Page 18 of This Is Love (The Light to My Darkness 3)

It flew open in a matter of seconds.

“Penny!” Melissa screamed and threw her arms around me. I swore she even lifted me up in the air a little. “Jesus! I thought you were dead in a ditch. Or worse.” She squeezed me so hard that it hurt. “Where the hell have you been?”

God, what would be worse than being dead? She didn’t give me a chance to respond to her question. She let me go and stared at Tyler over my shoulder. And then back at me.

Disappointment crossed her face. “You were with Tyler? We called him a million times. We called you a million times!” she yelled at him.

“Penny wanted to talk to James in person about what happened,” he said. “She thought it would be better this way.”

“Better what way?” Melissa let go of me. “Did you two…are you two…” She shook her head. “Penny, you’re making a mistake. You and James are meant to be together. You just need to give it more time.”

What the hell was she talking about? Did she think Tyler and I were here together so that we could confess our undying love for each other to James? Why would she think that?

I glanced up at all the people gathering in the foyer. Everyone. And I recognized their faces. Hailey, Tyler’s wife. Beautiful, perfect Hailey that fixed the heart I had broken. And Bee and Mason. Matt. Rob and Daphne. Jen and Ian. My parents and James’ father. All the kids were missing but I knew it was late. Really late. I looked around once more, but it actually wasn’t everyone. James was missing.

“How could you, Tyler?” Melissa said. “How could you?” Her voice was filled with disgust.

Tyler held up both his hands like he was innocent. Which he was. God, this really was not how I pictured tonight going. I wanted to come home and tell James everything. Tell him how I felt. I wanted a quiet night alone and he wasn’t even here. But everyone else in the world was.

“Melissa, just stop for a second, okay? Nothing is going on with me and Tyler. Dr. Nelson attacked me on my way back here after my walk. Luckily Tyler was on a run and saw the whole thing. He followed us and saved me. Dr. Nelson is in jail. It’s over. It’s all over. Where is James?” I felt like I was breaking. “I need to see him. I’m remembering. I remember him.” My lip started to tremble. “Where is he?”

Everyone was eerily quiet.

“He went to go see our mother,” Rob said when no one else spoke. “He thought…we thought…” his voice trailed off. “It wouldn’t have been the first time that her actions hurt you guys.”

“He’s with his mother? Right now?” Poor, James. He had given up on her after our wedding. They hadn’t spoken in years. Going to her would have been really hard for him. “He went alone?” Why would they send him alone?

Rob nodded. “He said it was something he had to handle on his own.”

I had been making James feel so alone ever since I woke up. Combining that feeling with seeing his mom? That wasn’t going to be good. It would have been easy for me to call him and tell him to come home. But if he was going to see his mom, that was a big step. And I needed to be by his side. He needed me and I was finally ready to be needed. “Can someone take me to them?”

Rob didn’t ask why I didn’t want to just call. He just agreed without a second thought.

I didn’t thank everyone for worrying about me. I didn’t thank them for coming together to search for me. All I could think about was James. I turned and walked right back out the door with Rob on my tail.

***

“When did you start to remember?” Rob asked as he took another turn.

Rain was pounding so hard against the windshield that the wipers barely looked like they were working.

“I was having dreams. I didn’t…I didn’t realize that they were actually memories.”

James’ parents had sold their house after the divorce. I remembered being sad about it because it meant James’ tree house would disappear. We had visited it one more time before the house went on the market. He assured me that he wasn’t going to miss it. And that maybe one day we’d have a house with a yard and that he’d build a tree house for Scarlett. I absentmindedly touched my stomach. Liam now too. The thought made me feel sick. Part of me wanted to tell Rob to drive toward the hospital instead, but I had a feeling that right at this moment my husband needed me more than my baby. I felt drawn to the outskirts of the city. The sprawling lawns and ornate houses. James was here. Somewhere.

“How long has your mother been back in town?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t even realize that she was. James knew I guess.” He kept his eyes on the road.

James knew. I wondered if he missed her. If he ever thought about forgiving her. She had never even met Scarlett. My heart felt like it was breaking. What if she never got a chance to meet Liam? I blinked away my tears as I stared out the window.

“Do you remember me then?” Rob asked.

I knew he was trying to lighten the mood. I turned to look at him and it was like I saw flashes of our past. Which contained a lot of me playfully shoving his shoulder and him cheesing way too hard. “Yeah. You’re the brother that makes me laugh until my stomach hurts.”

A smile spread across his face. “The better brother.”

“That’s debatable.”

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