Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 164705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Wasn’t it weird that literally nobody in my life remembered that?
“Of course, you are. Now I remember.” Hettie blew a lock of hair from her face, popped open the bread box, and retrieved the nipple clamps, passing them over to her employer. “Bingo.”
Dallas pocketed the clamps in her dress. “You’re a saint.”
Hettie turned to me. “What can I make you?”
“For a snack?” I scratched my temple. “I mean … Ritz crackers and peanut butter sounds great.”
Hettie and Dallas exchanged worried looks, as if I’d asked to eat the head of the very baby I cradled.
“She’s a work in progress,” Dallas excused my apparently abhorrent choice. “So. Briar. I did some research about amnesia and how to help you regain your memory.”
I nibbled on my lower lip. “You did?”
I didn’t know whether to be excited or nervous. Dallas seemed full of good intentions and bad decisions.
“Does Googling count? Because if so, yes, I absolutely did.” Dal collapsed onto an island stool, flipping open a notepad. “I’m going to ask you questions, and it’s going to give your brain a ‘workout,’ so to speak.”
She grinned. She was beautiful in an old Hollywood way. With voluminous chestnut hair, pale green eyes, and a designer dress most would consider too formal to wear at a wedding, let alone at home.
I nodded. “I’ll try my best.”
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Easy. Blue.” Always blue. Ever since I was a kid. I smiled. “The color of the roses Ollie gives me every day.”
“Where’d you go to school?”
I rattled off the dozen or so schools I’d bounced around at across the world, following up her next questions with ease. My parents’ names and occupation. The places I’d lived in and vacationed at. The names of famous figures. Some of the pranks Ollie dragged me into.
When we crawled to my adulthood, I started to struggle.
Dal pinched the tail of a saucy crawfish and yanked, decapitating it. “Do you remember anything about being an intimacy coordinator?”
I continued to march around the island with Luca in his carrier, a frown flying over my cheeks. “I remember college, I think.”
My temples throbbed. Flashes of faces zipped in and out of my brain like a faulty lightbulb. I clutched onto the edge of the countertop, knuckles white.
Cheerleaders flying in the air.
Signs flapping in the wind.
Screams and chants.
Baylor green. University gold.
A slender hand reaching out, followed by a mischievous grin.
“Hazel,” I called out, my heart kicking into overdrive. “I remember my roommate. Hazel Locklear.”
“Your roommate?” Dallas sucked on the head of a crawfish. “From boarding school?”
“College. Baylor.”
“That’s in Texas, right?”
“Waco.”
Suddenly, I remembered with certainty that I’d remained friends with Hazel. Good friends. Bits and pieces of her stitched together in my mind. Her impossibly long hair. Her wicked sense of humor. How her antics always reminded me of Oliver. And the outfit she’d worn when she won Miss Lumbee. She’d kept it on a mannequin I’d embroidered with blue roses for her.
“I remember my roommate.” I couldn’t hold back my grin. “Her name was Hazel. We’re still friends.”
“Your roommate … from your university in Texas?”
“Yes.”
Dal tapped her chin, staining it with sha-bang sauce. “Isn’t it spring break now?”
I pulled up the internet app on the new phone Ollie had left for me on the foyer console. It didn’t have any of my contacts or pictures. The repair shop couldn’t fix the damage on the old one.
“Yup,” I confirmed. “Says here that it’s spring break.”
“Me thinks there’s an all-girls Texas trip in our very near future.” Dallas shoved two Andouille sausages past her lips, rushing to finish. “Hettie, get the jet rolling. I’ll call Fae. She’ll want to be there.”
Ollie would veto the idea, fussing needlessly over my safety, but I didn’t want to point that out. It was time to find out who I was outside the confinements of my relationship.
And Dallas Costa was just the person to help me.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Briar
Four hours later, I stood on Baylor’s campus, Farrow to my right, Hettie to my left, and Dallas behind us with Luca strapped to her chest. He cooed, trying to grab onto everything with his chubby fists.
Across the plaza, shiny windows directed sunlight at us. Glimpses of the past hurtled through my brain, disappearing as fast as they’d materialized.
Noodles. Veggie spring rolls. Leafy greens.
I shielded my eyes, pointing to the building. “I used to eat there for lunch between classes. I drained my dining dollars at Panda my first month here.”
The initial guilt at having flown private faded. I wasn’t sure how to feel about the jet’s existence – or that Ollie and I, apparently, owned an identical model and used it all the time to run personal errands around the globe.
It seemed excessive and unsustainable. Especially the fact that Dallas had made a pitstop in New Orleans for some fried chicken at Dooky Chase. (She assured me that picking up beignets at Café Du Monde, too, made the detour eco-friendly. Practically carpool.)