Page 130 of Forget Me Not

He chuckles, reaching across the table and cracking it open from a split down the middle.

“Just got to break it’s shell.”

“Seems a little mean,” I mumble, as he repeats the movement to his own tail.

He fixes me with a look.

“It’s dead.”

“Fine,” I grumble, cutting some off with my knife and taking a bite. Reid watches me for my reaction.

It’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten.

“This is really good,” I tell him and he smirks, slicing into his steak. “I mean, really good.”

“Knew you’d like it.” He winks and I swear, I almost pass away. “You would think after deciding to settle down on a fishing island, you would have had it.”

We eat and he asks me about my day. It’s not until we’re almost done that I realize he hasn’t told me a single thing about himself.

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Never thought about getting a house somewhere? I mean, you’ve been all over the world.”

He shakes his head. “I like to keep on the move.”

“You don’t get tired of living on a crab boat? Doesn’t it get cold in the winter?”

“I have a wood stove and I like the ocean.” He shrugs. “It’s comfortable. It can take me anywhere.”

“What happens if your house gets swept away by a big wave?”

“Then I guess I will be too.”

A shudder runs up my spine at the thought.

“Dying is inevitable. Whether a wave takes me out or old age, we all know how it’s going to end.”

A pang hits me in the stomach because I know he’s right. I can be ripped apart by Jack’s death all I want. It doesn’t change it.

Before thoughts of Jack can come crashing back in, I push back from the table and walk to the window. I just . . . need to get out from under his gaze.

I’m an idiot. Tears burn in my eyes and I have no one to blame but myself. Reid isn’t staying. He’s said that countless times, yet I can’t fight the little glimmer of hope that maybe, this little life we’ve created between us can continue indefinitely.

“Nova.” Reid’s voice is dark, swimming with something like a mix between disdain and disappointment.

“I . . .” my words trail off. I won’t ask him to stay. That’s off the table. If he stays, he won’t be choosing me. He’ll be staying because I asked him. I want to be chosen. I want to be his first priority. I want to be his dream. Not Alaska.

Is it possible to be jealous of a place?

It dawns on me as I stare out over the field of overgrown grass and the forest beyond that I’ve fallen in love with a man and I know almost nothing about his past, while he knows everything about mine.

With a hollowness, I realize I don’t really know Reid at all, save for the assumptions I’ve made up in my head and the rare glimmer that he’s shared with me.

“Who are you, Reid?”

The room fills this a silence so thick, it’s hard to breathe. When I finally turn over my shoulder to look at him, he’s staring at the wall, not at me. It’s like he can read my mind.

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