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“I can’t be certain until we run some more tests but based on everything I’ve seen so far, it seems she’s suffering from retrograde amnesia.” He turns his attention to me. “As I mentioned before, it is two thousand nineteen and you seem to be missing the last five years of your life.”

“I can’t believe this,” I whisper, laying my head back against the pillow as I stare up at the tiles of the ceiling. How can I just not remember the last five years of my life?

Years where I apparently moved to Miami to be closer to my father and met someone I loved enough to get engaged?

How is all of that just gone?

My mind drifts over everything he just told me when I realize that he said my father was in the accident with me. I turn to him.

“You said my dad was in the accident, too?”

He nods.

“Is he okay? Can we call him and get him here?”

I may not recognize the man sitting next to me or the woman standing at the end of the bed, staring at me expectantly but there is no way I won’t recognize my own father. It has been just the two of us since my mother died when I was nine and I am a total daddy’s girl. He is my whole world and the reason I’m moving from Baton Rouge to Miami. No, wait… the reason I did move. Sucking in a breath, I remind myself that it’s five years later than I think it is. Dr. Wilson sighs, shaking his head.

“I’m so sorry, Miss Shaw. Your father was brought into the ER after the accident and he had already lost a significant amount of blood. We worked tirelessly on him but we were unable to save him.”

I blink and tears sting my eyes. “He’s… dead?”

“Yes.” He nods. “Again, I’m so sorry.”

Sucking in a stuttered breath, I drop my gaze to my lap and twist my fingers together as a sob tears through me. Tears spill down my cheeks and I clamp my lips together to fight back another sob but it overpowers me anyway. My body aches for someone to wrap their arms around me, provide me even a molecule of comfort, but the one man I need the most right now, the one man I’ve always had in my corner, I’ll never see again.

Chapter Two

Juliette

Every summer when I was a little girl, this little carnival set up shop a few towns over for two weeks and my mom always made sure we went at least a couple times before they packed up and moved on. When they started showing commercials on TV for the carnival the year after she died, I would get so upset that I would turn it off and spend the rest of the day in my room. My father worked a ridiculous amount of hours but somehow he found out about my daily meltdowns and he took two weeks off work to make sure we went to that carnival every single day. One of Mom’s favorite rides was The Zipper. It took us up in the air and our basket flipped over and over as the entire ride did its own loop, plunging toward the earth so quickly that it stole the breath from your lungs before flinging up into the air again. We rode that thing more times than I could count and each time we stepped off, I would stumble but Daddy never let me hit the ground. Even though he’d just been put through the same whirlwind I had, he was steady, strong and there to catch me before my knees could hit the dirt. With him there, I felt safe and happy for the first time since my momma had died. My head spins the same way it did all those times I stepped off that ride now as I stare at the man I am supposed to marry in three short weeks. Only this time, Daddy’s not here to catch me and make sure I’m safe and I’ve never felt more lost.

“Listen,” Gavin whispers, reaching over the bed rail to reach for my hand but I pull it back and he sighs. “I have no idea what you’re going through right now and I know it has to be terrifying but I’m here and I love you.”

“But I don’t know you.”

He nods. “I know but ask me anything, okay? Maybe if you hear about us, some things will start to come back to you.”

I study him for a moment before shrugging my shoulders. Okay, fine. What the hell could it hurt, right? Nothing makes me more uncomfortable than feeling like I’m living someone else’s life right now so I need answers.

“How did we meet?” I ask, picking at a loose string on the blanket draped over my legs as I glance up at him. He smiles and a dimple pops out in his cheek as I drop my gaze back to the blanket. God, he is handsome, I’ll give him that and by all accounts, he seems perfectly nice but he’s still a stranger to me.

“We met at a bar downtown. You and Nico were having a night out after you landed some big contract and the moment I saw you, I was hooked.”

“So you walked right up to me and asked me out?”

He laughs and shakes his head. “No, actually. Usually that would have been my go-to move but I got nervous and you left before I could work up the nerve.”

“And we ran into each other again?”

“Yeah, at a charity thing a couple weeks later. I’d been kicking myself for not talking to you and I couldn’t stop thinking about you so when I saw you again, I didn’t waste any time.”

His words don’t bring any memories rushing back but I enjoy hearing him talk about the way he felt when we first met. And it’s cute to see the slight blush in his cheeks as he details seeing me for the first time.

“Where did we go for our first date?” I ask as I slowly lean forward and grip the cup of water before bringing it to my lips. The pain medicine they’ve been giving me works pretty dang well but I’m still sore as hell.

“Fiji.”

I choke on my water and he jumps up, taking the cup from my hand as I try not to die. “I’m sorry, say that again.”