Page 32 of Remember Me

He looked at me steadily. “Yes. She’s delusional. But I’m not interested in her.”

“I have amnesia; I’m not stupid. She was sending fuck me vibes so strong I’m surprised men from the next city over didn’t show up.”

In my periphery I watched him brush at the corner of his mouth. “Well. That’s not anything you have to worry about with me, Birdie. Ever. You’re it for me.”

I nudged the corner of my menu until it was precisely in line with my silverware. “I wasn’t worried.”

“Ah...I think you might have been a little jealous.”

“No. I’m not jealous.”I’d have to be in love with you to be jealous.

He raised a single brow, the corner of his mouth crooking upward. “You are in love with me. You just don’t remember.”

I hummed but didn’t reply. He did that eyebrow thing a lot, I had noticed. It would be badass if I could do that with my eyebrow, but I didn’t think I was able to. Not that I could remember, one way or the other. I tried, just to be certain, tensing my eye muscles and concentrating.

Nope.

“What are you doing?”

I blinked and relaxed my face. “Nothing. I wanted to see if I could do that thing with my eyebrow.”

Hayes laughed out loud. He laughed with his entire body, I noticed, leaning back in his seat and raising his chin. Several diners turned to look at him, but he ignored them, secure in himself. I loved his lack of self-consciousness, his confidence. Somehow, I didn’t think I had his boldness.

“Am I shy?” I asked.

“Shy?” He considered the question. “No, I wouldn’t say that. You’re introverted. You’re generally more comfortable by yourself than in a crowd.”

I sipped at the water Serena-the-Delusional had set down a minute earlier. “That’s kind of what I was thinking. What about you? You’re just the opposite, right?”

“To an extent. I don’t mind being around people, but I need my downtime, too.”

“So, how did we get along —” I broke off as she returned to take our order. I really wanted a different waitress, but I wasn’t willing to make a scene to get it. “Chicken tenders, please, side of fries and a ton of honey mustard sauce.” As she walked off, I caught a small smile hovering on Hayes’s mouth. “What?”

“Nothing,” he said. “You were saying?”

“Oh, yeah. Just that my head is spinning. I have a reaction to something, and I can’t help wondering if it’s how I would have reacted before. Am I the same person? Am I totally different? It’s confusing as hell.”

“I get that,” came his calm reassurance. “I’m sure it’s normal —”

“I don’t want to be normal. I want to be me!”

“You are you, Smalls. You just ordered the same dish you do every time we eat here, down to the extra honey mustard sauce that you never eat. Part of you knows exactly who you are. It’s there in the details. You just have to trust that the rest is going to catch up.”

I nodded, not really believing it but wanting to close the subject. “I got a job this morning. Oh, and I kind of lost one yesterday.”

“A job? What in the — Birdie, you don’t need to get a job right now. I’ll take care of you.”

“I wanted one. And mom’s insurance coverage is going to end pretty soon, so I needed one to cover the pregnancy and birth.” It felt odd to be discussing such things.

“Birdie, you know that my insurance will take care of things, too.”

“If we get married.” I leveled a look at him. “I’m not sure about that right now.”

Our food arrived, and we fell quiet as we ate. “Where’d you get a job?” he asked after a while.

“The Farmer’s Wife, a few shops down.”

Hayes choked suddenly and grabbed his drink. “Are you okay?” I half rose and he held a hand out to stop me.

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