This Is Love

10

“Penny. Penny.” He was lightly tapping the side of my face. “Penny, wake up. Please wake up.”

I felt my smile stretch to meet his palm. I remembered. I remembered pieces at least. All the dreams I had been having, they weren’t dreams at all. They were memories. Memories of us. The book I had written confirmed it. While I was reading, I could so clearly picture the scenes unfolding. I remembered. I think.

The side of my face felt wet, like I was crying tears of joy. I slowly opened my eyes. They felt heavy. It was as if my eyelids weighed a pound each. Ouch, my head. I lifted my hand and felt more wetness everywhere. Rain. Oh, I do love the rain. I remember now. I remember!

“Penny.”

Rain was falling down on my face. I blinked as the man in front of me came into focus. It wasn’t James. It was…Tyler? The dirty blonde hair. His crystal clear blue eyes. Who else could it be? “Tyler?” My voice came out hoarse.

“Oh, thank God.” It looked like he was crying. But maybe it was just the rain on his face. He leaned down and hugged me.

The side of his neck felt hot against my cheek. My heart started racing. This was Tyler. The Tyler. The one I turned down to be with James? His arms felt nice around me. I took a deep breath and smiled. He smelled like grass and sunshine, even though it was raining. My head ached, like memories were trying to escape. Memories of him and me.

“Everything’s okay, Penny. I’ve got you.”

I was about to ask where we were, but when I looked up at Tyler I saw blood dripping down the side of his chin. There were splotches of it on his shirt. He was completely soaked from the rain, but it didn’t wash away the blood.

“You’re bleeding.” I reached up and lightly touched the side of his jaw.

He flinched.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m fine,” he used a soothing voice like he would with a child. “The police are on their way. You’re safe.”

I realized I was cradled in his arms. Like he was holding my body together, lest I fall apart and wash away in the rain.

Safe from what? There was a light flickering above us. And sirens wailing in the distance. It did not look like we were in a good part of town. There was a man standing next to a cab talking animatedly on his cell phone. He kept pointing to the left. I tilted my head and saw a body lying in a pile of black trash bags on the side of a curb.

It came back in a rush. The man claiming to be my father-in-law’s friend. My memories were colliding. Scarlett was afraid of snakes. And I didn’t just learn that from the zoo the other day. I knew it. I remembered! I remembered her before I was in the hospital! My sweet, baby girl. And she called them snapes instead of snakes. Like Professor Snape from Harry Potter. That man lying unconscious in the pile of garbage had looked just like Professor Snape. He had said I was supposed to die. That I was supposed to fix his life, not ruin it. “Dr. Nelson.” My voice sounded weird. “Is that Dr. Nelson?”

“Don’t worry,” Tyler said. “He’s unconscious and the police are on the way. Sayem called them.” He nodded toward the cab driver.

“What happened? How’d we get here?” I shifted in his arms, but didn’t push him away. Him being close to me was so comforting.

“I was on a run and saw that bastard shoving you into his car. I couldn’t catch up but luckily I hailed down the world’s best taxi driver. He broke all sorts of traffic laws tailing Dr. Nelson. Probably got caught by at least 10 traffic cameras. Think James could help him get out of a few tickets?” He smiled.

I was pretty sure he was making a joke about James, but I didn’t laugh. “And you…knocked him out?” I asked. He saved me.

“I took him by surprise. I never would have let him hurt you.”

I stared up at him. He was literally my knight in shining armor. The sharp angles of his jaw were worthy of a romance book cover. And his hair was wet from the rain but somehow still looked good. He was wearing a t-shirt and the rain made it cling sexily to the muscles in his chest. It felt like my heart was beating faster than humanly possible. I was aware of his hands on my body. His warm breath invading my air supply in a good way. “You saved me.”

He pushed my hair out of my face. And I had the overwhelming sense that I wanted him to kiss me. I remembered the pages I had read about him from my book. I had liked him all those years ago. I knew that I had.

So how had I wound up here? With his arms wrapped around me in the most loving way, yet he had a wife and I had a husband? How cruel fate could be. How had the universe not seen that Tyler Stevens was my perfect match? After all, I did fit perfectly in his arms. “What happened to us?”

He looked down at me with his beautiful blue eyes. “Everything that was supposed to.”

“I feel closer to you than I do to James. Why is that? He’s cold and ill-tempered and you’re…warm. I feel safe in your arms instead of scared. And someone just tried to kill me.”

He smiled. “I don’t think love is about feeling comfortable. I think love needs a little fear in order to be all-consuming. We were always meant to be friends, Penny. And I know your memories aren’t all there. But we made a good decision to stay friends. The right decision. I love my wife. And you love your husband.”

I blinked away the tears in my eyes. Did I love James? The dreams and memories made it seem like I did. My head was trying to catch up to my heart. It almost felt like my heart was beating faster to try and force my mind to speed up too. “I missed my chance with you, huh?” I laughed, but it sounded forced.

“And it was for the best. I hate to think about what would have happened if you chose me. Scarlett and Axel wouldn’t exist. Liam wouldn’t exist.”

Liam. I instinctively moved my hand to my stomach. God, I remembered the feeling of him kicking me. He did it nonstop. He was such a little terror. I had held him in the hospital this morning but I hadn’t really known him. But I knew him now. I remembered reading to my stomach and singing to him. The old memories collided with the new ones and I felt like I was going to be sick. “Is he going to be okay? Is my baby going to be okay?”

Tyler pressed his lips together. He didn’t have an answer for me. No one did.