The 7 Lb., 2 Oz. Valentine

by Marie Ferrarella

  That was the last place she wanted to go. She needed time to pull herself together, and she always did it best surrounded by people.

  Erin shook her head in response, holding on to her album tightly. “Brady’s not the only one who has work to do. I can’t just leave Terry to handle everything,” she said, referring to her assistant.

  Gus wasn’t convinced that was the best thing for her right now. He looked pointedly at her abdomen. On the way to the restaurant, she had told him that she was eight months pregnant.

  “You’ve had a shock,” Gus began.

  Erin squared her shoulders. She liked to proudly say that she was from sturdy, peasant stock. At times, that really helped.

  “I’ve been living a shock for the last five months, Gus. This is a relief.” She glanced back toward the restaurant as she thought of the blank look in Brady’s eyes when he’d first looked at her. “Sort of,” she amended quietly.

  She sat down in Gus’s squad car and drew the seat belt over herself, struggling to get the metal clip into the slot. These days, it was always a battle for leverage, she mused.

  She waited until Gus sat behind the wheel before continuing, “Do you really think he’ll get his memory back? I mean, eventually?” She could hang on if she just felt that someday Brady would look at her the way he used to.

  Gus attempted to sound positive. “The doctor said it was hopeful.”

  The doctor had also said a great many other things that he wasn’t about to go into now with this woman. She’d had enough of a shock for one day, no matter what she said to the contrary. Besides, there was no reason not to be optimistic about the outcome. Look at the odds against his ever having seen that ad she had run. Anything was possible.

  The doctor. She hadn’t thought to ask about that before. Erin turned in her seat. The belt was strangling her, so she adjusted it as best she could. “You took him to see a doctor?”

  Gus waited for a truck to pass before he turned onto the main drag. “Yes.”

  He said it as if it wasn’t an unusual thing. She thought of the original policeman she had spoken with in St. Louis. The one who had looked so sympathetic and then never contacted her again. “Isn’t that a little above and beyond the call of duty?”

  Gus shrugged as he changed lanes. He glanced in her direction and smiled. “No, not really. It’s pretty standard procedure, actually.”

  “But finding him a job and a place to stay aren’t,” she guessed.

  His grin turned a bit sheepish around the edges. “I kind of get involved in my work.”

  And didn’t that sound familiar? Erin settled against her seat and sighed. “So does Brady. So did Brady.” Should she talk about him in the past tense, or the present? she wondered. Now that he was found, she supposed it should be in the present, but in a way, he was still missing, at least to her.

  Erin rolled down the window a little. Her mind dashed about, clutching at bits and pieces of fragmented thoughts. He was alive. Brady was alive. She closed her eyes, letting the breeze caress her face. Somehow, life was going to get back to normal. It just had to.

  She thought of the way Brady had looked when she told him what he did for a living. It coaxed a smile from her. “Boy, are they going to be happy at the lab to see him.”

  Gus arched an eyebrow. “You mean, his job is still waiting for him after all these months?”

  She had called Edmond Labs just last week, to see if anyone had heard anything. Mr. Waverly was still concerned about the disappearance of one of his best scientists. He’d reassured her that Brady was still needed. It had almost made her cry again.

  “They think very highly of him there. Brady has a very sharp mind.” Erin stared straight ahead at the early-afternoon traffic as Gus drove to Newport Beach and her shop. “It’s just sleeping right now.”

  And it was her job to wake it up, Erin thought. She only hoped she was equal to it.

  “He’s going to be all right, Erin.”

  “I know that.” Erin turned to look at him. “I want to thank you for everything that you’ve done for Brady. I know you didn’t have to.”

  Gus shrugged. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to think of the lost man as just another case and file him away. “It wasn’t all that much. Demi thinks he’s a very hard worker.”

  “Yes, yes, he is. He always was.” She paused, hesitating. Maybe she was out of place asking, but she had to. “Your sister isn’t…I mean, she’s not…” Her voice trailed off.

