“But we weren’t strangers either,” he adds softly.“Not even close.”
I look away, the ache inside me growing.I close my eyes willing the memories to return with no luck.A nurse comes in with breakfast and pain meds, and Ledger steps aside while she checks my vitals.My hands shake as I reach for the plastic cup of water.
He notices.He moves closer without thinking, reaching out like he’s done it a thousand times before but stops his hand inches from mine.
“Can I help?”he asks.
Something warm settles under my breast directly in my chest.“Yes,” I whisper.
His fingers skim mine lightly as he steadies the cup.The contact is brief, but my pulse trips anyway.His touch feels familiar.Unreasonably comforting.Dangerously gentle.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
He nods once, jaw tight, as if holding himself back takes actual effort.
The nurse finishes and leaves.Ledger stays by the window, staring out at the parking lot like he’s waiting for an enemy to show up.Tension rolls off him in waves.He hasn’t said it out loud, but I can feel it.He thinks what happened to me wasn’t random.
I watch him silently, the way his fingers clench around the sill, the way his chest rises and falls with restrained fury, the way he checks the hallway every couple minutes like he expects danger.
“Ledger?”I say softly.
He turns immediately, like he’s been listening for my voice the entire time.
“I keep trying,” I mutter, voice trembling.“To remember.I keep thinking maybe if I try hard enough, you’ll just come back to me.”
He swallows hard.“You don’t have to try,” he murmurs.“Your head’s been through enough.”
“But I want to,” I whisper.The muscles in his jaw jump.His eyes soften only for me, I can somehow tell and he steps closer.
“Kelly…” The way he says my name sends heat through my stomach.
“What were we?”I ask, breath shaking.“If not together, then what?”
He lets out a slow breath, sits in the chair beside my bed, and leans forward, forearms braced on his thighs.
“You are someone” He stops, lips pressing into a line.“Important.”
Important.
The word settles into my bones.“And I messed things up,” he adds.“Before all this.”
My pulse flips.“We saw each other regularly?”
His expression goes taut, but he nods.“Yeah.At the bakery.”
Bakery.Flour.Ally’s laugh.Bright lights.
A flicker of something sparks in the back of my mind, then slips away like smoke between fingers.
“What happened?”I whisper.
He looks away.“We ended things.”
The ache in my chest intensifies.As confusion still lingers.“Things?You said that we weren’t together?”
He huffs a broken laugh.“Yeah.Somehow I still managed to screw it up.”
My throat thickens.“Why?”
