Forget Me Not (Escape Contemporary Romance) (8 page)

Her mother was as straightforward as always, speaking her mind, getting things out in the open. That wasn’t a surprise to Claire, but Stefan’s response certain did surprised her. He seemed immediately comfortable with June, much more so than he’d been with Claire at the hospital or when they’d first come back home. Perhaps he was getting used to his condition and, as he’d said, he’d already heard a lot about her mother.

June had even managed a hug out of him. Claire felt a pang of jealousy because it was much more than she’d had from Stefan, but also felt relieved. This was progress. They were getting somewhere.

‘Claire’s doing a wonderful job looking after me.’ Stefan described his relief at being released from the hospital, how Claire had shown him around the city and helped him get oriented, and then added, ‘I appreciate everything she’s done. I don’t want you to think I’ll take advantage of her.’

June held his gaze. ‘You were always a good person with a strong sense of right and wrong. A man of integrity, I used to say. I can only presume you’re the same person inside.’

‘So you trust me?’

‘I didn’t say that.’ Her expression softened. ‘But I’ve always liked you and I don’t want to give you a hard time, not under the circumstances.’

A look of relief washed over Stefan’s face. ‘I guess I’ve escaped the third degree, then.’

‘Nonsense, you’ve got off lightly,’ June said with mock indignation. ‘There’s no point me questioning you if you can’t remember the answers.’

Stefan opened his mouth to speak, but Claire interrupted. ‘I’ll put the kettle on then.’

This whole scenario was too weird for words and Claire had too much on her mind. She wanted to find some middle-ground.

Claire heard her mother’s footsteps behind her as she walked into the kitchen, the door swinging closed behind them. After setting the kettle to boil, she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to find her mother wrapping her arms around her, and though she wasn’t a little girl any more, it felt reassuring. You were never too old for a cuddle.

‘You seem to be in hug-mode today.’ Claire leaned back against the kitchen cupboards, smiling.

‘I guess I am,’ her mother said. ‘It seems to be that sort of occasion.’

‘You don’t have to give your commiserations. It’s not as if someone died.’

‘No, but I can see that it’s difficult all round. I can’t imagine what it’s like for Stefan, waking up, not knowing where he is, not even remembering his own name. He’s not my problem, though. As I said to him earlier,
you’re
the one I care about. This is equally hard for you, maybe harder. No one else can truly understand what you’re going through.’

‘You’re right but it’s not that bad. We’re doing okay.
I’m
doing okay. That’s why you came, isn’t it? To check up on me.’

June placed a hand on Claire’s shoulder. ‘Speaking on the telephone just isn’t the same. I had to see you.’

‘I can understand that, but you don’t need to worry.’

Crossing her arms, her mother leaned back against the kitchen bench. ‘Yes, I do. I’m your mother—that’s my job.’

Claire smiled. ‘And you’ve always been good at it.’

’No, I haven’t.’

‘That’s not true,’ Claire shot back.

Her mother had made mistakes, but she was human and they’d got through the tough times. The three of them—her mother, Sophie and her—were stronger for it.

June held her gaze. ‘I stayed with your father longer than I should and I think that might be what you’re doing now—hanging on.’

‘No, Mum, that’s not it.’

‘I’m the last person to tell you what to do and I don’t want to interfere–’

‘But?’

‘There’s no ‘but’. It’s your life, your decision, and only you can know the right thing to do. I just wanted to say that I’m here if you need me, if you want to talk, or if you ever need to get away from the apartment.’

Claire sighed. ‘It’s not like that.’

‘People do strange things for love.’

‘This isn’t about love, it’s about duty and compassion. This is about looking after someone I once cared for. I can’t abandon Stefan they way he is now. It’d be like kicking a friend when they’re down.’

Her mother tilted her head. ‘I can see he needs you. I just don’t want you to get hurt.’

Claire gave her mother’s hand a quick squeeze. ‘I know.’

