Page 54 of Never the Same

I wasn’t sure why my coffee order disappointed me, but it did. “Of course I wouldn’t, since I’m apparently nothing like Lyra.” If she was daytime, I was night. Maybe if I’d chosen the life she had, I really would be married with three kids.

“You’re perfect the way you are.” Reed’s kind words pierced my what-if thoughts.

“A perfect pain in your ass?” I forced a smile.

His dark brows slanted. “Not always,” he said in a low, husky voice that had my stomach flipping and me starting to wonder whether that dream was based on a fantasy I’d had before I lost my memories.

“Well then, maybe I can be different now.” I shrugged. “How about making my coffee sweet?”

He quirked a brow. “You sure?”

“If there were ever a time for a change . . .”

He turned on his coffee machine, then set his hands on the counter and glanced at me as it warmed up. “Out of curiosity”—he cleared his throat—“those, uh, kids in your dream?”

I leaned my hip against the counter, palming it for support. “Twin girls and a son,” I answered what I assumed he was asking.

“Sounds like we had our hands full in that dream of yours.” He pushed away from the counter and placed a pod in the machine and a mug in place.

I sighed, a little overwhelmed, in a good way, at the peace that dream gave me whenever I had it or even thought about it. “I don’t know, you made being a dad look easy.”

His back muscles flexed, and he cupped the nape of his neck and squeezed like I’d hit a nerve. “Guess that’s why they call ’em dreams, not reality.”

There was a sadness to his tone that broke my heart, but I behaved and didn’t push this time.

I let him make our coffees in peace, and when he handed over my sweetened one, I nervously took a sip.

Dammit. “I hate it,” I admitted.

He quietly took the mug and gave me his untouched one, as if he’d assumed that was bound to happen.

“Guess some things really don’t change, memories or not,” I said softly, worried that was going to hold true in other areas of my life.

He emptied the drink into the sink. “At the end of the day, we are who we are.” A bit of a drawl slipped through as he added in a somber tone, “And unfortunately, sometimes there ain’t no changin’ that no matter how hard you try.”

Chapter Nineteen

Hollis

Later that morning, I curled up next to Audrey on the couch in Reed’s living room, all my senses waking up at the sight and smell of homemade banana bread on my plate. “I take it I like that?”

“I always make it for you whenever you’re in town. It’s the reason you put up with my chattiness when we first met. Stuck around for my baking skills, wound up stuck with a best friend.”

I frowned, thinking back to what I’d learned about our relationship before flying here yesterday. “Something tells me it’s the other way around. You got stuck with me.”

She picked up the iced tea I’d already rejected in the kitchen and balanced her own plate on her thighs. “No one I’d rather be stuck with.”

Sweet and undeserved. I’d lied to her for eight years about who I really was. The guys had said I did it to protect her from my world, but did that make me any better than my mother?

I took a bite, and a soft moan slipped out before I could stop it. “Is this better than sex?” I joked, drawing a laugh from Audrey.

I could feel Reed’s eyes before I saw them. When I checked the kitchen, he was holding his laptop in one hand, standing between Ryder and Alex, staring at me instead of the screen.

“It’s not better, I can assure you.” Audrey’s amused tone didn’t pull me back to her—not yet. Not with Reed still pinning me in place with those dark eyes that could’ve coaxed another moan out of me.

Nothing between us.

Nothing between us.