Unforgettable Love Page 5

  Julie had forgotten all about her bumps and bruises from the night before. She had also completely forgotten about Aaron’s.

  “I’m alright. In fact, I went out there for a while. It’s so much prettier in the light. How are your injuries, Aaron? Or should I say my knight in shining armor?” She patted Aaron gently on his head and his shoulder.

  “All in a day’s work. You know, saving damsels is my job. Sort of like a superhero. A Superman if you will.”

  When Julie smiled and laughed, her lip hurt just a little, which made everyone laugh just a little more.

  “Aaron’s got some news for you,” Cindy said. She was tucked into the far seat of the table against the wall. She had been slowly chewing the last bite of a bagel with cream cheese.

  Julie looked at Aaron.

  “Is it about a job? Can I start earning my keep tonight? You said I could work at your restaurant. I hope that offer still stands because I’ve got some news, too.”

  Aaron smiled but looked at his watch. He didn’t look at Julie. In fact, he looked everywhere but at Julie.

  “I found your family.”

  Julie looked at him and held her breath.

  “In fact, I found them last night. I spoke with your fiancé, James Turner. He and your parents are coming here this morning to take you back home to San Francisco.”

  “San Francisco? That’s so far away. My goodness. It’s nothing short of a miracle I ended up here. San Francisco. Wow.” Julie sat still, her shoulders slumped as she looked at her hands in her lap.

  “Aren’t you happy?” Aaron said, placing his hand gently on Julie’s arm.

  Julie glanced at each of them in turn.

  “Yeah. I mean, I think I am.” She laughed a little. “It’s so weird. I can’t remember my mom. You said you spoke with my fiancé? I don’t even know who that could be. Right now, you guys are the only family I know, and we aren’t even related.”

  Cindy squirmed out of her chair and threw her arms around Julie.

  “Look. Karen is nice, but I’ve been looking for a better big sister for quite some time now. She’s been with the company for over twenty-five years. It’s time she moved on. We could use a girl like you on our team.” Even though she was joking around, Cindy did have tears in her eyes.

  Julie patted Cindy’s arms around her neck.

  “You don’t mean that. You’d be lost without her, and you know it.”

  They all smiled, and Aaron got up to pour some coffee for everyone.

  “You said you had some news, too. What’s your news?” Aaron asked, hoping it had something to do with him. But before Julie could say anything about the necklace she was wearing, there was a knock on the door.

  “Julie? Would you like to answer the door?” Karen asked.

  Julie sat there and stared, holding her breath and not moving.

  “Now you did it,” Cindy said, taking Julie’s hand in hers and patting it nervously. “You’ve put her in a coma. The poor thing hasn’t been through enough and now the shock of it all has put her into a waking coma.”

  Aaron jumped up from his seat and ran to the front door.

  “She looks awake and goes about her business every day, but in reality her brain has totally shut off.”

  Julie reached down and took a sip of coffee.

  “See? Like I said. Waking coma.”

  “She’s not in a waking coma. Where do you get your information?” Karen said standing up and glaring at Cindy. “I think our early visitors are for you, Julie.”

  “You guys are the only people I know right now. Please don’t make me go out there alone.”

  “Of course not,” Karen said. “We’re right here with you.”

  “What if I don’t recognize them at all? What if they are still total strangers no matter what they say?”

  In her head, Julie felt like the waters that had swept her to shore, rising and falling in her mind, making everything unsteady. What if her life up to this point never existed? Who was she? What did she stand for? If she couldn’t remember the people who raised her, then she was like a completely blank canvas. Sweat broke out all over her body as she stepped toward the front door.

  “Where is she? Where is she? We’ve been so worried,” came a female voice. It wasn’t totally unfamiliar. Julie thought she had heard it before, like the whispers she heard just a short while ago.

  God, please help me remember my mom. Just a little bit. Just my mom.

  As Julie appeared, there was a lovely older woman with her back to her. As soon as she turned around, the woman burst into tears and rushed up to Julie, folding her in her arms.

