‘No.’
I strolled along the busy shopping strip, not wanting to overtake him. But Billy was surprisingly quick on his crutch. We arrived at the café, and a vibrant woman standing behind the counter—perhaps a few years older than Billy—squealed when she saw him. Clapping, she ran toward him with arms outstretched, her perfect white teeth bursting through her gigantic grin.
It was the first time I saw Billy smile.
It suited him. It made his deep brown eyes appear … inviting.
‘Biiiii-lllll-yyyyyy!’ she sang, her long lashes fluttering wildly. ‘Soooooo good to see you!’
This woman belonged in a musical.
I edged behind him and sank into myself, so I’d become as small and as invisible as possible. The woman had a thick accent, but she spoke English well. Her skin was as radiant as Lillian’s, like dark tan sprinkled with glitter, and her boobs—Geez—her overstretched t-shirt was hardly coping. I could take several handfuls from her, and they’d still protrude like mountains from her chest.
What was that saying? Any more than a handful was a waste?
How did I remember that?
Or had I made it up to console myself?
‘How are ya, Gabby?’ Billy asked, his voice like honey.
‘Oh, you know. Work, work, work. How’s the leg?’ Gabby asked it so casually.
Didn’t she know that Billy turned into the Hulk whenever someone mentioned his leg?
Billy shrugged. ‘It still hurts, mostly first thing in the morning. But it feels much better. I should be able to return to work in less than six weeks. I have another review with the doctor in a couple of weeks to have it assessed.’
Ah, apparently Billy only got annoyed when I asked about his leg.
Gabby’s gaze darted to Billy, then to me, then back to Billy. ‘You not going to introduce us?’ she asked him.
Billy shuffled back, so the three of us formed a circle, and Gabby looked at me—really looked at me. I’d never felt so … noticed.
‘This is Lucy.’
Gabby’s face lit up. ‘Welcome to my café, Lucy.’
Billy’s phone rang, and he hopped away from us to answer it. Gabby stared at me the same way Lillian did, with concern hidden behind a warm gaze. Approaching, she brushed her fingers through my black bob, patting my hair down at the center part.
I stiffened. Then, just like a dog having their tummy rubbed, my body slackened in response to the sensation. Her caress fed a need I didn’t know I had.
Touch.
‘Living with Billy, yes? He’s great, do you think?’ she said, dropping her hands away from me.
‘He has his moments.’ Mostly asshole moments, but I didn’t need to burst her bubble.
She laughed. ‘Don’t worry. He’s been grumpy since he broke his leg.’
‘I’ve been told that.’
She laughed again, and her entire bust shook. It was impossible to keep from ogling her bouncing boobs.
‘Listen,’ she said, ‘anytime he get too much, you come here. I make you coffee, give you something to eat. I take care of you.’
Her deep, raspy voice, accentuated by her thick pronunciation, was hypnotic. I could listen to her speak all day. Unlike Billy and Lillian, who sounded as Aussie as I did, Gabby made simple and boring words like “yes” and “no” sound incredibly sexy.
Billy returned, and Gabby beamed.
‘Please, sit—sit anywhere you like. I bring you something to eat!’ she boomed.
Most of the tables were occupied, but there was one by the window that enticed me, mainly because it meant I could people-watch rather than look at Billy.
Billy followed my lead to the table and dropped into his seat, sitting squashed up against the window. He extended his braced leg into the already narrow pathway, making him appear uncomfortable. But he didn’t say anything. He looked out the window, around the café, then back out the window. We both tapped our fingers against the tabletop, trying to ignore the awkward tension that seemed to follow us wherever we went. Finally, he fixed a casual look on me.
‘What’s with the black?’ he asked.
Catching my confusion, he gestured with his head toward my new outfit.
‘I guess I prefer not to stand out. What about you? What’s with the permanent frown?’
His brows furrowed—as if on cue—but before he could reply, I continued. ‘Actually, you don’t have a permanent frown. I saw that nice smile you gave Gabby before.’
‘Gabby and I are good friends.’
