by Pamela Fryer
The officers departed and Leah went to pack, leaving Geoffrey and August alone in the kitchen.
She leaned against the counter and stared at the butcher block. Was she going crazy? When she’d seen the empty slot, she’d been so sure she had replaced all five knives. Now, she couldn’t even remember closing the dishwasher. She hadn’t imagined it, had she?
“Maybe we should put off our trip,” Geoffrey said.
“No. I definitely want to go. I need answers.”
He put his hands on her shoulders. “All right.”
He touched her chin with the tip of his finger and smiled down at her. His presence helped calm her nerves. Drawn against his chest, she felt safer in the protection of his muscular embrace. She could tell he wanted to kiss her, but she didn’t invite it. With her nerves as tight as a guitar string, she was in no mood. The kisses last night had been a mistake, a misguided prelude to something that could never be. She felt wretched for allowing them, leading Geoffrey up just to drop him down. She hadn’t intended to be cruel, but it had turned out that way anyhow.
“I’ll go shower.” He stepped back, as though sensing her need for space.
August sat at the kitchen table as those soft kisses repeated in her thoughts. While her head knew they had been wrong, her heart had enjoyed them so much. They had been wonderful, beautiful, delightful. She wouldn’t trade last night for anything.
But now she realized the risk Geoffrey and his family faced just for knowing her. She had nothing to offer him but danger. Nothing to promise him but uncertainty.
Would her answers lie somewhere between here and California? She was almost afraid of what she would find. She might be a bad person, someone Geoffrey would never otherwise associate with.
A small part of her didn’t want to know, but the rest of her had to.
Chapter Thirteen
“You’re awfully quiet.” Geoffrey glanced over from the driver’s seat. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention the woman.”
She put on her best smile. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault. You can’t be suspicious of every unfamiliar person.”
“I should have realized. She looked so out of place.”
“You said it yourself. We don’t even know if there is a woman from my past, red-haired or otherwise. Maybe I’m reliving that age-old feud between blondes and redheads.”
He laughed. “There’s such a thing?”
“Of course. Don’t you know? Blondes have more fun, but redheads have more fire.”
“I think I’ll take fun over fire any day.”
She sighed and glanced out the passenger window. “I’m afraid I’m not much fun today.”
“Nonsense. We can have some fun while we drive. My family used to play a game called ‘The Alphabet List’ to pass the time on road trips.”
He’d opted for the ocean highway instead of heading inland to the interstate freeway. Despite the terror of the morning, it had blossomed into a beautiful autumn day.
“Alright, how do you play?”
“Just call out a sign with a word starting with A, and so on. First person to get through the alphabet wins. Cannon City Animal Shelter.”
“No fair. I wasn’t prepared.” She laughed, grateful for his efforts to lift her spirits.
“You can’t use the same word, unless you see it written again.”
“Asphalt. Watch out, Barthlow, I’m right on your tail.”
“Bed and—”
“Breakfast!” She grabbed the next one, too. “County—”
“Courthouse, next right. You’re good at this.”
The ocean highway wove in and out of the rolling coastline, each time catching a glance of the sparkling sea disappearing into a misty sky. The effect was magical and August felt a melancholy tightening in her chest that she couldn’t exactly identify.
“Detour ahead—”
“Expect Delays. D and E.” She laughed, wishing it sounded more enthusiastic. “I think I’ve played this game before.”
A moment passed where August could sense Geoffrey’s unspoken tension. “Have you thought about what you’ll do if you recognize one of these places?” He phrased the question carefully.
She could tell from his tone it had been lingering on his mind. “Not really. I’m more scared than anything.”
“About what happened this morning?”
“Yes, about what happened this morning, and about what I might find today.” August sighed. “About what I’m going to do tomorrow.”
He glanced her way. “Tomorrow?”
Bad things had followed her out of her mysterious past. How good could her life have been if someone wanted her dead? She wished she could forget the past—write it off, and start new.
With Geoffrey.
But she couldn’t, not while his life, and the lives of his family, were in danger. She didn’t doubt for a minute that someone had been in the house—that someone had been after her. Gone as far as to take a knife from the butcher block to stalk her with, and then return it to the dishwasher to mess with her mind and make her look like a fool.
Whoever it was, they were smart and calculating, effectively destroying her credibility with her new friends and the police.
“I can’t keep living at your house if someone is after me.” The words burned in the back of her throat. Whoever this was who had tried to kill her was now threatening her future with Geoffrey. “What if Leah and Jocelyn had come home before you got back to the house? I don’t want to even think—”
He reached over and gently grasped the fingers extending from her cast. “They didn’t. Nothing happened. Hey look, Evergreen Fairways Golf and Country Club. E-F-G.”
He was trying to make light of the situation. She knew he was doing it to ease her fears, and she couldn’t help but smile. That was her sweet Geoffrey. She felt another sad pull as she realized he wasn’t her Geoffrey, and he probably never would be.
“No fair. You’ve been here before. Gas, food and lodging next exit. F and G. Ha!”
