Page 40 of Forget Me Not

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Cooper

It’s quiet, now that it’s just the two of us. The dark of night has settled in comfortably all around, leaving only the flicker of flames from the three candles I lit for light. It’s peaceful. Beautiful.

Lying on the couch against Reed’s chest, with his arms wrapped snuggly around me, I can feel the rise and fall of his breathing and it soothes my soul. He’s real. He’s here.

I close my eyes and inhale deeply, taking a moment to appreciate the shift. I’m not alone. Or, more importantly, I don’t feel alone. And not just because I’m cocooned in his entire being, but because his entire being is everywhere. Somehow, he has the power to fill every inch of this apartment. No matter which room I’m in, I can feel him there. It’s my favorite feeling in the world.

“I feel like there’s so much I don’t know,” he murmurs quietly behind my ear. “Scratch that. Ifeellike I know all there is to know...but, logically, I can’t help but see how much I’m still missing of you, even when you’re right here in my arms.”

“What do you want to know?” It’s weird, but the idea of letting him in, sharing my past with him all over again, makes me nervous. I know it shouldn’t. I know what we share is so much bigger than anything that’s happened to us, but part of me will always wonder how someone so beautiful ever fell in love with someone as flawed as me in the first place. And, I suppose, I worry whether he’ll be able to a second time.

His arms squeeze me tighter and his lips press to my temple. “Let’s start with something fun. Tell me how we met.”

I sigh, nestling myself deeper into my Reed cocoon and settling in for story time. “We met in high school. Senior year. I had just transferred and, it being my first day at a new school, I was having a bit of a hard time getting around.” It also didn’t help that Gun kept giving me wrong directions on purpose. Although, I suppose it did. It’s what led me to Reed.

“Let me guess, I took one look at you lost and alone and volunteered to be your guide.” I can hear the smile in his voice and I can’t help but grin myself.

“Something like that. You passed me in the hall on your way to the cafeteria and ran over three freshmen, knocking all their books to the floor in the process because you were so distracted by me.” I reach up to brush a stray strand of hair from my forehead. I feel like I’m that girl again. Walking down the halls, completely content with pretending not to give a shit when the most gorgeous guy on earth comes along and changes everything.

“I did not,” he argues playfully, but I think he knows it’s true. Better be. He must have told me the story a hundred times, even if I still never believed it. Although, I suppose I will now, since it’s the only memory we have to go on.

“Sure did. You even had to buy one of them lunch that day because another dude walking by stepped on his sandwich, which, you know, was only on the floor to begin with because of you. Well, me. At least, that’s how you always told it. I missed most of it because I was too nervous to look at you for more than two-thirds of a second at a time.”

He pulls me around to face him. “What about now?”

I reach up and let my fingers trace the outline of his face. His chiseled jaw, perfect mouth, and those warm blue eyes, are enough to make me never want to look at anything else ever again.

“Now? Now I could stare at you for all eternity.” I meant it to sound at least slightly silly, but it didn’t. It was one hundred and ten percent pure sap.

“Good,” he whispers, “Because I’m going to spend the foreseeable future falling in love with you for the second time, Cooper. And this time, I don’t want you to miss it.”

Chapter Ten

Gun

7Years Earlier

“He asked me on a date,” she blurts out.

I can feel Ed’s eyes digging into the side of my head, waiting to hear my response. I don’t answer right away. Just keep staring at the TV in front of us and the baseball game we’re all supposed to be watching. I remind myself that the Red Sox are winning. That this puts me in a good mood. Then, I shrug, plaster a look of fake curiosity onto my face and turn toward her.

“And? What did you say?”

She blushes. The only time I’ve ever seen her cheeks go so red was when she was twelve and the new social worker she’d been reassigned to, called her Jane Doe in front of an entire police station filled with people. We’d been picked up for stealing a loaf of bread and some peanut butter after being on the streets for nearly a week without anyone coming around to bring us back. Anyway, even then, I think she was mostly flushed from being pissed.

“I said yes.”

I nod, turning my attention back to the game. “Good.”

“Good?” She sounds surprised.

“You like him, right?” I reach for the open bag of pretzels on the coffee table.

“I do.” She doesn’t seem nearly as convinced of this as she did two days ago when she was bouncing up and down and squealing about having met the cutest boy in school. It was completely out of character, but then that whole day had been off to an entirely too ‘normal’ start for her, and I assumed experiencing all the regular high school shit, including meeting the high school football star, had simply pushed her over the edge. Judging by the timid way she’s acting right now, she’s taking things to the extreme in the opposite direction today.

“Do you like him?” she asks, as if she needs my approval.

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