  Gus seemed to read her thoughts. “No, she isn’t interested in Brady.” He grinned then. “Demi’s too busy telling the rest of us how to live our lives.”

  “Rest?” Erin asked, curious.

  “Me and an assorted number of cousins. Eventually, she’ll make someone a great wife.” As long as that man could hold his own against a steamroller. “But it won’t be Brady.”

  Erin relaxed. That was nice to hear. “Yes, I’m sure she will.”

  “And he doesn’t remember anything?” Nicole Logan’s incredulous voice drifted through the small shop, mingling with a profusion of flowers that lined the shelf on the back wall.

  She exchanged glances with her sister, Marlene. Both women had met Erin through their obstetrician and comprised in part what Dr. Sheila Pollack fondly referred to as her Baby of the Month Club. Marlene had given birth to her son in December, while Nicole rang in the new year with twins. With approximately a month to go, that left February to Erin.

  The two women had walked through the door of Flowers by Erin exactly two minutes before Erin had returned from the restaurant. Wrapped up in their own budding wedding plans, it had taken a moment for the agitated look on Erin’s face to register with the sisters. When it did, they rapidly fired questions at her before Erin even had a chance to put away her purse. They were joined by Terry. All three women knew about Brady and his sudden disappearance. Everyone who knew Erin did.

  Erin shook her head in answer to Nicole’s original question. “No, nothing.” But she was undaunted. During the ride home, she had decided that Brady was going to get his memory back. It was only a matter of time. Erin looked at the three stunned faces around her. “But it’s only temporary,” she added, as much for their sake as her own. She smiled at Marlene. “It was the ad you suggested that did it. I ran an ad in the personals column,” she clarified when Marlene didn’t seem to remember. “Both in St. Louis and here.” She had wanted to leave no stone unturned. “Lucky for me Gus’s grandmother saw it. She brought his attention to it, saying that it was an odd coincidence that the names in the ad were the same as on St. Christopher’s medal.”

  Erin was definitely going too fast for her. “Gus?” Marlene asked. She glanced at Nicole, but her sister only shrugged. Nicole was as lost as she was.

  “St. Christopher’s medal?” Nicole echoed. “Whose St. Christopher’s medal?”

  Erin took a deep breath and began again. She had a habit of talking faster than most people could listen. Brady used to tease her that she talked enough for both of them combined, so he didn’t have to talk at all. She had always countered that it was his excuse for getting out of conversations.

  “Gus is the policeman who found Brady.” She was getting ahead of herself again. “Brady was mugged when he left my house that night. He never made it to St. Louis.”

  At least she supposed he hadn’t, even though his flight ticket had been used. Suffering from amnesia, he wouldn’t have been able to find his way back. The only thing she knew for a fact was that his car was missing, his ticket had been used and he never stayed in the hotel room that had been reserved for him.

  “Oh, how awful for him. For you,” Marlene sympathized. She thought of how she would feel if it had been Sullivan who had been mugged. She couldn’t even begin to put the feelings into words, even in her own mind.

  “He’s all right now,” Erin assured her. Thank God. “Anyway, his wallet had been stolen, and he didn’t have any identification on him except for the medallion I gave him.�
� She came to a skidding halt in her own narrative. “I guess whoever mugged him must have missed that, thank goodness. Anyway, that’s how they knew his name,” she explained. “At least his first name. And mine. So, when Gus—that’s the policeman,” she added in case they had missed that, “told his grandmother about finding Brady, she remembered the details. She’s ninety years old, he said, but remembers everything as if it happened yesterday.” Erin stopped abruptly, biting her lower lip. “Unlike Brady.”

  Nicole was still trying to assimilate the details. “And he really doesn’t know you?”

  Erin ran her hands along her arms, staving off the cold that came from within. “No.”

  Marlene placed her arm around Erin and drew her closer. Her heart went out to the younger woman. “What are you going to do?”

