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“Ouch!” she protested.
“Yep. I suggest you remember that spankings hurt.” I let her go, barely able to keep the straight look on my face. When had I experienced so much joy? I couldn’t remember. In fact, there was very little I remembered between the incident at Sapphire Ridge and just before the incident outside Kandahar.
She wiggled against me again before managing to free herself from my clutches. “You’re a very mean man.”
I burst into laughter. “Yeah, so I’ve been told.” When I tweaked her nose, she couldn’t have been more surprised.
“So, what do you have there?” The purring sound of her voice was going to do me in. She motioned toward the bag, a twinkle in her eyes.
“Why don’t you see for yourself?”
She didn’t need to be told twice. The look on her face was priceless, the sparkle in her eyes allowing me another moment of sheer pleasure. “Wine? You drink wine?”
All I could do was shake my head. “When I was recovering in Germany, one of the nurses used to tell me about a little winery near the hospital. One day, I was allowed to take a short excursion. The doctors thought it would do me some good. She took me there and I loved everything I tasted, probably too much so. The doctors weren’t thrilled, but I think that was the day I made the decision I wanted to recover and come home.”
“I’m so glad you did,” she half whispered. The sudden awkward moment was a reminder that she still didn’t deserve the heavy baggage that gripped me like a noose. “Do you want me to open it?”
“Sure.” I sat up, folding my arms across my knees, staring at the water. I had no idea what to say to her. I wasn’t good at small talk. I also didn’t like feeling like a fish out of water.
“You are a surprise all the way around, Snake. Cheese. Fruit. Pâté? Who are you?”
When she handed me a glass of wine, I had a feeling she wanted a real answer. “A man with very little memory left from the past.” I was surprised I’d been so frank.
“But the doctors told you at least some of them would return.”
“Yeah, all six of them said that, but my mind has only grabbed a few glimpses of my past. It’s so limited, I’m starting to wonder if everything I experienced prior to going overseas is nothing but a locked box of jumbled thoughts and a few visions. It’s funny. I remember the important people in my life like my parents and the guys from the unit, but when I came home, I had no idea what my favorite food was. My mom told it was Mexican, but I can’t stand even a bit of it now.”
She laughed as she moved closer. “Okay. Then what is your favorite food now?”
“Steak. A good Caesar salad with shaved Parmesan Reggiano. Fish of any kind, which I hear I hated before. It’s not such a stretch that I like red wine.” I shifted my gaze, noticing how thoughtful she was.
“That must be terrible for you.”
“I thought so in the beginning, but I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t a blessing.”
“How so?”
“The way I figured it, I get to experience things as if they were new. Music. Movies. Food and drink. I have fleeting images and thoughts about who I was but nothing concrete. I stopped trying.”
“But you remembered Apollo.”
“Yeah. I missed him so much in the hospital I ached. I thought he was dead.”
“He’s a beautiful dog and it’s obvious he adores you.”
“He is. I love animals, maybe more so now that I’ve returned.” I tried to hide the emotion in my voice, funneling it into something lighter, but I gathered by the look on her face I’d failed.
She shifted closer, taking a few seconds to trace her finger around one of my tattoos. “Then maybe you can find a job where you can work with them on a regular basis.”
“It’s funny you should say that. I have a buddy who is in the beginning stages of turning his expansive ranch into an animal sanctuary. You should see his plans. He’ll be able to safely house hundreds of animals of different species. My friend’s wife is a veterinarian, so she’s already committed to being on staff. The plans are incredible.”
“Now that sounds amazing. You’re animated when you talk about it.”
“Maybe I like animals more than people.”
“That I understand,” she said quietly. “I’m curious. What made him want to make such a significant change?”
Chuckling, I studied her face and the way she was fascinated with the crude ink on my forearm. “Well, Phoenix has no interest in running the ranch the way his grandfather did. Plus, he fell in love with a woman who adores animals, and her dream was to have a rescue facility where animals of every kind could come and feel safe and wanted.”
