Page 2 of One Foggy Christmas
“Good. Good.” Dr. Hatchet pats her arm before diving into her next question. “Do you know who your husband is?”
My breath halts like I can’t be bothered with breathing right now. All that matters is Sadie’s answer.
Her brows drop, and a frown pushes her lips downward. “No…” She shakes her head. “I don’t… I’m not married.”
Her confusion collapses my heart, and now I can’t breathe because of the pain.
She looks at her mom for confirmation, for her to tell Dr. Hatchet that she’s wrong, but Lynette Bradley is visibly crying. Sadie’s eyes drift from her parents to me with a vacancy in her expression I’m not used to. A soft smile holds across my lips, waiting for the same flicker of recognition she’d given her parents moments ago, but her eyes are void. The vacancy should’ve been my first clue, but it doesn’t sink in until she speaks again.
Her forehead lines deepen. “Where’s Stetson?”
Stetson Roeshine—Sadie’s fiancé before she fell in love with me.
The room tenses, like we’re inside a giant balloon, but instead of blowing air in, it’s getting sucked out, pulling things tighter.
I feel every eye on me. Not just gazes butsadstares.Pitystares.
“Stetson?” Dr. Hatchet questions.
“My husband?” It’s the most confident thing Sadie has said, but her confidence wavers as she reads the mood in the room. “Did he get hurt in the accident too? Is that why he’s not here?”
Nothing in life can prepare you for this kind of hurt.
It stuns and crushes.
I step forward, wanting to tell her myself,needingher to remember.
“Sadie”—I gently place my hand on her ankle, the best I can do from the foot of the bed—“I’myour husband. You married me.” A hesitant smile forms as I await her response.
She stares blankly back at me, the blankness terrifying me as the milliseconds creep on. Then she retreats into herself, pulling her leg from my grasp.
“No.” She shakes her head as her eyes plead with her mom. “He’s not my husband. I love Stetson.”
My heart pounds in my chest as my life unravels before me.
“Sweetie,” Lynette’s voice quivers despite her resolve to be strong. “It’s okay. We’ll figure this all out.”
I slowly backpedal to the door, looking for an exit from this Hell.
My wife doesn’t remember me.
Doesn’t remember falling in love.
Doesn’t remember the magic that isus.
Three and a half years of life just erased in an instant.
Three and a Half Years Ago
SADIE
“For it’s one,two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game!” I finish the seventh-inning stretch with one arm slung over Tate’s shoulder and the other outstretched in front of me like an opera singer as I hit that last note.
The crowd claps and cheers, proud of themselves for participating in the most iconic baseball game tradition.
Tate sits, but I need to stretch my legs.
“I’m going to get a drink. Want anything?”
