Laura wanted to cry. She was torn between what she wanted to do to make him feel better and what she had to do to continue her life. “I’d better go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She whistled for Doogie and was out the door before Rob could say anything.

* * *

He spent the next couple of hours pacing the house, walking back and forth between standing at the wall with their picture on it and working on an email message to her that he’d never send.

Was this truly the end? Should he just try to get on with his life and hope that she caught up with him, or should he keep trying to make something out of nothing and end up hurt anyway a few months or years down the road?

Could he spend the rest of his life in a vanilla relationship?

Then his words to her in the restaurant came back to him. He caressed her image in a photo.

He’d made a promise to her, as her Master, to always protect her, to take care of her.

If this was how she needed him to care for her, he’d do it. He wouldn’t back out on a promise just because she couldn’t remember it.

“No, Laura. I won’t chicken out on you. No matter how long it takes for you to make up your mind, I won’t give up.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Thursday morning dawned grey and cloudy, perfectly matching Laura’s mood. She didn’t bother making coffee, instead getting one at a gas station on the way to the shop.

She was alone, so why make a full pot?

It was a bittersweet thought.

She missed having Rob at the condo. It felt wrong without him there.

Maybe I made the wrong decision.

She brought Doogie to work with her and took some comfort in his quiet presence.

Steve arrived at the dive shop at seven, marveling in her early arrival. “Two days in a row. Are we working on a record?”

“What?”

“You are not a morning person.”

“I’m not the girl I used to be.”

Steve grimaced. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know, but I’m getting tired of people telling me how I was and wasn’t, how I should and shouldn’t, and you know what? I’m beginning to wonder if this wasn’t such a bad thing that happened to me after all.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Maybe I do.” She defiantly glared at him until he shook his head.

“Oh, yeah, that’s real smart, Laur. You used to be pretty bright, but now you’re saying getting beaten to a bloody pulp and left for dead on your living room floor was manna from heaven? Screw your head on straight. And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ve known you long enough that I have the right to tell you when you’ve got your head stuck so far and firmly up your ass that you need a pry bar to remove it.”

He stormed out the back door, slamming it so hard the glass rattled. She reddened, feeling stupid and chastised. Ten minutes later she gathered enough guts to follow him.

“I’m sorry.”

He didn’t look up from the bait tank where he was fishing dead shrimp out with a net and tossing them to waiting pelicans in the water.

“Yeah, well I’m sorry this happened to you, but we’re all doing the best we can. We didn’t take the physical beating you did, but it hurt us like hell seeing you like that and then having to get used to this new you.”

He returned the net to its hook. “I’m not trying to say we’re suffering more than you. That’s not what I mean. You have got to be the bravest person I know, and I respect you for it. You just can’t take your fear out on us because you’ve changed and we haven’t. I know you don’t know what we used to be like. We only want what’s best for you, and we wouldn’t lie to you.”

She broke down as he held her, letting her cry on his shoulder as if she was ten years old again. After a few minutes she stepped away and wiped her face with her hands. “I’m sorry, Steve. It’s just that I’m so scared.”

“We all are, honey. It’s not just your life that’s lost. We’re all kind of adrift here, too. You are a big part of all of our lives, and it hurts us to see you like this.” He kissed her on the forehead and walked inside to ring up a customer.

She stood on the dock for a few more minutes, watching boats in the Intracoastal heading toward the Boca causeway bridge. This was one of the few things that felt familiar. She must have spent hours in this very place doing the same thing. The phone rang and after a moment, Steve opened the door and called her in.

“Who is it?”

He shrugged and she picked the receiver up. “Hello?”

“Hi, is this Laura?” The man’s voice sounded vaguely familiar.

“Yes? Who’s speaking please?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. This is Don Kern. I was in yesterday.”

She thought back and it clicked. Those green eyes. “Oh, yes. Hi.”

He cleared his throat. “Listen, I feel kind of stupid asking this, and you’re probably going to say no, but before I totally lose my nerve would you mind having lunch with me today?”

