by Hope Jones
Fuck.
I couldn’t help the twitch in my pants from my dick hardening and if it were any other circumstances, I would drag her to my truck, find an empty hole to park in and fuck her senseless.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think Henley would appreciate being fucked by a husband she didn’t remember.
“You look amazing,” I told her, leaning in and kissing her cheek. When I pulled away, her neck and cheeks were a slight pink.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Grabbing her hand, I led her off the porch, looked back at Margaret and mouthed “thank you.” She leaned against her door with a subtle smile on her face and nodded her head back at me.
Guiding her to my truck, I opened the door for her and helped her inside. While I was buckling her, she chuckled, her chest bouncing with the movement and her breast barely grazing the side of my face. I caught a whiff of some kind of vanilla perfume and had to force the groan back down.
I really needed to establish some kind of trust and boundaries tonight. I was going out of my mind and I needed to know how she felt about me.
I wasn’t sure if she was going on this date with me out of obligation, knowing we were married and trying to give it a shot, or honest interest in dating me and trying to regain her memories so we could get back to a place we once were.
“So, where are we going?” she asked with an upbeat tone.
Pulling my truck onto the main highway, I grinned and told her, “The place we first met.”
“Bailey’s?”
My head whipped around and studied her face. “You remember?” I asked, excited about the prospect.
“No, I’m sorry,” she said, wringing her hands together. “Tuesday and I were going through the photo albums last night and I saw a picture of us standing outside Bailey’s together.”
My heart sank a little, the excitement of her possibly remembering something deflating. Trying not to bring the mood down, I grabbed her hand and told her it was okay, giving her a squeeze of support.
She would get her memories back. I knew it in my soul.
We pulled into Bailey’s, a bar style restaurant that didn’t look the greatest on the outside but had amazing food and the service is what you would expect for a small town in the South.
“We met here the night Tuesday got her dream job. You were celebrating with her,” I told her as we walked to the door. “You were sitting at a table, a beer in your hand, laughing your ass off at Tuesday’s terrible karaoke skills.”
Henley giggled a little and sat at the booth I directed us to. She looked around at everything, clearly trying to see if anything was familiar.
“I remember coming here a few times while I was in college,” she stated.
I figured she would remember everything from before her five-year time-lapse, but nothing afterward.
The waitress that had been working here for years walked up and smiled at both of us.
“Hey, Henley, Graham. It’s been a long time!” She smiled cheerfully.
My eyes darted to Henley to see if she would remember Cindi, but no recognition flooded her face like I had hoped.
I smiled at Cindi, “Can we start with a beer while we look over the menu?”
“Sure!” she said and rushed off.
“I’m sorry I don’t remember her,” Henley shared.
“It’s fine,” I assured her, grabbing her hands that she was wringing together.
Before her accident, Henley was a very sure person. She went for what she wanted. She didn’t play any games. It was one of the reasons I fell in love with her. I hated that she felt so weird around me that she had to wring her hands together from nervousness.
Cindi came back with our beers and pulled her notepad out of her apron.
“Are you ready to order?” I asked Henley.
She nodded her head and looked at Cindi.
“Could I get a bacon burger with extra pickles, no mustard, and a large fry? And Graham wants a bacon burger no pickles, extra mustard, also with a large fry.”
My shocked expression went from Cindi to Henley, but she wasn’t looking at me.
Cindi bounced off toward the kitchen and I sat in stunned silence looking at Henley as she glanced around the room, memories of before flitting through her mind, evident on her face.
“How do you know my order?” I asked her.
“What?” she said, tipping her head to the side.
“You just ordered for me, exactly what I always get,” I informed her.
“Really?” she asked, excitement taking over her body and bouncing in her seat slightly.
I nodded my head and she shrugged her shoulders. “I really don’t know. It kind of just came out. I didn’t even realize it till you pointed it out.”
“That’s awesome.” I laughed, pulling her hands up and kissing the palm.
She startled at the kiss but didn’t seem to want to pull away. Her happiness was palpable, even from across the table.
A few minutes later, Cindi came with our food and gave us the check as she walked away with a smile. I was unsure how someone could be so jovial all the time, but Cindi managed it.
Henley pulled the ketchup bottle out of the stand, squeezing a large amount out next to her fries and then holding it over my fries and squeezing the ketchup out onto my fries, instead of next to them.
“You like the ketchup on the fries, don’t you?” she asked me, suddenly looking unsure of her actions.
“Yes, I do.” I gave her a smile of encouragement.
Maybe our date was doing more than just helping her get acquainted with me.
We sat in silence for a few minutes, plowing through our fries before moving onto our burger.
“So, what kind of work do you do?” she asked.
“I own the tire service company for eighteen-wheelers. We do twenty-four-seven roadside maintenance, which is why my shop manager has been calling so much in the last few days. He’s not used to having this much on his workload.”
