Page 65 of Remember Me

I placed my hand over hers. “I’m starting to realize that.”

“Where’s your ring?” Ava caught my hand in hers studying my hand as though she could make the ring appear on my finger.

I had forgotten I was missing it. “I’m not sure, exactly. I didn’t have it when I woke up in the hospital and so far, I haven’t been able to find it. Hayes said he’d check his office, but he hasn’t mentioned it since.” I rubbed my thumb over the space where it should have been sitting. “It’s end of term, though. I know he’s busy. Maybe I’ll bring lunch to him one day this week and look for it, myself.”

“Ava! Are you monopolizing Birdie?”

Ava made a face. “One minute! Damn. Caught.” She stood and put an arm around my shoulders. “You ready?”

I took a deep breath and opened the door. “Ready.”

My time in the bathroom and chat with Ava ended up being the stabilizing factor I needed. Hayes and I didn’t stay long, but by the end of the evening, his father had me teasing him about his incredibly bad taste in sweaters, and his brothers had charmed me with their protective sides. Any time Hayes left me to go chat with someone, one of them would take his place by my side, politely managing to ward off most of the crowd who were curious about the girl with amnesia. At the moment, it was Graham, his oldest sibling. We sat in a little alcove next to a ginormous fireplace with Jeannie, his mother, Ava, and Averie. Jeannie and I were making plans to meet next week and shop for nursery linens.

“Are you hoping for a girl or a boy, Birdie?” Jeannie asked. “I wanted a little girl so terribly. Kept getting these big old grubby boys.” She patted Graham’s knee. “And when I finally did get my wish, I ended up with two of the biggest tomboys you’d ever seen.”

Averie stuck her tongue out, showing a mouth full of food.

“I really don’t care,” I answered, trying to curb my snickers. “I just want him or her to be healthy.”

“Goes without saying,” Dean, Hayes’s father said, nodding. “It’ll be nice to have another little one underfoot.” His gaze landed on Mercy, Hayes’s older brother’s child. She toddled around the room, in and out of the adults fearlessly. The legs were her jungle; she was Tarzan. Or Jane, I guessed.

“Where’s Mercy’s mother?” I asked of no one in particular. I hadn’t seen her once the entire evening. The sudden silence was my first indication that I shouldn’t have asked. Ava sent a started glance my way, and then to Graham.

“It’s okay,” he said quietly. “She passed away last year,” he told me.

“I’m so sorry —” He cut me off with a pained smile and moved away, into the crush of people. “Oh, God. Why didn’t Hayes say anything?”

“He probably just didn’t think about it,” Averie said. “Men are like that. Graham doesn’t like to talk about it. When she got pregnant the doctor discovered she had breast cancer. She wouldn’t get treatment because of Mercy.”

I didn’t know what to say. It was terrible and noble and beautiful, and my heart ached for Graham.

“When we heard you had been in an accident and were in a coma, we were so scared. It was happening all over again,” Jeannie whispered. She swiped beneath her eye with a finger and stood up, clapping her hands to her thighs. “But enough about that. Have you guys set a date yet? For the wedding, I mean,” Jeannie asked.Awkward alert!All eyes landed on me, like I was the one who held the answers. Everyone grew quiet, waiting.

I looked at Hayes for guidance and saw that even he was waiting on my response. “I-I’m not sure,” I began. “We haven’t talked about what we had decided yet.”

“We were planning for June,” Hayes said. “After ball season ended. But we might need to move things up?”

“You think?” Reid, the second brother, smirked around a mouth of canapé.

Ava smacked his head. “Shut up, you! Women don’t have to get married if they get pregnant nowadays. It’s not like we’re going to stick a scarlet letter on her chest.”

“No, it’s okay. I’d like to, especially if we were already engaged. I don’t think I’d done any planning, though. I’m not even sure where to begin.” I wasn’t even sure how long we had been engaged. I made a mental note to ask Hayes about it. I’d like to know the story of how he asked me to marry him.

“Let us help!” Jeannie bounced in her chair. “We could have it here. Something small and intimate.”

I looked at Hayes, who held his hands up in the universal gesture for surrender. “I am leaving all of that one hundred percent up to you, Mini. Just tell me where and when and what to wear and I’ll be there.”

“Okay.” I looked back to his mother and sisters. “Let’s do it.”

“Fabulous! Let’s have some eggnog.” She pinned me with a look. “Apple juice for you, of course.”

“We’re actually about to leave, if you’re ready?” Hayes appeared at my elbow and curved a hand around the back of my neck, massaging gently. I groaned and let my head fall back.

“Um, yeah, bruh. She’s ready,” Averie joked. She hugged me, followed by Ava and then the rest of the family.

Hayes waggled his brows and led me to the door, pausing to slide my coat on over my shoulders. “And on that note, we are saying good night.”

Their laughter followed us out into the night, resonant with the sound of family and home.

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