Wicked Love - Michelle Dare Page 0,252

It was undeniable. I’d known it the moment I woke up. Almost as if it were something physically imprinted on my being.

Then I wondered why I had found Cooper so attractive yesterday. Why I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off him. Guilt pushed the butterflies away again and left an ache in my chest. It mixed with dread as I thought about the man who grabbed my arm. He had been so adamant I was someone else. What was the name he called me?

Sandra.

On TV and in books most people became embarrassed when they realized they’d been wrong. Usually it was someone who had lost a loved one, hoping to catch one last glimpse of them. But the man from the store didn’t have kindness in his eyes. A warm breeze rushed over the goosebumps on my skin and I shivered. Something just felt totally off about the situation.

“But who is she?”

“Who’s who?” Erik walked over and grabbed the towel resting on the back of the other chair.

I jumped, having been so lost in thought I hadn’t noticed his approach. He shook out the towel with one hand before wiping his face with it.

“Oh, uh... the woman in the book.” I held it up.

My favorite genre was mystery. Sometimes cozy, sometimes something more sinister. It just depended on my mood.

Erik sat down and stole a kiss. I chuckled.

“Tell me about it,” he said. “Maybe I can help solve the mystery.”

I hesitated. Telling Erik the events too closely might tip him off, and I did not want him to become so worried that he wouldn’t let me out of the house.

He frowned. “What is it?”

“Nothing.” I waved him off. “I just want to figure it out on my own. You know I get obsessed.”

The frown faded, and he rubbed the back of his head as he chuckled. “Right. I forgot how determined you are to solve the cases.”

The ball of tension in my chest faded. “Exactly!”

He drank some lemonade and got back to work, leaving me to the book. I pretended to read, but the incident kept playing over and over in my head. Who had that man been? And what would have happened if Cooper hadn’t stepped in? The need to solve the mystery rushed through my veins. Maybe it really had been a case of mistaken identity. Well, it had to have been. My name wasn’t Sandra, and it never had been.

Erik wouldn’t have renamed me.

But I knew so little about what happened before the accident. No friends, no family. Not mine or Erik’s. We stayed relatively isolated. No one came over, and there was nothing about my life prior. Why did Erik hide that information? Yes, he wanted me to not dwell on it, but despite what he said, surely there must have been people in my life.

I had never really thought about it so deep before, but every time I brought up, Erik quickly moved into another conversation. Another topic, and somehow it quickly faded from my mind. I wondered why that was... but didn’t dwell on it too much. Maybe I just hadn’t wanted to know about my past as much. It seemed likely, because whatever happened before the accident, I would never recover. So why dwell on it?

Even now, it seemed like knowing about my past wouldn’t end in anything good. I couldn’t get that man's hateful stare out of my mind. I couldn’t forget the way he looked at me. Like I was a woman back from the dead. That resonated with me, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get it out of my head.

The sound of the hammer cracking against wood made me jump. The book fell from my lap, hitting the concrete floor. Erik didn’t realize it as he continued working.

I couldn’t remember ever feeling so unsettled. It was probably just because of what happened. Maybe I’d been in conflicts before, but I hadn’t been since after the accident. So my skills were most likely rusty. I had to learn how to deal with it all over again. Most likely, I was just overreacting. I wished I could talk to Erik about it, but I knew if I did, he would be the one to overreact.

Instead, I picked up my book and opened to my most recent page, trying to forget about what happened at the supermarket.

4

A few days later, Erik left for a business trip. He’d be on the west coast for a few days for a