Page 46 of A Forgotten Heart
She hadn’t fought for him.
You can’t just waltz back into my life and pretend it never happened.
A wave of resentment assaulted his senses as memories began to overlap one another.
“Nick! Are you hurt?” He felt her tuck herself into his side, pull his arm over her shoulder, just like she had at the doctor’s office. “Lean on me. How much farther to the marshal?”
The marshal. Someone shooting at them. They had to go. He allowed her to lead him even as another wave of memories bombarded him.
He pressed his palm against his aching head.
You’re the teacher.
Elsie was Calvin’s teacher. She held the job that was supposed to be his. The lifelong dream that had started when his favorite teacher handed him a copy ofAround the World in Eighty Daysshattered in a moment. All because of Elsie.
He wasn’t a teacher.
How could he love her and resent her all at the same time?
The next few moments were fragments of running, a terrified Elsie, his memories revealing the truth.
There were no more shots as he and Elsie rounded the corner to the marshal’s office and climbed onto the boardwalk.He didn’t hesitate to throw open the door, pulling Elsie inside. They’d made it. But a bitter feeling overtook him.
Elsie looked around at the empty space, walked to the desk. Picked up a sheet of paper.
Transporting Prisoner. Return Unknown.
A growl tightened his throat. Now what?
His head swam. His stomach churned.
He barely reached a trash barrel before he lost his dinner.
Elsie tried to come near, but he threw out his arm so she’d stay back.
She pushed a chair noisily across the floor to him. “Here, you need to rest.”
He twitched away from her when she reached for the bandage at his head. “Leave me alone.”
The words shoved out of his mouth. Uncontrolled. Raw.
Elsie flinched, watching him with a confused, hurt expression. It only banked his anger.
Patch’s claws clicked on the floorboards as he came up to Nick.
Nick’s shoulder throbbed with fiery pain. Had the stitches come undone while he’d been running?
Everything from their past, the fight on the boardwalk, the past three days all swirled together inside him.
Elsie’s sweet kisses. Everything he’d wanted five years ago. Her betrayal. Getting kicked out of normal school.
All I wanted was to be noticed.
She’d told him more during those hours stranded in the blizzard than she’d revealed in the entirety of their months-long relationship. Imagining Elsie as that lost, hurting little girl moved him. But nothing could make up for what he’d suffered.
“How could you let me act a fool during the blizzard?” he demanded wearily.
He looked up to see Elsie trembling, the fingers of one hand pressed against her lips. He saw it in her eyes. She’d guessed his memory was back.