  Aaron took notice of her expensive outfit and the sparkles of gold around her wrists and fingers.

  “My baby! My baby. You’re really alright. You are alright, aren’t you?” She pulled back for a second and looked in Julie’s face, smoothing her long blonde hair back from her face.

  Julie didn’t completely recognize the face of this woman. But her eyes were not strange to her. She knew those eyes. Letting out a deep breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding, Julie pulled the woman to her.

  “You’re my mom.”

  “Yes! Yes, I’m your mom,” she cried, still holding Julie and rocking her back and forth as mothers tend to do with injured or sick children.

  As the woman sobbed and spoke with fast, nervous words, Richard Peterson reached out to Aaron to shake his hand.

  “Thank you, son. You will be taken care of for this. I promise you that,” Richard said as he pulled away to take his turn holding his daughter. As Julie looked up at Richard, it was pretty hard to deny that she looked just like him.

  Aaron smiled and was about to invite everyone for a cup of coffee when one last person came into the house. Cindy, not being one to hold back, let out a whoa and gently nudged Karen in the side.

  Healthy skin, deep brown eyes, fancy duds and a physique to rival Michelangelo’s David, the last visitor made Aaron shrink in his mind to about two inches tall. Of course, Julie wouldn’t go for an average man like him. Somewhere in her mind she knew she was engaged to a Greek god. What could Aaron possibly offer in comparison? He looked down at his shoes and said nothing as the man walked past and up to Julie.

  “Julie?”

  Margaret Peterson finally let go of her daughter and gave her a gentle nudge toward James, who stood with his arms slightly out at his sides.

  “You’ve never looked more beautiful than you do right now.”

  This handsome stranger put his arms around Julie and held her close, squeezing just a little. Julie didn’t know him. She stood still, her arms being squeezed to her sides and thought it very odd she couldn’t remember him. But when he slid his hands up and down her arms, grasping her wrists to pull her hands to his lips, Julie felt the urge to yank them away. She couldn’t explain it. He was very handsome and seemed nice enough. It was nerves, she soothed herself. Nothing more. Just smile and nod and hold on to Mother.

  “Julie, this is James, your fiancé. He’s been worried sick over you,” her mother said. Julie nodded but said nothing.

  Aaron listened and watched Julie’s expression as she looked at the wealthy and well-dressed fiancé. Jealousy was a horrible characteristic to have. But Aaron had it in spades at this moment. He just wanted a minute alone with Julie before she left. Just thirty seconds would be enough. Could he possibly steal her away for that long?

  “We’ve really taken up enough of your time,” Richard said, snapping Aaron out of his internal dialogue. Karen and Cindy, too, snapped out of the hypnotic state Mr. Turner had put them into.

  “Yes, we really need to be going,” James insisted, putting his arm around Julie and slowly guiding her toward the door. “Are you ready to go home?”

  Julie looked up into the man’s very handsome face.

  “Let me just get my things.” She took two steps toward the bedroom she had been using and stopped.

  “I guess I really don’t have anything. Karen,
these are yours. I can change ...”

  “Just keep them, Julie. I can live without a pair of sweats. Besides, they look cuter on you.”

  “I love those sweats, and you’re just going to give them away? Are you kidding?” Cindy teased, bumping her sister’s hip with her own to make sure she didn’t start crying.

  “Good luck, Julie. And hey, don’t be a stranger.”

  Julie laughed a little at Cindy’s poetic choice of words. Then she turned to Aaron, who was looking at her from beneath his long eyelashes.

  She walked up and stood directly in front of Aaron.

  “I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me.” Placing her hands gently on his chest, Julie stretched up and kissed Aaron on the cheek.

  “I only did this because I thought you needed your family,” he lied just a bit. The money was pretty persuasive, too. “And if things don’t work out with Mr. Perfect over there, I’ll be waiting to save the day.”

  “Like Superman?”

