It had been as big of a shock to him as it had been to Molly, but as he rose from the chair and quietly left the room, he wasn’t the least bit sorry he’d said it. There was no choice now but to go forward; admitting that he’d lied at this point would only send her running, and that would be dangerous for both Molly and Prospect Falls. They’d worked hard to protect their secret from the outside world, and if Molly showed up somewhere with a strange story about them, it would only attract attention.
As soon as he got to the kitchen, he grabbed his phone and texted out an SOS to the rest of the guardians, then went back to the safe. He carefully spread everything out on the desk and started making plans, thinking through all the things that could go wrong, and soon he felt sure that he had it all under control. Carefully avoiding thoughts of what might happen if Molly recovered her memory, he pushed forward, holding on to the conviction that he was doing the right thing.
It wasn’t long before he heard the sound of vehicles pulling up in front of the old farmhouse, and heart pounding, he went to open the door for his friends. As close as they were, he’d never asked any of them to do anything like this, and as much as they’d all learned to cope with telling lies, the ones they’d have to tell now would be much different.
As soon as Michael saw him, he asked, “Okay, what’s up this time? Did Molly remember something?”
Adam shook his head. “No, but she did wake up and start asking for her purse,” he said, leading them into the study and shutting the door.
“So, that’s good then,” Vincent said. “Maybe if she sees her things, she’ll remember who she is.”
“And then she’ll leave,” Adam said, looking at them all. “What happens if she remembers what happened when she’s out there? What if she starts talking? The last thing we need is a bunch of people up here looking for demons.”
Michael nodded. “It happened back in the seventies and I heard it was a real mess,” he said.
“So, what are we going to do? Keep her here until she remembers?” Gabriel asked. “It could be tomorrow or a week from now. We can’t keep her prisoner.”
“I think I have a plan that might buy us some time,” Adam said, his heart pounding in his chest. “I’ll just tell her that we’re married; that will keep her here until she remembers everything or we’re sure she doesn’t remember anything.”
There was a long silence as they all stared at him open-mouthed, then all three began talking at once. He raised his hand in the air to silence them. “One at a time,” he said.
“Have you lost your mind?” Michael asked. “It’s never going to work.”
“I’ve thought about it a lot, and I think we can make it work,” he said.
“We?” Gabriel asked. “What’s this we?”
“Well, I might need a little help from all of you,” he said, sitting back in his chair.
“Let’s say we do help you with this crazy plan; what’s going to happen when her memory comes back?” Vincent asked. “Even better, what will you do if her memory never comes back? Are you going to stay married to her? I mean, you are almost thirty-five.”
“Don’t remind me,” he said.
Gabriel, who’d been silently watching him, sat forward in his chair, met his eyes, and said, “I hope you’re not thinking what I think you are. That woman isn’t the answer to your problems; she’s a human for one thing.”
Adam started to deny it, but knew that Gabriel could read him like a book, had always been able to. “So, what difference does that make if I feel something for her?” he asked. “We all know that time is running out; if I don’t find my mate and soon, well...”
Gabe sat back in his chair, his eyes still on Adam. “I hope you know what you’re doing. This is someone’s heart your messing with,” he said.
He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. “Does that mean that you’ll help?” he asked, knowing that if Gabriel agreed, Michael and Vincent would too.
“It’s against my better judgment, and I want to hear your plan first,” Gabriel said.
Adam was silent for a second. “There might be one thing I forgot to tell you,” he said. “I might have already told her that we’re married.”
“You might have?” Vincent asked.
“Okay, I did,” he admitted. “When she started asking for her purse, I panicked. She was talking about going home and I just blurted out that this was her home.”
There was another long silence, and then Gabriel said, “I’d better call the clinic and have them reschedule my afternoon appointments.”
Vincent shot him a dirty look. “I don’t know why I always let you drag me into your crazy schemes, and this is by far the craziest.”
“I hope you have a good plan in mind because this isn’t going to be easy to pull off,” Michael said.
Adam couldn’t help the huge grin that spread across his face “Gentlemen, I have it all worked out; by tonight, I’ll have been a married man for three years.”
What he didn’t say out loud was that if he were lucky, in a few months, when he was celebrating his thirty-fifth birthday, he’d be mated to Molly and all his worries would be behind him. The thought sent a thrill of anticipation through him, and the smile on his face grew just a little bit more.
***Molly***
The sun was sinking on the horizon when Molly woke again, but this time she knew her name, where home was, and that she was married. She rolled those thoughts around in her head, hoping that some of the floating images would coalesce into a solid memory, but everything remained fuzzy. Not as panicked as she’d been that morning, she stretched and sat up in bed, noticing the bandages on her arms.
She had a vague memory of them giving her some pain at some point, but there wasn’t any now, and she considered taking the bandages off to see what was underneath. But before she could, there was a knock on the door, and Adam poked his head into the room.
“Good, you’re awake,” he said. “Gabriel is here, and he’d like to see you.”
