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“Any word from our girl?” Lucca asks as he slumps into the seat beside me.
“Nothing.” I lean against the lockers behind me. “It’s been three days.”
Callum and Roman, dressed in their practice gear, follow suit, sitting on the benches across from us.
“Three days,” Lucca says, filling them in. “No texts from Rosalie.”
“Dang,” Roman mutters.
“She just needs—”
“Time,” Roman and Lucca say in unison with me. Callum is much more patient than the rest of us. Although I’ve never considered myself an impatient man.
But I can’t help it. I want my Rose back. The one who will allow me to love her.
I exhale, my chest heavy with loss and hurt that’s more confusing than not. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“She’ll get there,” Callum says.
But it’s been more than six months, and her memory isn’t any better than the day of our accident.
“There’s no guarantee her memories will come back.” I grind my teeth. I’m saying what we all know, I’m stating what cuts me to the core every night I lay my head down to rest. “What do I do then?”
“Then,” Lucca says, throwing an arm around my shoulders, “you make that girl fall in love with you all over again. You did it once. You can do it again.”
“I’m working on it,” I say—it’s my number one goal.
“We could throw a team party. That worked for Maggie and me.”
“She wouldn’t come,” I say. “She’s not really peopling right now. That’s what Fran says. Besides, if she saw me with the Red Tails, knowing we possibly met in the past, I think she’d stay as far from me as humanly possible.”
Roman clears his throat. “Uh… she came to my place a few days ago.”
“She what?” I say, my friend coming in and out of focus. This is news.
“Yeah, Noreen brought her for a pottery lesson. Stella said she played with Ivy and they talked—a little. She said that for five minutes, it felt like we had the old Rosalie back.”
“Well, that’s something,” Callum says, a hand on my back.
“Yeah.” I smile. It’s good news. It is. It’s also news that makes me jealous as heck. I stand, wishing I could run off the jitters inside me. “I’ll see you guys out there.” Then I slip past my friends and into the empty showers.
I retrieve my phone and pull up Noreen’s number.
Me: You guys visited Stella?
Noreen: We did. It was good for Rose.
Me: She did okay?
Noreen: Yes. Only now Rosalie’s ill and I’m out of town for the week. I’d ask you to check on her, but you aren’t supposed to know where we live.
Me: What’s wrong?
Noreen: She caught a cold. She’ll be okay.
Me: I could make something up and stop by.
Noreen: Darling Zev. If I have to tell you it’s creepy, it’s quite creepy. You cannot do that. I’ll have Fran look in on her.