Looking guilty, Henley sat her burger back in the tray and wiped her mouth. “You can go back to work, ya know? Don’t feel like you have to stay home for me.”
“Baby, you couldn’t push me away if you tried,” I growled.
Her eyes widened, but she nodded in agreement.
“Do I scare you?” I blurted out, unsure where the question came from.
She seemed to mull the question over in her head, looking torn on how to answer.
“Not really. I’m more scared of the connection I know we have, because I can feel it, but not understanding it.”
“I want to help you understand,” I invited.
“I want that, too. Can you tell me more about you?”
I smiled around my burger, took a swig of my beer and began talking about my childhood.
“Well, I’m an only child. I grew up in Florida and moved to South Carolina for college, where I earned my business degree. My parents have been married since before I came along and still live in Florida.”
Henley chewed on her food but looked engrossed in every word that exited my mouth.
“How did you come to owning a tire service company?”
“My dad was a truck driver and managed to get me a job at one of the local places, but I didn’t have a CDL license, so I was stuck being the shop bitch and just changing the tires that came into the shop. After getting my degree, I decided to open my own shop, since the place I first worked at was closing. I lived minimally all through college and saved most of my money.”
We sat at Bailey’s, enjoying our food, nursing our beers and having a relatively normal conversation. By the time dinner was over, I felt Henley knew me a little better and was more comfortable around me than she had been when she woke up. Toward the end of our date, she was even teasing and flirting with me here or there.
I felt like taking her on a date to let her get to know me better and recreating the first time we met was the best idea I had had in a long time.
&nbs
p; ***
Henley
GRAHAM AND I PULLED back into our driveway and butterflies were flying rampant through my stomach. I had the best time getting to know Graham and getting a general sense of where our relationship stood.
I had learned that Graham was funny with an odd sense of humor that I didn’t find in most others but matched my own. I also learned he liked touching me, always. Not necessarily in an intimate way, but he always grabbed my hand, or had his leg touching mine from across the booth. While I liked my space, I didn’t mind the touching at all. It was comforting to know he was there, into me, and liked that I was with him as well.
We did the getting out of the car and unlocking the door routine before my nerves returned. I set my purse down on the skinny table in the foyer and wasn’t sure what to do next.
It was late, almost eleven p.m.
I knew I was ready for bed, but I wasn’t sure what Graham was going to do.
He didn’t sleep in the bed with me last night, instead opting for the guest bedroom, which I brought up over our light breakfast before he dropped me at my mom’s house. He told me he’d sleep in the guest room until I had gained my memories or felt comfortable enough to have him sleep next to me.
A small, tiny part of me wanted him next to me.
But the rest of me knew I wasn’t ready for that, yet.
A phone ringing snapped me out of my mind and Graham was pulling his phone out of his pocket. His eyebrows scrunched before he told me, “It’s the detective.”
“Vano,” he answered like he’d answered the phone all the other times I’d heard him.
I liked his last name.
I guessed it was my last name too.
Vano.
It rolled off the tongue nicely and sounded sexy.
Moving into the kitchen to grab a glass of water, the awkwardness of our night long forgotten, Graham followed after me.
After several moments of “yeah” and “okay” and one “I’ll see you then,” Graham put the phone on the counter and peered at me.
“He wants to come talk to us tomorrow. He says he may have a lead on who hit you.”
“That’s good.”
Graham nodded and moved to get his own glass of water, taking a swallow before asking me, “Are you going to head to bed?”
“I was thinking about it, before I do though, I was curious if I have a cell phone? It’d be nice to talk to Tuesday and my mom whenever, instead of them having to come here or me having to go there.”
“Yeah, you do. Yours got tossed around and busted up in the wreck, but I had a new one shipped after you woke up. It’s in your nightstand drawer.”
“Thank you, Graham.”
He gave me a tight smile but nodded his head.
I started toward the stairs, but abruptly turned back toward the kitchen.
“Could you help me set it up and show me how to use it? The last phone I remember having is probably severely outdated compared to what you have,” I asked, nodding at his super smartphone on the counter.
Graham smiled, the first real one he gave me since we got back home and moved with me to the stairs. Gripping my waist, we moved slowly, but it wasn’t as hard as it was yesterday. After making it to the bedroom, I told Graham I’d be right back and grabbed my neatly stacked pajamas on the chair and headed to the bathroom.
When I emerged from changing, Graham was sitting on the bed, like last night, with the pillows propped against the headboard, him sitting against them. He had also changed from his black T-shirt and jeans into a pair of basketball shorts and no shirt.
Holy shit.
Graham with a tight T-shirt on and jeans was delicious.
Graham in basketball shorts and no shirt was even better.
His chest was massive, his pecs tightly defined with a smattering of hair in between them. His stomach looked like it was cut from granite and my mouth salivated. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked out of the bathroom, but Graham sitting on our bed without a shirt wasn’t it.
