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He lowered his brow, and now it looked more like a creepy caterpillar sitting on his face. I learned in my acting classes that look meant he needed some convincing, so I didn’t hold back, “You must remind me of all of the amazing things we used to do together, like how we fell in love. It’s going to be tough, but just when we think it’s no use, I’m going to get a tiny glimpse of something that sparks a memory and then they all come rushing back from there.”
He took a heart-stopping step back, releasing the hold I had on him, and yelled, “Evie, are you nuts?”
“No!” I snapped back. I assumed it was going to be difficult to convince him I had amnesia, but I hadn’t planned on it being this hard. I was not giving up and I shouted back, “I’m not nuts, but I have no memory. Remember? I have Am-ne-sia!” I stretched the word amnesia as if I was talking to a ninety-year-old-deaf person.
“You don’t have amnesia!” he cut me off, sounding a bit disgusted. If I had to be honest, I found this assertive thing he had going on to be very attractive. He grabbed both of my hands. “Listen, Evie,” he squared his face with mine. “We met on the docks, and you hired me to pilot your yacht—”
“Of course, we did!” I carried on my impromptu act. “I’ve always loved a good falling-for-the-boss plot. I can’t believe I get to be part of one in real life.” I flashed my eyes heavenward like I was full of the swoons and couldn’t wait to remember the rest of our love story.
He let out a noise that sounded a tad animal-like. I’ll admit it was a bit off-putting, but I totally understood how hard this must be for him—or maybe that was just his hangry sound? I reached out, brushing the back of my hand against his cheek, hoping my touch would be reassuring to him. “It’s okay, babe. We don’t need to hash out all the details now. This is the part of the plot where we settle into life as we now know it.”
I’ll admit the scowl he gave me wasn’t what I had hoped for, but I didn’t take it personally. “Come on.” I motioned with my head toward further up the beach. “Let’s go find someplace to rest for the night and we can chat about it in the morning.” I smiled sweetly at him, hoping he was convinced I had lost my memory.
“Rest?” He went stone faced. “We don’t even know if this island is safe. I don’t think we should fall asleep without securing a campsite.”
“It’s okay.” I waved his concern away as I headed up the beach. “There’s always a little cave we can claim back here next to the rocks and trees. To find it, we must walk true north.”
“Are you insane!” His jaw dropped so low his mouth looked like a giant cave with toothy stalagmites.
Easing into the brush, I tiptoed over the now pebbled terrain, careful of my surroundings as I walked toward the cavern of trees. There had to be something up with this island because just like in my recent movie, I found the cave exactly where I knew it would be. Even though, I had pretended it was going to be there, the fact I found a cave sent a trickle of goosebumps along my spine. That was too co-inky dinky for me to feel calm about, but I couldn’t let him see my hesitation, or it would blow my cover. I pushed forward. “See!” I called back, as I pulled back a concealing branch. “Here’s the cave and if we are lucky, it should already have a place for a campfire.”
The screech he emitted was a little much. In Hollywood we called that overacting.
“It’s fine, Honey.” I headed into the cave while still finessing him to trust me. I called back, “Everything is going to work out just fine.” Only now, I wasn’t so convinced, and I could feel a chill run through my body, warning me to stay alert.
Chapter Three
Jasper
“Casper, sweetie.” Evie returned to the cave with a bushel of dried leaves in her arms, dropping them in the fire pit, not even hinting she was the least bit surprised at the events rolling out before us. I was beginning to think she was a magical genie because nothing was adding up. Although she was the one with a brain injury, I was pretty sure I’d gone batpoop crazy.
“It’s Jasper. Jasper Knight.” I didn’t even look her way because I was busy untying my satchel from around my waist where I had managed to wrap it before the impact of the first wave. My stomach felt like it was in my throat as I opened the flap and unzipped it. Thankfully my precious map was still safe. Tucking it back down to the bottom, not daring to let it out of my sight, I focused my attention back on her mumbling.
“Ah!” Clasping her hands in front of her, she let out a satisfied sigh. “I love the way that sounds. So, did I take your last name, or did I hyphenate?”
The frustration exploding in my brain was pounding, but I couldn’t convince her that she was wrong about us. The more I tried to explain it, the more she threw plot lines at me. She was seriously coo coo. I decided instead of arguing with her, the better plan would be to play along until we found our way off this island, and I could ditch her. “Um, you kept your name,” I murmured, fighting the urge to argue again.
“Right.” She nodded, like she recalled this memory that didn’t happen. “Of course, my career. I wouldn’t have wanted to mess with my celebrity brand.”
Still unsure how far to take this, I finally managed to say, “Exactly that,” while I distracted myself by piling up the branches in the pit. I wasn’t even going to ask where we would find fire, but I sat down next to the pit, not doubting it would happen.
As if she was reading my mind, she took two sticks from the pile and started rubbing them together, blowing on them gently. She was clearly wasting her time, but it was pointless to reason with her. Just when I was about to tell her it was time to give up, a perfect stream of smoke piped up from the stick. I rolled my eyes so far in the back of my head that it hurt, but oddly I wasn’t even surprised at this point.
She fed the fire leaves and branches until a good-sized flame grew. Then she sat back right next to me, crossing her legs in front of her like it was normal for us to sit so close. When her gaze slid over toward me, the reflection of the flame danced in her eyes.
I hadn’t noticed she was this stunning, but I started to feel a nervous unease sitting this close to her. “Ah, let me look at that gash on your head,” I finally managed to sputter out when the need to fidget grew too much.
She didn’t resist when I scooted over and examined her head, running my fingers along her scalp. Even though the gash was long, it didn’t look that deep. “It looks like it’s closed. It would be best if you could have a stitch or two, but until we get back, I’d make sure to take it easy, so it doesn’t open back up.”
She was quiet about my assessment. When I returned my gaze to her face, there was a peacefulness in her eyes that drew me in. “Tell me about us,” she said in a dreamy voice, “What kinds of things did we like to do together?”
She seemed so hopeful, and I didn’t have the heart to destroy her hope. I certainly didn’t want her to go back into her crybaby mode, so I tried to come up with something. “Uh, normal stuff. You know, eating. Talking—”
She cut me off, leaning closer, “Do we dance?”
“Um . . .” My voice squeaked out, and a nervous sweat beaded my brow. I mean—not nervous—but from the heat of the fire. I wasn’t cut out for this story telling stuff. I had no idea what couples did, as I had never been in any sort of a romantic pairing before. I wasn’t a huge fan of dancing, but I would imagine if we had been a real couple, we would enjoy dancing together. “Yeah, we do like to dance,” I lied.
“I knew I would marry a man who loved to dance.” Her eyes locked on me, and they seemed to shine with an endless spiral of sparkles. “When I was little, and first saw how Prince Charming held Cinderella so lovingly, I knew I wanted a man like that.”
