Page 32 of When I Forgot Us (Blue River #1)

His head lifted. “Nope. Still not falling for that one.”

She continued walking, making it all the way to his side and tipping her head back to lock eyes with him. “I think it’s funny that I’m still in love with you. With my memories. Without my memories. It’s always been you, Chase.”

His shoulders dropped like he’d released the weight of the world. “You know what I find infuriating?”

“What?” It came out breathless and rushed but understandable.

He skimmed his palms up and down her arms, ruffling the cotton dress in his calluses. “That you were right to leave. We might have figured out how to make it work, but not without hurting each other.”

She should feel like a complete jerk for pushing him when he’d asked for time, but somehow, she didn’t. It was like he’d been waiting for her to say it, waiting for the moment to let it all go and surrender.

He cupped her shoulders and dropped his head until the brim of his hat rested on her forehead. “We wanted different things, and I’m old enough now to realize that it probably would’ve driven us apart.”

“And neither of us had a strong enough relationship with God to help see us through.” She placed her hands on his forearms. The heat of his sun-drenched skin drove all the fear away. “It’s not like that anymore.”

“Maybe you two should go for a walk.” Maude’s shadow cut between them. A wide smile pinched her face. “I’ll take Sarah to the ranch. You can meet up with us later for dinner.”

Chase stared over Michelle’s head. “Yeah. Probably a good idea.” Laughter roughened his voice. “We’re starting to draw a crowd.”

“Eh.” She shrugged lightly to keep from dislodging his hands. “It’s not like they won’t all know by tomorrow.”

“Even if they don’t know, someone will make something up.” Aunt Sarah made her puckered lemon expression. “Small town life at its finest.”

“But I wouldn’t live anywhere else.” She’d been in both worlds. This one suited her just fine. Still. She took Chase’s hand, turned, and the two of them waved at the group clustered up beneath the church awning.

Pastor Thomas raised his hand up high and swept it side to side in a broad arc. His booming voice carried across the parking lot. “Don’t mind us.”

“Right.” Aunt Sarah’s scoff shot right back at him. She patted Michelle’s arm and dropped her voice. “You two have a good time.”

“Aunt Sarah?” Michelle released Chase and caught up with her aunt.

The woman turned, her eyes bright and shimmering with unshed tears.

Michelle hugged her tight. That familiar peppermint smell that reminded her of summertime and watermelon filled her head with memories. “Thank you.”

“For what, honey?” Aunt Sarah patted her back, her voice shaky.

Her heart quaked a bit at the sound. Aunt Sarah’s Parkinson’s symptoms were becoming more prevalent as the months in Blue River had passed by.

“Thank you for everything. You let me go even though you hated the idea of me leaving. You tried to keep in touch.” A quiver shook her shoulders and tore at her words. “You’ve been there for me every step of the way. I didn’t know you, and you loved me anyway.”

“That’s what family does.” It was a no-nonsense answer typical of the woman she’d come to remember. “I was happy to do what I could for you, no matter what that looked like.”

“I didn’t appreciate then, but I do now.” She slowly relaxed her frame and dropped her arms. “And if you ever want to leave the living facility, you have a home with me.”

Aunt Sarah swiped tears from her cheeks. “That’s a lovely thought. I’ll consider it.”

She’d consider it, but she’d never agree. The woman was too stubborn to let Michelle sacrifice for her.

Well. She had time and persistence on her side. Aunt Sarah remembered her as the young girl with a head full of dreams. She hadn’t fully met the stubborn woman Michelle had become.

“We’ll be home soon.” Chase reappeared at her side and took her hand, focusing on nothing but her. Them. “Where do you want to go?”

“Let’s see where our feet take us.” She had more on her mind than a physical destination.

They strolled to the end of the block and turned left, heading away from the center of town.

“My memories may never come back.” She broke into the quiet with her reality.

Chase nudged a rock off the sidewalk and back into a driveway. “I’m sure that worries you. Want to explain?”

“I used to worry that I’d suddenly have horrible memories of you. Of us. That was before I remembered why I left.” Better to get the worst of it out early. “Now I worry that I’ll never regain those last remnants, and I’ll always feel incomplete.”

He swung their hands between them, causing his knuckles to tangle in her skirt and send it flaring out. They walked beneath an oak tree that shaded a nearby house and part of the sidewalk.

Michelle chuckled at the traditional white picket fence, toys in the yard, and yellow shutters on the white two-story house. “Saying it out loud makes me realize it’s not true.”

“Oh?” He didn’t push or prod for her to continue.

Another thing she loved about him. “Are you upset that I didn’t respect your space? You asked for time, and I barged in and dumped my feelings in your lap.”

“I didn’t really need time.” He tipped his hat up and slowed his steps, so they stayed in the shade longer. “I was avoiding my feelings.”

“Can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Why not?”

“Because the last time we talked about feelings, I abandoned you. Kind of hard to give a second chance after that.” She leaned into his arm, wrapping her free hand around his elbow. “I wish I could take back the hurt.”

“It was necessary for both of us to grow into the people we are now.” His boots crunched a leftover acorn that a squirrel must have dropped from his winter stash.

The cracking sound drew their eyes down, and they stopped at the fringe of light and dark, between sun and shade.

“I was angry when you first came back. I thought it was unfair that you were allowed to forget me and all that we’d been to each other. ”

Hurt flickered in his eyes but was replaced with a look so full of love she wanted to drown in it.

“But, I would have loved you no matter what.” He tugged her forward, bringing them into the light. “If your memories stayed lost forever, I was prepared to help you make new ones.”

“I loved you even before I remembered.” Some part of her had recognized that long-standing love within days of her arrival. “And that feeling has grown stronger than anything I felt for you before.”

“Seeing you again was a punch in the gut. I thought I’d never be able to breathe again. It wasn’t so much falling in love with you again as realizing that my love had grown even while you were away.”

That had to be the sweetest thing he’d ever said to her.

“What else do you worry about?”

His question drew her back to the reason she’d agreed to this walk. “I don’t know what to do outside of loving you. You don’t really need me on the ranch full-time. And I think I’d like to work.”

“Any idea what you want to do?”

They made their way down the sidewalk, past the row of houses and toward the old library that now stood as a historical monument. The tall brick building burned crimson, the double windows dark as midnight to protect the old books lining the shelves.

She could smell the ancient pages, the leather and oil that kept them usable.

Her hands itched to turn pages and delve into history.

“Something that lets me work with antiques. Houses. Books. Not real estate. I don’t want to sell things.

I want to research.” His thumb ran back and forth across hers in soothing circles. “And I want to help on the ranch.”

“Sounds like a busy life.”

It felt right. Good. She checked her heart and all the prayers she’d prayed. They all led her here, to this moment and the acceptance of a new future. “As long as I have you, it will be an amazing life.”

“There you go saying things that make me want to kiss you.”

“What’s stopping you?”

His lips were on hers almost before she finished speaking. They were the same as she remembered. Better. She held onto him as the storm of emotion whirled.

Nothing in her life had been good and right in years. And now, she had everything.

Her relationship with God was stronger than ever.

She’d found her way back to Chase, and he loved her despite her mistakes.

They had the potential for a future if they were willing to take the next step.

“What we have,” he whispered as he ended the kiss, “is strong enough to overcome any obstacle.”

She believed him. “We do things right this time. It’s not just you and me. We keep God front and center in our lives.”

“Agreed.” No hesitation. No single second of surprise.

Unlike when they were kids, they understood the true importance of what they committed to each other.

He kissed her again in the shadow of the old library, and the rest of the world fell away.