by Pamela Fryer
They walked down the path that wound around the marina’s parking lot and headed toward the gates to the piers.
“Let’s go to Penny Lane’s slip,” he said.
In the distance, she heard a man shouting. The voice sounded strangely familiar. August stopped.
“Emily?”
She looked up at Geoffrey. His eyes were soft, almost sad.
“Emily!”
He glanced over his shoulder, and she followed his gaze.
A young man wearing a linen coat and blue jeans ran toward them. Flashes of familiarity raced through her. His curly golden hair in the sun. The smattering of freckles across his nose. His stocky build, the length of his gait as he moved with intent.
He slowed, almost came to a stop. His eyes held a mixture of awe and disbelief. “Emily,” he repeated again, this time in little more than a whisper.
Geoffrey pulled his hand free of hers.
“My God!” The young man ran the last few steps and threw his arms around her. He lifted her off her feet and spun her around. “I knew it. I knew you were alive!”
All at once his touch, his scent, and his voice were clear, as if she’d never forgotten.
He set her back on her feet and circled her tighter, sobbing into her hair. She slipped her good arm around his back.
“God, I knew it. I never gave up hope.” He held her tenderly, gripping a handful of her hair, trailing a rainfall of kisses across her cheek to her lips. She kissed him back knowingly, remembering this touch before she could even recall his name.
When she drew back, his eyes were glossy with tears.
“Where have you been?”
She could only stare back as a flurry of memories whipped through her mind.
“Emily, don’t you know me?”
She drew in a sharp breath. “Colin.”
Chapter Twenty
“August, you know this man?” she heard Geoffrey ask.
“Her name is Emily, and who the hell are you?”
“Colin,” Emily stammered. “This is Geoffrey Barthlow. He’s been...helping me.”
“Why haven’t you called? Jesus, Emily, everyone thought you were dead.”
She still couldn’t sort out her thoughts. She recognized him, but didn’t yet remember him. No, she did remember him, just not as completely as she knew she should.
“I...” She placed her hand to her forehead as her gaze slipped to the ground.
“She didn’t remember. She was hit on the head.”
Colin glanced fleetingly at Geoffrey. He gently smoothed back her bangs to reveal the angry pink scar that remained near her hairline. His expression shattered at the sight of it. “Oh fuck. Are you all right?”
“It looks worse than it is,” she said vaguely.
When Dr. Carlson removed the stitches, it had looked downright monstrous, but he’d assured her the scar, and the tiny pink dots where the stitches had pierced her skin, would go away soon. She’d been putting vitamin E on it so it would fade.
“What happened to your arm?” He stood back and gazed at her as though horrified by what he found.
“I fell.” She could sense Colin’s distrust of Geoffrey, and remembered his jealous streak well enough. There was no use making him angry with Geoffrey for something that hadn’t been his fault.
“My God, I can hardly believe it. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“I’m sorry,” was all she could think to say.
He gripped her by the shoulders, clearly growing frantic. “What does he mean you don’t remember? Don’t you know me?”
Geoffrey stepped forward and placed a hand on his arm. “Don’t push her. She’s not ready to remember.”
“Back off.” Colin jerked away. “She’s my fiancée.”
Both men looked to her hand.
“What the hell is this?” He grabbed the finger with Geoffrey’s ring. She bit back a gasp as a sharp bolt zinged her elbow.
“If you’re engaged, where’s her ring?” Geoffrey asked.
Colin shot him with a glare. “Look, can you give us a minute?”
“I don’t know you.” Geoffrey remained rooted. “But I know she almost died, on your boat.”
“She went overboard in a storm. It was an accident.”
“Just because foul play was ruled out doesn’t mean someone didn’t push her,” Geoffrey argued.
Suddenly all August’s jumbled, whirling thoughts came to an abrupt halt. She faced Geoffrey. “You knew?”
“I learned this morning. Mike found the missing person’s report on you. I was going to tell you now.”
“I don’t believe him,” Colin shot.
Geoffrey glared back. “I don’t care what you believe.”
Colin turned on him. “You can go now. She doesn’t need you anymore.” He poked Geoffrey in the shoulder in a definite challenge.
In a lightning fast reaction, Geoffrey grabbed his hand, twisted his arm behind his back and shoved him away.
Geoffrey was larger and more muscular, but Colin was strong, and used to heavy work. The last thing she wanted was to see a fight break out between them.
“Stop it!” she shouted. “Stop, now!”
Colin whirled around, but both men froze at the same instant, a distance apart.
She pressed her fingers to her forehead, rubbing away a rapidly growing ache. “I can’t take this right now.”
They both started shouting at the same instant.
“Stop!”
Emily took a deep breath. Her heart pounded in her throat.
“You! Go that way.” She pointed behind Colin, and then turned to Geoffrey. “And you, go that way.”
Colin’s brows shot up. “Hell no! I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”
“Where are you going?” Geoffrey asked.
“I’m going back to the Mirthful Mermaid to finish my shift. Alone!”
They both erupted in argument so fast and so loud, she couldn’t distinguish any of it. She sliced through the air with her good hand.
“No buts! I need to sort this out. Do you hear me?”