She sensed he didn’t truly believe someone had been in the house, but she was certain. That meant the threat, and her past life, was close to Newport. Obviously someone had seen her at the award ceremony, or at the Mirthful Mermaid.
The miles passed in silence except for the game, and they were both stuck on the letter Q by the time they reached the first burger joint in southern Oregon. August was deep in thought, wondering how she would move out of Geoffrey’s house—how she would find work with a broken arm to afford to move out—when his GPS told him to turn into the driveway at a remodeled fast-food joint.
“It doesn’t look like a 50s sock hop,” he said, glancing at the paper showing the address. They got out and walked halfway around it. If she had ever seen the place before, she didn’t recognize it now.
August looked at the roof. Under the remodeled gutter, there was a band of bright green paint and bracket marks where neon used to be attached. She turned around, looking at the quaint streets surrounding them. The small Oregon town was a jewel in an emerald green forest, but held not a sliver of familiarity.
“Why don’t we take a short walk, stretch our legs?” He locked the SUV remotely. “Are you hungry?”
“Not for burgers,” she said sourly, but in truth she was ravenous. After this morning’s fright, her stomach had been too jittery to eat. Now, almost four hours later, it rumbled with emptiness, and she was beginning to feel run-down.
One block over, they found a pub restaurant similar to the Mirthful Mermaid, but with a motorcycle kind of feel. They sat in a corner of the darkly paneled room decorated with unique, roadside memorabilia, listening to honky-tonk music emanating from an old-fashioned jukebox.
Geoffrey ordered a barbequed beef sandwich and August ordered what turned out to be a gorgeous mountain of delicious pasta Alfredo with fresh, succulent vegetables.
“Did Dr. Carlson ever give you the information on that woman’s shelter in Corvallis?”
About to take a bit
e, Geoffrey put down his sandwich and picked up his napkin, slowly wiping away a small dab of barbeque sauce from one finger. His expression turned dark.
“We told him it wouldn’t be necessary. Look, August, you don’t need to worry. You’re safe at my house.”
“But you aren’t. And Leah isn’t, and Jocelyn isn’t. Even Derek isn’t, despite his city street-smarts. I can’t live with myself if someone breaks in again.”
“We don’t even know for sure someone did.”
She glanced away, not wanting to start an argument.
“Okay, someone may have been there,” he conceded. “Maybe it was even the red-haired woman. But we called the police so fast it made whoever it was run like hell. I doubt they’ll be back.”
“This is a killer we’re talking about.” At least Gran Millie understood that. August glanced down at her plate, but her appetite was lost. “Someone who has to finish the job before I can identify them.”
“Jesus, August.” Geoffrey’s tone fell low with horror. “Don’t talk that way.”
“It could be true!” She lowered her voice when a young man at a nearby table glanced over. “It makes perfect sense, when almost nothing else does.”
“How would this person even know you’ve lost your memory? The only people who know are family, Dr. Lohman, and Mike. No one else at the police station even knows. Derek and Leah sure wouldn’t tell anybody.”
“Jocelyn?”
“Jocelyn is smart enough to tell her mom if any strangers tried to talk to her—about anything.”
“What about Gran Millie? There are lots of people in and out of the Mirthful Mermaid.”
Geoffrey reached across the table and grasped her good hand. She laced her fingers with his. “You’re safer with me.”
“But you’re safer without me,” she argued.
“I’m not putting you out because of that.”
She hadn’t wanted an argument, but that was exactly what she got. It was pointless, she realized, because her mind was set.
“I’ll take you to Portland if you want. My loft has a doorman and a security system. No one can get in.”
August speared a crisp snow pea and forced herself to eat it. “Maybe.”
“Stop thinking of yourself as a burden.”
“You have no reason to do this. You’ve already done too much as it is.”
“I have a good reason.”
And she was dying to know what that reason was. But just because she was curious wasn’t a good enough reason to endanger his family. Whatever obligation he felt he owed, he would get over it.
And she had enough of her own problems. She’d developed feelings for this man. Her first mistake.
She’d endangered his family, and his home. Her second mistake.
She had a life to return to, even if it was a lonely apartment, a dull job and an old cat.
“I’m running out of clean clothes anyway,” he told her.
“You have a maid come once a week.”
The waitress brought the check and collected Geoffrey’s empty plate. “You want a box for that, hon?”
“No, thank you. I’m finished.”
“Y’all come back real soon, ya hear?”
“Definitely,” Geoffrey told her. “That was the best pulled pork I’ve ever had.” He rose and helped August out of her chair. “Back on the road again?”
She nodded and took a deep breath. “Back on the road.”
* * *
It was four thirty in the afternoon when they reached the third burger joint. The second had been a run-down pit in a not-so-good part of town, and August was almost thankful when she didn’t recognize a thing.
This one was run-down, too, but only because it was abandoned, a falling-down relic of yesteryear. Geoffrey stood by the SUV on the cracked asphalt parking lot while August walked around and faced the front.
