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I amp up the suspense by shaking my head.
“What was my old favorite?”
I point at the banana and she smiles. But the smile is bright and wide as though she would’ve been disappointed if she’d chosen the same fruit she used to like.
I knew what Nikki told her at the party was too much. Now Lucy is harboring guilt and thinking she doesn’t like the person she was, but I loved that woman. So I vow to myself that I’ll make sure she loves that version of herself too, whether or not she ever fully comes back to me.
We sit in my truck and she looks way too tiny to be in the driver’s seat. When she lived here, she had a small SUV and refused to ever drive my truck. But new times call for new things.
“Do I need to go over the brake and the gas?” I ask.
She shoots me a look to say ‘stop it.’
I hold up my hands. “Sorry, but you don’t even remember marrying me. I have to make sure we’re all safe on this expedition.”
She rolls her eyes. “Let’s remember this is your idea and I do remember marrying you, just not the actual ceremony.” She stares at the dash as though she’s expecting it to turn on by itself.
“Put the key in the ignition and turn it forward,” I instruct her.
“I know. I know.” She wiggles her ass in the seat and her back straightens, then she checks her mirrors for the millionth time. I even turned the truck around so she wouldn’t have to back down the driveway.
I wait with one arm stretched out across the seat and resting on the back of her seat, my other arm relaxed along the door. “Let’s go. We don’t wanna be late.”
She gives me one more death glare and puts the truck in gear, easing off the brake but slamming it down before we reach the end of the driveway. She cringes. “Sorry.”
“No problem.”
She leans forward over the wheel to look right and left from our driveway.
Eventually I do the same and she playfully swats me. “I think we’re clear,” I say.
She eases out and turns the wheel like a brand-new driver.
“Should we see if you can get us to the school?” I ask.
“I know my way.”
I hold up my hands and let her take control. Once we’re out of the mountains and she’s heading toward downtown, she relaxes in the seat and her hands aren’t at ten and two any longer. More like three and nine, but it’s progress. Other than being heavy on the brake, she’s doing great.
“This is fun. I’m gonna have to buy a car.”
“Where’s your SUV?” I ask.
“In Idaho.”
So she drove there at some point. “Why not go down and drive it back up here?”
She shrugs.
“What’s with the shrug?” I shift in my seat a bit to face her.
“I think I want to start fresh. I’ve thought a lot about it, and don’t get me wrong.” She turns my way and I point toward the road. “I want to remember the reason I left, and I’m going to do everything I can to figure it out, don’t think I’m not. But I’m enjoying discovering this new Lucy. How many people get to reinvent themselves?” She pulls up to the school, where they’ve changed the sign out front to welcome her back. “Oh, look at that.”
While she parks, backing up and straightening out a few times, her words strike me again. She somehow doesn’t like who she was.
We climb out of the truck and she hip-checks me. “I don’t get a congratulations for remembering how to get to school?”
“Congratulations,” I say, smiling at her.
She tilts her head as I press the buzzer to be let into the school. “Are you okay?”
I nod and look straight into her blue eyes. “You know that you were a great person before the accident, right? I wouldn’t have fallen in love with someone who wasn’t.”
She loses her smile for the first time all morning and nods. “I know. I’m just having fun.”
She might be a new version of herself, but one thing hasn’t changed—I can still tell when she’s lying.