Across the road, a guy walked out of a burger bar, stuffing handfuls of fries into his mouth. I salivated. I hadn’t realized I wanted something so much in my life until that moment. I’d give my left arm for some fries … and a chocolate milkshake.
Oh God, how I wanted a chocolate milkshake.
I forced my attention away from the guy eating fries and studied the bustling activity outside the café—people walking in and out of shops, parents calling after their pre-school-aged kids, teens hovering outside a trendy café who were smoking and spitting on the sidewalk.
‘It’s so busy here,’ I said. ‘You don’t mind the noise? And the traffic?’
‘I’ve lived here my whole life. So, no. I don’t mind.’
‘I guess some people like living this close to the city.’
He gave me a questioning look. ‘We’re forty minutes from the city. Hardly what I’d call close.’
In the background, Gabby’s thick voice boomed as someone she recognized entered the café. Her sing-song tone nearly made me smile.
‘Is something happening between you and Gabby?’ I asked.
‘With Gabby? God, no. Nothing is happening between me and anyone.’
‘That’s a shame.’
His eyebrows shot up. ‘Why?’
I shrugged. ‘Because it means …’ Looking across at him—at his blank expression and permanent frown—I changed my opinion. ‘Well, no. I guess it’s not a shame. At least this way, some poor bird is saved from having to deal with a grumpy gobbler like you.’
He glared at me. My heart started to perform its routine crazy dance, but still, I held his stare.
Then, the strangest thing happened.
Billy’s lip curled at the side, twitching into what appeared to be a smile. The wider it stretched, the more erratic my heart drummed.
Thump-thump. Thump-thummmpppp. Th-um-mp.
He bit his lip, trying to suppress his smile. ‘What did you call me?’
I’d never noticed before that his striking eyes were almond-shaped, just like Lillian’s.
‘I called you a gobbler. It’s a male turkey.’
Unable to suppress it any longer, Billy’s face lit up with a full-fledged grin. An inconveniently timed flush of heat burned my cheeks, and I lowered my gaze to the table. Something fluttered inside me, tickling my belly with pure satisfaction at having made the Hulk smile.
‘How do you remember that a male turkey is called a gobbler, but you don’t remember your name?’
It was amazing, really, how random my memory was.
‘I don’t know,’ I replied honestly.
‘Billy!’ a man’s voice shot from across the café.
Billy followed the voice, and a smile crept across his face. ‘Jacob! What are you doin’ here?’
A couple—around Lillian’s age—approached our table. My eyes were instantly drawn to the woman, with her olive skin, ironed-straight brown hair, corporate suit, and blood-red lipstick. I studied the contours of her perfect face, noticing she had the same full lips and almond-shaped eyes as Lillian and Billy.
I had no doubt she was somehow related to them.
The woman responded on Jacob’s behalf. ‘Jacob was feeling nostalgic and wanted some of Gabby’s pastries.’ She spoke quickly, in a tone that demanded you listen.
Billy nodded. ‘Gabby’s pastries are the best.’
I felt their eyes on me before I saw them staring, and my shoulders sank. But there was no hid
ing. Not here.
There was never anywhere to hide when it came to Billy.
‘This is Lucy,’ Billy said. ‘Lucy, this is Leila and Jacob.’
Jacob’s rugged and warm smile made up for Leila’s detached one, and I offered something resembling a grin back at them.
Billy suggested a bigger table so we could all eat together. We shuffled to a new spot, and I lunged into the seat beside him, choosing to ignore his curious expression, unwilling to admit that even though he was an asshole, I needed to hide behind him.
Billy spoke to Leila. ‘I’m surprised to see you during work hours.’
Leila rolled her eyes, and Jacob exploded with laughter, throwing her a glance I couldn’t read. Compared to Leila, with her perfectly pressed business suit and immaculately styled hair, Jacob’s casual nature, rugged dark-blond hair, dirty work clothes and steel-capped boots seemed out of place. And while his skin was dark like hers, his was sun-kissed, tanned from outdoor work most likely.
Jacob leaned over and gave Leila a big, wet-sounding kiss, answering Billy’s question on her behalf. ‘I forced her to meet me for lunch.’
