But the minute I walked through the door, Scooter came running down the hall and jumped up at me.
“You’re home!” I cried in disbelief as tears of relief ran down my face.
“Hey, babe,” came Connor’s voice as he rushed toward me. “Where were you? I was getting worried.”
I stared at him, unsure of how I felt after our last conversation. “I was out looking for Scooter.”
“Good God, Liv.” He rushed over to the hallway closet and took out a bath towel. “You’re soaking wet. Why were you out there by yourself? How come Jim and Debra weren’t with you?”
I stood there looking at Scooter and then Connor blankly. “Was he here when you got home?”
“Yeah. He was waiting by the door when I got in half an hour ago. What happened to you? Are you okay? I tried to call you but your phone was turned off.”
I looked down at my phone and realized it was dead. “It must have died while I was out.”
Connor tried to wrap the towel around me but I moved away. I saw the hurt on his face by my brush-off.
“Liv, I’m really sorry about earlier. I was so stressed out about the deal falling through that I took it out on you. I’m sorry I snapped at you. I was an asshole.”
I met his gaze and for a moment, I felt my anger waver. Then a question popped into my mind. “Who is Cindy?”
“Oh.” An expression of understanding appeared on his face. “I’m sorry for blurting that out without giving you any context. I don’t know what I was thinking. At that moment, I think I completely forgot about your amnesia.” His face twisted with guilt.
“So why did you mention her?”
Connor sighed. “Cindy was my college girlfriend. We were together for three years. She passed away from cancer when we were together.” His voice shook as he spoke. “She’d always talked about getting a dog together while we were dating. So when she was diagnosed, I took her to the animal shelter and we got Scooter. She passed away five months later.”
Tears trembled down my cheeks as I took in Connor’s story. I looked at Scooter and realized why he was important to Connor.
“I’m sorry about Cindy, Connor. I didn’t realize earlier on the phone.”
“No, don’t be.” He rushed to my side and wrapped the towel around me. “I was an asshole on the phone. Sometimes I have to be when I’m dealing with business people, but I should never treat you like that. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. I know it’s been a crazy day.” I forced a small smile as our eyes met. “I’m just glad Scooter is okay.”
Connor pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly. “You’re amazing, Liv. I don’t know what I’d do without you in my life.”
I closed my eyes as I fell into his embrace, trying to reconcile my feelings. “I’m really tired from everything tonight. I’m going to take a quick shower and head to bed.”
He nodded, but I saw the worry in his eyes. “Okay. I have to do some more work before I can turn in.” He leaned down to kiss me on my forehead. “Sweet dreams, babe. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Good night.”
As I headed to the bathroom, I immediately got lost in my own thoughts.
Despite everything that had happened tonight, I knew that I still cared about Connor. I knew that everything he’d done for me over the last month couldn’t—and shouldn’t—be erased by tonight’s events. I thought I had been lied to when Connor first mentioned Cindy tonight. I thought the man I thought I knew—the one that had cared for me and loved me—had all been a lie. But after hearing about Cindy and the way she died, my heart went out to Connor on how much he’d gone through, and it had reaffirmed to me the type of man he was. I knew the Cindy explanation could not excuse all of his behavior toward me tonight, but I also knew that he was human. And at the end of the day, he did apologize. That had to be worth something, right?
As I wrestled with these thoughts and tried to forgive Connor for his behavior, my thoughts drifted to Ethan and everything he had said to me tonight. Somehow, as a result of tonight’s series of unfortunate events, I felt as if I was standing in front of a fork in the road, being forced to choose only one path. As a result of tonight, I found myself torn between two men: the caring and protective fiancé who I had no memory of, and the rebellious and surprisingly-sweet stranger who made me question who I once was.
CHAPTER S IX
I pushed against the glass door that led out into the darkness. Tears streamed down my face at how quickly tonight had turned upside down. I could hear the happy chatter from our engagement party in the main hall before it was absorbed by the silence of the night as the door shut behind me.
I ran as fast as my feet could take me in my jeweled Yves Saint Laurent stilettos. Maybe I should stop wearing heels all the time, I thought as I wished for my lone pair of tennis shoes that were collecting dust in my walk-in closet.
But this didn’t slow me down. I wanted to get out of here. It was the last place I wanted to be.
“Liv!” I heard a familiar male voice call after me.
The sound of his voice pushed me to move faster. I pulled up the jewel-encrusted blush-pink evening gown that weighed down on my body and restricted my movement. The air was bitter cold and cutting, but the adrenaline that coursed inside seemed to shelter me from the cold like a protective blanket. I didn’t have to turn around to know who that was. All my senses went into overdrive as I continued to move.
“Liv!” he called after me again, this time closer than before.
I stopped briefly and turned to see him about fifty yards away at the entrance of the building.
His wide eyes were filled with guilt and alarm, frozen against the stark-white complexion of his face.
It was Connor.
I jolted up in bed in a layer of cold sweat that had soaked through my camisole. My chest heaved up and down as I tried to catch my breath. My body was stiff with tension as I looked around the room, and it took me several seconds to register where I was. I wasn’t standing outside in the middle of the night. I was lying in a warm, king-size bed. From the soft sunbeams that broke through the sheer, white curtains, I knew it was early morning.
“You’re up.” His smooth, gentle voice caused me to jump, and I felt my body freeze up as our eyes met. He was standing at the doorway of our bedroom with a tray in his hand.
“Hi,” I managed to say, as the images of my latest flashback were fresh in my mind.
“Baby, I want to apologize again about last night. I was an ass.” He motioned to the tray he was holding. “I made you your favorite breakfast in bed to say I’m sorry—French toast, over easy eggs, bacon, and strawberries.”
“Oh.” Confusion swirled inside me as I tried to reconcile between my flashback of Connor and the Connor who had woke up early this morning to make me breakfast in bed.
He placed the tray of food in front of me. “I also squeezed some fresh orange juice for you. I know how much you love fresh orange juice.”
“Thank you.” I met his kind gaze and saw nothing but the loving and sweet man that’d been there for me since the moment I woke up from my coma.
“Don’t thank me. Please just accept this as my apology. I promise it won’t happen again.”
I nodded and offered him a small, unsure smile as I wondered what had happened the night of my accident. Why hadn’t he mentioned to me that he was there right before the car hit me? Why had I been running away from him? I could still feel the one strong desire that coursed through me during that flashback—to be as far away from him as possible.
He sat down next to me on the bed. “You know how much I love you, right?” He caressed my face and leaned forward. My body stiffened as he kissed me gently, his wet, eager mouth demanding a response as it grew increasingly hungry for more. But as his tongue parted my lips, I abruptly diverted my face to end the kiss.