“As a grocery store owner, I may make it my new mission to introduce you to all the amazing foods you have forgotten all about.”
“Challenge accepted. I’ll look forward to whatever you bring for me to try,” he said with a warm smile.
She was so smitten.
“I guess you know about gossip and what it is,” she said.
He grinned. “I do.”
“So the word on the street is that while you don’t remember anyone you met or anything you did before your accident, that you remembered your artwork and how to finish all the half-finished projects at your leather and metal shop. Is that true?” Her brows lifted in question.
“It is.” Jake beamed as if that recent memory was an exceptionally good one. “I can’t really explain how joyous it was to step into that workshop at the back of the store and recognize something. I didn’t remember everything exactly, but as I looked at all of the half-finished pieces, they spoke to me. As I walked up to each one, I could tell how to finish it, even if the project was at the very beginning of the process. It was a revelation. I felt like I finally belonged somewhere.” His gaze met hers with excitement. And she couldn’t seem to look away from his intense stare.
Beryl didn’t know how long they stared at each other, but all of a sudden, someone shrieked a greeting and approached their picnic table.
She was not happy to see Ashleigh Graves headed in their direction.
“Sheesh,” Jake said under his breath. “Is she following us?”
Beryl giggled, as she’d been thinking the exact same thing. Her palm landed on his on the blanket. Spark! Jake quickly sandwiched her hand between both of his.
His expression changed. Not less intense, but he’d added a bit of predatory desire in the mix and she liked it. Now to get rid of Ashleigh before she ruined their perfect first date picnic.
Ashleigh stopped beside the picnic table, her gaze immediately fixating on Beryl and Jake holding hands. For some reason, her expression shifted to one of irritation.
“Ashleigh?” Beryl said, her tone not happy.
Whatever anger her frenemy had exhibited disappeared in a syrupy sweet expression. “Fancy meeting you two here,” she said.
Jake said, “Yeah, makes me wonder if you’re following us.”
“Oh, you.” Ashleigh reached out and lightly punched Jake in the arm. It was so odd, Beryl snorted. But Ashleigh didn’t move away. She stood there alternately looking at Beryl and then at Jake like she was watching some sort of tennis match.
Clearly, Ashleigh did not understand what was going on at the picnic table.
“Ashleigh,” Beryl said. “We are on a date. If you don’t mind, we would like to be alone.”
Ashleigh’s mouth dropped open and her whole face turned a crimson shade. “Well, I see. Well,” she repeated. “I guess I’ll be on my way then.”
She took a step back and stopped.
Beryl cocked her head to one side and mouthed the word “go.”
Ashleigh’s lips thinned. “Fine!” At long last, she turned and stomped off toward the fountain.
“You think she has a crush on you?” Beryl asked.
Jake’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. “I sure hope not.”
“I also hope not, but that’s what it looks like.”
Jake shook his head. “I’ve never even seen that woman until today.”
Beryl gave him a look. “That you know of, right?”
“Right. You’re absolutely right. But if I had something going on with Ashleigh, I didn’t tell Frederick about it. And me being involved with her even pre-memory loss seems very unlikely, or at least the person I think I was before The Incident.”
Beryl, her hand still sandwiched between Jake’s, squeezed his bottom hand and smiled. “Knowing what I do about Ashleigh, I suspect that if anything had been going on between you before you lost your memory, she would’ve been front and center at the hospital, declaring for all the world to know that you two were a couple before you lost your memory, if that was true. But I don’t think it is.”
