Page 12 of The Sunny Side (Rojo 2nd Generation: Rojo Police Department #3)

“I did?” Clarisse asked without looking at me.

“I must have been having a flashback. I was in a horrible wreck years ago, and the details of my rescue have always been cloudy. It’s always been like a dream that I can’t fully remember where a guy was helping me.

He promised to go to my funeral before he kissed me and then disappeared. ”

“You asked me to kiss you, and I didn’t disappear,” I said angrily. “You know damn good and well I didn’t.”

“Who are you?”

“My name is Brawley, and apparently, I was your first kiss, as unmemorable as that may be.”

“It was you ?” Clarisse asked as the paramedic pulled the blood pressure cuff off her arm.

“She’s the girl from the wreck?” Heath asked from somewhere behind me. “Holy shit!”

“What’s so important about that?” Marley asked.

“She’s the reason he almost didn’t make it into the police academy.”

◆◆◆

CLANCY

“I’m fine, Tansy! I just need a ride home.

Well, I actually need the address of the man who has Cupcake so I can stop by there and then go home.

I have a headache, but that’s all that’s wrong,” I promised before I pulled the phone away from my ear and sighed.

When Tansy got on a roll, her voice was loud enough to reach the farthest end of a football stadium filled with half-drunk college football fans.

I’d been to a few games with her, so I knew that was true.

“I don’t need you to call an Uber for me, Tansy. I can get home all by myself.”

Suddenly, Darcy’s voice came over the line, and in a much calmer voice, she said, “You know, when I told you to go touch grass, I didn’t mean that you should collapse in it.”

“How many margaritas have you had?” I asked.

“I’m not drinking margaritas.”

“What are you drinking?”

Darcy hummed before she said, “There’s this drink called a Mexican candy, and it’s so yummy.”

“That good, huh?”

“It’s like drinking grown-up Kool-Aid.”

“And you trust the people you’re with? Is someone there sober enough to make sure you’re safe?”

“We’re in a bar that is owned by the family of some of the people we’re hanging out with. The guy Tansy insisted wasn’t a date took us to his mom’s restaurant for dinner, and then we came here.”

“That doesn’t answer my question, Darcy.”

“Yes. We’re safe. We’re also not driving.”

“But you’ll be hungover for our shopping trip in the morning.”

“Most definitely,” Tansy said as she came back on the line. “We’ll check on you when we get home, okay?”

“Oh, no. That’s not even . . . No, let’s not do that,” I hurried to argue.

They were already drinking, and as much as I loved them, they could be a lot when they were sober.

I did not have the mental capacity or patience right now to deal with them while they were drunk.

“I’ll be sleeping by the time you get home. ”

“Nope! You shouldn’t sleep if you’ve got a concussion,” Tansy argued.

“I should be released any minute now, and if their instructions say I can’t sleep, I won’t. I promise,” I assured her. “And I’ll call if I need anything, okay?”

“Okay. Are you sure you don’t want us to come hang out with you?” Tansy asked.

“You know me. I’d rather be home snuggled up on my couch where it’s quiet, and when you and Darcy have been drinking, it’s never quiet.”

“True.Love you!”

“Love you, too, sis. Have fun!”

When my sister hung up, I looked down at my shoes and sighed before I started scrolling through to make sure I still had the Uber app so I could book a ride. I looked up when the curtain opened and one of the men who had been at the park with me walked in with the nurse.

“Hello,” I said, uncertain why he was here. I couldn’t remember his name and wasn’t even sure I’d heard it in the chaos of the moment, but I did know that he was friends with the man who was taking care of my dog. “Can you tell me how to get in touch with the other man that was there tonight?”

“I’ll take you to see him before I take you home,” he answered with a smile. “I followed the ambulance here to make sure you were okay, but they wouldn’t tell me anything until I reminded them that we’re engaged.”

I stared at him with a blank expression before I looked at the nurse who was watching me closely.

I smiled and said, “Leave it to a man to forget that little detail, am I right?” The nurse rolled her eyes and smirked in solidarity but seemed to believe the lie, so I looked back at the nameless man who was pretending to be the love of my life and asked, “Who was that other man?”

“His name is Brawley Dumont.”

“Brawley. I’ve heard that name before.”

“You really don’t remember him?”

“He talked about kissing me and seemed to know about the wreck I had when I was a teenager. He even knew my given name, but I’m not sure how. No one I’m close to calls me that.”

“You really don’t remember him,” the man said again as the nurse left and flung the curtain closed behind her.

“I remember you, but I can’t remember your name,” I said in a low voice, hoping the nurse wouldn’t overhear.

“So, if Clarisse isn’t what people call you, then what is your name? I’m Heath Forrester. You bought your house from the company I own with my brothers.”

“My friends call me Clancy,” I explained. I had a sudden light bulb moment. “Wait! Are you one of the Forrester brothers Aunt Steph mentioned?”

“One of the many,” the man replied with a grin. “I’ve known Steph and Chandler since I was a teenager.”

“Now that we’ve established you’re not a psycho stalker ready to stuff me in the trunk rather than take me home, will you tell me how Brawley knew about my accident?”

“What do you remember about afterwards?”

“Other than the pain and very real fear that I was going to die? Not a lot. I had a severe concussion, so I’m not sure that what I remember really happened.

I have these vague memories of a guy swooping in to rescue me like a knight in shining armor before he kissed me and disappeared.

My parents and the doctors said it was just my imagination. ”

“Brawley wasn’t a figment of your imagination. He risked his life to get you out when your car started to slide down the mountain.”

“Why didn’t I know that?” I asked.

“When he finally figured out who you were, he tried to visit, but your mother wouldn’t let him. She even went as far as to file for a protective order against him and had the hospital issue a trespass order.”

“What the hell?” I whispered, although I wasn’t shocked that Collette would do something so outrageous. I just couldn’t understand why. “They moved me from the hospital I was taken to after the wreck to one that was closer to home, but I had no idea he had ever tried to visit.”

“As soon as he got down off the mountain, he and our friend Orson went to the hospital to see you,” Heath explained. “That’s when they met your mother.”

“She’s not my mother. She’s my stepmonster, an evil being who was spawned just to make mine and my sisters’ lives hell on earth.”

“Well, from what I’ve gathered, she’s a ball-busting bitch, so that you’re not fond of her says a lot about you.”

“I hate her with a burning passion that rivals the intensity of the sun.”

Heath barked out a laugh at my droll comment before he asked, “When are they going to let you out of here?”

“The nurse said I could go as soon as she got my final orders from the doctor. I was just checking the rideshare app to book a ride home when you got here.”

“I’ll take you. I live in the same neighborhood, so it’s on my way. We can even drop by Brawley’s to pick up your dog.”

“He really rescued me all those years ago?”

“He did.”

“I thought he was just a dream,” I whispered, mostly to myself. I reached up and touched my lips before I whispered, “I thought it was all just a dream.”