She visibly melted at his touch, softening her rigid persona.
The way she stared at him made my heart hurt.
Leila threw me a look from across the table, piercing me with her brown eyes, and I edged toward Billy. To my relief, she shifted her attention away from me.
‘How’s the case for your leg going?’ she asked Billy.
Billy laughed. ‘Always the lawyer, Leila. You don’t ask about my leg. Just about the case.’
She shrugged. ‘Your leg can’t be that bad considering you’re out and about.’
The three of them talked, and I listened, secretly studying Leila. She had a perfectly sculpted body, much more petite than Lillian’s, but every bit as curvaceous, which only accentuated her full breasts.
She caught me ogling.
Leila arched her perfectly shaped eyebrow at me. ‘What’s happening with your case? Have they charged the driver?’
‘I don’t know,’ I replied.
I’d never thought about the driver. Not once. Not until that very moment.
Her perfectly shaped eyebrow rose higher. ‘You haven’t looked into it? This person nearly killed you.’
‘Nearly killed me. I guess that’s the problem.’
A sudden silence dropped like a bomb over the table.
Leila stared at me.
Billy stiffened beside me.
Jacob’s broad shoulders dropped.
It was Gabby who rescued me from the moment. Her voice boomed, and I looked up to see her walking toward us, bursting with a proud smile.
‘I bring all your favorites,’ she said, laying plate after plate, each overflowing with a dish I couldn’t name, onto the table until every inch was taken up with food I didn’t recognize.
Billy thanked her profusely and tried to pay, but Gabby waved him away.
Pausing, she looked at me, her eyes beaming the way her smile did. ‘You too skinny, Lucy—eat,’ she ordered.
No. There was nowhere to hide. Not when you were the amnesia bird who hung out with Billy.
‘Don’t worry about her,’ Billy mumbled when Gabby walked away. ‘She’s just like my mum. She has no filter, and all they wanna do in life is overfeed everyone.’
The combined aroma of spice, meat, onion, and pastry floated through the air. My gaze drifted over every plate, noting the combination of ingredients in each dish, trying to decide where to start.
But everything seemed so different, and I didn’t know which to try first.
‘It’s only food, Lucy,’ Billy said.
‘I know. It’s just different, I guess.’
I shot him a look. That came out wrong.
His lips thinned, and his expression hardened. ‘Different?’
Jacob and Leila stopped mid-conversation, and I sensed their eyes on me, but I kept my gaze locked on Billy. The weight of his stare sent a shiver up my back. He rose an eyebrow, waiting on my reply, and my voice dropped to a whisper the way it usually did whenever I wanted to disappear.
‘I didn’t mean that in a bad way.’
His penetrating brown eyes made my breath hitch, but I refused to look away. The intensity between us grew, and still, neither one of us blinked.
Gabby bounced toward the table, and in my peripheral vision, I saw her expression drop. ‘What’s wrong? The food no good?’
Billy narrowed his eyes on me, and I swallowed, mentally begging him not to tell her what I’d said. The tension grew so thick that I thought my heart would explode. Finally, he offered Gabby a reassuring smile.
‘It all looks so good, Gabby, we didn’t know where to start.’
Thump—thump—th,th,th,th—u—mp.
Gabby’s face lit up, and she clapped. ‘Oh! You too sweet. Now—eat.’
Billy didn’t look at me after that. The three of them continued with their conversation, but I stared at the table, not looking up even when Jacob and Leila left. Billy’s silence stung me in a way I couldn’t describe, and for a reason I didn’t understand, tears welled until my vision blurred.
‘I didn’t mean that in a bad way,’ I whispered again, so quietly I hardly heard myself.
I stared out the window on the drive back to Billy’s, clutching the bag of clothes he’d bought for me.
My heart hurt.
I pictured Billy telling Lillian what I’d said, and I cringed, imagining what she’d think of me.
I hadn’t meant different in a bad way. I meant different from what I usually ate. But that didn’t matter to him. I guess it didn’t matter at all.
