Page 36 of Zane

“Without eating?” Rori asked. “Why would she do that?”

“Because she’s not comfortable around us yet,” Lee said. He crossed his arms as he leaned back against the counter. After regarding Zane for a long moment, he sighed. “This isn’t going to work.”

“What isn’t?”

“The way you’re choosing to approach the fact that you’re married.”

Zane scowled at his brother as he rested his weight on the crutches. “How am I supposed to approach it? I don’t remember her.”

“You need to spend time with her,” Lee said. “You need to show that you care for her, if not as a wife, as a person who has lost someone very important to her. She’s missingyou.It can’t be easy for her to see you every day—the man she loves—and for you not to act like that man.”

“And that’s my fault? She didn’t have to come here.”

Lee’s gaze narrowed. “The way you are acting is not the way the Zane I know would act.”

Zane felt his brother’s words like a stab to his heart. Lee was right, and if the roles had been reversed, he would have lectured his brother about his attitude as well.

Lifting a hand to massage his forehead, he wished he could rub away the dull ache he seemed to be constantly dealing with.That ever-present ache had him on edge, and Zane knew that his patience was in short supply, and his tolerance was low.

“I’m not saying you have to jump into a relationship with her,” Lee said. “But let her have some sort of role in your life while we wait to see what’s going to happen with your memory.”

“I think you’ll regret the current course you’re on if…when… you get your memory back,” Rori said.

Lee nodded. “The way you spoke about Kelsey in the months prior to the accident made it clear how much you loved her. How much you cared for her. That Zane would be absolutely livid over the way you’re treating her.”

Zane knew that Lee was right about that, too. He needed to change his mindset, even without his memories.

“Okay,” he said. “I get it.”

“I hope so,” Lee said. “I don’t want to have to keep having this discussion with you.”

“If you don’t even try, there may come a point where Kelsey just walks away and starts her life over,” Rori added. “And if you regain your memory after that happens, you’ll have lost something that was very important to you.”

Everything they said made sense, but he had a mental block where Kelsey was concerned. It was like he thought that if his memory didn’t come back, he’d get to reset his life to four years ago. The problem with that was that four years ago, he was planning to marry Sarah.

“I’m going to call her,” Rori said.

“Why didn’t you do that to start with?” Zane asked.

“At first, I thought she’d just gone to her room, and I didn’t want to make her feel like I was keeping track of her,” Rori said.“But I’m worried. She’s clearly left the house and has been gone for awhile. She also didn’t eat anything before she left.”

Rori looked at Lee, who nodded. She picked up her phone and tapped the screen, then held it in front of her. When he heard it ringing, Zane realized she’d put it on speakerphone.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Kelsey. It’s Rori. Are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine,” Kelsey said, and from the sound of her voice, Zane thought she was telling the truth. “I just decided to go for a walk.”

“Where did you walk to?”

“I’m at a park.”

Rori frowned. “A big park?”

“It seems like a big one. I’m currently sitting on a stone bench in a garden surrounded by lots of flowers.”

“You’ve walked quite a ways.”

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