Free A Bride Worth Fighting For by Sara Daniel Page A

to wrap her arms around him and reassure him.
    Before she could, she needed some reassurance of her own. Why hadn’t even a scrap of recognition surfaced? When she’d discovered the lake, she’d tapped into a foggy memory of her lake. When she’d first laid eyes on the Wiccan Haus, she knew a resort figured into her life.
    Why did the memories of Tucker refuse to return?
    Perhaps they’d argued about her resort plans. If she’d denied his pleas to preserve the natural habitat, their disagreement could have come close to tearing them apart. No matter how much he loved her, he wouldn’t back down on the environment issues.
    But they could talk through it. Whatever their differences in the past, she’d rethink her stance and give compromise another shot. His adamant regard for preserving the natural habitat resonated with her.
    “I’m sorry, Tucker,” she called out, digging her nails into the tree trunk. “If you kiss me again, I promise I won’t interrupt with stupid questions.”
    “Not a stupid question. As long as you can’t remember, my advances are inappropriate.” He shot a pained smile over his shoulder, making her feel even worse. Her loss of memory couldn’t have been a picnic for him, but all the pampering, special treatment, and support went straight to her, leaving him stuck waiting for her to come around while he had no one to vent his frustrations to.
    He didn’t return to her side, so she pushed away from the tree and circled around in front of him. Placing her hand on his shoulder, she stood on tiptoe and leaned into him. “You’re not the only one who can initiate intimacy.”
    He turned his head aside, causing her lips to graze the soft stubble on his cheek instead of his mouth. He didn’t want her.
    She stepped back, blinking away tears. He was too nice to considering dumping her while she suffered from a mental illness, but he clearly wanted out of their relationship.
    They returned to the Haus in silence. She didn’t invite him in for coffee or attack him for a goodnight kiss as he dropped her at her room. Instead, she closed herself in her room and lay on the bed, trying to think of a plan to fix their relationship. He was her rock. She couldn’t imagine her life without him.
    She fell asleep before she came up with anything, but she awoke in the morning needing to arm herself with as many truths and facts as she could uncover. After dressing, she headed for the front desk in the lobby. “Myron, I need your help. I need some suggestions for old-fashioned memory-jogging activities, and I need to google myself.”
    The check-in clerk squinted at her then flipped over three playing cards. “Okay. Come around the counter. You can use the computer while I make a list for you.”
    Gwen stepped behind the desk and into an empty chair, feeling even more comfortable than in front of the counter. “What’s with the cards? Are you playing a solitaire game?”
    “I’m a card reader.”
    “Like a psychic or a witch or something?” she joked.
    “Psychic. I leave the witchcraft to Sarka.”
    Gwen started to chuckle, but Myron didn’t join in. Okay, then. Better not to think too hard about it. Especially since she had other things she needed to deal with before another headache incapacitated her. After opening an Internet search engine, she typed in her name. Holding her breath, she clicked enter.
    Recognizing a social-media page in her name, she scrolled through it, but the most recent posts were a year old, containing updates on her mother’s deteriorating condition and then funeral arrangements. A multitude of condolence messages littered the page. The agony and grief of reading each message washed over her. After the funeral, she’d chosen to step away from social media and give herself time to heal and reflect without sharing every step of the process.
    She returned to the search engine. Oddly, the next result for her name was for Wilde Land Development, the company owned by