Fourteen
Cal
Heading to the Freckled Maiden at lightning speed, I wasn’t sure how I was going to break any of the news I’d found out the previous night—nor how Andi would take any of it. She’d seemed so eager to find out everything the day before, but how would she feel when I told her what Lana had told me, and that I knew her husband—or at least knew of him? Despite that, I couldn’t wait to see her beautiful brown eyes again. Wishing I could hold her again like I had in the past, I felt my stomach knot at the thought that I might not be able to again.
Pulling into a space, I threw my truck into park and got out. Passing the front of The Freckled Maiden, I peeked inside the window. I wanted to smile at the sight of Andi, Lana, Kyle, and my brother Alex all sitting at a table talking like old times. But this wasn’t going to be like that, especially since some of the information would be a shock to Andi, and she didn’t remember ever being there with us.
The brass handle was cold in my grasp as I pulled it open, and with a heavy sigh went inside.
Even for a late lunch, the place was still pretty crowded, with only a few tables open toward the back. I gave a nod to Liam behind the bar before turning toward the table I was going to. They were all laughing about something, and Andi in particular had a sweet glint in her eye that brought a smile to my face. The moment her eyes caught mine, her cheeks flushed and I watched her swallow. Her smile didn’t falter, so that was something in my favor. My stomach churned because I knew it might not be there after everything I had to tell her.
Alex scooted his chair over, making room for me. I pulled a chair up next to Andi and then greeted everyone. Alex threw me an extra hit to my shoulder as his hello.
Being near Andi and smelling her sweet perfume, even though it wasn’t the same scent she always wore, helped calm me a little. I smiled, seeing her warm eyes shine back at me. I swallowed and shoved back the desire to cup her chin and pull her toward me for a kiss. “How are you?”
She nodded her head as she put down her water. “Good. I’m doing okay.”
I cleared my throat and looked around the table. Everyone’s faces immediately became somber, since they all knew what was going on and what I would have to say.
“Lana said you had something to talk to me about.”
I looked over and Lana shook her head, letting me know they hadn’t said anything yet. I had already assumed that, since Andi was still smiling.
I cleared my throat and my eyes fell to the table as I tried to figure out how to tell her. “Remember how you kept saying that things didn’t feel right? That you couldn’t place it, but knew something was off?”
“Yeah.” Her voice was timid and her acknowledgment was slow.
“Well, you were right to trust your gut. According to Lana, you had told her you had an ex. She assumed you meant an ex-boyfriend. Last night when I was searching for your marital records, I checked divorce filings on a whim and found out you had filed for divorce the day before we became serious.”
Her face fell immediately. “I what?”
“You went out with a guy one night,” Lana said. “But you weren’t sure if you really wanted to go. You had said he wasn’t the man you thought he was. You were only going out with him because you said you wanted closure.”
Andi’s face paled, and the only thing I could think to do was cover her hand with mine. Her eyes immediately looked to our hands and I started to pull back, but she flipped her hand and squeezed mine. “So either I was leaving John because I cheated on him, or because of whatever it was that he did.”
I nodded, but hearing his name stabbed my gut because I still had to tell her the other part.
“Um. That’s another thing. Your husband—his name.” I glanced at Alex as I heard him humph before looking back to Andi. “John Vasslor is actually a…well, we competed against his company really hard on a particular contract bid.”
“A bid for what? I thought his company purchases failing companies and helps them. At least that’s what he explained to me. Why would he be building anything? How could he be your competitor?”
“As far as I know, this was his company’s first attempt to build for the city. His company wasn’t exactly a competitor until this bid.”
“And?” Andi’s voice wavered but she didn’t lessen her tone.
“He won.” My heart beat frantically in my chest as I hoped she wouldn’t make the connection, but at the same time I wondered if it might jolt her memory enough to make her remember everything.
Andi sat back, her face completely pale now, and her jaw was tight. I glanced at Alex, who raised a brow. He was convinced, when I told him who she was, that she had been some sort of corporate spy. I had laughed, but he was serious and told me I probably shared information with her I shouldn’t have. I knew I hadn’t, but that didn’t stop me from having a tiny doubt that she might have seen something on my computer at some point in time when she had stayed at my place.
“So, I…Was I with you to get information?”
I shook my head, completely dismissing the idea. “No. I’m pretty sure you weren’t. I still think it was a coincidence.”
Alex again huffed, louder than before.
“You don’t think so, do you?” She looked right at Alex.
Alex side-glanced at me before leaning forward and turning his gaze toward Andi. “You popped into Cal’s life right as we were about to seal the bid. I know that Vasslor has huge connections with the city and he’s got some other people higher up he’s friends with, so we knew this was a long shot. That’s why we went with lower numbers and a hard-hitting proposal. Considering we lost, well, that happens. But the fact that we lost to him made it sketchy.”
“But you didn’t know who my husband was?”
Alex and I both shook our heads and I answered. “Andi, I didn’t even know you were married until after I found you, remember?”
Her whole body slumped back into her chair as she nodded. All the information had to be swarming around in that mind of hers. Processing this alone, not to mention losing her memory to begin with, had to be mind-boggling.