  Erin didn’t want sympathy. She was going to get through this. There was no doubt in her mind. Just as there hadn’t been that somehow, some way, Brady would return to her. And he had. In a manner of speaking.

  “Work at it until he knows me. I’m going to reintroduce him to everything and everyone he’s ever known.” Very gently, she extricated herself from Marlene. “Somewhere is the trigger that’ll set it all off. I just have to find it.” She sighed as she went around to the other side of the counter. “I wish I had Brady to help me. He was always good at things like this.” The irony of it all struck her and she smiled to herself.

  Erin looked up at the women, suddenly realizing that she had allowed herself to go on at length. “But you didn’t come here to hear me talk about my life.”

  “In part,” Marlene corrected.

  “And the other part?” Erin coaxed. She could see by the look in her friend’s eyes that something was definitely up.

  “The other part is that we’re going to need flowers.” Nicole grinned. She looked at Marlene, her pleasure growing enough to burst. “Lots of flowers.”

  “Music to my ears,” Erin agreed. She cocked her head. “What’s the occasion?” If she was any judge, something told her she already knew.

  “A wedding,” Marlene said.

  “Two,” Nicole added.

  Erin looked from one woman to the other. She had known that both were interested in men when they’d talked at the Christmas party Dr. Pollack had thrown. She hadn’t expected anything to come to fruition so quickly, though. “When?”

  “Next week,” Marlene said.

  “I know it’s hopelessly sentimental,” Marlene confessed, “but I always wanted something like this.”

  Nicole turned to look at her sister in surprise. “You never told me that.”

  “Because you were always such a cynic. I was afraid you’d laugh at me.” Nicole had always been the rebel, while Marlene had been the dependable one. “And then you ran off with Craig, so I just assumed that was the end of it.”

  But life—thank God, Marlene thought—had other, better plans for both of them.

  Erin concentrated on her friends. If she allowed her thoughts to turn to Brady, she wouldn’t be able to do anything else but think of him.

  “Are you marrying the tax lawyer you told me about?” she asked Nicole. “The one who was so neighborly all the time?”

  Nicole smiled, remembering how she had complained about that. Life with her late husband had taught her to be cautious of any overt gestures of friendship. But Dennis had managed to break down her barriers. “Yes, but he’s not a tax lawyer. He turned out to be a Justice Department investigator.”

  Erin looked at Nicole in surprise. “What was he investigating?”

  “Me.”

  At the time, Nicole had been horrified to discover the duplicity. But everything had turned out all right, and Dennis had saved her life in the bargain.

  Erin placed her hand to her forehead. It wasn’t often that she was on the receiving end of confusion. “I think I’m getting a headache here. Would you mind running that by me again?”

  It was a story to be told over a hot cup of coffee on a cold, lazy winter afternoon. Right now, Erin was living through her own crisis. “Maybe this isn’t the right time to explain it all,” Marlene suggested. “If you want us to come back another time—”

  Erin hurried around the counter, hooking a hand through each of the two women’s arms. “No, no, believe me, I need to keep busy.” She looked from one to the other. “Otherwise, all I’ll think about is tonight.”

  Nicole arched an eyebrow. “Tonight?”

  Erin felt her palms growing damp just at the thought. “Gus is bringing Brady by my house tonight at seven. I was hoping that familiar surroundings might get him to start piecing things together.” She blew out a breath, blocking out the negative thoughts that were trying to break through. “Okay, so when’s the wedding? I mean, weddings,” she corrected. “And what kind of flowers will you be wanting?”

  “We’re having the weddings at my house a week Sunday.” Marlene took out her notepad. She had everything written out, down to the last detail.

  Erin grinned. “Boy, when you get going, you certainly don’t waste any time.”

  “You’re invited, of course,” Nicole told her.

  “Well, in that case, you get a break on the price.” Erin winked. She took Marlene’s list and began making notes in the margin.

  Erin paced her living room, her hand resting nervously on her stomach. As she passed by the mantel, she glanced at the clock. She’d been checking the time since she’d arrived home at six. In the last half hour, she’d looked at the clock so many times, she was surprised that she hadn’t worn the face away.

