handsome man she ever met. So I asked her out.”
“That’s bold,” I said. “I like it.”
Dad came toward me. “Let me get you settled back in bed. There’s another round of nurses here tonight.”
I stood up and Dad was there to hold me.
I paused and looked up at him. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“It’s what a father does, Winter.”
“What about my mother?” I asked.
“Let’s just take one thing at a time,” he said. “It’s been a long day for you. I know this isn’t ideal, but I’m so happy you’re awake. And walking. It was scary, Winter. I saw what Tank looks like now. I have no idea how you…”
I shut my eyes and nodded.
Emotion came over me again.
I could just barely remember the accident.
And that was it.
Dad got me back into the bed and when he moved away, I asked him for a goodnight kiss on my forehead.
It was still weird because to me it was a stranger kissing my forehead.
But he was my father.
And it meant a lot to him.
I fell asleep pretty quick only to be bothered most of the night by nurses checking on me. They meant well. And I didn’t mind it all that much. Falling asleep with no memory meant no dreaming. And no dreaming was just like… darkness.
When morning came, I had to go through the same round of questioning and moving my body parts and all that crap again.
Dad looked so hopeful that I would remember something, but I didn’t.
My memory was fucked.
Okay? Completely fucked.
I was able to eat and sort of clean myself up.
That meant going into the bathroom.
That meant facing a mirror.
Looking at myself… nothing.
I had no idea who I was.
My eyes were a yellow-green kind of color. My skin really fair. I looked pale, which was probably normal considering all that had happened. There were a few cuts on my face. A bruise at the top of my left cheek.
I turned my head and tried to see if I could see the staples in my head but I couldn’t.
I reached back and touched them and it made my stomach feel wobbly.
My lips were full, but they were dry and chapped.
My nose came to a small point. I wrinkled my nose up and down.
I looked like a rabbit.
How the hell do I know what a rabbit is?
I started to feel overwhelmed so I got out of the bathroom.
Dad waited for me and I held his arm and walked back to the bed.
“Did you see how beautiful you are?” he asked.
I smiled. “I don’t know about that.” I got back into the bed. “So let me get this right… you’re my father. Your name is Jack. You’re an inventor or something. You’re filthy rich. Leslie is your girlfriend. You haven’t said anything about my mother yet. So that tells me things aren’t so good with her. She’s alive, but not here. And I’m Winter. Winter Seacrum. I was in a car accident. And I can’t remember a thing.”
“For now,” Dad said. “You can’t remember anything for now.”
“You think it’s all magically just going to come back?” I asked.
“I don’t want to think about a world in which it doesn’t come back,” Dad said. “And speaking of that, would you mind if some visitors came today? You have a lot of people worried about you, Winter. I know it’ll be tough, but you never know what could happen. You’ll be in charge of everything though. If you feel worried, scared, or overwhelmed by it all, you just say something and everyone will be kicked out.”
I nodded. “That sounds good.”
Dad kissed my forehead again.
I was kind of getting used to it.
I could tell he was a good father to me.
And I knew something bad happened with my mother.
But he had Leslie.
She seemed nice.
And I had… well… I had no memory of anything.
Would this be considered the ultimate way of starting over in life?
Chapter 2
there it is
I tried my best to look normal. Or what felt like normal to me. If I was going to be stuck in a hospital bed and friends were coming to visit, then I needed to do something to feel good about myself.
Dad had brought me a bag of clothes from my bedroom.
A black hoodie with the letters BFH written in gold on it caught my attention.
I was drawn to it.
The hoodie was soft, well worn, and oversized.
The letters though…
Dad gave me a minute, but when I couldn’t figure it out, he told me what they meant.
Bay