When she didn’t answer, he said, “He’s the doctor who’s been taking care of you.”
She looked down at her arms, then said, “Okay, but I don’t remember him.”
Adam crossed the room and sat down next to her on the bed. “It’s okay, Molly; he knows you don’t remember,” he said.
“Maybe seeing him will spark my memory,” she said.
For a second, she thought that a guilty look appeared on Adam’s face, but it disappeared so quickly she wasn’t sure. “I’ll be right back,” he said, then stepped out of the room.
She waited breathlessly for him to return, hoping that something in her memory would respond to the doctor, but when he walked through the door, nothing happened. Disappointed, she gave him a shaky smile when he introduced himself and silently let him examine her.
When he was finished, he smiled at her and said, “Everything looks perfectly normal. I think your memory will come back sooner than later, but until then, I’d recommend that you take it slow. Don’t throw yourself into situations where there might be too much stimulus; stay away from town for a few days, for example.”
Molly nodded. “Since I don’t even know where town is, I don’t think that will be a problem,” she said, trying to make a joke, but her voice shook as she spoke.
“I was thinking about taking her up to the lake for a few days,” Adam said, almost as if he’d known what Michael was going to say.
“I think that’s an excellent idea,” Michael said. “Give yourself a few days to adjust.”
Molly nodded. “I guess that would be okay,” she said, knowing that it wouldn’t matter where she was if her memories were still gone.
Gabriel got up to leave. “Well, I think I’m satisfied that you’re on the mend,” he said.
“What about my arms?” she asked, just remembering the bandages. “What’s under here?”
The two men exchanged a glance. “Oh, nothing serious,” Gabriel assured her, “just a few scratches
from the accident. Adam can take care of those.”
“I’ll just walk Gabriel out and then we can take those off,” Adam said, but he wasn’t focusing on her; he was giving Gabriel a strange look.
He was gone for longer than she expected, but when he came back, his arms were full of bandages and there was a smile on his face. “Okay, let’s get those off and take a look at those scratches,” he said, sitting down on the bed next to her.
When both of the bandages were off, she looked down at her arms, surprised to see only a few long red scabs that were almost healed. “I expected them to be worse,” she said. “They were bandaged up so much.”
Adam shrugged. “I was just being careful,” he said. “I think we can leave them uncovered for now.”
She looked at her arms again, mentally counting the hours since she’d been hurt but wasn’t sure how long it had been. “How long has it been since the accident?” she asked. “I thought it was only yesterday, but these scratches look like they’re almost healed.”
Instead of answering, he asked, “Do you want me to get you some clothes so you can shower? Then maybe you’d like to see the rest of the house. I’ve got dinner in the oven. I thought we could eat in the kitchen.”
It all sounded so wonderful to her, she forgot about the scratches on her arms. “Oh, I’d love a shower and a change of clothes,” she said, not sure about leaving the bedroom, but knowing that she’d have to eventually.
“Okay then, I’ll just clean this up and be right back,” he said. “There’s shampoo and stuff in the bathroom.”
As soon as he was gone, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and carefully got to her feet. When they held her, she made her way over to the bathroom, a room she’d been in several times but hardly noticed until now. Turning on the hot water, she sighed with pleasure when she felt it heating up, stripped off the oversized tee-shirt, trying not think about how she’d gotten into it, and stepped under the spray.
Letting the hot water work away her stiff muscles from so many hours in bed, she took a few minutes to examine her situation and decided that for now, she was okay. The man who claimed to be her husband had been nothing but kind and caring; he’d nursed and held her and made her feel better. She was attracted to him in a way that felt deep and real, as if there was an unseen bond between them, exactly what she’d always imagined love would feel like.
It was then that she realized just how important Adam was; he was the key to her finding her memories; he was the one who knew her better than anyone else. The questions about her life, their life, began crowding her brain, and she was suddenly anxious to know all the answers. A tour of the house was as good a place to start as any; there had to be pictures and other mementos scattered around, and maybe one of them would help clear the fog.
Chapter Five
***Adam***
Adam paced nervously up and down the hallway; he’d already been through the house twice, but he knew that the next few hours were critical if his plan was going to work. He’d fabricated so many stories and memories in his mind that he’d lost track of them and hoped that he didn’t mess up, give himself away. Three years was a long time, and he knew that Molly would expect him to fill at least that time for her, and probably more.
But thanks to Vincent and Michael, and their contacts, he knew enough about her life to bluff his way through it. Vincent’s talent with a computer had finally come in handy, and the house was filled with pictures from Molly’s phone, his face photoshopped into all of them. In the morning, they’d head for the lake and spend a few days there, plenty of time for him to convince Molly that she belonged with him, and for the rumor that he’d run off to Vegas and got married to circulate through the entire town.
Feeling calm beginning to descend over him at the thought, he took a deep breath and knocked on the door. “Molly, are you ready?” he called.