  Or worn a path in the rug between the sofa and the door. Each time she thought she heard a car pass, she hurried to the peephole to look out. But no one appeared on her doorstep. As the minutes ticked away, her agitation intensified.

  Turning away from the door again, she looked down at her stomach. “I don’t want you taking note of this, Jamie.” Since the moment she discovered that she was pregnant, she had addressed the baby as Jamie. It was one of those names that could fit either sex, and more important, it was Brady’s middle name and she loved it. “I know I’m acting like a kid waiting for her first date to show up, but there’s a reason for that. In a way, this is my first date with him.”

  She moved the curtain aside and looked out. There was no one on the street. Erin let the curtain drop. This anxiousness was reminiscent of so many other evenings, when she had waited for him to return, only to go to bed alone. At least she knew he was coming tonight.

  “Oh, God, we have to make him remember. We just have to.” She cupped her hand around her belly again. “Not because he’s your dad. I don’t want him coming back to us out of a sense of obligation. I want him coming back to us because he wants to. Because he loves us. Because he remembers that he loves us. I mean, me.” She smiled ruefully. “He didn’t even know anything about you when he left.”

  Erin winced as the baby kicked hard.

  “I know, I know. I should have told him about you, but I was afraid.” She sighed. “I was afraid to tell him he was going to be a father while he was going on about how children shouldn’t be brought into a world like ours. That’s how we got into that argument.”

  She shivered as she thought of the heated words that had passed between them. Words she hadn’t meant to say. Words she had wanted to take back. She tended to become very emotional where her feelings were concerned.

  “And I said some things I shouldn’t have, and so did he…” She was babbling. Nerves. “But you heard all that, didn’t you?”

  She looked at the clock. It was exactly seven. Where was he? she wondered.

  Erin raised her head as she heard the sound of a car approaching. She took a deep cleansing breath and then released it. It didn’t help. She still felt as nervous as a cat that had been dropped in the middle of a dog pound.

  The next minute, the doorbell rang. Her heart jumped. He was here.

  Finally.

  Erin pressed her hand against her stomach once more. “Here
goes nothing,” she whispered to her baby. “And just maybe everything.”

  3

  Gus turned to Brady a moment before he rang Erin’s doorbell.

  “Nervous?”

  “Yes.” Brady nodded, staring at the door. Nothing. He remembered nothing.

  Even his hands were perspiring. He wanted so much to remember, and he was so afraid that he never would.

  Gus rested a hand on Brady’s shoulder in a gesture of camaraderie. “I would be, too, if I were in your place.” Gus couldn’t begin to imagine what it had to be like, coming to and not knowing anything about himself. Not remembering Demi or his life. He tried to commiserate. “I suppose it’s a little like free falling out of an airplane without seeing the ground.”

  Brady considered the comparison for a minute. He was always very careful when he spoke, as if he had to examine every word before it was freed. After a moment, he decided Gus’s analysis was as good an analogy of his situation as any.

  “Something like that.” He wrapped his hand around the doorknob, wanting to feel something, a touch of familiarity. Anything. “I don’t know if the ground is going to rush up and flatten me, or cradle me.”

  The smile on Gus’s face was encouraging. “I guess that all depends if the chute opens.”

  “Yeah.” Brady let out a breath as he braced himself to leap from the hypothetical airplane. “All right, let’s find out if the chute opens. Go ahead, ring the doorbell.”

  Gus did. After only a second, the door swung open. Erin was standing there, breathless even though she’d been only a few steps away.

  She looks afraid, too, Brady thought. Beneath that wide smile, she looks afraid. Well, that makes two of us. Somehow, the knowledge made him feel just a little better.

  Brady nodded at her, his feet rooted to the welcome mat. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” After a beat, she realized that Gus was standing beside him. Erin nodded at Gus as she stepped back from the doorway. “Come on in.”