Looking down at my feet to avoid his eyes, I shuffled to the bed, pulled the covers back and hopped in, making sure to keep a little distance between us so we didn’t touch.
Turning to face him, I noticed my cell phone already out of the box, the box between us and Graham turning the phone on.
He began pointing every little button out, showing me how to download apps, texting, and a few other things.
Technology had changed since I last had a cell phone. The new phone had a crisper picture than my old one. It was way slimmer but apparently had more parts in the back that worked with how technology had grown in the last five years.
I was truly impressed with how things had changed.
After Graham was done showing me how to use my phone, I plugged the charger into the wall, and charged my phone, leaving it on the nightstand.
I started asking questions about where I worked, how long I had been there and learned I had gotten my degree for medical coding and billing and had been working at the hospital for the last two years. Graham explained that he called my job after the accident, telling them everything the doctor told him. He said I was currently on medical leave and would be until I regained my memories.
“Will I have to go back to school if I don’t get my memories back?” I pondered out loud. It was a valid question. I was sure my job wouldn’t want me back if I couldn’t remember how to do the actual job, even though technically I earned my degree for that specific job.
“That’s not a worry, you’ll get your memories back,” Graham told me, sounding a little pissed at the idea that I wouldn’t remember everything.
“I’m sorry,” I said, gazing up at him from my perch on the pillows.
“Don’t apologize. I don’t want to think about what happens if you don’t remember everything. I guess that’s a bridge we’ll cross if needed,” he said as he rearranged the pillows to scoot down, face me and lay his head on the pillow.
Looking at Graham with just the moonlight shining down on us, things felt like they were shifting. When Graham’s hand moved to shift the hair out of my face and rub his thumb across my cheek lightly, my suspicions were confirmed.
I wanted to try something with him but didn’t want things to get awkward afterward.
Fuck it.
“Aren’t I supposed to get a kiss after the first date?” I asked with a raised brow.
I watched the green of Graham’s eyes shift away, leaving only the blue and getting darker. His pupils got small as he leaned in slowly, gauging my reaction before his hand shifted through my hair, reached my neck, and grabbed ahold. His mouth whispered over mine, testing to see how far I wanted the kiss to go.
Electricity was shooting through every nerve in my body and I wanted more.
I leaned into him, letting him know I wanted to go further.
Graham growled.
I moaned low in my throat.
My mouth opened, allowing Graham access with his tongue, and it was on from there. We were a tangle of limbs and tongues. Graham grabbed my waist, hauling me across his body until my sex rested against his lower stomach, and he deepened the kiss further.
My hands hit his chest to hold myself up and I ground myself onto his pubic bone, eliciting another moan, this one deeper and throatier.
He was going to be the death of me.
Before I could grind myself against him again, Graham ripped his mouth from mine, gently tossed me back on my side of the bed and pulled away.
“Fuck, I’m so sorry,” he whispered roughly, resting his head against the pillow close to my face and breathing harshly to regain control.
“No! I wanted it,” I rushed out.
There was no need to feel bad for his actions, I literally asked for them.
“I shouldn’t have taken it that far,” he said, but it sounded like he was talking more to himself than me.
“Please don’t feel bad. If I didn’t want it to go that far, I would have pulled away.”
“I don’t want to push things and fuck up. I don’t want things to be tense around here.”
“Things won’t be tense. You didn’t push anything, I did. I wouldn’t have asked for that kiss if I didn’t want it, and I was okay with going that far. More than okay, actually.”
Graham nodded his head and started to get up.
“I think it’s best I go ahead to bed.”
My smile was sad, but I nodded regardless.
I was exhausted, and I knew we had to get up early to talk to the detective working my case.
“Good night, Graham. Thank you for the lovely evening,” I thanked him before he walked out of the room, mumbling his “you’re welcome.”
My sleep that night was restless, filled with dreams of Graham that I wasn’t sure were just dreams or actual memories.
Chapter Six
Henley
THE NEXT MORNING, I came down the stairs by myself without help, and wasn’t in too much pain from the trek.
Making it to the kitchen, I saw Graham, still shirtless, cooking something that smelled a lot like bacon at the stove and two coffee mugs sitting on the counter.
“Morning,” I announced myself to Graham.
Turning, he gave me a broad smile and said, “Morning, baby. How did you sleep?”
“I’ve had better sleep,” I admitted while splashing milk in my coffee and dumping more sugar than I probably need in the mug.
After taking a healthy sip, I ventured on a guess and asked, “Did you propose to me on top of a mountain? We went hiking that day and when we got to the top you got down on one knee?”
Whatever he was cooking was quickly tossed to the side of the stove and the burner turned off with haste.
Graham was standing at my side in no time, removing the warm mug from my hands.
“You remember?” he asked in awe, hope blatantly obvious on his face.
