Page 162 of Forget Me Not

If he were here, he’d probably knock my ass out. I know I would.

“I’m in love with Nova and I’m going to ask her if she’s in love with me. I’m not asking your permission, but I’m telling you. Man to man, even if you can’t fucking hear me.”

I suck in a deep breath, my chest growing tight with the adrenaline high I’ve been on since I left Alaska slowly starting to crash.

“She’s a good girl,” I murmur, more to myself than the bones beneath me. “She deserves the fucking world, and I might not be able to give that to her, but I’ll damn sure try.”

I pause, not sure what else to say.

I thought this would be harder, but it turns out, I’ve said all I needed to and now the only thing left is just . . . nothing. No remorse. No sympathy.

When the person you’re pissed off at isn’t there to hear you scream, are you really saying anything at all?

“Jesus Christ, this is stupid,” I grit, standing to leave, but a throat clearing stops me.

I jump. It’s not every day someone sneaks up on me, but the older woman standing a couple feet back somehow managed to do just that.

“Are you yelling at my son?’

Well, fuck.

She looks like I would expect money to look like. Fancy clothes. Light hair. Like caramel, dotted with streaks of gray around her face. I’ve seen one picture of Jack and I can say he was the exact replica of his mother.

I clear my throat, working to swallow past the lump in my throat. “More like telling him aggressively.”

She doesn’t make a move and neither do I. The silence stretches on so long I almost just turn and leave, but finally she gives me this sad, half-smile.

“You’re Reid, aren’t you?”

I don’t know how the fuck she knows my name, but I nod, just the same.

“I figured.” She looks past me at Jack’s grave, a grim solace in her eyes that almost makes me feel guilty for coming here at all. “Did you know, Jack hated Maine?”

“No,” I murmur, my voice gruff.

“Well, he did. I should have buried him somewhere else. Somewhere not so dreary.”

“Ma’am, I apologize for what you might have hear—”

She waves me off before I can even finish. “We all have something to get off our chests, Reid. I take it Alaska didn’t go the way you wanted?”

“It went exactly the way it was supposed to.”

“Turns out, there’s more to life than work, huh?”

“Turns out, there’s something here that I need.”

Her eyebrows raise for a moment, then her eyes flash with something close to pride. “Nova is a sweet girl, Reid. I wasn’t a good person. I’m sure you’ve heard that.”

“Nova never said anything bad about you.”

“Well,” she sniffs, resigning herself to the notion that Nova is just a better person than her. Than all of us. “Do you have time for a chat?”

I look at my watch. I need to get to Nova.

“She’ll still be there when you’re done. You haven’t gone to see her yet, have you?”

I shake my head, though delaying my return to Port Nova isn’t something I really want to do.

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