Tymber Dalton - Pinch Me

He wondered if that was a part of her life that would ever fully return, or if it was lost in the abyss forever.

In quiet tones throughout the morning, Bill, Steve, Carol, and the rest all talked out in the shop while they kept an eye on Laura. The Laura Bill grew up with was self-assured and confident. This Laura acted timid, reluctant to joke around. He wondered if that was due to the attack or loss of memory.

The Laura he knew smiled all the time, enjoyed life to the fullest.

This woman jumped at her own shadow.

Just after lunch, Sarah pulled Steve and Bill aside out on the dock, where Laura couldn’t hear them talk. “It’s not just her memories,” Sarah said. “She’s different.”

Bill nodded. “I know.”

“This has got to be killing Rob,” Sarah said. “She’s like a little mouse. I actually heard her apologize to a telemarketer before saying good-bye and hanging up.”

“What?” Steve asked, incredulous.

Sarah nodded. “Exactly. And Cody was teasing her before lunch about putting a margarita machine on the big boat. She said she’d look into it.”

Bill shook his head. Even he knew that was a long-running joke between Cody, their captain and die-hard Parrothead, and Laura. Old Laura would have tossed a funny comeback at him.

“How’d Cody take it?” Steve asked.

“I thought he was going to cry when he told me. First time I ever saw him that upset. He explained to her it was a joke, and she apologized for not remembering.” She looked down at the dock. “He left a little bit after that. Said he had to get out of here before he lost it in front of her. He’s really tore up about this. He’s known her almost as long as Steve.”

Steve glanced at his watch. “Take her home, Bill. She looks like she’s in a lot of pain.”

“I might need you all to help me. She’s determined to figure things out.”

Steve scrubbed his face with his hand. “She needs to go home. She needs to spend time with Rob. He’ll probably be getting up soon if he’s not up already. And honestly? I can understand why Cody left. I want to cry every time I look at her, too.”

Sarah and Carol nodded their agreement, looking like they were pretty close to it themselves.

Bill took a deep breath. “Right. Someone wrangle Doogie for me. I’m going to need to move fast or she’ll dig her heels in.”

They trailed behind him as he headed for the office. Laura sat in front of the computer, staring at the screen.

“Well, I think it’s time for you to call it a day.”

She didn’t turn from the screen. “Okay,” she softly said.

He exchanged a worried look with Steve and walked over to her. Tears had left tracks on her cheeks, which she’d scrubbed free of the makeup after lunch, opting instead to stay hidden in the office, away from the prying view of customers.

“What’s wrong?”

She pointed at the screen, which was opened to a sportsfishing magazine’s website. The magazine whose editor he’d talked to earlier that morning.

One of Laura’s articles, from three years ago, was up on the screen. It talked about grouper fishing and related a fishing trip she’d taken.

She shook her head. “I don’t remember any of it,” she said. “I read it several times, and I don’t remember any of it. I don’t remember doing the stuff in the article, and I don’t remember writing it.”

“Sweetie, you won’t get everything back right away.”

“Shouldn’t I have gotten a hint?”

“Maybe not. Maybe it’s like some of the other memories. Maybe you need to find something that triggers a chain reaction.”

“Like what?”

He felt backed into a corner. “I don’t know. Maybe your old journals.”

She frowned. “What old journals?”

Bill looked for Steve and spotted him trying to step away from the office. “Steve. Do you know where Laura’s old journals are?”

He shook his head. “Nope. I think her newer ones are on her laptop.”

“What journals?” she asked again, frustration creeping into her voice.

“You used to keep a journal,” Bill said. “Started when you were a kid.”

“Call Rob,” Carol suggested. Bill thought he heard her mutter, “Duh,” under her breath.

Sarah helped Laura go through the shop computer, but there was nothing on it resembling a journal. Then Laura called Rob.

“Sweetheart, I don’t know where your newer journals are. I went through your laptop looking for them after…” She heard him take a deep breath. “Even Det. Thomas had someone go through your laptop looking for clues. They’re not there.”

She rubbed at her forehead. “Steve and Bill said I had old handwritten journals.”

