To See The Daises ... First Read Online Free PDF Page B

quickly swung around the corner, pressing themselves against the wall as they regained their breaths between spurts of laughter.
    "Are you sure I wasn't a thief?" she giggled helplessly, her forehead resting weakly on his chest.
    "I'm positive. You're much too obvious," he gasped, resting his back against the wall to pull her closer.
    His large hands lay loosely on her hips and, as his mind slid with unfaltering determination back to the thought of her slim body under the bulky coat, he found his hands were doing a little sliding of their own. Pulling them away from the rounded buttocks, he swore viciously under his breath. She was lost, alone, and needed his help— and all he could think about was that line of white flesh he had seen earlier.
    Tilting her head up, he stared down into her laughing face, his eyes sober. "Sunny, I'm completely ignorant as far as amnesia is concerned, but how can you remember O. Henry and James Cagney without remembering when you learned of them. At the very least, you should recall your reactions to them." He paused reflectively, unaware of the way her face changed as he spoke. "Take O. Henry. How did you feel when you read the story of the tramp who thought of jail as a winter resort?"
    For a moment she was perfectly still, then she pulled out of his arms, shoving her hands into the deep pockets of the coat as she turned to walk away from him.
    "Hey," he said in surprise, moving to keep in step with her. "Where are you going?"
    She shrugged her shoulders in answer, then glanced sideways at him. "I don't want you to probe. Why can't you just leave it alone?"
    He had to lean closer to hear the softly spoken words. "It's all going to come back whether you want It to or not," he said quietly. "You can't hide from yourself."
    "I can try," she said stubbornly. "And if it comes back, then it will come back in its own time."
    Walking beside her, he stared down at her firmly set jaw and thought about what she had said, about everything that had happened since he had first seen her standing in the hall. The thing that stood out with sharp clarity was her attitude toward her unusual situation. She seemed perfectly content with her loss of memory. Content, hell—in her own words, she was having a ball. There had to be a reason for that, maybe the husband she didn't want to know about.
    As an uncomfortable tightness gripped his chest, he realized she wasn't the only one who didn't want to know about the missing husband.
    He wouldn't try to force her to remember. Carefully blocking out his own feelings, he told himself that the brain was an extremely intricate instrument. It was probably giving her time to regain her strength from some type of trauma before making her face the truth. And in her own stubborn way, she recognized that. Unconsciously she knew there was something in her past that she was not yet capable of handling. And she was right. It had to come in its own time.
    "Ben." The softly spoken word startled him and he glanced down at her solemn face with its huge, anxious eyes. "I did try to remember my reactions to O. Henry," she said hesitantly. "But I can only tell you how I feel about the story now. I don't know if it's the same way I felt then."
    Good Lord, he thought, closing his eyes in consternation, she thinks she's hurt my feelings. She's trying to soothe my ego.
    Opening his eyes, he pulled her close in a brief, hard hug. "Don't worry about it." He smiled at her. "You're right. You'll remember when it's time." He glanced up and found they were almost even with the car he had parked on the street two hours earlier. Stepping in front of her, he opened the passenger door and waited for her to slide in.
    "Where are we going?" She didn't sound reluctant, merely curious.
    "To my place. It's not much, I'm afraid, but it beats the bus station hands down."
    Sliding into the car, she looked up at him as he g closed the door behind her. "Why are we going to your place?"
    "Where else would we go?"