“Hand it over.” I take out my phone and give it to her. “There you go. My number is under Miss Sassy.” I bark out a laugh and she smiles at me. A genuine, honest-to-goodness smile. Like fucking sunshine.
“Can I hug you now?”
My request has her backing away from me a couple of steps, and it about kills me not to reach out and grab her to bring her back. The physical distance between us may only be a couple of feet, but the emotional distance feels like thousands of miles.
“Alright,” she finally replies, and I thank whatever higher power is up there.
Liz makes me come to her for the hug, but I couldn’t give a damn. My arms are finally able to wrap around her. My hands are finally able to touch her. I inhale her sweet, delicious jasmine scent. “I’ve missed you so much, princess. I’m so fucking happy you’re here,” I whisper into her hair. I don’t expect words back. When she starts to squirm, I release her. It was enough. For now.
I reluctantly let her go and ask my brother, “Jules, you and E need a ride back?”
“Yeah. We’re coming.”
Liz hugs Julien bye, then Elijah. They make promises to have lunch soon.
“Ryder, you coming?”
“In a minute.”
I hesitate at her front door, not wanting to leave. Wanting to stake my claim on her like I did all those years ago. But I can’t. I’ve already scared the shit out of her tonight and she’s been wary of me ever since.
“Goodnight, Liz.”
“Goodnight, Jay.”
“Jayson.”
She looks at me quizzically. “Pardon?”
“You always called me Jayson. Not Jay.”
“Oh, okay. Goodnight Jayson.” Music to my ears.
As I leave, I hear her say, “Thank you, Ryder.”
“Thank me for what?”
“For being a good guy. For understanding. For being here.”
Julien
“We need to tell our parents,” Jay says to me once he, Ryder, and I get back to our condo. I told Elijah to head back to his place and I would see him tomorrow.
“What we need to do is sit down and talk about what happens next,” I respond, pushing him toward the kitchen. Ryder grabs three sodas from the fridge and throws two of them at me and Jay. You would think words would be easy to come by, but I’m finding it difficult to articulate my thoughts.
Liz is back. She’s here. No more searching or wondering or worrying. But she doesn’t remember us. Our girl is lost in an ocean of darkness and we are helpless to save her. A myriad of emotions flows through me. Fear. Anger. Guilt. Happiness. Fear that she will disappear again. Anger toward the man who attacked her and her family. Guilt for not protecting her that night. Happiness because she’s alive and we finally found her.
But what happens next? With her? With us? Jay and his desperation almost cost us Liz tonight. What the hell was he thinking, breaking into her apartment like a deranged lunatic? A part of me understands his fraught behavior, but the rational part of me knows we can’t push Liz any more than we already have.
“At least we now know what happened to her,” Ryder says.
“But fuck, Ry. Amnesia? It’s like losing her all over again,” Jay replies. He tosses his empty soda can in the trash and kicks the bin. Luckily, it doesn’t topple over.
“Elijah and I cleaned up the destruction you left earlier, so don’t you dare break another thing in this place.”
“Piss off, Julien,” he warns me, but I’m already in his face daring him to test me. I may be the peacekeeper between the three of us, but even I have my limits. Today has been an emotional powder keg and I am the spark about to light the fuse. Jay and I stare at each other, nose to nose, neither one of us willing to back off.
“Knock it off you two. Now is not the time.”