“They might be in some of the boxes in the garage at the house. If they’re not there, then they’re probably at the storage unit.”

“Storage unit?”

“Yeah, but that place is packed to the rafters. You can’t go crawling around in there until your ribs are better.” From his tone of voice she knew she couldn’t argue with him.

Hell, she didn’t want to argue with him.

Did I always let him dictate things to me?

How much of her life didn’t she know about? At least she’d been able to sit down with Carol at the shop that morning. She’d gone through all the finances with Laura. She wasn’t rich, but she had some savings and retirement accounts, and the shop paid her a salary every week. She also had a small joint account with Rob they’d recently opened, but it didn’t have much money in it.

Her condo was paid off from her share of her parents’ insurance settlement from the wreck and their life insurance. Bill told her they’d gone ahead and sold their parents’ house because she hadn’t wanted to live there alone, and didn’t have time for the upkeep. Except for a couple of pieces of furniture, he’d given everything else to her to deal with, not wanting the hassle of shipping stuff to Montana.

So she’d gotten a storage unit and put it all there.

I didn’t want to deal with it. That thought came to her with certainty. It’d been too painful, too draining. It had been easier to put it in storage and pay a fee every month, deducted from her credit card on file with them.

I didn’t have to think about it.

“I’m going to cook us dinner tonight,” Rob said. “Are you coming home soon? I don’t want you wearing yourself out.”

“Bill said we’re coming home.” She glanced over and spotted him nodding. “We’ll see you soon.”

Carol and Bill helped get Laura out to the truck while Steve brought Doogie on his leash. As they returned to her condo, she had a thought.

“Why do I have stuff stored in Rob’s garage?”

He let out a little snort. “You planned on moving in together after the wedding,” he added. “And it’s not like you wanted to try to cram all that stuff into your condo. Which it wouldn’t fit anyway. You told me you and Rob were going to deal with it all after the wedding and honeymoon.”

Honeymoon. “Where were we going?” she asked.

He smiled. “Need you ask? You reserved a cabin at Old Faithful for a week.”

She didn’t blame Rob for not telling her all of that. He’d been busy working, and when they were together, and both awake, his focus had been on her, not slamming her head full of information.

“Besides, why wouldn’t you put stuff at the house? It’s your house, too.”

“What?”

He glanced at her. “I thought you went over stuff with Carol.”

“Bank accounts.”

“You and Rob own the house together.”

“What? Why?”

“Well, because you’re marrying him, maybe?”

“But we’re not married yet.”

“You went in fifty-fifty on it. Hell, you’re the one who found the house and told him you wanted it.”

She closed her eyes, feeling overwhelmed again. “I did?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why am I not living with him?”

“Well, because as of just three months or so ago, the house, as you told me, looked like a condemnable wasteland. You guys had friends come in and help you fix it up so you could even stay there. It’s only been in the past two months the kitchen and bathrooms were done. I think Rob told me you guys just got the fourth bedroom painted three weeks ago. He was living with you off and on for a while as you guys did stuff to the house. He sold his condo over in Punta Gorda and used that for the down payment and renovations.”

“Oh.”

“Besides, you guys were back and forth all the time between the places. And if you had a dive trip or something and he was working, sometimes you weren’t at the same house.” He let out a laugh. “I used to joke with you that you needed a secretary to keep track of who was where.”

“What was I going to do with my condo?”

“Rent it out, maybe. You weren’t sure. You guys said you didn’t want to get rid of it. But it was something you wanted to wait—”

“Until after the wedding,” she finished for him.

“You remember?”

She sighed as she opened her eyes. “No. But it makes sense.”

Rob waited for Bill and Laura to return to the condo before he left to go to the house to look for the boxes for Laura.

What he left out was that wanted to stop by the shop before he went home so he could talk to Steve.

They stepped out onto the dock to sit and talk in private. “What’s wrong, son? Other than the obvious, I mean.”

“I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid to say the wrong thing to her, but I’m going out of my gourd. I don’t know how to help her. Apparently I’m not going to be able to protect her.”