“Yeah. I noticed how competitive they are. I guess maybe that’s why I assumed they were twins.”
Or at least that excuse sounded logical.
She chuckled and set down her empty mug. “Everything is a race or a contest with them. But as much as they tease each other, they never fight. When one of them stumbles or struggles with something, the other one is right there helping him.”
The love in her voice when she talked about the boys made a warm feeling swell in Matt’s chest.
“Naturally, Lucy is thrilled to have Royce in school all day so she doesn’t have to rely on me as much. But personally, I miss them.” As Abby stood and stretched, her breasts thrust out at his eye level, and the hem of her shirt lifted a few inches. If going braless was part of the women’s rights movement, as far as he was concerned, those lush beauties should definitely be liberated.
He squashed the intense urge to press his lips to her stomach and dip his tongue into her navel. Tearing his gaze away, he rose to help clear the table. “So what’s the story with Royce?”
She opened the dishwasher and began loading it. “His dad has a gambling problem. Lucy works as a bank teller all day and is waiting tables in the evening to keep the mortgage company from foreclosing. I’ve tried to talk her into leaving Bill, but she won’t. If I didn’t take care of Royce....” She turned her back to Matt and gripped the counter.
Evidently she hated the idea of the kid being left on his own as much as he did. He couldn’t help but admire her. Not many neighbors would be so charitable.
“You’re a good woman to look after him.” He stepped toward her with the last of the plates, and she turned abruptly, placing her rose-scented hair directly under his nose. His tongue thickened in his mouth. Her lips parted, and she stared up at him, her green eyes blinking like two flashing traffic lights giving him the go signal.
Damn, he wanted to kiss her something fierce. He had to get out of there before he did something stupid. Besides, he still needed to find someplace to sleep. Of course, that was assuming he didn’t have another one of his nightmares, in which case, his temporary bed would become just a warm place to wait for morning.
“I’d like to help you finish cleaning up,” he murmured, “but I’d better hit the road before it’s totally dark.”
“Right.” The color in her cheeks deepened. She jerked her gaze away.
“Thanks a lot for dinner. It was delicious. I’ll see you at nine tomorrow.” Striding out the back door he picked up his duffel bag and swallowed hard. What the hell was he getting himself into? Abby was engaged to marry someone who had so much more to offer her than he could.
Before getting to know her, it’d seemed like a great idea to use his anonymity to explore whether they could rekindle anything between them. However, he hadn’t counted on liking her or wanting her so damn much.
Suddenly, the outcome of how his return would affect her and Tommy mattered a great deal.
Matt glanced over his shoulder at the silhouette of her house set against the last glimmer of twilight and fought the urge to march back inside and announce who he was. At least if he told her, he wouldn’t have to find someplace to sleep tonight. The stress of the day had left him dead on his feet.
As he ambled by Abby’s car in the driveway, he hesitated. Could he be that lucky?
He tried the Pontiac’s door and sent up a prayer of thanks when it opened. Why not? He’d bought the GTO for her. After crawling inside and closing it as quietly as possible, he curled up on the back seat, using his duffle bag as a pillow.
Things would’ve been much easier if he’d felt nothing on meeting Abby. Unfortunately, his intense visceral reaction had proven he owed it to himself and his son to see if what he felt was more than a simple case of the hots for a beautiful woman.
Yawning, he closed his eyes and recalled her flowery smell and the way her laughter made his heart flutter. Suppose he fell in love with her and then discovered she really wanted her dentist?
Matt couldn’t blame her. Compared to Robert, he didn’t have a single thing to recommend him as a husband. He finished in last place as just an unemployed vet with no car, no job, no money, and even more importantly—no memory. All he could offer Abby and his kid was himself.
Whoever the hell he was.
~~~
Matt stared at the mildewed cement floor, trying to nap with his eyes open. He hadn’t slept more than a few minutes in the three days since his capture, and they’d only fed him twice. Every time he’d dozed off the maggots had burned him on the arms with one of his cigarettes. Talk about aversion therapy. Abby would be happy to know he’d never touch another cigarette for the rest of his life.
At the rate things were going, it wouldn’t be a long one.
As he moved, he grimaced, barely able to draw a breath. Besides knocking out his front teeth, the bastards had definitely fractured a rib and broken his nose. In fact, it felt like they’d possibly cracked his right cheekbone along with his left brow.
Then again, what’d he expect after having his mug repeatedly slammed into the concrete floor?
Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back against the damp cement wall and the image of Abby’s beautiful face danced in front of him. He gingerly wiped the tears that spilled down his battered cheeks. In the past few days, he’d turned into a sniveling wuss.