Andi searched out Lana across the table. “When I mentioned that date, had I ever said his name?”
That’s when Lana giggled. “Actually, you called him Jackass.” She giggled again and I hoped Andi would find it just as funny.
When I looked over, her mouth twitched, and the more Lana laughed, that’s when Andi began to chuckle too.
“Jackass, huh?” Andi asked, and Lana nodded.
Cassie, our favorite waitress, chose that moment to bring all our food and ask me if I wanted anything. Giving her my response, I turned and grinned, seeing Andi had ordered what she always loved to order there.
“I…don’t even know what to say,” Andi started.
“I still don’t buy that whole corporate spy thing, Andi. I ran into you with my truck. That’s how we met.” Alex was the one who had huge doubts. He’d let me know all about them after I called him last night. It had almost turned into a yelling match. Jay had called me about a half hour after I’d gotten off the phone with Alex. Jay was convinced too, and now they were both thinking we lost the bid because of Andi.
“So, you think that’s why John would want me back home? That I did his dirty work?” She looked at Lana. “Maybe I was trying to get into Cal’s company information.” She was shaking now, her skin glistened as if she were in full panic.
I squeezed her hand and pulled it to my lap as I turned to her. “Hey. I don’t think that, and I’m pretty sure everyone else here doesn’t.” I rolled my eyes and gave her a reassuring smile. “Well, not everyone. The point is, I ran into you. I kept trying to pursue you, then you walked in here. It was a chance meeting and you were upset that night. I don’t think that at all.”
I hoped I hid the small inkling of doubt. Looking at Andi and back at our relationship, unless she was the best actress out there, there was no way she was only using me to get information.
> I squeezed again and nodded to her food. “Eat. I’m sure it’ll help calm your nerves some.”
Watching her stare at her food, I wondered if she would pick up her sandwich at all. She finally relented and took a timid bite. The rest of the group was already digging in, and when my food finally came, we fell into a relaxed conversation—or rather Lana did, telling everyone stories about her and Andi’s nights as single girls. Kyle and Lana had been off and on for so long, I wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole exchange. I found it entertaining and looked at Andi. I knew she was grateful for all the stories and excited when she found out she had her own apartment. For someone trying to remember her past, she seemed to be holding it all together pretty well. It made me smile. She was a fighter. I could tell that when we first met.
Fifteen
Andi
Despite all I’d put Cal through, and now even thinking I might be a corporate spy, he was still so concerned about me—telling me not to worry and making sure I ate something. If he knew about my pregnancy, would he still have been so caring? All through lunch I worried about when to tell him. How to tell him. If we’d been a real couple without all of this crap hanging over us, I’d have thought of some really cute, fun ways to tell him he was going to be a father. But that was the problem—the huge problem, actually. I decided, after all the options given to me by my doctor, I would wait until my baby was born to find out who the father was. Thoughts of making sure I didn’t see Cal for several months crossed my mind. But I couldn’t do that to him. He seemed like the type of person that would want to care for his pregnant wife. Or…girlfriend, in this matter.
“So, Andi,” Lana started. She and Kyle were huddled together on the other side of the table. Her smile was so bright it reached her eyes, and I was sure it was something Kyle had said to her. “You never did tell me why you finally answered your phone.”
I frowned as I began thinking about my whole phone issue. “Actually, the one John gave me didn’t have anything on it. So I went to the store—actually, right before you called me—and it turns out I had a different account.” I turned to Cal, both wanting to see his reaction and to explain to him why I hadn’t returned his calls. “The phone I had wasn’t the phone number you all had.”
“That’s so strange,” Lana said. “But you must have a ton of missed messages on there now that you have your old phone back.”
“That’s what I mean. I had to buy a new phone to get all the information transferred to it, and there’s nothing on here.” I pulled it out of my purse and set it on the table as if it were the most annoying object imaginable. At least it felt that way to me after being so disappointed by its lack of information. “I thought it would have all kinds of stuff to help me remember.”
Cal reached for the phone timidly, as if he shouldn’t, but once I nodded, he picked it up.
“Alex, help us out here,” he said.
Alex took the phone from Cal’s hand and began examining all the apps, pressing buttons. After a few minutes of searching through the phone’s information, he said, “It’s all gone.”
“What? What do you mean by that? It can’t be all gone,” Cal said.
“Well, this isn’t even connected to her cloud storage. There’s no backup.”
“There has to be backup, no?”
“It’s all been deleted.” Alex looked to me. “You have no idea who has your old phone?”
My face fell. I hadn’t even considered that someone had my old phone in their possession. “I thought it was destroyed in the accident.”
Kyle spoke up. “If they found it, they’d have brought it in with you or the officers who were at the scene of the accident. They’d have given it to your husband or next of kin at the hospital.”
I shook my head. “It would be John, then, I suppose when I was brought into the hospital. He was given my purse, so it would have been in there.”
“Well, he must have checked out everything on your phone and deleted it all,” Alex said with finality.
