My Almost Ex (The Greene Family #2) - Piper Rayne Page 0,6
anymore.”
“Oh.” Her voice is meek and weary.
I want to curse myself for the instinct that wants to fix what’s troubling her. That’s something a husband does, not a soon-to-be ex-husband.
Too antsy to sit, I stand and head closer to the shoreline. The sky is dark, the stars overfilling the sky. A romantic scene for some maybe, but not for us. Those days are long gone.
“How come when I saw you, none of that came back? For a moment there, I was so happy.” She pulls her knees up to her chest and rests her chin on them, staring at the water.
“I’m sure all the reasons for your unhappiness will come back to you,” I say in a derisive tone. Which is the exact reason I’ll be keeping my distance. Otherwise I’ll get close to her again, just for her to sweep the rug out from under me once she remembers. Then I’ll be back to pulling myself up from the depths of despair and I can’t do it again.
“On the way back to the inn, I remembered your thirteenth birthday party.”
I glance back at her and she has a soft smile on her lips. I remember it was the first time I ever touched her. I fucking loved Cam for suggesting a chicken fight that day. “I wished for you to be my girlfriend when I blew out the candles that day.”
She sucks in a breath and I wish I would’ve kept that to myself. I’m not sure if I ever told Lucy that before or not. “Really?”
“That was over a decade ago. First crushes and all that shit.” I throw a rock out and it sinks into the water. My heart feels a kinship with it.
“You always had a great arm,” she says.
I nod. “So that’s all you remember, huh? That I was your husband, at thirteen you went to my birthday party, and I have a great arm?” I head back to the rocks.
“So far. I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
“I can tell my appearance bothers you. That I’ve upset you.”
I blow out a breath.
“What?” Her legs drop and she reaches out but retracts her hand immediately. “I’m upsetting you?”
I shake my head. “It’s just weird… you don’t remember much about me other than that I’m your husband, but you can still read my body language.”
“Yeah, that is weird, I guess. My doctor said it’s different for everyone. He pushed for me to come here, but my mom wasn’t very receptive to the idea. I’m starting to understand why.”
The last thing I want to discuss right now are her parents. I’m not the person to fill in her missing pieces. Welcoming her and helping her might be the right thing to do, but it’s not my place. Not anymore. “Why’s that?”
“My mom said she didn’t come to our wedding?”
I huff that even while Lucy is sick, Susan is trying to turn her away from us—from me.
“What? What am I missing?” Lucy asks.
My head falls back. “It’s her job to tell you, not mine.”
“Seriously?”
Her voice raises and it throws me off at first. Hell, sure we had our fights, but Lucy was a second grade teacher and she rarely lost her temper or ever raised her voice. I always said she had the most patience of anyone I ever met.
“Do you have any idea what it’s like to not know anything?” She rises up from the rocks and walks back toward the inn. “I thought we shared something. That you’d tell me. You are my husband.”
“Was!” I yell. “I was your husband until you walked out on me. I’m sorry you got flung from a horse and can’t remember that, but do you have any idea what I’ve been through this past year? The love of my life left me without anything more than a ‘you just don’t make me happy anymore.’”
Her shoulders fall and she slowly pivots around to face me. “I don’t remember any of that.”
“It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
She crouches and buries her head in her hands. “You hate me!”
Fuck me. My jaw tenses and my fists clench at my sides. “I don’t hate you. I—”
“Lucy!” Susan screams from the balcony of the inn, then rushes down the stairs toward us.
“Fucking hell,” I murmur.
Lucy’s head flies up. “So you hate her too?”
I shake my head and don’t answer because Lucy doesn’t remember the hell they put her through. All she must remember are her parents from when she was younger. I’m sure not going to