My Almost Ex (The Greene Family #2) - Piper Rayne Page 0,30
trees to see the blue lake surrounded by mountains. I don’t have to see it though. I can visualize it. All of it.
“It’s so beautiful,” she coos.
I walk out of the forest to the view that took my breath away the first time we discovered it. It’s still mindboggling that Mother Nature could gift this world such a beautiful sight to discover.
I’d had us climb the wall on a whim that day, not expecting us to find such a special place. I’ve only been here once over the past year, but I didn’t stay long because it was too damn depressing.
I sit down on the rock beach, watching her walk up to the water’s edge.
She turns around and stares at me. “Will you tell me about it?”
I push back the disappointment that just seeing the place wasn’t enough for her to remember. “Sure.”
She sits next to me, stretching my sweatshirt over her legs. I could make a fire, but I think we’ll be leaving right after I tell her this story.
“I took you up here, proposed, and you said yes.”
She sighs, knocking her knee to mine. “C’mon.”
“I just told you what happened.”
“Adam, please.”
I sigh and look out over the water. “I tried to make it seem like it was any other time we hiked up here, although I did suspect you knew it was coming. We’d graduated and most of our friends were going to college. Your parents were preparing to move to Idaho. It was summer, so the hiking trails were more crowded, but I brought you here at dusk, right when the park was supposed to close. I’d been helping out at the park ranger office before going to college, so they were doing me a solid.”
She smiles and her head is tilted as though she’s enjoying the story.
“Like always, you said we should swim. That day was unseasonably warm, but I didn’t want you to swim because I wanted to propose first and not when you were wet, but you tore all your clothes off and jumped in.”
“I did not!” She laughs.
“You did.”
“I ruined your plans.”
I glance over and she’s frowning. I shake my head. “No, you would’ve only ruined them if you said no.”
“Did you think there was a chance I would say no?”
I look at her again. “No. I was more worried about making it special than I was that you would turn me down.”
She puts her hand over her heart. “Go on.”
“I set up a tent while you were swimming, and when you were done, I wrapped you in a towel and started a small fire. You nestled between my legs. When the sun was dipping down behind the mountains, I reached into my bag and brought the ring around to you. I like to think I surprised you then. Like you’d expected me to get down on bended knee and stuff, but I guess we’ll never know now.”
“And I said yes?”
I chuckle. “You said yes.”
“And we made good use of the tent?”
I chuckle again. “Yes, very good use. One of the poles ended up breaking and it collapsed on us in the morning.”
“I like that,” she says.
“We were quite a couple.” I stare at the crystal blue water and the mountains surrounding it, thinking about how much has changed in my life since that day but how this scene looks exactly the same.
“I feel it,” she says in a soft voice.
My gaze shoots to her and I find her rubbing her chest.
“I feel the love.” A tear trickles down her cheek. “I want you to know that. If all of this is for naught, I do love you. It’s one thing I’m certain I do know.”
I nod and swallow the painful lump in my throat.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I wish I could give you the answer you need.”
“Me too.”
For the first time since she arrived in town, I realize that because of her lack of memory, we’re on the same path of discovery—both of us wanting the exact same thing. The problem is achieving it will most likely put a fork on the path—for her to go one way and me the other.
Saturday morning, I finish packing my bag and bring it downstairs to the reception area of the inn.
Mandi’s behind the desk and she smiles at me. “Ready to go home?”
“I am, but don’t let Adam hear you say home.”
She frowns. “He’s running late. Got called in last minute to assist with something at work. How about breakfast?” She steps away from