Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
I have to say weird stuff or I’ll die.
—Nettie to Eddy
Nettie
I woke from my nap with a start, my mind latching onto a memory this time and holding on tight.
The dream/memory was of a time when I was much, much younger.
So was Boone.
It was when we’d started dating, I’d decided.
He was in his truck turned toward me. He was holding a plastic bracelet in his hand that he twirled around his fingers. Back and forth. Back and forth.
His eyes were so soft and warm as he asked, “Will you be my girlfriend?”
I’d said yes.
I’d actually said yes quite a few times and thrown myself at him.
When I woke, he’d kissed me for the first time.
That warmth was in my heart as I sat up and stretched my arms over my head.
The beep of a phone had me glancing at the phone that was plugged into the charger next to the bed.
A phone that Boone had plugged in for me as he’d shown me into this room and ordered me to sleep.
He’d stayed on the side of the bed, running his fingers over my back in a soothing way, until I’d fallen asleep.
The phone beeped again, and I touched the screen with one finger.
An “URGENT” text was on the screen.
I couldn’t stop myself from clicking on it.
My phone opened without me putting a password in and it took me to an email that read “OPEN IMMEDIATELY.”
I opened it.
I read the email, even though I knew that I wasn’t supposed to be on my phone.
But seeing as it’d come across as “urgent” I’d decided…fuck it.
I read, and reread what it said, my heart in my throat.
I’d known that my marriage to Boone was recent.
I also knew, thanks to Eddy, that I had another apartment in Miami that I’d have to clean out soon since I’d moved jobs back home.
If I had things to move…
I got out of bed and stretched, thankful that the throb in my head was low and much less intense than it was yesterday.
I headed to the bathroom first, washed my hands, then lifted my shirt to take a look at my belly.
I could feel the baby moving inside of me, likely doing somersaults.
That’d partially been what woke me, along with the sound of my phone.
As I looked at my belly, I smiled.
It was weird to see it moving from the inside.
I pressed my hand into what appeared to be an elbow or a knee and got a kick back in response.
Dropping my shirt, I went in search of the man that made my heart race.
I found him in the kitchen standing in front of glass windows that overlooked a mountain range.
He was talking on the phone.
“…know that she was involved somehow,” he said. “If she was the one in the passenger seat like she usually was, she’d have been killed.”
She being me.
Apparently that day that we’d had the wreck I’d been driving.
And seeing as Boone didn’t appear to be the kind of guy that usually let a woman drive, I’d wondered why.
“No one’s seen her since,” he continued. “My mother hasn’t answered any of the phone calls that Denver or my dad has placed.
“Yeah, Ida Bell. She’s good,” he said.
Who was Ida Bell?
“Yeah, it’s good to call you sister, too,” he answered. “I’ll call you if I get any more updates. Yeah, you, too. Bye.”
His sister.
Ida Bell was his sister.
When he hung up, he shoved the phone into his pocket and turned, pausing when he saw me in the doorway.
“What do you know?” I asked quietly.
He froze.
“I’m dying to know what happened exactly.”
He contemplated not telling me, I could read that easily on his face.
But when he studied me for a long moment, I knew he’d decided to share it.
When he got done telling me about his mother, another memory hit.
One of a mean woman that…
“She killed our baby!”
Boone’s face fell.
“She did,” he replied gruffly.
The memory wasn’t complete.
Just a small snippet in time of me talking to Boone, telling him that his mother had caused me to abort my own baby.
Boone had held me so tight as I’d cried that I could still practically feel his arms around me…
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
And it sounded like he’d said that combination of words to me a lot.
I swallowed. “And you can’t find her?”
“No,” he answered. “We’ve looked, too. She’s nowhere to be found.”
“Great.” I huffed. “That’s awful.”
My heart felt like a painful bruise as I thought about the baby that we’d lost before we’d ever gotten to know her.
The pained look in his eyes made me know he felt the same way.
A constant aching pain of where something should be but wasn’t.
“So no one can find her?” I asked.
“No.” He sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets. “It’s only a matter of time, though. She won’t be able to stay hidden for long.”
I hoped he was right.
The thought of always looking over my shoulder didn’t appeal to me.
His eyes dropped to the phone in my hands and he frowned. “What do you have there?”
Finally remembering the email, I held the phone out to him. “I got this, and it says urgent.”
While he read the email, I once again looked around.
The house was grand.
And big as hell.
Two people living here could get lost in this giant place.
“It’s not very baby-proofed,” I said as I eyed the fireplace instruments.
“That was on our agenda,” Boone grumbled as he continued to read. The longer he read, the more frowny his frown became. “But you kept telling me that she wasn’t going to be moving around for at least half a year, and we had time.”
“That makes sense,” I said.
His brows furrowed. “What the fuck?”
I knew what he was reading.
Apparently, my old team had failed to pay for my apartment this month like was written into my contract, and I had thirty-six hours to remove my belongings, or they were going to trash it all.
And, seeing as I had no memory of anything to fight it, we were left with few options.
“So…” I said. “Fancy a ride to Miami?”
He didn’t sleep with me.
Which made me mad.
I tossed and turned for hours before I finally got up and went in search of him.
I found him on the couch, asleep, but with a frown on his face.
I should probably let him sleep.
We had a flight out of Bozeman tomorrow that we had to get up early for, and we literally only had a few more hours of sleep left.
But I couldn’t sleep.
Or, more importantly, I couldn’t sleep without him.
I didn’t know why or how, I just knew that everything would be better if I crawled onto that couch with him.
Plus, it really didn’t look like he was sleeping all that well, either.
He was tossing and turning, even in the few short moments that I’d been watching him. His arm had lifted and dropped above his head three times. His left leg came up and went down. Right leg up and down.
Yeah, this would be better for both of us. I knew it.
Decision made, I tiptoed toward the couch, hoping I could just scooch into the couch without him noticing.
I carefully went to the back of the couch and slid down between the couch cushions and him.
As I did, I shoved him right off the couch.
“What…” He hit with a thump, and I covered my mouth with my hand to keep the laughter at bay.
I looked over the side of the couch and stared at his wide eyes as he stared blankly up at the ceiling. He seemed really irritated.
“I’m sorry.”
He moved his head so that he could see me more clearly.
His face cleared so fast of the frustration that I would’ve thought I’d imagined it had I not seen it with my own eye seconds before I’d spoken.
He crawled back onto the couch and went in on his side so that we could both lie on the couch without falling off.
Miscalculation on my part.
His arms went around me and he scooted even closer, leaving no space between us.
When he was in place, he reached for the blanket that was still on the floor and tugged it over the both of us.
“Okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I breathed, inhaling his scent.
Outside.
Why did he always smell like outside?
I loved it.
The baby that was now being smushed between us chose that moment to kick.
Hard.
He chuckled, and I felt the vibration of that sound all the way to my toes.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “I didn’t mean to make you fall.”
He rumbled something deep in his throat, but I was already falling asleep in his arms.
Right where I knew I should be.