Page 41 of Don't Regret Me
Her jaw tightened. “Really? You’re giving up?”
“Giving up? Liz, we’re barely together. We’ve kissed three times now, and I hardly know anything about you.”
Anger surged through her. Anger at his missing memories, at the accident that threw them together, at him for not seeing what stood between them. This wasn’t a simple boy meets girl romance. He hadn’t come back to Gulf City by chance, whatever he believed. These last few weeks were only a drop in the ocean of what they’d shared.
“Screw you, Nick.” She turned on her heel, wanting to get out of the rain, out of this tragedy.
He caught up with her, grabbed her wrist to spin her back around into his chest. His lips captured hers in a bruising kiss, one that was both confusing and all-consuming.
Fighting against both herself and him, she shoved him away. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry.” He looked just as confused as her. “You were storming away, and I… I don’t know.”
“You don’t know,” she yelled above the rain. “Let me spell it out. You’re in love with me.”
“I—”
“Yes, yes, it’s only been a few weeks for you, but I have been waiting for you for almost twelve months. Twelve months of not knowing where you were, if you remembered anything. Anything at all. But I can see now it was all in vain.” She spread her arms wide. “None of it matters, Nick.” A helpless sob clogged in her throat. “If you don’t know who I am, who we were, we’re over before we got a chance to truly begin.” She could have fallen for him all over again. Even if he never knew about their time at the lake house, they could have been happy.
But he wasn’t going to give them a chance. She could see it in his eyes.
“I’m going to leave you,” he said. “One day, I’m going to pack up and head back to L.A. Gulf City isn’t my home. I have a life to put together again.”
She backed away. “Right. Well, I hope you’re able to find the pieces you think you need in that life.”
It wasn’t until the front door closed behind her that she let the tears fall. A blast of air conditioning struck her, and she shivered, looking down to where she dripped water in the entryway.
“Liz?” Booker called, appearing from the kitchen with Jasmine by his side. The three of them were having a movie night, something they hadn’t done in a long time. The kids were with their dad, so she didn’t have to be quiet as another sob shook her.
Booker wrapped a blanket around her and pulled her into a hug. “What did he do?” he asked. “Do I need to go after him?”
She shook her head. There was a time she thought she had no tears left to shed over Nick Jacobs, that she couldn’t hurt any more than the moment he’d looked at her with no recognition in his eyes.
She was wrong.
“I’m going to change.” It was an excuse to get a moment alone, to allow herself to break down in the quiet of her bedroom. She placed her palms on her bed and bent over, breathing slowly as tears replaced the rain on her face.One. Two. Three.She counted slowly, giving herself five seconds of wallowing.
When she hit five, she straightened and wiped her face. This wasn’t who she was. Elizabeth Ross had been through too much in her life to let some movie star completely unravel every bit of self-confidence she possessed.
Swapping out her soaked jeans for more comfortable sweatpants and twisting her hair into a bun, she looked in the mirror. Mascara stained her cheeks, and she grabbed a tissue to wipe it away, erasing the remnants of her pain.
When she walked back into the living room, she heard Booker and Jasmine arguing.
“She needs to let this guy go.” Booker sounded exasperated.
“You don’t know what they’ve been through together.” Jasmine always had her back, but this time, she feared Booker was right.
“Neither of us do. You believe what she says about the coma, but it was just a dream. Obviously, one Nick didn’t share. I can’t explain him coming here or what has happened since, but she didn’t meet him in some dream world. That’s delusional.”
Jasmine sighed. “I choose to have faith in a woman I’ve come to respect. Whether or not it really happened doesn’t actually matter.”
That was it, the end of her patience. Liz walked into the living room, and their conversation cut off. “I know you don’t believe me, but I can prove it. Booker, call into work and say you won’t be coming in this weekend. Jasmine, have your brother keep an eye on Franklin while we’re gone.”
They shared a confused look. “I can’t just—” Booker started.
Jasmine cut him off. “Where are we going?”
“To where this tragedy started.” She turned to walk away, and they ran after her.
