Page 34 of Fire Island
“Fine. Bored.”
At least I was ten minutes ago. Now, I’m a bundle of whatever the fuck those last few minutes were.
“My, um... friend was in an accident, she’s going to stay here for a few days. But... ” She comes to sit by me on the bed. Her green eyes are lit up, but her mouth wobbles to hold a thin line. “She needs some space, okay? I would send you to Em’s, but he’s on dayshift, and I need someone to be with you as much as pos?—”
I hold a hand up. “It’s fine. I’ll behave. Besides, between Paige, you, and Em, I have enough company. I’m not going looking for more. I’ll keep my distance.”
“Oh, okay, great.”
Iris stares at the door. She swallows before she says, “Have you had any memories come back yet?”
“Nope. Not a damn thing.” I shove my head into my hands and groan. “I’m so over this, Irry. It’s only been a few weeks and I’m going fucking crazy. What if they never come back?”
I turn my head to find her staring at me. “I don’t know, Cal.”
“It feels like I lost far more than only three years of memories. Something’s missing.”
Iris’s eyes well with unshed tears as she tilts her head, scrunching up her face. She drops her head to my shoulder and breathes out a wobbly breath. “I know.”
She knows what?
“How bad could it be if you told me what I’m missing?” I plead.
She sits up and gives me the most empathetic look that’s ever graced her pretty face. “What if that ruins it all?”
“How could it?”
“I’m not telling you how things are. That’s for you to find out.” She glances to the ceiling, like the next words are hard to say and she needs a little more strength. “You’re lucky, you know. I envy you some. You get to do it all over again. You get to live through that twice.”
“Do what? Live through what?”
It sounds like something good, at least? What happened in the last three years that I could get to do over?
She gives me an incredulous look. “Now, if I told youthat, I would never forgive myself.”
“Fine. But if this turns out to be important and you kept it to yourself...”
She rises and presses a kiss to my forehead. It’s been years since she’s done it. The last time was after Ava. After Em found me at the fishing hut with my sanity hanging by a thread.
She reaches the door, then turns back and says, “I’m just happy two of my favorite people are home and safe. The rest will sort itself out soon enough.”
She disappears, and I’m left sitting on the bed none the wiser.
Nine
EVIE
“He has no recollection of the last three years.” Iris’s words repeat on a loop.
I’d sat in that hospital room, so grateful to be safe and off the island and out of Timothy’s grip.
“He’s alive,” Iris had whispered through a sob.
I shook where I sat on the examination bed. And the only words that stuck were the ones where Iris said Caldoesn’t remember me.
I thought I lost him.
I thought he was dead.
