“What made you think of that the moment we walked in?”
I pointed to a spot near the small table. “You always had it sitting right there. There were some nights I woke when you were sifting through the papers with a small flashlight.” I paused and smiled, remembering pulling her back to bed on those nights. “You said you didn’t want to wake me.”
“But I never said what those papers were?”
I shook my head and then watched as her hand instinctively began to rub her stomach. She had to be carrying my baby—I was convinced of it—but still a tiny doubt kept popping up. I mean, I guess she could have still been sleeping with her husband. The thought made me sick to my stomach.
“How far along are you?”
She smiled as she proudly looked down. She wasn’t showing in the least, but the pride was there. “Now we’re at nine weeks.”
We. I really liked the sound of that. A spike of jealousy hit as I wondered if her husband had thought the same thing I had.
Maybe my expression fell, or maybe she was asking herself the same question, but there was a sudden palpable thickness in the air—one that caused us both to stand quietly for a moment. Andi broke it first as she walked over to her closet. She opened the door, looking around, and began sifting through the clothes. A small smile crept up.
“What?” I asked.
“Hmm?” She barely looked at me as she continued to look at the clothes in her closet, her fingers gliding over each item one by one. The colors and fabrics sifted through her touch, and all the while a curious expression danced in her brown eyes. Even in the dim light of the closet I could see the flecks of gold in her eyes that I loved seeing shine so much.
“You’re smiling. A secretive type of smile. Is there something you want to tell?” I walked over and placed my arm above the door way, my fingertips curled around the doorframe. I leaned in, smiling back at her. Chestnut curls fell past her shoulders, honey brown eyes sparkled as she continued to peer at her clothes. She looked even more beautiful, if that was possible.
“I…These clothes. They’re different than the labels I have at home.” Her face fell as she said the word home. Actually, we both cringed. “I mean, at John’s house. I mean—“
“I know.” I wanted to hear more of what she was talking about besides her attack of guilt. “What do you mean about the clothes?”
“Well, they’re not as…stuffy? I don’t know how to describe the ones at the other house.”
“These seem more relaxed?” I leaned my back against the opposite doorway, staring at her small amount of clothes. I knew exactly what she was talking about, especially seeing what she was wearing right then compared to the ones she was eyeing.
“Yeah. I guess. I wonder who picked out the other clothes.” She looked at me. “Or maybe before, I was trying to fit into a world that wasn’t really mine?”
I nodded. “That could be.”
“Did I wear these clothes or the other type when you first met me?”
I looked at the closet. Some of the clothes I recognized, and some seemed so unlike her. Seeing a shirt similar to the one she was wearing when I first met her, I grabbed it off the bar and held it up, realizing it wasn’t exactly like the other clothes: the skirt and blouse were more like what she had worn. “This. You wore this, or something similar, with a tight-fitting skirt when I first met you.”
She smiled. “Tight-fitting? That doesn’t sound like me.” Then her smile fell. She had no idea who she really was, and the only thing she had to go by were her clothes—some of which, staring at the contents of her closet, weren’t the style she wore around me.
“It wasn’t too tight. Well…” I smiled again. “Maybe in my mind I made it tighter than it actually was.” We both laughed as I searched her closet for that same skirt. Since there weren’t too many clothes, I plucked the gray skirt from the bar, holding up the hanger. She eyed it as she took it from me, pairing it together with the shirt.
“This blouse and this skirt are what I wore when you first met me?”
I nodded.
“You remember my clothes?”
“Umm, well, yeah. I guess that’s sort of odd, huh?” The temperature in the small room turned up about fifty degrees all of a sudden.
“What was I wearing when I first went to The Freckled Maiden?”
Sheepishly, I told her. “Well, it was a black dress. High-class-looking, actually. You were showing a lot of skin. It kind of doesn’t fit in with what you have here.” I’d never forget that dress. It showed so much skin, it was easy to see how uncomfortable it made her feel—the way her breasts were pushed up, the slit of her skirt going up farther than I’d known her to wear. It didn’t seem like something she’d worn before. It had been obvious that she was wearing it to impress someone. Or make them wish they could be with her.
A text rang out from my phone, and I pulled it out of my pocket to check. Jay wanted to know if I was still with Andi. I checked the time and realized how late it was.
“Andi, you’ve got to be exhausted.”
Her shoulders slumped and she stepped forward. Her arms reached out for me. Knowing she felt comfortable enough to do that gave me back the confidence that my Andi was somewhere in there. Her hands slid around my waist and I pulled her to me, hugging her tight. My chin rested on top of her head, and I felt her sigh.
“I am,” she admitted. Lifting her head, she peered around me. “Where’s my bed?”
I chuckled, nodding my head toward the white couch. “That sofa we were on. It pulls out.”
Tugging her with me, I sank into the corner of the fluffy couch and pulled her to my chest.
I had to admit, that thing was so comfortable and well worth our first fight. When we’d begun dating, the nights spent on her old futon were more than I could take. Since she’d insisted we stay at her apartment at least part of the time, I’d surprised her with the new couch shortly after she gave me a key. The overstuffed, white couch had been on one of her palettes for when she saved enough money for better furniture. Finding it, buying it, and making sure it would arrive before she got back from work was a pain. Not to mention, the movers had a hell of a time getting it up the three flights. The argument she gave me when I surprised her with it was one hell of a fight.