Both men settled on their heels.
“And I won’t tolerate any fighting.” She held her breath for a long moment, and was satisfied when they both kept quiet.
By the time she reached the Mirthful Mermaid, all the confusion seemed to have lifted like a fog that had suddenly blown off.
My name is Emily Atkinson. I am twenty-six years old.
She lived in a quiet suburb of Astoria, Oregon, renting the little house her parents hadn’t been able to sell when they retired. The seventy-six foot ketch, her pride and joy, now belonged to Colin’s father, Graham, and Northwest Expeditions, their fishing and charter company where she worked. Her heart surged with a happy ache. Graham! Dear, sweet Graham, how she missed him.
Gran Millie looked up when she walked through the door. She smiled. “Did you forget something, child?”
“No, I’ve remembered something.” She strode across the nearly empty restaurant and extended her hand. “I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Emily Atkinson.”
* * *
So he’d found the little bitch. She watched from the car and couldn’t help but snicker when Colin and Emily’s new guy started swinging.
It was just like Emily to have two men fighting over her. Back in eighth grade, Colin got into a fistfight with Brent Nelson because Emily had asked him to the Sadie Hawkins dance.
I’d asked Brent first. A bitter taste accompanied the memory. But Brent had dropped her like a lump of dog shit when pretty, blue-eyed blond-haired Emily asked him. They’d been kids then, and as adults, incidents like that had been forgiven, chalked up to immaturity and childish antics. But never forgotten.
Brent had been my first crush, and the first time Emily had snatched it away. But not the last.
Emily looked confused. She muttered to herself as she left them both and strode back to the restaurant. She never even looked up, passing right in front
of the parked car.
Wouldn’t that be another pisser, to look up and see me sitting here?
She must not have remembered everything. Surely the police would be pulling up by now if she had.
“It’s not too late for you, Emily.”
Just because Colin had found her didn’t mean it was too late to finish what should have been the end three weeks ago.
* * *
“There now, this will make everything better.” Gran Millie poured two cups of her magic tea blend and sat down at the table with Emily. “I suppose this is a real doosey for you.”
“It’s like my head is a blender set on high.” She groaned, and then couldn’t help but laugh. Her spirits were soaring.
She remembered! And it felt wonderful.
“There’s all this information in there whirling around, but I can’t quite pin it all down. I have to grab for things one at a time, or I won’t get anything.”
“Don’t you worry about any of it. It’ll come to you when it’s good and ready.” Gran Millie picked up her cup, and then urged Emily on with a wave of her hand.
She took a sip of her tea.
“Emily. I like that name, it’s pretty.”
“It feels a little...foreign.” She smiled as she thought back to Geoffrey’s teasing when they’d first met, when he’d wondered if her name was Prunella or Grizelda.
“I suppose a lot’s going to feel strange to you over the next few days.”
“It’s all coming back fast. I remember my parents, and I remember Colin and his father, Graham.”
“That’s Colin, out there?” Gran Millie tipped her head. Emily twisted around in her seat. Colin sat on one of the short pylons connected with old ship chains that created the artistic fence around the parking lot, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his coat.
“I bought him that coat for his birthday last year,” Emily said softly. “It’s March twelfth. He’s a Pisces.” He looked so desperate, her heart lurched for him.
Far across the parking lot, Geoffrey paced in front of the SUV, using his cell phone. Both men glanced secretively at each other, careful not to let the other see it.
“What are you gonna do?”
Emily turned back to Gran Millie, but only shook her head. “I don’t know.”
The older woman smiled. “Well, you’re a lucky woman, with two men panting at your heels.”
“It was more like fighting than panting.” Emily sipped her tea. “And I don’t feel very lucky.”
Of the confusion churning inside her, this was the most turbulent. What would she do?
She loved Geoffrey with the sharp, vivid intensity of new passion, but Colin...Colin was ingrained on her soul. She could feel it already, and she hadn’t even remembered everything.
“I think the first thing we should do is talk about this woman who’s been following you. Did he spark any memories of her?”
Emily shook her head.
“Maybe your young man will know who she is.”
Your young man. A few hours ago, she would have put Geoffrey in that role. Now Colin had been returned to it, but she wasn’t sure that was right, either.
“Well, we shouldn’t leave them out there.” Gran Millie rose from her chair and put her hands on her hips as she looked through the Mirthful Mermaid’s front windows. “We need to talk this thing through.”
She knew Gran Millie was right, but the idea made her heart flutter.
She turned back to Emily. “Shall I bring them in?”
Emily swallowed and nodded. Ready or not, they had to talk.
Gran Millie went to the front door and leaned out. She gestured to Colin, who leaped to his feet and started over, and then to Geoffrey. He snapped his phone shut and followed.
“Come on in, boys, and have a seat.” She held the door open until they’d both come through. “My girl here is a little upset. So we’re all going to try our best not to make it worse, aren’t we?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Colin said.
“Of course, Gran.”
Colin sat down beside her and took her hand. He leaned forward, balancing his elbows on his knees, and brought her fingers to his lips. “I still can’t believe it. I’m so glad you’re all right.” His eyes still had a glossy quality.
