Page 129 of Zane

Kelsey moved to get up off his lap, clearly distressed. Zane stopped her with a gentle hold, one she could break free of if she truly wanted to. He was relieved when she sank back onto his lap.

“I’m not mad,” he said. “I’m just confused. Did I know about this before my accident?”

“Yes. I didn’t tell you right away when we were dating, but I eventually did.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell me—us—now?”

“I didn’t want people to know in case I failed.” She gave a sad laugh. “And look at that. I failed.”

“You only fail if you give up,” Zane said, thinking of the countless times he’d failed with recipes over the years. “Are you going to take it again?”

“I guess so.”

“Did you want to work at the clinic?”

Her eyes briefly widened before she shook her head. “No. And that’s why I didn’t say anything about being a nurse. I didn’t want your family to think I was trying to get into the family business.”

“I didn’t tell them?”

“No. I asked you not to.”

“You never have to hold stuff back from me for fear of failing,” Zane said. “I’d rather know and be able to support you. You’ve had aloton your plate for the past several weeks. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to take an exam.”

“I know, but I wanted to have it all done, so that if you sent me away, I would have a chance of getting a decent job.”

Zane’s heart hurt at the very idea of sending her away, but he put that aside for the moment. “Well, I want you to take the exam again as soon as you’re comfortable doing so. If this is the career you want, then I want to support you as you work to attain it.”

Tears once again slid down her cheeks. Uncertain what had prompted them, Zane reached up to wipe them away. “Explain these to me, sweetheart.”

“You were the first person who truly believed in me unconditionally. My parents didn’t care about anything I tried to do, and when I failed, I was ridiculed. I quickly figured out it was better for me to just keep my goals to myself. Even when I did manage to succeed at something, they didn’t really care.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “When you lost your memory, in addition to everything else, I lost the first support I’d ever had. But now… now I feel like even without your memory, I’m getting that back.”

“Of course you are,” Zane said. “I’m going to be your biggest cheerleader! I can do a cartwheel and a backflip, and I’m sure Layla would teach me some cheers if you wanted that.”

Even though her eyes were still damp with tears, Kelsey laughed, and Zane counted that a win, even as his heart skipped a beat at how beautiful she looked in that moment.

“You’re beautiful,” Zane said, needing to share that with her since he hadn’t told her that yet. His old self probably had, but he had a whole bunch of catching up to do.

Kelsey cupped his face in her hands and leaned forward, her eyes free from the shadows of sadness that had been there earlier. “And you are so handsome. All the ladies at the restaurant used to tell me how lucky I was to have you. I always agreed, but not because of how you looked, but because you were—are—an amazing man.”

Zane had had no expectation of how things would go when he got home from the clinic, but this was better than he might have imagined. But he still needed to talk to her about one more thing.

After they shared another kiss, they moved to sit on the loveseat and turned their attention to the pastries and the coffee that had cooled slightly.

“I’ve been wanting to ask you something else.”

“What’s that?” Kelsey asked as she lifted her coffee cup to take a sip.

“Do you have any questions about God or my faith?”

“Oh.” A contemplative expression came over her face. “Well, actually, I do. I was planning to ask Rori and Carisa about it.”

“Are you comfortable asking me your questions?” Zane asked. “As your husband, I’d love to help you with them.”

Zane said a silent prayer that she’d feel comfortable with him because he wanted to help guide her into the faith in God that was so important to him.

“I want to know how to become a Christian,” she said. “Pastor Kennedy talks about how Christians should live, but I don’t have a clear understanding of how to become a Christian.”

Zane smiled at her. “That I can help you with.”

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