But at the moment I was thankful for all I had gone through to get it for her. Holding her in my arms, curled in right next to me, resting her head on my chest—there was nothing in the world like that.
“Listen. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable, but I don’t want you alone. Lana mentioned hearing someone the other night, and I’m thinking that someone might have keys to this place from your accident, somehow.”
She was silent and I bent my head to try to see her eyes. They told me everything when she lifted her head. She was concerned too. I hoped she realized that all the accidents—well, minus my fender bender—couldn’t have been a coincidence. But then again, if she hadn’t thought of that, I wasn’t about to add to all her worries. She had more than enough going on.
Andi adjusted herself, sitting up a little, so I pulled up too, tugging her onto my lap, my arms never leaving her waist. Finally having her back in my arms, I had no desire to let her go.
“Do you think it was John? Do you think he has that crate you were talking about?”
“It could be. I don’t really know.” As much as everything was pointing to him and as much as I wanted to beat the shit out of him earlier that day, I couldn’t honestly answer that.
She paused for a moment before asking, “And you never looked at any of the papers?”
“No, I didn’t want to pry.”
Gazing thoughtfully at me, she gave me a small smile. “You don’t think they had something to do with my job, do you? Like those were work papers I might have been trying to finish up at home?”
I frowned, trying to remember anything I could about that crate of papers that I used to catch her hunched over reading through. “I don’t think so. You had
them here each day and didn’t lug them back and forth.” The morning she left, when I couldn’t find her, there was something I had gone over in my mind trying to pinpoint anything that would lead me to her. She had told me she had an appointment to go to that morning. “Holy shit,” I said slowly. “I think you had them with you that morning. The morning of your accident.”
“Did you see me carry them out?”
“No, yes—sort of. I was still in bed asleep and heard you rustling a bunch of papers. You had one of those expensive bags that looked like a briefcase—a really nice one, almost white—and I barely remember waking and seeing you gather some folders to put in it.” Yet another thing that should have tipped me off about where she came from. If I had paid attention to all of that…but then I wouldn’t have fallen in love with her either.
“I wonder where the crate is. So maybe those papers that I took out of it would still be in the car?” She slumped to the back of the couch, frowning. “I wonder if it’s possible to find out where my old car even is.”
I reached up and pushed her curls behind her shoulder, brushing my hand along her cheek. She pushed into my palm and smiled. “I’ll call Frank tomorrow and see if he found out what might have happened to it. Or I’ll try the detective who was at the hospital earlier today. We’ll figure it out,” I said with more conviction than I really had.
She turned her head toward me, her brows pulled in tight. “Frank sounds familiar.”
My heartbeat quickened as I hoped things were really coming back to her. Not to mention I smiled when I thought back to when she first met Frank. The stiffness of her back, her chin indignant—she was trying to show me how angry she was with me for the fender bender. Frank still laughed about it—mostly because he hadn’t received any of the attitude I had from Andi. It was a joke to him, especially after we brought her car back for routine maintenance after we began dating. “You should. He was the guy we brought your car to when I first bumped you.”
“Bumped?” Tapping me with her shoulder, she quirked her mouth up on one side and wagged her brows. “Thought it was a fender bender.” She was smiling now, a teasing one at that.
I wasn’t one of those guys that got all mushy, but seeing little bits of Andi coming back to me gave me so much hope. I wanted things to be like they had been before all the craziness. Knowing I had a chance at that helped give me that confidence. Thoughts of what I’d normally say back to her, ones that were laden with sexual innuendo, flew through my mind. I held back. We weren’t there yet and I knew it. But I couldn’t wait to get back there, that was for sure.
Considering everything that had happened, I knew Andi would be safer at my place. I wasn’t sure she’d go for that, but I needed to try.
“Listen. I know you’re tired, but I really do think we should change the locks before you stay here. I’d love for you to stay at my place, but if you still don’t feel comfortable, I could get us a hotel suite with two rooms.”
And right as she was about to answer, we heard them. I wasn’t sure if I had mentioned to Andi how thin her walls were, but the second the door slammed next door, I knew what we’d hear next.
Andi sat up, and the first time Lana moaned, Andi’s face flushed red. It had been a running joke between the four of us, actually. There was one point when the girls had a mini-competition of joking around about it too. I think after that was when we started staying at my place a little more often. But seeing Andi’s reaction immediately jacked up my heart rate.
Her lips parted slightly, and though I could tell she was still embarrassed, hearing those noises had her whole body reacting. Let’s face it: Lana had been in porn—we’d found out later, after she and Andi had some girl chats—so I wasn’t always sure how real those sounds were, or if some were them joking around so we’d bang on the wall.
“Uh. Um. Well…I…uhh.” Andi fidgeted and started to stand.
I took my cue and helped her up, having to adjust myself right after I stood.
“We could go to my place. You can have the bed and I’ll take the couch, if you’re comfortable with that.”