She smiled as she turned his hand in hers and gripped it. She then released him and stood, pacing a few steps away.
Geoffrey sat in the chair his grandmother had vacated, watching them with sad eyes. She knew what was on his mind, and it broke her heart to imagine the pain he was feeling.
She took a deep breath and started in as even a tone as she could manage over the tremors wracking every muscle and nerve.
“I know that you both have a lot of questions for me, but right now I don’t have the answers. I need some time to get my thoughts straight. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Colin jerked upright in his chair. “You’re going to come home! People want to know what’s happened to you; your family needs to know. For God’s sake, Emily, your parents had a funeral. They buried an empty casket.”
She had not been prepared to hear that. Emily sagged into a chair before her rubbery knees gave out.
Gran Millie returned to the table with two more teacups. “Let’s all keep a cool head, now.”
Colin let out a grumbling sigh. “How do you expect me to feel? I thought I’d lost my fiancée.”
“Colin, last night somebody with a knife attacked me in the alley right outside that door.” She pointed to the back hallway. “It was a woman. And someone broke into Geoffrey’s house when I was there alone.”
He stared at her with shocked disbelief written on his face. She shoved to her feet and stood before them. Both men looked so forlorn, a lance of misery sleeted through her chest.
“Do you have any idea who it might have been?” Geoffrey asked him.
Colin’s brows drew together. “How would I know who it was?”
“Do any of our friends have red hair?” she asked him.
He glanced away, silent over whatever was going through his mind.
“I just remembered something.”
Colin’s gaze snapped back. “What?”
“That look. What are you not telling me?” When he remained silent, she pressed. “What happened the night I went overboard?”
He shoved out of his chair and paced away. “I don’t know.” He stopped and faced the group of them. Emily could feel everyone waiting on bated breath, most of all herself.
“I wish I did. My father and I suspected you and Sonja had an argument. The two of you had been...at odds lately. We told the police and they brought her in for questioning, but they didn’t have anything to hold her on.”
“Do you think this woman pushed Aug-Emily overboard?” Gran Millie asked.
Geoffrey leaned forward and set his elbows on his knees. He clasped his hands together and pressed them to his mouth as if trying to hold back an inappropriate comment.
“Pushed? No,” Colin finally answered. He shook his head. “But was there a terrible accident? Only the two of you know for sure.”
“Colin, I don’t remember what happened that night on the boat. But I keep having these strange, transparent memories of a woman with red hair that scare me so badly I get sick to my stomach.”
“Does this ‘Sonja’ have red hair?” Geoffrey asked. He’d been mostly silent until now.
Colin’s shoulders sagged. “Yeah, she has red hair.” He returned to his chair and sat heavily. “She’s been your best friend since grade school. I can’t believe she’d do something to hurt you. I sure as hell don’t believe she’s trying to kill you now.”
“How can you be certain of that?” Geoffrey asked. “It seems to me you’re the least informed person here.”
Colin clenched his jaw but didn’t respond. After a scalding glare Geoffrey’s way, he rose from his chair again. “I need to make a phone call.”
“Now hold on a minute.” Geoffrey jumped to his fee
t. “Who are you calling?”
Colin swiveled around to face him. The tension between them was so sharp, Emily could almost smell its bitterness.
“My father.”
Geoffrey glanced at Emily. She stepped forward. “Who else was on board that night?”
A horrified look slipped over Colin’s features. “You can’t possibly believe my father had anything to do with what happened!”
Emily approached him and reached for his hand. Colin took it and squeezed. His expression softened as he gazed down at her.
This, she remembered: his sweet smiles, his kind eyes, and the way he gazed at her as if she were a princess. She had loved this man with an intensity that had ruled her entire life. Bits and pieces came back stronger now, memories of the excitement and exuberance that had been life with Colin.
“Listen to me, Colin. I don’t remember what happened that night, but I have these really bad feelings about it. Until I remember exactly what happened, I don’t want anyone to know I’m alive.”
“It would appear the person who wants to hurt you already knows,” Gran Millie tossed in.
“I won’t say anything,” Colin promised. “If I told him I’d found you, he’d think I was crazy anyway. He’d probably assume I grabbed some poor woman who looks like you.”
He flipped open his phone, dialed, and paced a few steps away.
“I don’t like the way this feels,” Geoffrey said.
“Nor do I,” his grandmother agreed.
“Dad—” Colin glanced back at Emily as he spoke. “Sorry about that. No, there was a bad connection. Yeah, I got here okay. Listen, where’s Sonja?”
Emily returned to her seat beside Geoffrey. Colin turned away, as if watching it upset him.
Heaven help me, what am I going to do? She loved two men, each in such a completely different way it couldn’t be compared.
“When was the last time you saw her?” Colin turned back to them. “Are you sure? What time? All right, thanks...I don’t know. I’ll call you back soon. Yes, I’m fine—I swear. Dad...I love you.”
He flipped the phone shut. “Sonja was in Astoria last night. My father saw her having dinner with her mother at Trudy’s Café at about eight thirty.”
“It’s almost a three-hour drive from Astoria,” Gran Millie said. “She would’ve had to drive like a bat out of hell to be here by eleven.”