For the first time since I’d left the hospital, I felt so homesick I wanted to sob—the kind of ugly, heaving sob that left you curled into a fetal position, releasing big, fat tears.
Except I didn’t have a home.
I had no idea what I was missing so much.
I longed for a home I obviously didn’t have, and every fiber in my body ached with a yearning I couldn’t describe. I was stuck with a guy who hated me, surrounded by everything that confused me, and clung onto the hope that something in my environment would light a spark of recognition and kick-start my memory. But I now suspected that I was miles from wherever I’d come from. I felt it, so deep in my core, it was ingrained into every cell in my body. Everything about this city—about where I was—was different.
We pulled into the driveway. Billy got out of the car and went inside, having not said a word to me since we left Gabby’s café. I watched as he struggled up the steps, then I studied the front door that he left open for me, but I couldn’t bring myself to follow him inside. Instead, I turned and peered down the street.
Sweat beaded on my back.
I needed to know why everything felt strange and why this city felt so foreign. I needed to know why I’d dyed my hair black, why I’d gotten a tattoo on my vagina, and why I had scars on my wrist.
And I needed to know why I wanted to disappear whenever I was surrounded by people.
My pulse pounded in my ears, but I had to do this. Sucking in a shaky breath, I placed the bag of clothes Billy had bought for me—receipt still inside—by the front steps, then scurried down the driveway. I moved as fast as I could, one determined step after the other, my eyes wide, and my thoughts a jumble.
‘Where are you going?’ Lillian called behind me.
I came to a dead stop and turned to face her. For a single, tiny moment, her smile made me question what the hell I was doing and where I thought I was running.
I swallowed the truth and spat out a blatant lie. ‘I thought I saw an injured cat. But it’s run off now.’
Pathetic.
Lillian’s brows creased, and doubt flickered across her face. But she didn’t question me.
‘I left work early, hoping to catch up with you,’ she said. ‘How about we go inside and have a chat?’
I agreed. What choice did I have?
Lillia
n walked into the kitchen and chucked on the kettle. She moved swiftly between the drawers and pantry, grabbing out mugs and sugar, tea bags and coffee, casually chatting with Billy the entire time. She exuded the sort of comfort that only came when a person was around the closest of family and friends.
Billy laughed at something she’d said, teasing her in return, making her laugh as well. Watching them together filled me with a strange combination of warmth and sadness.
A knock came from the front door, and it swung open. An older woman, perhaps in her fifties, with salt-and-pepper-colored hair, neat clothes, and a delicate gold crucifix dangling from her neck, walked inside. She had beautiful skin and almond-shaped eyes, just like Billy. When she smiled, I saw Lillian in her features. She had to be their mother.
She walked straight toward me. Her smile deepened, and she swung her arms into the air as if moving in for a hug. ‘Ah, you must be Lucy!’
‘Mum!’ Lillian called. ‘That’s not her name!’
The woman paid Lillian no attention. Clasping my cheeks tightly between her hands, she stared straight into my eyes. ‘You beautiful girl.’
Their mother studied me, brushing her fingers through my hair and cupping her hands over my bony frame. And even though we had only just met, her smile was so warm and inviting that I didn’t mind the intrusive manhandling.
‘But,’ she said, pouting her lips, ‘the black is too much. The hair, the clothes—’
‘Mum!’ Lillian called again.
She was shorter than both her children, so when she wrapped her arms around my back and pulled me in for a hug, my head landed on her ample bosom. Squeezing me into her chest, she swayed from side to side, whispering something I couldn’t hear.
I sank against her body. Being wrapped in her arms like that, hearing her mumble something that might or might not have been English, I understood why babies loved being cradled to sleep. She felt so warm, so cushioned. So safe.
Pulling away, she kept her hands on my cheeks, maintaining eye contact. ‘So sad, Lucy. So sad. I said prayer for you.’
This time it was Billy who called out. ‘Mum!’
My eyes glazed, and her face blurred. I couldn’t be sure of it, but I was certain that was the first time anyone had ever prayed for me.
Call me Lucy: An Enemies to Lovers romance Page 5