It caught her totally unprepared.

So did her answer. “Sure.”

They agreed on a restaurant in town and she said she’d meet him there at one. She hung up the phone before Steve returned, and when he asked who it was she said it was just a question about Saturday’s class. He returned to the workroom and didn’t notice how preoccupied she was.

She didn’t know why she lied. And while it probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do, having lunch with a stranger, it was in a public place.

There was something about Don Kern. Like her mind was working on a puzzle and didn’t want to let go. She hadn’t felt this way about anyone since the attack, and instinctively she felt she had to meet him, talk with him.

If it wasn’t for customers she wouldn’t have got any work done. The mysterious Don Kern clouded her mind. She didn’t know if the troubling aspect was because she knew him or because she didn’t.

He hadn’t acted like he knew her, but she couldn’t be sure. Her story was well-known around town. People came up to her in public and introduced themselves. Some of them people she’d known for years or went to school with, or who were friends of her parents, or customers. From their reaction, she guessed her shop was a fixture in the area.

At twelve thirty she hollered she was going out and left before Steve could question her. She made it to the restaurant with a few minutes to spare and grabbed a table. Don Kern showed up on time. He spotted her and smiled, and she watched him as he walked over.

She didn’t feel the same emotions she had when she first met Rob in the hospital. And now she regretted this meeting.

Just…something she couldn’t put her finger on.

“Hi.” He sat at the table. “I can’t believe you said yes.”

His green eyes transfixed her. They were a supernatural intensity. She wondered if the color was natural or contacts. Regardless, there was something there, some feeling.

She couldn’t say it was bad, but the longer she sat in his presence, she definitely wouldn’t label it good.

“Well, I figured no harm, no foul,” Laura lied. The waitress came and took their order and brought them water. “Dutch okay?”

“I asked you,” he said, “so it’s my treat.”

“No offense, but I feel better paying my share.”

He didn’t argue the point and they spent the next few minutes chatting.

“Listen, I have to tell you something,” Laura said. “I get the feeling that I know you, but to be quite honest, you’re not going to believe this.”

“What’s that?”

She related an abbreviated version of the story, and he looked shocked in the appropriate places. So far, so good. His hands didn’t appear to be scarred, but this many weeks after the attack, that was a useless barometer.

“That’s horrible. God, you’re lucky to be alive.”

“Sometimes I wonder.”

He looked sheepish. “Okay, I have to admit, I do know you.”

She tensed, feeling the comforting weight of the gun pressing into the small of her back against the chair. “Aha.”

“We took a class together in college. USF, in Tampa.”

She relaxed a little. “Go on.”

“You sat in front of me in the lecture hall, three rows down, and I spent the entire semester looking at the back of your neck and too scared to ask you for your phone number.”

Her tension levels dropped a little. “Why’s that?”

“You were dating my Psych professor. I was afraid I’d get flunked if I hit on you. When I walked into the shop yesterday, I wasn’t sure it was you. Then I realized it was, and it’s been eating at me ever since. I figured I wasn’t in college anymore and it was time to grow a set, you know?”

Whew. That explained a lot and made sense. She remembered reading something in the journals, reminiscing about dating a guy in college. “So tell me about yourself.”

He expounded on the divorce story. He was a pharmaceutical company rep, based in Pt. Charlotte. Travelled on the road a lot, but the pay was good. He came home early one day and caught his ex in bed with someone else. When he asked for a divorce, she took all of his stuff and sold it or gave it away while he was out of town on business.

“So now I’m starting out all over again.” He looked at her. “Well, okay, not in the same way you are. I guess I shouldn’t feel sorry for myself, should I?”

“Actually, I don’t feel too sorry for myself. I’m alive. I have people in my life who love me very much. I have a good job and financial security. I just have to create a new identity for myself if my old one doesn’t return.”

“What did the doctors say about that anyway?” He seemed hesitant to ask, but then again, so did most people who asked her that. “Will you get your memory back?”