AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Iwatch from across the deck as Lucy eats steak tacos and drinks beer inside. She’s chatting with Jed and he’s making her laugh. Jed makes most people laugh. He’s got a personality that just wins people over. The pull of jealousy threatens to unleash.
I’ve never felt insecure when it came to Lucy, but that was before she walked out on me. I have no idea how I forgot about that closet. Of course she’d want those journals she’d been writing in forever, though I don’t know if she knows that’s what’s in there.
Even if she does get her memory back, what does that mean for us?
“Come on, have some fun.” Cameron puts his arm around my neck and rocks me back and forth.
“Leave him be,” Chevelle says as she drinks a glass of wine on her way to the firepit. Everyone is heading down now.
Cameron rolls his eyes, then he leans over the ledge of the deck and watches my little sister make her way to the firepit. He pushes off the railing and is one stair down when I speak.
“You know she’s your best friend’s little sister, right?”
He gives me an ‘as if’ expression. “I just enjoy razzing her. Don’t read anything into it.”
He jogs down the stairs while I shake my head at him. One of these days, Fisher is gonna punch him in the face for flirting with Chevelle.
We all know that whoever ends up with Chevelle will have a lot of issues to deal with, and the worst possible person for that job would be Cameron. The guy’s had everything handed to him on a silver platter his whole life. But I can’t worry about them. I have enough of my own damn problems right now.
“Marla made me clean the toilet,” Fisher tells Cade as they come out onto the deck, Presley snug under Cade’s arm.
“Serves you right. I did it. I can’t imagine what it looks like without me there now.” Cade shivers.
Presley leaves her fiancé’s side, walking toward me. As usual, she looks as if she stepped out of a glamour magazine. She has a face full of makeup and clothes that can’t be bought around here.
“Did you know it’s a party?” she asks with a tentative smile.
I lean against the railing in the corner. “I did.”
“Then why are you over here?”
I eye inside.
“You know he flirts with everyone. He tried to pick me up when I first came to town. Women know he’s just a flirt.” She sips her wine.
“Well, she’s not the Lucy I remember,” I say, though I’m not upset about the fact that she’s broadened her horizons on so many things.
“I can’t imagine being her. I mean, when I came here, I didn’t know my family and I hate that I’ll never know what kind of people my parents were, but I can’t imagine actually not knowing anything about myself. Things we take for granted. You know?”
“Yeah. I know. She’s different in a way but still the same.”
She leans with me to look down over the firepit.
“What do you think will be the end result of all this?” I ask. I trust Presley. She was the first one to help me sort through my grief from my failed marriage and a large reason why I came out of my depression.
She holds her wine glass over the edge, clasping both sides, both of our gazes on the trees now. “I don’t know. You harbor feelings of abandonment that she doesn’t remember the cause of. She remembers she loves you, but not anything specific. What I do know is that love is powerful. It’s the one emotion that changes people. You know?”
I chuckle. “No, I don’t know.”
She laughs as though she’s winging this entire conversation. “What I mean is, love is strong enough to make people change.”
“You said that,” I say, chuckling.
Her shoulders sink. “If someone is happy, they’re content to stay that way. If someone is depressed, they might know something has to be done, but the emotion itself isn’t what spurs them to act to get out of it. Love for someone else is strong enough to force you to get over your problems, get over your hang-ups, get over the big brick wall that’s blocking you from having a future with that person. I’m probably talking nonsense since I’m getting married soon.”
“No, I understand.”
“The fact that she remembers she loves you, without remembering all the things that led to that feeling, that speaks to the power of the emotion.”
