Page 17 of Don't Regret Me
“That’s the thing, Dad. He’s not a stranger to me, and the thought of being only that to him…” She stopped, knowing he would never understand. Not truly.
“Sweetie, the accident was a long time ago. Both of you have healed from your injuries. Maybe it’s time you start trying to heal everything else. Come on.” He took her hand, pulling her out toward the porch.
“Is Lizzy going to play with us?” Carl asked, his grin wide.
“Guess I don’t have a choice.” Liz slid into a chair, avoiding Nick’s gaze. A table sat between them, and yet, it wasn’t enough. She thought of the nights they spent eating whatever she’d cooked for them around the glass table at the lake house, how they’d move to the living room to start a game of UpWords.
This was not the same man, she reminded herself. This version of Nick Jacobs had a wife and a new baby. He shouldn’t even be in Gulf City so soon after the birth of his kid.
“You’re Nick Jacobs, right?” She took the cards and started shuffling, doing her best to keep her voice even.
“I am.”
Her father and his friends glanced at each other in apprehension, but she did her best to ignore them. “What are you doing here?”
His eyes narrowed. “Working at the youth center.”
“Surely there are youth centers out in California if that’s what you really wanted to do. You know… close to your wife and child.” She wasn’t sure what had made her say it, why the anger she hadn’t had before suddenly flooded her.
It wasn’t his fault he didn’t remember her, but why did he have to come back and invade her life right when she was trying to move on? She’d wanted to clear his name, to find a way to prove to herself she hadn’t imagined the entire thing, but none of that involved seeing him again, having to face the man who promised nothing would change when they woke.
He’d loved her. In those dreams, he’d wanted her. And now, all that existed in those stubborn eyes was the cold truth. She was nothing to him.
He pushed back from the table. “You know, I don’t think I’m up for poker tonight. I’m suddenly exhausted.” He nodded toward Jimmy. “Thanks for the invite. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Liz watched him go, a part of her waiting for him to pause, to turn around and meet her eye. But he didn’t. Instead, he left behind a silence that threatened to choke the life out of her.
Calmly, she dealt the cards. No one picked them up.
“Liz…” Her dad’s words trailed off.
“Don’t.” The word was a warning. If one person tried to comfort her right now, she was going to explode.
Jimmy sighed. “You can’t let your dreams of a man affect how you treat him.”
They weren’t just dreams, but none of them would ever get that. To them, the Liz and Nick romance was a story. To her, it was the best few months of her life.
She stood, dropping the rest of the cards on the table. “I don’t think I’m in the mood for cards anymore.”
They tried to call her back, but she had to get away before she fell apart completely. When she got to her room, she shut the door and leaned back against it, drawing in a deep, quivering breath. The idea that Nick was back was preposterous. He was out of her life, gone. She only had to see him in the movies.
At least, that was how it was supposed to be.
Those men on that porch might not believe any of this, but she would prove it happened. Not only for them, but because she was very much beginning to doubt it herself.
Retrieving her laptop from the table by her bed, she flopped onto her stomach and powered it up. The lake house didn’t take long to find on a rental site, so she booked it for a few weeks out, probably the soonest she could get the time off from work.
Now, she just had to avoid Nick until he returned to his real life with the people he hadn’t forgotten
9
NICK
Sometimes, Nick could feel the things he didn’t remember. That seemed like a strange thing to say, but no stranger than forgetting an entire year of his life.
Those moments, the ones he knew would tell him the true story of who he was, were somewhere in his head, pounding against each synapse, trying to break free.
And she was one of them.