She tried to imagine it freshly painted, with gleaming neon lights running from the empty outlets at the edges of the face.
A gas station attendant told them the town had once been bustling, but when the nickel mine petered out, the only industry left was fishing.
Had she lived here then? Was she from a fishing family? A mining family?
It was picking up again, though, the man at the station had explained in an enthusiastic voice. A shoe company that used only natural and environmentally friendly products had moved its factory here and created a thousand new jobs.
She turned around to find Geoffrey watching her expectantly. She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“I’m sorry, August.”
A convertible raced past on the main road with a group of smiling teenagers listening to too-loud music. Once, somewhere, that had been her.
“Don’t be,” she told him as they trudged back to the SUV. “It was a long shot.”
“There’s one more.”
She slipped back inside the SUV and waited for Geoffrey to get in on the driver’s side. “It’s too late. We’ll never make it back tonight. You must be exhausted from all this driving.”
“Let me worry about that.”
“It’s a waste of time. Let’s just go.” She was beginning to feel sorry for herself, and in a wretched way, the pity felt comforting.
“The last one is only six miles away. We’ve come too far to turn away so close.”
She sighed. “All right.”
* * *
When they swung open the hotel door to the room, both August and Geoffrey froze.
“He said this room had double beds,” August snapped. She stalked across the room and picked up the phone. She winced as she jerked her arm in an instinctive effort to dial with her left hand. She bit back an oath and punched zero with a finger of the hand clutching the receiver. She was sick and tired of struggling through life with one arm.
“Yes, Mrs. Barthlow?” the operator answered automatically. August gritted her teeth with irritation but didn’t correct the woman.
“May I speak to the man who checked us in?”
“He’s on his dinner break. Is there a problem I can help you with?”
“He promised us a room with double beds, but this room has one king. My arm is broken. I can’t share a bed.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Barthlow, but it’s the last room in the hotel. We’re sold out for the Seafood Festival tomorrow. If you’d like, I can call our sister hotel in Grandview.”
“Where is that?” August asked her.
“It’s nine miles south of here on Highway 101.”
She glanced at Geoffrey. He was tired; she could see it in his sloping shoulders and the weak smile he mustered.
“Never mind. This will have to do, thank you.”
Geoffrey tossed his jacket on the chair beside the bed. “I can sleep on the floor.”
“Good. That’ll work.”
He stared at her, and she laughed. “That was a joke. Of course you won’t. I trust you to behave yourself.”
He sank into the chair. “Good, because I’m bushed.”
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax. She’d been acting cranky and rude. Geoffrey had done her a great favor today. She went over and sat on the edge of the bed near him.
“I haven’t thanked you yet for bringing me here.” She reached out and took his hand.
“Yes you have. But you’re welcome again.” He gave her fingers a squeeze. “Nothing came to you at all?”
“Nothing that I didn’t force myself to see.” She rose and walked around the bed to the mirror. She tried to imagine herself with other people, but nothing would come. “It’s been two weeks. I’m beginning to think my memory will never come back.”
He stood beside her and looped one arm around her shoulders. August leaned against him and let him wrap her in his warm strength.
“It will. Don’t worry. But until it does, let’s stop talking about that woman’s shelter.”
She met his eyes in the mirror. If something happened to any one of them because of her...A sm
attering of chills rolled over her arms.
“I think it may be the best solution.”
“Listen.” He turned her to face him. “Stop worrying so much. We’re a resilient bunch, us Barthlows.”
She smiled, but it was strained. She would never be able to make him understand how she felt.
“Besides, I have a much better idea, and I think you’re just spunky enough to make it work.”
“Me? Spunky? You must know something about me that I don’t.” She chuckled. “Okay, I’ll consider anything. What’s your idea?”
“We lure this person out in the open...using you as the bait.”
“Me as the bait?” August rolled her eyes. “Sounds like a brilliant plan.”
“If you find out who it is stalking you, it might jar your memory.”
“I don’t know.”
“I can arrange something with Mike. You’d be perfectly safe.”
“That’s not what I’m afraid of.”
She wasn’t ready to let herself be shocked into remembering that way. She couldn’t admit to him that during the drive here, she had been hoping she wouldn’t remember. It was only when she didn’t that had she become so irritated.
He pulled her gently by the hand, and August leaned against him, her legs suddenly rubbery. At once, his warmth and the reassurance she drew from his touch made her strong again.
“Hey.” He lifted her chin with a finger. “Do you think I would let anything happen to you?”
She felt herself easing toward him as he gazed down at her, one finger gently tracing under her chin. She wished he would kiss her again while at the same time, she knew she should put a steady distance between them.
His lips brushed hers and August leaned closer, lifting her mouth to his as if she had no control over her body. Their soft kiss turned serious, and all at once August’s frustration drained away.
She would have liked the kiss to go on forever, but she remembered their situation.
One room, one bed.
She couldn’t let this slide out of control. While under any other circumstance she would welcome Geoffrey as her boyfriend and lover, an exclusive significant other, she had to make sure her past was clear so she could freely make that choice for her future.