She opened the door and peered out at him, and his breath caught in his throat as he looked at her. Her long brown hair was still damp from the shower, her cheeks pink, and for the first time, he noticed the spray of freckles on her nose. A sharp stab of desire raced through him, and he had to give himself a second before he could speak.
“If you’re ready, I’ll show you the house,” he finally managed to croak, his body still tingling with desire.
“I hate to admit it, but I’m scared to come out,” she said, clearly embarrassed.
He hesitated for a moment, looking for the right words, and then they sprang into his mind. “Don’t be afraid, Molly; this is your house too,” he said, holding his hand out to her.
She reached out and took it, and he felt something deep inside him click into place as they made their way down the hallway to the kitchen. “I thought maybe you could use a little snack before we go any further,” he said, leading her over to the scarred wooden table that filled the center of the room.
He brought out a cheese and fruit tray, some crackers, and a pitcher of lemonade and set it all on the table. Molly watched him silently, her eyes scanning the kitchen, taking in the old appliances and cabinets that he’d never bothered to change after his grandfather died and left him the farm. When he sat down across from her, his heart was pounding as he searched for something to say, but then Molly filled the silence.
“I love this room; it’s so warm and inviting,” she said, relaxing in her chair. “I still don’t remember it, but it feels homey.”
“We spend a lot of time in this room, especially in the winter when it gets cold,” Adam said, relief washing over him.
Molly nodded. “I can see why.”
After they’d both eaten their fill, Adam checked on the roast he’d put in the oven while Molly put away the food. “You really don’t have to do that,” he said when she got up.
“I might as well start learning where things are, and if I even know how to cook,” she said, smiling at him.
The smile lit up her face, and his body immediately began to throb. “Well, if you insist,” he said. “And by the way, you are a fantastic cook.”
Molly fell in love with the living room as well, and he was just beginning to congratulate himself as they passed by the other guest bedroom and started down the hallway to his bedroom. “You probably don’t remember, but this part of the house was added later; my grandmother wanted what she called a suite, and my grandfather gave it to her,” Adam said, opening the door.
Molly only made it a few steps inside the door before she stopped and stared, her eyes roaming around the room, then focusing on his bed. The huge wooden bed had been in the family for generations, carved from trees felled in the mountains not far from the farm; it dominated the room.
He’d put most of the photographs of the two of them in the bedroom, spread some of her things across the dresser, and filled one side of the closet with her clothes. Gently nudging her into the room, he watched as she wandered over to the dresser and picked up a few things, then set them down. He noticed the tension in her shoulders but stayed put, letting her explore.
When she came out of the bathroom, her face was white as a sheet and she was trembling. She looked over at the bed again, and then over at him. “I don’t think I can do this,” she said, pushing past him and running down the hallway.
The slam of the bedroom door echoed through the house and he wondered what went wrong, then looked around the room. Seeing their smiling faces in the slightly awkward pictures, he realized that he might have overdone it, might have pushed Molly just a little too hard. Shutting the door quietly, he followed her down the hallway and stood outside the bedroom door, not sure what to do.
Finally, he knocked on the door. “Molly, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have...well, I just didn’t think,” he said. “Can I come in?”
***Molly***
Molly stood looking out the window, trying to get her heart to stop racing. She’d been doing fine as they walked around the house; the kitchen was lovely, and she could see herself curled up in front of the fire in the livi
ng room with a book. But the bedroom had stunned her: first the big bed, and then the clothes, cosmetics, and jewelry. It had all seemed so intimate. The smiling pictures around the room, mocking her loss of memory, but it was the sudden realization of what they’d done in the bed that had thrown her over the edge.
The need to escape hadn’t been the only thing she felt, though, as she looked at the bed; images of two of them flashed through her mind, stirring something deep inside and making her body throb pleasantly. Married or not, she realized that she wasn’t ready for that kind of intimacy with him, no matter how much her body seemed to be crying out for it. When his voice came through the door, she knew that running away hadn’t been the answer, but wasn’t sure how to tell him what she was feeling.
As a blush crept up her cheeks when she thought about it, she called out, “You can come in,” but didn’t turn around.
She felt him come up behind her, his arms come around her, and couldn’t help but lean into his chest. “I’m sorry, Molly, I didn’t think about what going into the bedroom might make you think, but I want you to know that I’m not going to rush you into anything,” he said.
She turned in his arms and looked up at him, relieved, but oddly disappointed. “I’m sorry I ran away, but this is all just so much to process, and then I saw that bed, and...” her words trailed off, and a blush spread up her cheeks.
“I hope part of that blush is because the idea appeals to you,” he said, his eyes searching hers.
She felt herself blushing even deeper. “Adam, I just not ready, I mean...” Again, she couldn’t finish her sentence.
This time it was because she found herself wishing desperately that he would kiss her, but he smiled down at her and said, “I understand, so, for now, we’ll just pretend that none of that ever happened, that we just met. How does that sound?”
Guardian Dragons of Prospect Falls: (A Paranormal Shifter Romance) Page 3