Page 39 of Zane

“Oh, right.” Rori turned toward the fridge and got a bottle of water. “I’ll be back in a few.”

“Where’s Kelsey?” his mom asked.

“At the park. She went for a walk.”

“To the park? That’s a bit of a walk.”

“It is,” Zane agreed. “That’s why Rori offered to go pick her up.”

They sat in silence for a moment, then his mom said, “I’d better get back outside. I think some were getting ready to leave.”

The ones with young kids, most likely.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before there was a steady stream of people bringing dishes into the kitchen, then heading for the front door. Janessa and Will paused to talk for a few minutes, then left with their little guy.

His mom helped Lee put food away and load dishes into the dishwasher. They’d used paper plates and plastic ware, so there wasn’t a lot to clean up.

They had just finished cleaning when he heard the garage door rumble. His stomach tightened at the thought of seeing Kelsey so soon after he’d made the decision to at least acknowledge what she was to him. What they had.

She followed Rori into the kitchen, pausing when she saw them all there. It was like a shutter dropped down over her face because her expression went completely blank.

Zane didn’t blame her for wanting to keep a wall between herself and everyone there. Given how she’d been treated, it made sense.

Now that he’d made up his mind to focus more on her, Zane hoped that the atmosphere for Kelsey would change, and that it would become easier for her to be around them all.

No doubt the man he’d been when he married her would want to protect Kelsey and try to make things easier for her. So he’d try to do that as well, as much for Kelsey as for the man he’d been before the accident. Whether he’d ever be that man again or not, only time would tell. Right then, all he had was time.

At least until it was confirmed that his memory wasn’t likely to return. Then he’d have to decide how he was going to move forward in his life.

CHAPTER TEN

When she saw the group—all of them members of her not-a-fan club—gathered in the kitchen, Kelsey wanted to turn right around and leave the house.

“We have plenty of food left from lunch,” Rori said. “Let’s get you a plate.”

Kelsey wanted to protest, but honestly, she was hungry. The fact that seeing Zane and his parents there didn’t rob her of her appetite hopefully meant that her resolve to make the situation work hadn’t completely vanished in the face of reality.

Kelsey approached the counter where Cathy and Dan stood. Zane’s mom moved over to sit at the breakfast nook with Zane, and her husband followed.

Lee bent to give Rori a kiss, then helped her get containers out of the fridge. Rori set an empty paper plate in front of Kelsey. “Take whatever you’d like. There’s plenty.”

Kelsey wasn’tthathungry, but she still managed to fill her plate. It all looked good. She wondered what Zane had thought of the food. So far, he hadn’t done any cooking that she’d seen since coming to Serenity.

That was a bit of a surprise because even though his job was to cook, he was rarely so tired of it that he refused to cook at home on his days off. In fact, most of the time he decided to cook in their apartment, he’d pull her into the kitchen with him and make her his sous chef. She had some great memories of those moments.

Rori placed a glass on the counter. “You can sit here.”

Grateful that Rori hadn’t sent her over to the breakfast nook, Kelsey sat down on one of the bar stools. She stared at her plate for a moment, willing her stomach to settle so she could eat what she’d taken.

“So you found our biggest and nicest park, huh?” Lee said.

“Quite by accident,” Kelsey said as she took a sip of her water. “It’s a beautiful place.”

“It is,” Lee agreed. “Hudson proposed to Kayleigh there.”

“Really?” Kelsey hadn’t heard that.

“Yep.”

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