Reaching inside, he picked up the larger of the two red peppers languishing beside the three sprigs of broccoli and pressed his fingers along the sides. “Feels pretty firm to me.”
She had no idea why she was identifying with an inanimate object. Why she could almost feel his fingertips pressing her skin. Maybe, she decided, because Luc wasn’t quite real. Without a memory, he could be anyone, like a fantasy come to life for a brief spate of time. Once his memory returned, he’d be gone.
And she would remain unthreatened.
“They’re not spoiled—” she agreed. “Yet. But they would be by the time I get through with whatever I tried to make.” A person had to know her limitations. This was one of hers. “We have a division of labor here as far as the kitchen goes,” she explained, taking the pepper from him and returning it to its place. “Whenever she stops by, Lily creates, Kevin cooks, Jimmy warms up and I destroy.” She made it a point to stay out of the kitchen, except to eat, whenever humanly possible.
He couldn’t quite wrap his mind around what she was saying. “You can’t be as bad as all that.”
“I wouldn’t place any bets on that if I were you.” She glanced overhead at the pan hanging closest to her. “I stand a better chance winning a tennis match with a frying pan than I do making an edible meal with it.”
He hardly heard her answer. Something had just come to him. Too vague to be labeled a memory, it was almost like a feeling. “I’ve had too much frozen.”
Instantly alert, she grasped at the information, wanting to coax more out. “You remember eating frozen food?”
“No.” That wasn’t it. He strained, trying to catch hold of the silvery thread, to expand it into something larger. Something tangible he could handle. “I remember—ice, lots of it.” His eyes seemed to glow with the fragmented thought. “And snow.”
It was progress. Of a sort, she supposed. But such vague progress, it was hard not to sound discouraged. “That could be anywhere except for Southern California and Hawaii. What else do you remember?”
There was a blank. A huge blank. Hoping to stimulate something more, Luc stared into the open vegetable crisper again.
“I’m not sure.” And then he saw a stove in his mind’s eye. A large, six-burner, industrial gas stove. He could almost feel the heat. His eyes widened as he turned toward her. “Cooking, I remember—cooking.”
His smile was wide and boyishly engaging. Alison could almost feel it burrowing into her. Seeking a response. Her heart fluttered. But that was only in empathy. She was identifying with him at this breakthrough he was having. There couldn’t be any other reason for it.
Derek had taught her that she wasn’t meant for things like romance and love. If you can’t swim, don’t put your toe into the water.
She kept her toes where they belonged.
But she couldn’t help the wave of enthusiasm she felt for Luc. “See, it’s coming back to you already. You want to fool around in the kitchen?” He looked at her, bemused. Or maybe amused. She realized what that had to have sounded like. “With the ingredients I mean.” Moving quickly, wanting to cover the flustered feeling that had suddenly hit her from left field, she took out the peppers and lined them up on the counter. “Maybe something’ll come back to you.”
Something already had. A wave of bittersweetness. A sense of loss and resignation, sneaking up out of nowhere and drenching him. But loss of what? Resignation over what?
About what?
Or who?
All questions echoing in his brain, having no answers.
“You’re trying too hard again.” She smoothed back the furrow between his eyes even as he shifted them toward her questioningly. Realizing that maybe she was stepping over some invisible line that was best kept enforced, she dropped her hand to her side. “The last flash came to you without any effort on your part. The rest will, too. Maybe even by morning.” At least, it certainly looked promising enough. She peered at him. He no longer looked as if he was staving off agony. “How’s your headache, by the way?”
He’d forgotten about it until she’d mentioned it just now. “Almost gone.” The realization surprised him as much as it pleased him.
Another good sign. Jimmy had given him an injection to mute the pain, but that had been a while ago and she knew he hadn’t taken any of the pills that her brother had given him. There was every indication that their houseguest wouldn’t be staying long.
And that, of course, was for the good, she told herself.
“Then maybe puttering around in the kitchen might not be a bad idea.” She was already taking out the carton and placing it on the counter beside the peppers. If he needed anything more, he was going to have to tell her. “See what you can cook up—for you and for me.”
He said the first thing that suggested itself. “An omelet?”
He said it as if he thought it was the wrong time of day for it. She’d been raised on eggs at night and steak in the morning. Food was food.
“Hey, I’m hungry enough to eat waxed paper. An omelet sounds like heaven.” She paused, not knowing what he needed in addition to the two ingredients she’d put out. “I’d offer to help cook, but that’s a contradiction in terms as far as I’m concerned.” And then she grinned. “I can be your cheering section.”
His cheering section. She’d put into words just how he saw her. “I’d like that.”
She closed her eyes, savoring this bite as much as she had the first and the second. The man was nothing short of a miracle worker. He even cooked rings around Lily. This wasn’t an omelet, it was a minor miracle.
Lily was going to love him.
As if her older sister needed another man in her life. The thought was without malice. Dedicated, hardworking, Lily also knew how to play hard. And to enjoy herself.
Not for you, Alison. You were meant for other things, she told herself.
She held up her empty fork, raising a phantom glass in a toast.
“Where did you learn to cook like that?” And then her question hit her. If he could answer that, then he wouldn’t have been here in the first place. She offered him an apologetic look. “Sorry, I was just trying to sneak out another piece of information.”
It was an excuse, a way of covering for herself. But now that she said it, she realized that it wasn’t such a bad way to go. If she talked enough, prodded enough, maybe something else would come back to him. Maybe even everything.
“The subconscious is a strange thing.” She fell back on textbook knowledge. He was, after all, her first amnesia patient. And he was her responsibility, as well, because she meant to have him get better in her care. “It’s all in there, you know, every thought you’ve ever had, every memory you ever gathered.” Her eyes strayed to the small TV set on the counter near the sink. It was there at her insistence. “And every program you ever watched.”
He followed her line of vision and reflected. “I don’t think I’ve watched many programs.”
The
