I realized I was cradled in his arms. Like he was holding my body together, lest I fall apart and wash away in the rain.
Safe from what?There was a light flickering above us. And sirens wailing in the distance. It did not look like we were in a good part of town. There was a man standing next to a cabtalking animatedly on his cell phone. He kept pointing to the left. I tilted my head and saw a body lying in a pile of black trash bags on the side of a curb.
It came back in a rush. The man claiming to be my father-in-law’s friend. My memories were colliding. Scarlett was afraid of snakes. And I didn’t just learn that from the zoo the other day. I knew it. I remembered! I remembered her before I was in the hospital! My sweet, baby girl. And she called them snapes instead of snakes. Like Professor Snape from Harry Potter. That man lying unconscious in the pile of garbage had looked just like Professor Snape. He had said I was supposed to die. That I was supposed to fix his life, not ruin it. “Dr. Nelson.” My voice sounded weird. “Is that Dr. Nelson?”
“Don’t worry,” Tyler said. “He’s unconscious and the police are on the way. Sayem called them.” He nodded toward the cab driver.
“What happened? How’d we get here?” I shifted in his arms, but didn’t push him away. Him being close to me was so comforting.
“I was on a run and saw that bastard shoving you into his car. I couldn’t catch up but luckily I hailed down the world’s best taxi driver. He broke all sorts of traffic laws tailing Dr. Nelson. Probably got caught by at least 10 traffic cameras. Think James could help him get out of a few tickets?” He smiled.
I was pretty sure he was making a joke about James, but I didn’t laugh. “And you…knocked him out?” I asked. He saved me.
“I took him by surprise. I never would have let him hurt you.”
I stared up at him. He was literally my knight in shining armor. The sharp angles of his jaw were worthy of a romance book cover. And his hair was wet from the rain but somehow still looked good. He was wearing a t-shirt and the rain made it cling sexily to the muscles in his chest. It felt like my heart was beating faster than humanly possible. I was aware of his hands on my body. His warm breath invading my air supply in a good way. “You saved me.”
He pushed my hair out of my face. And I had the overwhelming sense that I wanted him to kiss me. I remembered the pages I had read about him from my book. I had liked him all those years ago. I knew that I had.
So how had I wound up here? With his arms wrapped around me in the most loving way, yet he had a wife and I had a husband? How cruel fate could be. How had the universe not seen that Tyler Stevens was my perfect match? After all, I did fit perfectly in his arms. “What happened to us?”
He looked down at me with his beautiful blue eyes. “Everything that was supposed to.”
“I feel closer to you than I do to James. Why is that? He’s cold and ill-tempered and you’re…warm. I feel safe in your arms instead of scared. And someone just tried to kill me.”
He smiled. “I don’t think love is about feeling comfortable. I think love needs a little fear in order to be all-consuming. We were always meant to be friends, Penny. And I know your memories aren’t all there. But we made a good decision to stay friends. The right decision. I love my wife. And you love your husband.”
I blinked away the tears in my eyes. Did I love James? The dreams and memories made it seem like I did. My head was trying to catch up to my heart. It almost felt like my heart was beating faster to try and force my mind to speed up too. “I missed my chance with you, huh?” I laughed, but it sounded forced.
“And it was for the best. I hate to think about what would have happened if you chose me. Scarlett and Axel wouldn’t exist. Liam wouldn’t exist.”
Liam.I instinctively moved my hand to my stomach. God, I remembered the feeling of him kicking me. He did it nonstop. He was such a little terror. I had held him in the hospital this morning but I hadn’t really known him. But I knew him now. I remembered reading to my stomach and singing to him. The old memories collided with the new ones and I felt like I was going to be sick. “Is he going to be okay? Is my baby going to be okay?”
Tyler pressed his lips together. He didn’t have an answer for me. No one did.
I couldn’t hold back my tears now. I needed to get to Liam. I needed to hold him again. I needed him to know how much I loved him.
Tyler leaned down and hugged me again. Like a good friend, he knew when I needed a hug. I got another wave of grass and sunshine and my head spun. It was like my memories were vomiting out, one after the next.
I remembered eating lunch with him at Grottos. I remembered him dressing up like Westley from The Princess Bride. Iremembered dancing with him. Laughing with him. Hurting him. I swallowed hard. My mind felt like it flipped over as one memory swam to the surface and stuck.
I put my hand on the center of my chest. No one had ever told me that when your heart breaks it actually hurts. It felt like my chest was caving in. I took a deep, shaky breath.
"God, Penny, I'm so sorry." I looked up at Tyler rushing toward me. My eyes immediately landed on the bruise along the left side of his jawbone. The scruff on his chin didn't hide it nearly as well as he probably hoped. I quickly wiped away the rest of my tears.
"What the hell happened to your face?"
"It's nothing." He immediately put his arms around me. "Are you okay?"
"No, I'm not okay. Let me see your face." But he kept his arms wrapped firmly around me.
He ran his hand up and down my back. "I'm fine. God, you're soaked. Let me..."
"You're not fine." I pushed on the middle of his chest until he let me back up a fraction of an inch. He didn't need to say anything. I knew. It was written all over his face. I lightly touched the side of his jaw with my fingertips. "James did that, didn't he?"
"There may have been an altercation late last night."
I closed my eyes. "Tyler, I'm so, so sorry." Mason was with James. Apparently none of his friends were good at keeping him out of trouble. It also meant Ian had probably driven him there when I specifically told him not to take James anywhere. But Ian didn't have to listen to me. I was never his boss.
