Free A Man She Couldn’t Forget by Kathryn Shay Page B

wake.”
    There was a blast of a horn outside. “Saved by the bell,” his mom announced. To Brady she added, “That’s Jimmy. He’s come to pick Sam up, and Lizzy’s in the car, so he’s not coming in.”
    “Give him my best.” Brady accepted his sister’s hug warmly and held on just a bit longer. His anger diffused as quickly as it had come. “And hug my niece.”
    When Samantha left to join her husband and child, Brady’s mother turned to him. “You can tell me. I won’t criticize Clare.”
    “I know, you always liked her.”
    “Very much. She just lost her way, and I’m sorry you got hurt by it.”
    He knocked back more beer, not wanting to think about the past two years, not wanting to admit his guilt, his terror and his confusion.
    “Sammy told me most of what happened tonight at the restaurant.”
    “I only got filled in by Harris.” His fist curled around the bottle. “I hate that man.”
    “Honey…”
    “I know it won’t do any good.” He looked after Sam. “She shouldn’t have said anything to Clare, but I can’t stand being mad at any of them.”
    “Which is why you left your job and your marriage in Chicago when your dad died and came back home.”
    “No, Mom. I came home because I was sick of being away from all of you. I never really wanted to stay there after art school. When I sold my first book, I could have moved back. But Gail wasn’t having any of it.”
    “I still felt bad about your marriage breaking up over us.”
    “My marriage was over long before I left Gail. And the point isn’t that I moved back then, it’s that I should have moved back before Dad died.”
    “So you said.”
    “Doesn’t matter. It’s a done deal. And if I hadn’t moved back to Rockford, I wouldn’t have met Clare.”
    His mother’s expression was grave. “Which in some ways would have been a good thing, given the circumstances.”
    He shook his head.
    “How long has it been since the accident?”
    “Seventeen days and twenty hours.”
    “Oh, honey. And she still doesn’t remember you?”
    “ Nada. ” He shrugged. “But she’s getting flashes of our past together. Thankfully, it’s early on, when things were pretty good between us.”
    “It’ll all come back.”
    He averted his face. His mother had always been able to read her children like books. He was the easiest. From bringing frogs into his bedroom, to cutting school, to the first time he had sex, there had been no secrets between them.
    Except one. Now.
    “You want that, don’t you, Brade? For Clare to remember?”
    Sadness filled him. It happened every time he thought about Clare’s accident. And he was so tired of keeping this to himself. “Maybe not.”
    “What aren’t you telling me?”
    “Something I haven’t told anyone.”
    When he didn’t go further, couldn’t, she took his hand. “I won’t judge, I promise.”
    “I know you won’t. It’s just hard admitting this to you. I’m…ashamed of myself.”
    “Tell me, son.”
    “The reason Clare was out on the road late that night?”
    His mother nodded.
    “It was my fault, Mom. I caused Clare’s accident and memory loss. And I’ll never forgive myself.”

CHAPTER SIX
    “N OTHING LOOKS FAMILIAR ?” Jonathan asked as he and Clare stood on the set of Clarissa’s Kitchen.
    It was easy to tell he was disappointed, Clare thought. Sometimes he looked so unhappy, it made her feel guilty for not remembering things. That, coupled with the anxiety still stirring inside her from the dream last night, had her wishing she hadn’t come to the studio today.
    “No, I’m sorry, nothing.”
    She studied the show’s set—a nicely laid out space with a steel refrigerator to the audience’s right, built-in ovens on the left and the counter cooktop facing the cameras. The walls were a creamy-yellow, and wooden cabinets graced the area. There was even a fake window with pretty wooden shutters. But in contrast to her own kitchen, Clare felt chilled by the strangeness