Lisa was one thing that had slipped his mind.
It was true. Lisa half hoped it was all a joke, a prank played on her. Ha-ha. But he was almost looking through her, like she didn’t matter to him anymore.
How could he have forgotten her? She wanted to scream but kept all that emotion behind chains and a calm exterior.
At forty-two and in the initial phase of perimenopause, Lisa frequently couldn’t recall the names of people she had known for many years. That information was tucked up somewhere in her foggy brain; she couldn’t locate it. But she never, in a million years, would have thought their relationship could be lost.
“Are you feeling okay? You should still be at the hospital, Ryan.”
“It’s Splice, babe.” He said, without missing a beat, and Lisa’s stomach churned with dread. “I got a knock on the head; there isn’t anything being in a hospital room can do. I feel fine.”
Even Lisa, who normally had a lot to say, was speechless. She just looked at the man she adored, the one who’d been in her heart for an entire decade, and told herself to ignore his distant behavior because he was probably just in pain.
But her heart was splintering down the middle.
She nodded at his tone. “Are you going home?”
She had so many questions, but that one felt safe enough to ask.
He swirled all the way around on the stool and got to his feet. “Let’s talk over there, babe.”
She was hanging on by a thread as she followed him, seeing the looks everyone was giving her in the busy MC hangout. She followed Ryan to a nearby table, and he pulled out a chair and told her to sit. She parked her butt mechanically; she was too shaken up to stand, anyway.
“Are you sure you’re feeling alright? Not nauseous? I got little information from Tomb about what happened.”
“Icy patch of road, came off the bike. It’s no big deal; it’s happened before.”
Even the clipped way he was speaking wasn’t her Ryan.
“You look the same.” He said, looking her in the eyes. “It’s good to see you after all this time.”
Her vision blurred with the impending doom of tears. “I saw you this morning, Ryan.” He’d been watching her as she woke up. His easy smile greeted Lisa, and then Ryan wrapped her up in his arms. After that, well, it had been obscene love in the shared shower with mutual oral sex, and lots of pleading curse words from Ryan.
“It’s Splice now.”
“We’re in a relationship. Tomb said he’d told you.”
“Yeah, he did.” He answered, rubbing his chin. She saw his eyes somewhere over her shoulder, and she turned slightly to see what had caught his attention. Three women were coming through the door. When she turned back to Ryan, he was smirking.
Her stomach curdled.
So, this was the Splice Nina had talked about then, huh?
The ladies’ man. The charmer of all women.
“Listen,” he stated, resting his arms on his thighs; he leaned in toward Lisa, but even his mannerisms felt off. “I get what my brothers have told me; they filled me in on everything I’ve forgotten. I meant what I said, Lisa. It’s good to see you, but, babe, I’m fine. Don’t put your life on hold for me.”
The cut felt deep.
His words wounded her profoundly, like a physical blow to her exposed emotions.
“Don’t put my life on hold for you,” she repeated more slowly, digesting those words like the vilest food she’d ever eaten.
She stalled a moment, unsure how to respond to something she never thought she’d hear him saying.
Not the man who’d pursued her for weeks intending to win her heart. Which he had, and now what? She just went away because his memories were patchy and he didn’t remember all the swoony, lovely things he’d ever said to her over the past few months?
Impossible.
