Page 144 of Mistaken Intention

I nod my head, knowing he’s right. “So, what are you gonna do about Maisie?” I ask.

“I’ve just told Hunter, we’ll go over there sometime tomorrow. He’s said we can take it in stages, if we need to… spend some time with her at the main house before bringing her back here.”

“I think that’s sensible in terms of your recovery. You’ve got a lot to process.”

“Stop talking like my nurse,” he says with a smile, but I can’t return it, and his own fades. “What’s wrong, Josie?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“It was something you said earlier, when we were all outside the main house. But you don’t wanna talk about that now, and I think you’re right. We should wait.”

He shakes his head, just slightly. “What did I say?”

“It can wait, Drew.”

“No, it can’t,” he says. “Tell me.”

“Okay. It was about me being your nurse. You asked if that was all I was.”

“I did?”

“Yeah. You’d just worked out that we knew each other before the accident, and you said, ‘So, you’re not just my nurse?’. It made me wonder if that was all I meant to you.”

“Of course it wasn’t.” He closes his eyes for a second, opening them again, and planting a soft kiss on my lips. “A lotof what I said earlier came out wrong. That’s why I don’t want to talk now, in case I make the same mistakes again. But I have to tell you… you were never just my nurse. Not even when I was in the hospital and you were wearing scrubs and taking my blood pressure… and checking out my ass. You were always more than that.”

I smile, resting my head against his chest, feeling the rise and fall. “Thank you for saying that.”

“You don’t have to thank me. It’s the truth. I just wish I could remember more. No matter how hard I try, I’m still only getting a red dress and your hair.”

“Stop trying so hard.” I reach up, stroking his cheek with my fingertips. “It’ll come back to you.”

“I know. It’s just that now I’m getting these tiny chinks of memory, I want it all back.”

“Don’t rush it. Doctor Sweeney was right about that. Some of what you’re going to remember will be traumatic.”

“You mean things like the accident?”

“Yeah, although there’s a chance you might not remember very much about that, even when you get everything else back.”

“I can’t say I’ll be sorry about that.”

“No, but there are other things for you to consider… other memories. Like your childhood.”

He frowns, confused. “You know about that?”

“I know a little.”

His frown clears in an instant. “Oh… of course. You met my mom.”

“How did you know that?”

“Hunter told me. I asked him to fill in some gaps… one of which was how we came to have so much money. He told me about our parents.”

“I see. Well, I know your mom left when you were very small, but I don’t know much about your father.”

He looks into my face for a few seconds and then nods his head. “I’m not gonna tell you about it all now. I think it might be better to work it through with you when the memories come back.”

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