Page 4 of Don't Regret Me
Liz knew exactly who she meant. “We don’t need to talk about him.”
“But he talked to the reporters, and he said he was sorry for what he did and if the stars decided this was his fate, then he accepted it.”
She wanted to believe it meant more than it did, but she’d learned her lessons about that. Liz reached for Evelyn, pulling her into a hug. “It’s all over, sweetie. None of it was real.”
Maybe that was the truth. It was all a dream, and now she had to let go.
3
NICK
Nick deserved every consequence the judge laid out. One million dollars in restitution, along with all medical bills of the injured party resulting from the accident. Two hundred hours of community service.
And court-ordered rehab.
In the six months since he crashed his car into another, he hadn’t had a single drink or taken any sort of pills, yet Sherrie told him he’d been completely dependent on them. Without his memories of an entire year, he couldn’t say she was wrong.
Really, he was just lucky to avoid prison time. Maybe that would have been better. It could have assuaged the guilt he felt when he looked across the courtroom at the man he’d hit, the one he’d been told had three young children.
Nick Jacobs, the drug-dependent superstar who couldn’t escape his mistakes. It was like a movie, one that would only come to a very depressing ending.
“Honey, you’re going to survive this.” Bea sat down next to him on the balcony of his hotel room in Gulf City, a place that held too many feelings and not a single memory.
He rolled his head toward her. “But who will I be at the end of it?”
Her eyes grew sad, something that was new coming from the agent. Nick had known her since he was nothing but a lost kid showing up in L.A., hoping to make something of himself. But he hadn’t been alone then. He’d had Stephen.
“Nick.” Bea drew in a long breath, pushing a hand through her blond hair. “You made a mistake. No one will say you didn’t. But one night doesn’t have to control the rest of your life.”
The familiar ache ran up the back of his leg, a pain he hoped would never go away. It took a lot of healing and physical therapy to even be able to walk again, and he still had a long way to go. It was a reminder of what he’d done, of how much his brother would be ashamed of him. “Maybe it should.”
She was about to respond when the sliding glass door opened and Sherrie appeared, one hand on her round stomach, her usual pose. As if the world would forget what she carried. “Stop wallowing out here. I want to go out to dinner.”
She was his pregnant wife who stood by him all these months, and yet he couldn’t help feeling like there was something horribly broken between them. Maybe it was just him who was broken.
“I’m going to bed. You can do whatever you want.” Most days, he could hardly look at her. What kind of man did that make him?
She put on her fake pout, the one he’d seen her use to get whatever she wanted. “Fine. Enjoy sleeping alone.”
She didn’t realize how much he would. A part of him wanted to remind Sherrie just how pregnant she was, that she shouldn’t go out for the kind of night he knew she enjoyed, but she was an adult and he’d lost the energy to stop her.
“Just don’t do anything that will hurt the baby.” He turned when the door shut and realized Bea had slipped out, probably wanting to avoid having anything to do with Sherrie.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure I’m not photographed without you.” That wasn’t exactly what he’d meant.
“Fine.” He turned, unbuttoning the collared shirt he’d worn to the courthouse and shrugging out of it. When the door slammed, his shoulders relaxed.
The last memories he had before the accident were of them struggling in their marriage and considering ending it. Sherrie said in the year he forgot, they’d gone to counseling and decided to have this baby, but he couldn’t help feeling like a part of the story was wrong.
Like there was a giant missing piece.
A piece of his world, a piece of him.
Changing into a pair of jeans and a nondescript blue t-shirt, he pulled a hat low on his head. Hopefully, it would be enough to avoid notice. Going out to a fancy dinner as if celebrating the verdict hadn’t felt right. Being with Sherrie on a night like this wasn’t what he needed.
But he couldn’t stay in this room.
It wasn’t his first time in Gulf City, but he didn’t remember the time he spent here filming the movie. So, when he stepped out onto the street, he took it all in as if he’d never seen it before. The soft evening breeze, the sinking sun on the horizon. The hotel was on the beach, only blocks from the center of what was considered the downtown area.