Oh, God. My chest tightened and my hands began to shake. Then John already knew about Cal. He had to have known. That had to be why there were all those moments where I could feel how much he hated me.
Cal reached for my hand and held it. Relaxing slightly, I wasn’t sure how I deserved any of his kindness. I might never know, but I was sure that after he found out about my pregnancy he might not want to be with me anymore. That made my stomach churn, and tears pricked the corners of my eyes. I reached for my water and took a small sip.
“Alex.” Cal tapped my new phone, the one I was glaring at now as if it were a traitor.
As soon as Alex turned his head toward Cal, Cal tapped the phone again.
“There’s gotta be a way to get all her deleted stuff from that cloudy thing.”
“The cloud.” Alex laughed.
Cal chuckled. “Yeah, that. There’s gotta be a way, isn’t there?”
“I don’t know, brother. The way it looks on here, all her backups were deleted.”
“But what would be the point in deleting everything? Why bother if I wasn’t going to get my phone back?”
Kyle piped up. “Seems like maybe they were taking precautions in case you figured out you had another phone. Maybe John, since he didn’t mention you guys possibly divorcing, didn’t want you to remember your past.”
I swallowed as I looked down at my rings, remembering how he wanted to start over. The real reason I had wanted a divorce was what I really wanted to know. Because right then, if I hadn’t found out about Cal or anything else, it would seem like maybe we had some bumps in our marriage. Things that we’d want to resolve. Maybe he hadn’t known about Cal until he found my phone. There were so many things that were not making sense. Like why I had an apartment and acting like I was single? What was really going on?
I put my hand on the phone. “There’s no way to tell who deleted all the information, is there?”
Alex shook his head. “No, because it was all under your sign-on.”
I nodded. Knowing it had to have been John who deleted all the information, I still hoped he didn’t know about Cal. But…why was I hoping that? Did I want Cal or did I want to repair my marriage? Without thinking, I ran my hand over my stomach. It was all for my baby right now. I had to think only about what was best for the little one growing inside of me.
That was when I looked down and realized I was still holding Cal’s hand. It had felt so natural, I hadn’t even thought anything of it.
Then I was even more confused than when I’d first arrived. I thought I’d find out more from my phone; that didn’t work out, and sitting there at this table I’d hoped they would have more answers and they didn’t.
“You mentioned I had a job.” I turned to Cal. “What job? Where did I work?” There were so many more pieces of the puzzle I knew I was missing, and this was yet another question that piled on top of the rest of them.
He smiled. “Yeah, you did. It was an architect company. You worked for a designer, but they had you start at the bottom, actually, working as an admin for now. They promised you’d move up.”
Alex spoke up, since that was his department. “It’s actually one of the top in the country. We talked about it a lot.” He gestured to my head. “Well, before that.” He gave me a weak smile. “I actually interned with them when I first started out. I thought about working for them.”
Both Cal and Alex exchanged an odd look before Alex cleared his throat and stood.
“I better get back to the office and finish up some things.” He patted Cal’s back as he grabbed his mug and finished off his beer. Handing my phone back to me, he said, “I hope you get everything figured out. Sorry I couldn’t be of much help with your messages.”
I nodded, staring at it briefly before back up at him. “Thank you. I hope I do too. Thanks for trying with this thing.” I tossed the phone back in my purse with a little more force than I probably should have.
Alex said goodbye to everyone
before heading out the door. I turned back to Cal, hoping to find out more about my job.
“It was at Tranten-Strass. I’ll see if I can find the number for them, in case you want to give them a call.”
“Thanks. Did I like it there?”
Cal nodded. “Yeah, you seemed to enjoy it.” He swayed his head and chuckled. “Well, minus a couple of snotty people and some woman who came in and started yelling that you slept with her…” He stopped talking immediately. The conversation stopped around the table and all eyes were on me.
Heat rose up through my neck. My mouth fell open, and I couldn’t help but gasp while my stomach churned everything I’d eaten. “What? I…what? Wh—”
Quickly, he stumbled over his words. “I…you hadn’t. The guy you worked with was some close friend or something. We both laughed it off at the time.”
At the time, but now I bet Cal was thinking twice about it. Why wouldn’t he? All the things I had lied to him about seemed to be piling up.
“Do you…think?” My hand flew to my mouth. “What if you’re not the only guy? What if I slept with more?”
Immediately Lana held up her hand. “No, Andi. Don’t. Don’t even go there. You didn’t.”
My eyes were wide now as I asked across the table, “But how do you know?”
“I just do. Honey, there’s not a chance you were with anyone but Cal or Jackass since I knew you.” Her sweet southern drawl was laden with sympathy, but I was beginning to wonder how well Lana really knew me. What if I’d been lying to her too all that time?
I felt sick. As much as she wanted to insist it wasn’t true and Cal thought of it more as a joke, I didn’t. I really needed some air. I needed a corner to think about all this…this stuff. I jumped up, grabbing my purse. “I’m so sorry. I…I really need to go.”
“What? Where…where would you go?” Cal looked both hurt and worried, and even though I didn’t want to upset him, I couldn’t stay.
Accidents Happen (Forever Happens Book 1) Page 10