free zone where she didn’t have to worry about what happened if the illness returned like it had before.
Every day of her life was about cancer, even now. It practically had been since her mom died when she was fifteen. She was diagnosed at seventeen and considered in remission at nineteen until it came back again at twenty-six. But even those years in between… everyone was so careful with her, so worried over every sneeze, every bout of the flu. And now, it was the same again. She couldn’t get tired without the world stopping, wanting to test her for something.
She refused to let Nick become another worried party, thinking of only her health and little else. Getting to her feet, she looked down at him. “Don’t forget to put out the fire before you come in.”
With that, she walked around to the back of the house, her body on autopilot as she climbed the steps and went inside, bypassing the kitchen she’d grown to love, the living room that now held memories of wine and games and so much laughter.
All of that would be over if he knew.
In her room, she fell face first onto the bed, a sob working its way out of her stomach. She’d have given anything to have Evelyn and Owen crawl into bed with her, to take comfort in their young strength.
Tears soaked into the pillow, silent in their arrival. Elizabeth had never been a crier because she was always afraid if she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop. As the sick mother and daughter, it was her job to put a smile on and make her family feel as if hope hadn’t left them after all.
But what if it had?
What if it happened again, this time with graver consequences?
Sniffling, she pushed herself up, swinging her legs around, and reached for the notebook she kept each letter she’d written her kids in.
But only three words came.
I love you.
And she was so very sorry they’d gotten stuck in this life of hospitals and fear.
A knock sounded on the door about ten minutes later, and she wiped her face. If she didn’t answer, he’d assume she fell asleep and leave.
No such luck.
The door opened, and she burrowed under the blankets, not ready to face the man who wanted all her secrets. He stopped in the doorway.
“I don’t know if you’re sleeping,” he started. “But maybe it doesn’t matter because I need to say this as much as I need you to hear it.” A breath rushed out of him. “I am not a man people know. I don’t talk about my brother… until now. Now, I have this urge to share him with you, to make you love him as much as I do.”
A beat of silence passed. “Maybe it’s as you said and only because none of this is real, none of it is possible. That makes it a safe place to talk. But I… I’m feeling all these things. Stephen would have called them emotions. They’re inside me, and I can’t get them out. I don’t care if I’m only dreaming of you, Liz. I think…”
Liz swore her heart stopped beating all together as she heard Nick turn back toward the door.
“It doesn’t matter, I guess.”
“You think what?” She sat up. “Finish that sentence, Nick.”
“I think I’m falling in love with you.”
There they were, the words that would end up shattering her heart.
But she didn’t care, not when he stood with his hands deep in the pockets of his jeans, looking like he couldn’t believe the words on his own tongue.
“Men like you don’t fall in love with women like me.” Sick ones. Single mothers.
Women who weren’t even sure true love existed.
This was a man who didn’t believe himself capable of such feelings.
“Stop saying things like that.” Nick’s steps echoed through the room as he approached her.
She didn’t smile as her eyes met his, the intensity choking the air from the room. “Nick, I need you to kiss me. Now. Kiss me now.”
