Page 8 of Forget Me Not

“A glass vase broke at work. I was cleaning up the pieces off the floor and one of them sliced me pretty deep. Bleeding wasn’t stopping, so I figured I’d probably need to come here and get stitches.”

“Alright, I’m going to examine the wound if you’re ready.” I nod toward his bandaged hand. Walking toward him, I remove the bandage and examine the deep cut that runs across the palm of his hand. It’s only about two inches, but he was right, it’s deep enough to need stitches.

“Okay, so I’m going to go ahead and clean the wound, numb the area, and then we will get you stitched up. Sound good?” I say, using my kind doctor voice, the one I use in all situations like this.

“Yup,” he says casually.

I grab a suture tray and move it next to the bed, gently placing his hand on top of it. I go to work, cleaning the cut.

“This is lidocaine, which I’m going to use to numb the area,” I say, holding up the needle. “It may feel uncomfortable for a few seconds.”

He nods his head, giving me the go-ahead. After numbing the area, I begin to suture the wound closed.

Kade doesn’t say anything as I focus, he simply watches me. I’m halfway done when he finally speaks.

“So, Dr. Logan Hart, are you the only doctor in the family, or is it a family of physicians?” he asks. There’s something about the way he asks the question that makes me curious about the reasoning behind it. It’s actually not an uncommon question tobe asked, it’s just not one I expected from him. Keeping my focus on the task in front of me, I answer anyway.

“My mother is a nurse. She worked in the ER most of her life and just recently started working in a pediatric doctor’s office.”

“Only child?” The question comes out of his mouth almost too quickly. As if he was waiting for a chance to ask this question specifically.

“No. I had a twin sister.” I’m not sure why I reveal the last part. I could’ve just said no. Only my closest friends know about Lennox and even they don’t know the full story of what happened. My brain seems to malfunction when I’m around him. Like I can’t control the words that are coming out of my mouth.

He doesn’t speak after that, and I’m grateful for it. Grateful he doesn’t ask why I said had instead of have, grateful he doesn’t ask what happened or, even worse, say, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

I finish up and apply a dressing.

“Keep the area dry for the next two to three days. You can change the dressing after twenty-four hours and gently clean around it, then apply the antibiotic ointment and keep the dressing on for at least the first forty-eight hours,” I say, handing him an aftercare guide. “You can come back two weeks from today to have them removed. The nurse will go over all of this with you as well.”

I finally look up at him and see what looks like confliction marring his face. It’s only there for a second before his mask slides firmly back into place.

“Thank you,” he says. His voice polite but cold. As if none of our earlier interactions happened at all. I’m not sure what caused the sudden change, but it’s probably for the best.

“Of course.” I smile politely at him. “Have a good rest of your night, Mr. Pierce.” I take one final look at him before turning towalk away. The farther I move away from him, the stronger the hold that he has on me feels.

I can’t get over the feeling of familiarity I find when I look into his eyes. I can’t seem to shake the feeling that he seems to be hiding something. Not that I know much about him in the first place, but it goes deeper than that. I can’t help wanting to know him and hoping he wants to know me too; Yet, I hope he doesn’t want to get to know me just as much.

The thought that I gave him a piece of me without meaning to by sharing that I had a twin stays with me throughout the rest of my shift until I’m lying in bed trying to fall asleep. It’s clear after tonight that Kade Pierce makes me lose the ability to think clearly. He makes me feel a loss of control from just a simple stare.

I may not know much about him, but I do know that he’s dangerous to the carefully crafted life I’ve worked so hard to build for myself. Knowing that, there’s only one clear option. I have to stay away from him at all costs.

CHAPTER

FOUR

Kaden

Logan fucking Hart. The name has been on a loop in the back of my mind for the better part of the last five years. And now I possibly have a face to put to the name. There’s a chance it might not be her.

I mean, after all, how many Logan Hart’s are there in the world? I wouldn’t know since I’ve avoided looking the name up since it was essentially forced on me. But there has to be more than one.

L told me she lived in Florida with her twin, the chances of said twin now being in Seattle are slim. But Logan said she had a twin sister. Had, not has. If she is Logan Hart, all my assumptions over the years are officially confirmed.

L is dead. L killed herself. The ominous last message I received from her five years ago before she disappeared had me assuming that she would try, but I never knew if my assumptions were right.

A big part of me was always holding on to the fact that she hadn’t. That she got better, that she didn’t need to talk to me anymore because it was just a reminder of a time she didn’t want to remember.

I still don’t even know her real name. L was the only thing she ever gave me. Besides her twin’s name, that is. A twin I never wanted to know about. A twin who has always felt like a responsibility I refused to accept or even acknowledge.

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