Free Mr. Unforgettable by Karina Bliss Page A

this, you don’t.”
    What did he want from her, this man? Didn’t he know how hard she tried? Didn’t everybody know how hard she bloody tried? “This isn’t building my confidence, it’s undermining it,” she snapped. “We only have five lessons and two weeks of daily swimming practice to get this right.”
    â€œAnd you’re doing really well,” he soothed. “All credit to you, Liz, I didn’t think you could do it. You’re a gutsy woman.”
    â€œDamn right I am. You think this is easy?”
    She was near tears and didn’t know why. He was being so kind. And then suddenly she did know why. Liz got out of the pool, wrapped herself in a towel.
    â€œRosie told you, didn’t she? Who I was.”
    Who I was ? That bothered Luke. Why was this woman disowning a past that only made her achievements more impressive? “Yes.”
    She looked down at him, her expression cool. Her pale hair, darkened to the color of wet sand, dripped water over her tense bare shoulders and made splotches on the burgundy towel.
    â€œIf you want details, you’re going to be disappointed,” she said crisply. “I don’t discuss my childhood.”
    Yesterday he might have called her withdrawal coldness. “Did Harry know?”
    The temperature plummeted below zero. “He respected my decision not to talk about it.”
    A mistake, Luke thought, but kept that opinion to himself. “You know we have a similar background?” He’d shared a sanitized version with Jo Swann of the Beacon Bay Chronicle yesterday and the article had appeared next to the picture of Saint Snowy.
    â€œYes, I read it.” Her lip curled. “Maybe I should do the same, it might win me a few pity votes.”
    â€œThat was my motivation,” he said evenly. “Might as well screw some benefit from a shitty childhood.”
    Liz stumbled to a chair and sat down. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
    â€œWhat have you been telling people all these years?”
    â€œOnly child, both parents dead…Adopt a tragic expression and they back off pretty quickly.”
    Now he understood her ambivalence about the camp—it was a skeleton on her doorstep. “No wonder you never accepted an invitation to visit.”
    But she wasn’t listening. “Who else has Rosie told?”
    â€œNo one.”
    She lifted her chin. “I’m a private person and I want to stay that way. No pity votes.”
    â€œRosie won’t tell anyone else.” He lifted himself to sit at the side of the pool, feet dangling in the water. “You know, Camp Chance is very different from the institutions we grew up in. Let me show you, Liz.”
    But she was already shaking her head. “You deal with the past your way,” she said. “I’ll deal with it in mine. And I choose to forget.”
    â€œBut you don’t forget,” he said softly. “Do you?”
    She clasped her wrist. “Can we get back to the swimming lesson now?”
    â€œOf course.” Luke let the subject drop.
    Liz got into the pool and started practicing with a terrified determination that was painful to watch. Knowing better than to interfere, he made comments where necessary, occasionally jumping in to correct her body position, mostly sitting on the side, watching her.
    Beth had kept to herself, Rosie had said. One of those kids who got noticed by being quiet, being good. Luke had been a troublemaker himself—it had certainly got him attention, too. The wrong kind. His thoughts became bleak, so he refocused on Liz, who was readying herself for another torpedo.
    Already too slim, she’d lost another couple of pounds, due more, he suspected, to a punishing schedule than daily swim practice. He made a mental note to buy some energy bars…get some food into her.
    She got to the other end and stood up, turned to him relieved.