Page 24 of Rewind

Before Ethan could respond, the man pulled out a gun and fired off three shots directly to his chest, sending Ethan flying backward.

Collapsing to the ground, he coughed, and a splatter of blood erupted from his mouth as he clutched his chest. The sharp pain from where the bullets had entered his flesh was brief, but a slow ache spread throughout his injured body.

He looked up to see the hooded man standing over him. Ethan wanted to ask why, but each time he attempted speak, he’d cough up more blood. He was losing blood so rapidly, Ethan realized his wounds were fatal.

The man bent over and whispered something that seized his already dying heart.

As his body grew cold from the rapid lowering of his blood pressure, so many thoughts swam in his mind. He thought about how sad his mother would be and about his practice. But most of all, he thought about Amina.

Ultimately he hadn’t been able to save her. But now that he was dying, he hoped he saw her again in the afterlife.

Chapter

Nine

“This doesn’t exactly make up for taking you out but I wanted to make sure that you were fed before this night was over.” Ethan laid out the food, he purchased on the coffee table of Amina’s living room.

Amina laughed uneasily. “No this is fine. I’m not sure if I would have been able to give that restaurant the full attention it deserved. And this is probably the best place to talk without anyone overhearing us and thinking we’ve both lost our minds. Ugh, I’m going to get something to drink to go with the food. I have bottled water, cranberry juice and lemon lime soda.”

Ethan inclined his head in a grateful nod. “A bottled water is fine, thanks.”

“One bottled water, coming right up.”

Amina scurried to the kitchen happy for a reason to put some distance between herself and Ethan. She was just coming to terms with her own reincarnation of sorts, or whatever it was called. But to learn that Ethan had come back from the dead as well, was more than she could process.

Logically, none of this made sense. When a person died, they moved on to some sort of afterlife. But this wasn’t it. Why werethey both brought back five years in the past. Was their deaths somehow connected?

After his revelation, there was no way either of them could sit at a restaurant calmly and pretend everything was normal. Ethan suggested he cancel the reservations and pick up something to eat on the way home.

Amina readily agreed but now that he was here in her home, her heart wouldn’t stop beating. There was something about that man that made her nervous. Not in a scary way, but he made her pulse race, and she’d get tongue tied around him. Besides, Mark, she’d never been alone in her home with a man.

If someone would have told her that Dr. Ethan Han would be in her home, she would have laughed in their face. But then again, she had literally died and had somehow gone back in time so was anything really beyond the realm of possibility?

Amina stalled with the drinks as long as she could because once she faced Ethan again, a real conversation would need to be had. It was one thing when she was just dealing with her own reincarnation but now, she had to factor in his on top of this entire weird situation.

“Come on, Amina. Get yourself together. He’s just a regular guy,” she said under her breath to pump herself up.

She took three calming breaths, grabbed the drinks, plates and napkins, and headed back to the living room.

Ethan had stacked the magazines that had been in the middle of the coffee table, neatly to the side and spread the food out. He sat on the floor with his legs stretched beneath the table. His jacket was off and the top two buttons of his shirt was undone. A stray lock of dark hair rested on his forehead.

Amina’s mouth went dry. It wasn’t fair for any man to be this good looking. “Ugh, here’s your bottled water.” When she handed him the drink and he reached out for it, their fingers touched.

She quickly yanked her hand back when a spark of electricity coursed through her body.

“Thank you. I hope you don’t mind me being sprawled out on your floor like this. If you’d rather we move this to your dining room table we can do that.”

“Oh, no this is fine. I sometimes eat my dinner just like this in front of the television. Uh, do you want me to turn on the tv?”

“It would probably be too much of a distraction. We have a lot to talk about, don’t you think?”

Amina nodded. The car ride home had been in awkward silence. It seemed that they were both at a loss for what to say but now there was no more dodging the subject.

She placed the plates on the table and sat down next to him, putting as much space between them without appearing as if she was avoiding him.

“This isn’t exactly the nice dinner I promised you. But hopefully this will do in a pinch. I don’t get to eat like this that often so I couldn’t resist when I saw the deli on the way back to your place.”

Amina took the cheesesteak she ordered and unwrapped it. To her embarrassment, her stomach growled. She laughed. “Sorry. Honestly, I’ve been nervous about our date all day that I didn’t eat anything.”

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