I let you leave under these conditions, Loretta will have my head,” he replied. He stood and grabbed their plates from the table and carried them to the sink. “Our first order of business today is to get you a few things from the store. You need a change of clothing and some personal items if you’re going to stay here for a couple of days.”
She felt terrible. She didn’t want to take advantage of either Loretta or Lucas. But no matter how much she wanted to claim back her own life, she didn’t know where to begin.
“I can’t believe this,” she said more to herself than to him. Once again she directed her gaze out the window where the sun hid beneath a blanket of low gray clouds. She felt as if the sun was her memory, hiding someplace inside her and refusing to come out into the light.
She looked at him once again and cradled her stomach with her arms. “If it were just me, I’d leave. I’d never take advantage of your kindness.”
He leaned against the counter, those dark eyes of his impossible to read. “I’ll go to my place and get you a T-shirt and a jacket, and we’ll head to Wal-Mart to pick up what you need.”
“Whatever you buy for me, I’ll pay you back. I swear I will just as soon as I figure out who I am and where I belong.” She frowned and tried to ignore the headache that had begun to pound across the top of her head. “Maybe as the day wears on, something will jiggle my memory.”
She couldn’t imagine going day after day with no memories, with no knowledge of something as simple as her own name.
“Maybe,” he replied. He shoved off from the counter. “I’ll just get that shirt and jacket. I’ll be right back.”
As he left the kitchen she leaned back in her chair and drew a deep breath. She raised a hand and touched the scab that had formed on her forehead.
What had happened to her? Why couldn’t she remember? What if a couple of days passed and she still didn’t know who she was, or where she belonged? What then? She couldn’t just continue to stay here forever. She could take advantage of Loretta’s kindness only so long.
She dropped her hand to her belly and rubbed with a caressing motion. She thought the baby was a boy. Of course she didn’t remember anyone telling her that, had no concrete memory, it was just something she knew. Like she knew that she hated peanut butter and loved pizza.
Lucas returned with the large T-shirt and a down-filled navy ski jacket. She took the shirt and returned to the bedroom where she’d slept to put it on.
Her bloodstained blouse was probably ruined. She couldn’t imagine any laundry detergent that would be able to wash away all traces of the blood.
Lucas’s T-shirt hung across her slender shoulders and pulled slightly across her belly, but wearing the clean cotton material that smelled faintly of fabric softener made her feel better.
She left the bedroom and found Lucas waiting for her on the sofa. He stood as she entered the room, his gaze sliding from the top of her head down to her belly.
Self-consciously she placed a hand on her stomach. “Your shirt isn’t exactly made for two,” she said. “I hope I don’t stretch it too much.”
“I’m not worried about it,” he replied, and held out the coat to help her into it.
It easily wrapped around her and along with its warmth brought that scent of him, that pleasant fragrance of clean cologne and male. She found it oddly comforting.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded and together they left Loretta’s apartment and walked out into the hallway. “Am I keeping you from a wife or a girlfriend?” she asked as they passed his apartment door.
“No, you aren’t keeping me from anything or anyone,” he replied.
“What about your job? Shouldn’t you be at work?”
He flashed her a quick smile. It was the first smile she’d seen from him and it shot a flutter of warmth through her. “One of the perks of owning the company is getting to pick and choose when you decide to work.”
She nodded and fell silent as they walked out into the brisk November air and headed for his car. What kind of a woman was she to be carrying somebody else’s baby and feel that burst of heat at the smile of a virtual stranger?
There had been a moment when his gaze had drifted over her that she’d wished her tummy was thin and shapely, that they’d met in the grocery store or at a restaurant and were together because of a mutual attraction.
Maybe she hadn’t just lost her memory, maybe she’d lost her entire mind, she thought as she slid into his passenger seat.
Stress. It had to be stress that had her thinking such crazy thoughts. The only thing she knew she could count on, at least for the moment, was Lucas and his sister. Was it any wonder she would be attracted to him?
“If you don’t recover your memory sometime today, then tomorrow I’ll make some discreet inquiries about missing persons reports that have been filed in the last day or so,” Lucas said as he started the car. “Surely somebody you know will get worried and report you missing.”
“Unless nobody cares that I’m missing,” she replied.
He shot her a quick look. “I would find that hard to believe.”
She released a wry laugh. “I find this entire situation hard to believe.”
“Let’s play a little game. I’ll ask you some questions and you give me the first answer that pops into your head.”
“Okay,” she agreed as he pulled out of the apartment parking lot.
“What’s your favorite television show?”
“The Closer,” she replied without any real thought.
He nodded. “Good. And what was the last movie you went to see?”
“I don’t go to the movie theater very often.” She tried not to think about the tiny nuggets of information the answers revealed about herself, afraid that the nuggets would stop coming.
“What’s your favorite restaurant here in the city?”
“That’s easy, Café Italian on Maple Street.” A buzz of excitement went off inside her. “Maybe they’ll know me in there. Maybe they can tell us who I am.”
“I know the place. It isn’t far from where I found you last night in the car. Maybe we’ll go there for lunch and see what we can find out.”
Jane’s excitement grew. It was possible that by lunchtime she’d know who she was; she’d at least know her name. Surely that would make it easier for her to find out what had happened to her.
“It’s a place to start,” he said, invading her thoughts. He pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot and found a space near the front door. At this time of the morning the store didn’t look too busy.
They got out of the car and had taken only a couple of steps toward the door when a voice inside her head thundered.