  “Yeah, sort of.”

  Aaron laughed a little while nodding his head.

  “Good-bye, Julie,” he whispered.

  “I hope not, Aaron. I really hope not. Just, see you later.”

  Again Julie turned to Cindy and Karen, but before she could say good-bye, James had hustled her out of the house and to the waiting car.

  “Come by my home office in about a week, Aaron. We can settle our business of the reward put up by myself and Mr. Turner. Please, let my wife and I properly thank you and your family for taking care of Julie under these completely unorthodox circumstances.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll do that sir,” Aaron said, taking the business card Richard presented and shaking his hand again. Margaret slipped out without another word and ran to her daughter’s side.

  Chapter 5

  The Turner family jet was a small capsule that comfortably seated eight people not including the pilot, Captain Felix. Captain Felix was a jolly kind of guy who made cute comments over the intercom about bypassing unidentified flying objects or Santa’s reindeer. He laughed at his own jokes more than the passengers did, but he kept the mood light.

  “I can’t believe I’m on a private jet,” Julie said, almost breathless as she tightly gripped the armrests. Her mother sat next to her and pulled out a stack of photo albums she had brought with her.

  “I thought these things might help you remember, honey,” Margaret said smiling at Richard, who stretched his neck to look at the photos, too. “They’ll take your mind off the flying, even though you have been on this jet, what is it twice, James?”

  “Yes,” James said hardly cracking a smile. He wanted to get Julie alone, but it wasn’t going to be possible right now. Not with the Petersons hanging around her as if she had come down with some debilitating disease within the past hour.

  Julie’s eyes flashed at the idea she had ridden in such style not just once before but twice.

  “Yes, we all rode on this to the Turners’ vineyard in Napa and then for your cousin’s wedding in Seattle. That was a little hairy due to the weather. Do you remember that, Julie? It was raining and the turbulence bounced us around in here like rag dolls. That was very scary. Remember that Richard?”

  Richard smiled, nodding his head.

  James continued to say nothing.

  Julie caught herself looking out the window every couple of minutes. When she looked at James, she would smile quickly and look back down at the photos in front of her.

  “This is when we took you to Bali. Remember the elephant ride? And you picked out a beautiful necklace from a street vendor who had only one leg. And I think she had only one tooth left in her mouth, too.”

  Staring at the beautiful pictures of this foreign country, Julie thought she was watching someone else’s vacation slides. Her mind was a total blank.

  “Now this was a fun trip to London. Do you remember that? You just loved the clothes. That punk style. Even the grandmothers wore their hair hot pink or blue and spiked all over.” Margaret made wild gestures above her head. Rolling her eyes it was obvious she didn’t approve of that kind of thing.

  With each passing page, Julie became more and more amazed. Had she really been to all of these places? Didn’t her family ever stay home and watch television or read some books?

  “Here is one of your dad when he bought you ...”

  “Wait!” Julie shouted and pointed to a picture of a girl with black hair piled on her head and bright red lips, who was barely in the picture Margaret was pointing out. “That’s Danielle! Danielle Wilcox! My friend from school! I know her!” She clapped and bounced in her seat. “We did volunteer work together at the Walnut Creek neighborhood. And we’d go to church together when we were both off on Sundays. And she would do the most hilarious imitations of that lady comedian on TV that would crack me up! Oh yes! I remember her! I do!”

  However, aside from her father, who continued to smile a little awkwardly, no one else seemed to be as excited about these memories.

  “You did what in the Walnut Creek neighborhood and went where on Sundays?”

  Julie looked puzzled. She didn’t know her previous self had kept these little adventures secret from her parents.

  “We did volunteer work and went to church? Why?”

  Margaret cleared her throat. She looked at James, who finally saw his chance.

  “Maybe Julie has had enough history for one day.” He unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up, steadying himself on the seat next to him. “Margaret, can I sit next to my fiancé for just a little while? I’ve missed her so much.”