The swell of her breasts was clearly outlined with every inhale of her breath. Her hand flew to the back of her neck, rubbing, while her other hand fidgeted with the necklace at her cleavage. She nodded quickly. “Yes. That…would. Yes,” she said with finality and grabbed her coat and purse.
I wanted to laugh, but at the same time I knew she felt uncomfortable. Obviously she still didn’t remember our little jokes about it.
One day at a time.
“I need to grab a few things.” She started toward her closet and I reached for her hand.
Andi not knowing she had her own closet full of clothes tugged at my heart. “Umm, you actually already have some stuff over at my place.”
She turned quickly, her eyes wide. “I do?”
Exhaling, I quirked up one side of my mouth. “Yeah. Like I said, we moved quickly.” The sound of a slap to skin followed by Lana’s latest moan prompted Andi to practically run to her closet.
“I…well, then I guess I don’t need much,” she called out right before she quickly emerged with a few things from the closet, throwing them over her arm.
Heading to the door, she stopped and took a look around, drawing in a deep breath, her eyebrows pulled in. She loved the place and I knew it.
“We’ll get the locks changed tomorrow,” I told her.
Nodding, she reached for my hand and I smiled. Maybe things could go back to what they were before.
Well, that and a new, tiny addition.
Twenty-Four
Andi
That I was leaving an apartment I didn’t know, and I even had to go to my boyfriend’s apartment while my husband was calling me nonstop, hadn’t escaped me. Add in hearing my best friend/neighbor having incredible sex and realizing how much it turned me on was another minor detail in the huge soap opera I had going on in my own little world. All of it was overwhelming, and while I wanted to go to Cal’s place, I wasn’t sure if it was the best move.
Unsure of where John and I were in our divorce proceedings, wasn’t I the one doing the cheating then? Although I hadn’t slept with Cal. Well, I had, but…
I made the mistake of turning on my phone, and John had already bombarded it with text messages and voicemails.
John: Where are you? You need to let me explain everything.
John: Andrea, please listen to me. It’s not what you think at all.
John: You can’t listen to Mallory. She’s jealous you’re pregnant and she can’t be. It isn’t what you think.
There were more. Many more which made me question everything I was doing. Although I had left him before, and seeing him with Mallory had to be a correct memory, I still was a little unsure if I was making the right decision. Had it really been only a one-time thing and had I tried to forgive him before? That couldn’t be if I was with Cal, right? Or was Cal some sort of horrible way I was trying to get back at John?
The lights of the city flashed by my window. With each neighborhood we drove through, the type of people strolling down the sidewalk varied. In the nicer ones, couples held hands, compared to some that had groups of people I’d prefer not to run into on a dark night. Thinking back to the neighborhood I had moved into versus where I had lived with John before, I wondered if money was my main focus. It made me realize John probably held my financial security—especially thinking back to the job I’d had. I was sure I needed to call them. I’d add that to my list of things to do the next day.
I rolled my head against the headrest and gazed thoughtfully at Cal’s strong profile. The five o’clock shadow was more like a two-day stubble, only on him it didn’t look unkempt. It worked on him, making him seem stronger and sexier, a guy who could really keep you safe.
“Everything all right?” Cal asked, the side of his mouth turned up slightly as he glanced at me and then back at the road.
The two months hung in the air. We had dated for that long be
fore the accident—it surely could be his baby. I wanted to open my journal and try to pin point when I had left John, but the truck cab was too dark even with the lights of the city flashing by.
“I wonder if there’s a lease somewhere. What date I signed it and moved out of John’s?”
“We’ll call Lana tomorrow.” He kept his eyes focused on the road, and his face remained expressionless. “She knows how to get in touch with the office and the superintendent so we can get you new locks too.”
“Okay.” I nodded in agreement while thinking back to being in my apartment and hearing Lana. Heat rose to my cheeks. I had been so embarrassed, and yet Cal had acted like it was something we were used to or joked about.
The clicking sounds of the truck’s turn signal made me perk up. It was dark when we pulled into a parking garage, winding around turns before finally making one last left into a parking spot. The cut of the engine made me hyperaware of all the sounds, including the sounds of our breathing.
I swallowed as I felt his hand touch mine. My heart jumped and I tried to be calm.
“I know this is all so weird for you. I…If you can give me a chance, I promise I’ll prove to you what we really had.”
A timid smile glossed over my mouth. I wanted to be more comforting to the man that was so willing to help me remember my past, but I was also torn with the web of lies I had been fed by John and Mallory. The truth was somewhere in between, wasn’t it? Or was the truth solely in what Cal told me?
“Thank you. Thank you for being so patient with me while I figure things out. If I begin to become a bother—“
His hand cupped my chin, turning my head toward him. “You’ll never be a bother to me. Ever.”
I believed him. Instantly his eyes told me the truth, and a sense of relief spread through me, especially when he leaned over to kiss my forehead; his heady, woodsy scent instantly relaxed me.
The realization that I wanted more than only a kiss on my head struck me hard. As he pulled back, I leaned in. Whether it was instinct, need, desire, or all of them combined, a mere glance to his lips roused me to act on those feelings.
Accidents Happen (Forever Happens Book 1) Page 15
