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“So, have we just given up on the sling completely?” Scarlet asked as she walked into the living room late that night, disapproval lacing her amusement.
I glanced up from the book I’d been sketching in—one of the handful she’d picked up for me the week before—and froze when I saw her there, leaning against the entrance of the hallway as she finished tying a silk scarf over her hair.
Shorts clinging to her skin and barely covering her ass that was becoming one of my favorite distractions during our therapy sessions. Breasts pushing at the torn collar of an old, baggy shirt that was clinging precariously to one shoulder and teasing me with all those tattoos and soft skin hidden underneath.
Then again, she could’ve been wearing anything, and I would’ve had the same reaction.
Heart kicking up to a frantic, desperate pace. Fingers twitching and hands aching to be filled with her curves. Body begging to claim what already felt like mine.
“You’re beautiful.” The words slipped free unbidden and seemed to catch her off guard.
Shoulders straightening against the wall and eyes widening as she studied me before a soft huff tumbled past her full lips. “You can’t charm your way out of having to answer.”
My head shook as I glanced at the image I’d been repeatedly sketching before slowly closing the book. “It’s right beside me. I took it off when I started drawing. Doesn’t change that you’re beautiful.”
A hum left her as she pushed from her spot and started toward me, fighting a smile as she did. “You’re saying ready-for-sleep Scarlet is what does it for you?”
The corner of my mouth twitched into a smirk as she slid onto the couch beside me, tucking her legs underneath her and pressing close to my uninjured side. “You say that like it surprises you. Did it not before?”
“Didn’t say that,” she said, voice soft and filled with amused wonder. “But the workout clothes are what used to get you. I could barely make it out to the garage without you pulling me back in.”
“They still do,” I said immediately and watched as her cheeks filled with heat at the roughness of the words. “But you, at any time, is what gets me.”
“Ditto,” she whispered as that smile she’d been fighting broke free, sending my body into pure chaos for the few seconds before I was slammed with the reminder of everything that’d happened that day.
The canvas.
Litany.
What I’d been sketching...
“What—” she began, only to hesitate. “Chase, what’s going on?” Shifting so she could look at me easier, she said, “There have been so many times today when you’ve gotten this same expression. Like you’re devastated and worried and...I don’t know.”
“With everything that happened this morning, you’re not?” I asked as my stare fell to the book again. My hand curled around the cover as if I could contain what was on the pages.
Scarlet took a steeling breath before saying, “I wouldn’t have wanted to stay here if I were worried.”
“You’re not even worried about what it could mean?” I challenged gently and nodded when she didn’t respond. “That.”
“We don’t know anything yet,” she reminded me, but I just gave her a look that said we knew enough, then forced myself to ask the same question I did every night.
“You leaving?”
“I’m right here,” she whispered as she slid her hand over my leg.
I slanted my head because I knew that answer would change. One day. And even though I was afraid of revealing anything that would push us closer to that day, I felt like I was drowning under the things I was keeping from her.
“Scarlet, I’m starting to remember things,” I confessed and let a dark huff bleed from my lips when her expression shifted to dread. “And there it is.”
“What are you remembering?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
“Not even a hint of excitement because you know as well as I do that I did something,” I said without answering.
“I never said you did anything,” she argued. “And I want you back, Chase. I want your memories back. But I’m allowed to be worried. I’m allowed to let that worry free when you start it off in a tone as somber as that. If there would’ve been no reason to worry, you would look happier right now.”
“Fair,” I said and then cleared my throat. “I still don’t know what happened. But I remember us on the beach, arguing. I was going to walk away because you weren’t leaving your ex, and I—” I pressed my hand to my chest, my head shaking because I could feel all of it as if it’d just happened.
“All of me forever,” she said under her breath in realization. “I left him that night.”
