Page 82 of A Whirlwind of Color (The Light to My Darkness 2)

“Do you really want to know, or do you want to just play along?” His dark brown eyes were so mischievous.

I laughed. “That convinced it’ll work, huh?”

“I just know I can’t stop trying. Even when you call me out on it. I tried the whole not touching you thing. And the not sleeping next to you thing. I can say with full confidence that it wasn’t for me.”

“I’m trying my best to remember. Just, take things slowly with me. I’ve only ever dated one guy. And I don’t know if you can even really call it that. We were never actually exclusive.”

“I know.”

Of course he knew.

“I believe in us. And I don’t care if it takes me the rest of my life to convince you to love me again,” he said. “I’ll never stop trying.”

I’m pretty sure I sighed out loud from how romantic that was. But instead of telling him that, I took another huge bite of food. I still had a lot of questions for him and no good segue. The note I had found in the trash was burning a hole in my pocket. And his scars were still staring back at me.

“How did you get your scars?” For some reason, that question seemed like the easier of the two.

“From when I got shot on our wedding night. Three times.” He gestured to his bicep, his stomach, and his ribcage. “My lung collapsed and I had my spleen removed, but I’ve made a full recovery.”

“And the new one? You told me you took some of the poisoned pills too. What happened?”

He immediately looked more tense. “I had a cardiac episode.”

“Like a heart attack?”

“Not exactly. It wasn’t as severe. Just set me back a little. And I tweaked my knee when I fell down the stairs. But nothing serious. I’ve been going to physical therapy for everything. I’ll be good as new soon enough.”

I thought about all the times I saw him take a break from walking. Or put his hand down for balance. “All of it sounds serious to me. They clearly had to operate.” I pointed to his chest. “You’ve been telling me to take it easy, but you should be too. I wasn’t the only one that got hurt.”

“I’m fine. I’ve always had issues with stress so…poison didn’t help with that.”

“Huh. I never would have guessed that you have stress issues. You seem so carefree.” I smiled at him as he laughed. “But seriously, James. Are you going to be okay?”

“Yes. When have I ever lied to you?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Ever since I woke up?”

He smiled. “Well, I promise I’m not doing that now. The physical therapy is working. I’m feeling stronger every day. How are you feeling?”

“Honestly? I physically feel okay. Nothing hurts. But when I think about everything, I feel so overwhelmed. Do you know that Scarlett doesn’t believe I’m her mom? She thinks I’m some imposter.”

“Yeah. I’ve talked to her about that. I can talk to her again.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll figure it out. But it is upsetting. Dr. Nelson stole my memories. And I know that I have children. But it still feels like I’ll never have them. I always pictured a bunch running around, you know? And I expected to remember being pregnant with them. He stole all of that from me.”

“I know. I pictured that too.”

I bit the inside of my lip. “Do you really think we’re safe now? From Dr. Nelson I mean?”

“The police think so. They think he’s long gone.”

“And you?”

“Our security detail has been very diligent. There hasn’t been any suspicious activity. No sightings. Nothing. It’s not like the guy is going to be able to practice medicine here ever again. Maybe he went somewhere he could start over.”

“That makes sense.” I took a deep breath. “So maybe we could get rid of all these cameras? They make me nervous. I feel like I’m being watched right now.” I looked up to one of the ones mounted in the dining room.

James ran his fingers through his hair. “Most of them are already disabled. We found out that they were how Dr. Nelson got access to our apartment in the first place.”

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