a douche from high school and had a sweet little girl, Liliana, who was now five. After she and Truitt got married, they had Nolan. I would never forget the moment he called to tell me his son was born, and that he named him Nolan. It meant more to me than he could ever know.
I sat on my bike and sent Truitt a text.
Me: I’ll be able to make it this weekend. Flying in tomorrow and staying until Tuesday. That’ll give me a few days to see y’all and then check on the ranch.
It wasn’t even thirty seconds before he replied. I had already slipped on my helmet as I looked at his text.
Truitt: Dude, you have no idea how much this means to me. We can’t wait to see you.
With a smile, I closed out of his texts and saw I had one from Amy. Actually, I had five from Amy and three missed calls.
I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. “I can’t right now, Amy. I can’t.”
Eight. Years. I had cut back my trips to France to twice a year. Last year I had gone only once. The pain of seeing her was too much to handle. She had walked right past me one day a year ago and hadn’t even stopped. Her eyes had been steadfast in front of her, and I had prayed like hell she would swing her gaze slightly, if only to catch a quick look at me. She hadn’t. She continued to throw herself into her job, and the tension between me and Amy started to grow. She wanted to tell Linnzi. Hell, I wanted to tell her, but we still all agreed there had to be a better way. In a sense, Linnzi was hiding from her past. She even told her parents she was going to a therapist in France. If only she would go back to Texas. Maybe something there would trigger her memory. My only fear was that it would open the floodgates, and she would remember everything. I hated not having her in my life, but I feared her hating me forever the moment she remembered. Sometimes I thought it would probably be better for everyone if Linnzi had moved on with someone else. The thought of it killed me, and I knew if it ever happened it would destroy me, but there must be a reason she hadn’t remembered me in almost eight years.
Eight fucking years.
I deleted Amy’s text messages without so much as reading them. I’d listen to her voicemail later. For now, I wanted to think about anything but Linnzi.
Linnzi
AS I HEADED down to the kitchen, after a lengthy twelve-hour period spent sleeping the jetlag away, I heard my parents talking in whispered voices. I stopped and listened.
“Steve, it’s been eight years. We need to tell her!”
“Now? We’ve let it go for far too long. We can’t tell her now, Amy. We can’t tell her. It won’t make any sense to her. No, I agree with what the doctor said, she needs to remember on her own. And maybe this is her body’s way of saying she doesn’t want to remember. If she hasn’t remembered him by now, after eight years, she’s never going to.”
My mother sniffled. “She’s going to hate us.”
Daddy sighed. “I think no matter what happens, she’s going to hate all of us.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and slowly backed away. My heart hammered in my chest, and I tried desperately to figure out what in the world my parents were keeping from me.
“We’ve let it go for far too long. We can’t tell her now. She’s going to hate all of us. If she hasn’t remembered him by now…”
Who was us? Who else was in on this secret of theirs? Who was him?
I stood taller, drew in a deep breath, and exhaled. As I walked into the kitchen, I plastered a wide smile on my face. “I’m finally up!”
“My goodness. You slept nearly the entire day away!” my mother said as she watched me walk into the kitchen.
“How did you sleep, pumpkin?” Daddy asked as he kissed me on each cheek and then settled back against the counter.
“Good! That flight is awful. I feel so guilty for making y’all take it all those times.”
My mother waved her hand in a gesture that said it was nothing. “Pfftt, you’re our daughter. And we are so proud of what you accomplished in France.”
Daddy lifted his coffee mug at