To take his mind off his pain, he hummed Abby’s and his song, In My Life. The Beatles’ tune had been playing in the theater before the movie on their first date.
The door to his cell clanged like a hammer hitting an anvil, and three pairs of dusty boots appeared in his bleary range of sight. He glanced up at the two guards who’d beaten him earlier and their rat-faced commanding officer who scanned the oozing blisters on Matt’s arms. “Are you ready to talk yet?”
Matt glared at the rodent and rattled off his name, rank, and serial number for the ten thousandth time.
The man switched to tormenting him again. “You think Abby’s lover will make her feel wonderful like you?” The bastard’s malevolent smile turned smug. “Yes. I see the letter and can read English. Your little wife is eager. Soon she find another man to make her wiggle in the bed. She forget you.”
Somehow the little shit had sensed Matt’s greatest fear. He’d lost track of the number of girls he’d slept while he was in college. None of them had ever responded to him with the trust and passion Abby had. She made him feel incredible.
“It not be you watching your baby take first step.”
Matt trembled, trying not to react and give the scum-bag cause to shoot him. He should’ve eaten Abby’s letter and picture. His only source of comfort had become their most effective weapon against him.
Compared to the bug-infested rice and muddy, stagnate water they’d been serving him, the stationary and photograph seemed downright appetizing. If he wasn’t certain the mother-fucker would blow his head off, he would request them for dessert.
“You forget her and life before you come here,” the man taunted. “You not going back. Your government think you dead.”
The true agony came from knowing the sadistic SOB spoke the truth. The helicopter’s explosion would’ve left serious doubt that Matt could’ve walked away, and the North Vietnamese soldier who’d broken Matt’s dog tag chain during their struggle had no doubt been cremated in his place.
“If you tell what we want to know, maybe we let you live.” The man fished Matt’s pack of cigarettes from one of the guard’s pockets and lit one. Matt broke into a sweat from the odor of tobacco smoke. The bastard barked some orders to the guards in Vietnamese and tossed the pack of smokes back to them on his way out of the cell.
Matt squeezed his eyes shut. If only he could forget about his life, they wouldn’t be able to torture him anymore. No matter how much it hurt to think about it, he loved Abby enough to want her to make a new life for herself and their child.
He held his head between his hands, trying to squeeze out the mental picture of
his sweet wife responding to some other guy the way she had to him and all he would miss as his child grew up. He couldn’t bear the thought of another man holding Abby....or rocking his baby to sleep. If they forced him to think about it another moment, he’d go out of his mind.
It would’ve been better if he’d never met Abby.
Sobbing into his hands, he gasped. What if the news of his death made her lose their baby? God, please, no. He had to quit thinking about her dazzling smile and beautiful green eyes. If he could stop remembering everything that made his life good in the past, maybe his present wouldn’t seem so horrendous.
He had to block her out. Forget the pleasure and awe on Abby’s face when he made love to her. Put the sweet scent of her hair out of his mind. Tune out the sound of her laughter in his dreams.
He had to forget Abby ever existed.
Read the rest of The Memory of You
Coming soon
The Great Bedroom War
She’s trying to forget the pleasure in her ex’s arms
He’s doing his damndest to remind her
Fledgling entrepreneur Samantha Riverà is in charge of her own life for the first time and determined to keep it that way. She’s attempting to banish her call-all-the-shots ex-husband from her dreams, but it’s kind of tough forgetting the Zorro look-alike who’s willing to do anything for her, except give her the only two things she wants—another baby and his love. When their 14-year-old daughter Dani—who’s maintaining a shaky remission from leukemia—rebels, Sam foolishly seeks advice from her Don Juan ex, who, incidentally, could charm the knickers off a nun.
When Nicolàs Riverà returns to Redemption, PA, to help control his defiant daughter, he discovers he not only has serious competition for Sam’s affection, but Dani has a crush on a boy who is the last kid Nick wants her interested in. The boy is a horn-dog rebel who reminds Nick way to much of his teen-aged self. Sam never understood that, even to a second-generation Latino man, familial responsibility is still númerouno. She also has no concept of how terrified this reformed bad-boy and businessman is of losing her to another high-risk pregnancy. The death of their premature son devastated Nick and incited The Great Bedroom War that ultimately destroyed his marriage. Now, he’ll stop at nothing to get his family back—even if it means blackmailing his way back into his ex-wife’s home to become a greater presence in his sick child’s life—and, with any luck, Samantha’s bed and heart.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
A Little Bit of Déjà Vu Page 36