Page 29 of Zane

“Me too,” he said as he maneuvered himself away from the door so Lee could close it. “Mom tried her best to convince me to stay. But finally, she let me go.”

“Did you want to go up to your bedroom?” Lee asked as his dog, Elsa, came to greet Zane with a curious sniff of his cast. “Are you able to do stairs?”

“Yep. I’ve been practicing at Mom and Dad’s. I’m slow though.”

“We put you in one of the rear facing rooms. Kelsey is in the other one on that side of the house.”

“Sounds good.” He’d never stayed in the house before. When he’d visited in the past, he’d usually just gone to his parents’ place since he was never home for very long.

“Would you like something to drink?” Rori asked as she waved him to follow her into the kitchen. “I’ve made supper, but it won’t be ready for a little while yet. It’s probably nothing like what you cook, but hopefully it will be tasty.”

“Well, that’s the most important thing for food to be.” It smelled delicious, so he was sure it would taste fine.

As he settled on a stool at the island counter, Rori asked him again about a drink.

“Water would be great. Thank you.”

She filled a glass from the water dispenser, then placed it in front of him on the counter. “How is your leg doing?”

Zane appreciated that she didn’t ask him about his memory. “Pain is pretty much gone. I’m hoping that Gareth will approve me for a boot soon so I can ditch the crutches.”

“Is that an option?” Rori asked.

“I don’t know, but I sure hope it is. These crutches are horrible.”

“You’ll be a pro on them soon.”

“Haven’t really had a choice. Either I learned to use them, or I’d have to sit on my butt all day.”

“Have you ever had a broken bone before?” she asked as she stirred a pot on the stove.

“Yep. Broke my arm when I was in middle school. I was more upset about the fact that I hadn’t broken my dominant hand than I was about having a broken arm. I thought it would have gotten me out of school.”

Lee walked into the kitchen and went immediately to where his wife stood. He wrapped his arms around her and bent to rest his chin on her shoulder. “Smells good.”

“Hopefully it tastes good as well.”

“Well, I was talking about you, but the food smells good, too.”

Rori’s laugh was soft as she reached up to touch his cheek.

Zane shifted his gaze down to his glass of water. Seeing his brother and Rori so casually affectionate made him wonder about his own marriage. Had he and Kelsey been like that?

He pulled out his new phone, searching for a distraction from his brother and Rori’s affectionate behavior. Over the past week, in addition to getting a new phone to replace the one destroyed in the accident, he’d managed to get into all his accounts, thanks to a password file on his laptop.

He’d discovered that over the past four years, he’d saved up a considerable amount of money. Also, his salary at his latest job had been fairly impressive. He had definitely been moving in the right direction, career-wise.

Even though he’d replaced his phone, he still needed to get another car. He didn’t have a settlement from the insurance company yet, but he had enough in his savings to cover the cost of a vehicle until the check arrived. It was just a matter of deciding which car he wanted.

He heard the front door open and shifted so he could see the entrance to the kitchen. Lee stepped away from Rori as Kelsey appeared. Her gaze met Zane’s, and for a moment, a warm smile came to her face. But then it faded away, as if she recalled that he didn’t remember her.

“Hey, Kelsey,” Rori said with a smile. “How did it go?”

Kelsey bent to pet Elsa. “They said they’ll let me know next week.”

“What’s going on?” Zane asked when no one gave more details.

“Kelsey is applying for work,” Rori said. “She had an interview this afternoon.”

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