  Margaret nodded and coldly patted Julie’s hands that had resumed their tight grip on the armrests. She slid into the seat next to Richard, who began to sooth her with whispers and condoning nods of his head. Julie looked at them and thought she had done or said something wrong. But what? It escaped her completely that her mother could have possibly been offended by doing charity work and going to church. It had to be something else.

  James sat down next to Julie and buckled his seatbelt.

  Over the intercom, Captain Felix made the announcement they would be landing in San Francisco in about forty-five minutes.

  “Not much longer,” James said, slipping his large, strong hand over Julie’s, swallowing it completely.

  Was it air sickness or something she ate? Julie wasn’t sure, but she had a funny feeling in her gut as she looked at James. He didn’t smile very much, but instead looked intensely into her eyes. He was searching for something like a glint or spark of recognition.

  She looked all over his face. At his hair, his eyebrows, the creases around his eyes and the flecks of light brown in his dark brown irises. She studied his lips and wondered if she had kissed them. She didn’t want to. Not now. She felt nothing for this man that she was supposed to be engaged to, except a weird uneasiness.

  Finally, Julie looked forward and rubbed her own eyes. All of this had made her tired. Dog tired. She snuggled down into her seat as James began to speak to her.

  “Do you remember anything about the wedding plans?”

  Julie yawned.

  “No. I hope I wasn’t supposed to pay any down payments to reserve anything or else we might end up without a band or photographer or food or a hall,” she laughed a little to herself, yawning again.

  “You don’t remember what your dress looks like or who your maid of honor is? Do you remember the song we picked out to dance to?”

  James stared straight ahead as he asked these questions. He didn’t care if Julie remembered the song they chose or bridesmaids. He was looking for loopholes. If she remembered that freak, Danielle, then there was no reason she shouldn’t remember everything else including that boat ride.

  “Do you remember what you said when I asked your dad for permission to marry you?”

  Julie made no answer.

  Looking down at her to see her expression for a second, James had thought he struck a nerve. But he was wrong. Julie didn’t answer because she was
fast asleep. Her chest rose and fell in the steady rhythm. He gritted his teeth. Looking out the window, he devised his next plan. She was trying to escape him again, he knew it. She was doing everything she could to push his buttons, but it wasn’t going to work. This little act was going to come to an abrupt end sooner rather than later. Julie would not be able to run away from him again. That he would make sure of.

  He let her sleep, keeping his hand covering hers even after it started to cramp up from being in the same position for so long. The strain felt sweet to James. In his own mind, he was training. He was getting into shape to keep one step ahead of his beautiful fiancé, who may have had everyone else fooled, but not him.

  Letting the plane rock her to sleep, Julie dreamed of a man. She couldn’t see his face, but he was funny. He liked to laugh and smile, and there was a bud vase on the table they were sitting at. In the dream, Julie had on the wrong shoes. She was embarrassed by them. She couldn’t walk right in them, and they felt clumsy and heavy. Why did she wear them when she knew she was going to be with this great guy? Why did she decide to wear something that didn’t fit right?

  When she woke up, she looked at James and wondered if he was the man. She went to pull her hand out from under his, but it clamped down hard. James woke with a start and looked right at Julie. Was she trying to get away?

  “Look. The plane is landing. We made it,” Julie said, still pulling her hand away to stretch both arms over her head. “I didn’t realize I was so tired. I just zonked right out.”

  James smiled as the landing gear touched down and scraped along the runway before they screeched to a stop.

  “Well, folks, we’re home,” Captain Felix announced. “Next time, I’ll remember to pack the parachutes. Good thing we didn’t need them,” he chuckled loudly before he shut off the intercom. Margaret quickly hurried everyone off the small jet and into the waiting limo that was parked on the small airfield.

  The ride home was quiet, and Julie sat close to her father’s side. It seemed like the only safe place to be. She looked outside as the world whizzed by, searching for anything that looked familiar. The Golden Gate Bridge stood like a majestic beast.