Page 58 of Don't Forget Me
Jasmine thought of what her brother had said, the story he’d mentioned where she’d screwed up her entire career, but she couldn’t let that hold her back. “It’s never wrong.”
“Okay then.” She unclasped her purse and dug through it, producing a thick business card and a pen. She wrote a number on the back. “This is my personal number. You and I are going to make sure the life Nick comes back to isn’t one behind bars.”
Jasmine took the card, feeling the weight of this story settle around her shoulders. It wasn’t only about breaking news and impressing her boss anymore. It wasn’t a steppingstone to more important stories.
This was about someone’s life.
And the question she couldn’t get out of her mind.
Had someone tried to kill Nick Jacobs?
20
NICK
Nick had never been one to pay much attention to someone’s breathing before. When he was with Sherrie, their nights were full of arguments, followed by explosive kisses he now wondered if they’d used just to shut each other up.
There’d been hatred there.
And something deeper than that.
She’d resented him. For his success, for the fact that the movie that could be her big break was not considered a good enough role for him.
It wasn’t going to be a good movie, he knew that, but if he was being honest, he was bored. Flying out to Florida for a couple months with his wife had sounded like the best option.
Even if said wife was only using him. She couldn’t get on the list without him, and he knew it bothered her.
Now, as he lay next to Liz, a woman different from Sherrie in every way that mattered, all he wanted was more. More time. More honesty. More pieces of her he could keep with him no matter what happened to them.
His lips skimmed her hairline, and hers curved up.
“You’re watching me sleep now?”
“No.” He had been, but he couldn’t even admit to himself that he was so far gone down the road leading to Elizabeth Ross that he wouldn’t ever be able to find his way back. “Okay, fine. I was trying to decide if I should let you know you’re drooling.”
Her eyes slid open, holding none of the pain they’d shown the night before. That was the thing about mornings. Each moment of awakening was new, like nothing before existed for a few blissful beats, and then it all came rushing back.
She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth, but it came away drool-free. “Liar.”
Pulling her tighter against him, he rested his chin on her shoulder. “I could get used to mornings like this.”
“Nick Jacobs.” She laughed. “Going soft. That sounded like something you’d say in one of your movies.”
He didn’t like being compared to the characters he played. Before the accident he was sure had ruined his reputation, he’d been known to play mostly good guys, heroes. It was a hard standard to live up to, and most of the time, he didn’t try.
But now he wanted to. To try. To be better.
For her.
But that was only possible if he knew her, truly knew her. Speaking into the crook of her neck, he couldn’t meet her eyes. “You successfully distracted me for an entire night. I think we need to talk.”
Silence stretched between them as they weighed the heaviness of that statement. This wasn’t supposed to be heavy, weighted, not here. That should have been left in the real world with the people who waited for them to wake.
Here, where Nick had started learning to laugh, to smile, there wasn’t supposed to be this ache in his chest.
Yet, there it was.
Liz’s fingers wound through his hair, trailing down to the nape of his neck. “I was a teenager the first time they told me I was sick.” There was an absent quality to her voice that scared him.