Her mother grew quiet, and Claire suspected she was thinking about the past and the mistakes she’d made. June was well aware of her own errors and wasn’t one to believe she was the font of all knowledge. She also wasn’t quick to judge. ‘This isn’t for forever, or until he gets better, or even for a year,’ she said. ‘It’s for two weeks.’

Her mother frowned, then nodded. ‘Okay.’

‘After that, I’ve done my bit, and Stefan knows he’ll have to cope on his own.’

Stefan would find a way to cope with his condition, and two weeks would pass all too quickly. Eventually, all Claire would have were memories.

She just had to remember to treasure every minute they had together until then, to enjoy the present and lock those moments into her mind.

It would have to be enough.

There wasn’t anything more she could do.

Chapter Eight

‘This is Stefan,’ he said into the phone. ‘And if you’re James, you must be my father.’

‘My God, Stefan, it really is you.’ After a pause, he added, ‘Damn right I’m your father.’ A short silence followed and Stefan figured the man must be still be in shock, must still be collecting his thoughts.

‘You’ve been hard to get hold of,’ Stefan said. ‘I’ve tried a few times.’

‘I’m so glad you managed to get through. It’s been a busy time for us, and we just got back from Long Island. I was going to call you as soon as you’d settled back in at your apartment.’

Claire had shown Stefan an atlas, pointed out where his parents lived in New York and explained the distances between to him. He’d had the feeling she was making excuses, but there was no point worrying about that now. ‘She told us what happened,’ James said. ‘I understand that you needed someone to look after you for a while because the hospital would only release you into the care of someone who knew you. That’s what she told us, anyway.’

‘Claire, you mean?’

‘Yes, Claire.’

Stefan didn’t know how he was supposed to feel about all this. Talking to his father on the phone felt strange. He’d seen photos, knew what the man looked like, but that was it. If he was being honest, he didn’t feel much of anything.

‘How are you, Son?’

‘It’s hard to explain.’ Stefan paused. ‘I’m fine. Physically, there’s nothing wrong with me. The doctors said there was no real reason to keep me in hospital.’

‘So we were told. That’s why we didn’t immediately jump on a plane and get over there. Claire said the doctors had done as much as they could.’

‘But I
have
lost my memory.’

‘As long as you’re okay, that’s the main thing.’

I’m okay, am I?
Was that what the man thought?

Stefan didn’t have a life-threatening illness and he wasn’t going to drop dead from disease or from some other slow-moving ailment, but he’d suffered a radical transformation. Or so he’d been told, but that was second-hand information and other people’s experiences.

He wasn’t the same man he’d been before. Claire had been a stranger too, at first, but as soon as he’d seen her, he’d felt something, some small spark. Perhaps he would feel the same way with his parents, too.

In the meantime, if this man on the other end of the phone didn’t understand what was going on, Stefan would have to lay it out for him.

‘I can’t remember any part of my life that happened before ten days ago,’ he said down the phone. ‘I don’t know who I am. I can’t go to work. I have enough trouble just
going to the store to buy a few things for myself. And if I bumped into you on the street, I wouldn’t know you from the next person. I am far from a fully-functional human being, Dad.’

‘I see,’ the man said. ‘I’ve got a couple of important business meetings that can’t be cancelled, but we’ll be there as soon as we can. Don’t think we’ve abandoned you. In fact, we’ve got a few ideas on how we might be able to help you.’

Stefan figured he’d give his father the benefit of a doubt. The man was probably loathe to make an ill-formed judgment when the only information he had was second-hand. Still, Stefan’s gut was telling him there was something wrong with this situation.

Also, he was well aware that speaking over the phone wasn’t the same as seeing his parents face-to-face. It’d have to wait.

‘Hang on,’ James said. ‘Your mother’s just walked in the door.’

There was a kafuffle and raised voices, and then Stefan heard his mother’s voice come down the line. ‘Darling, I can’t believe it’s you. How are you?’

He didn’t feel like going over the same ground a second time. ‘Physically, I’m fine. I’m all in one piece, but I can’t remember you or Dad or anything else.’

‘Are you eating enough?’

Stefan shook his head, amazed at the question. ‘That’s the one thing you don’t need to worry about.’

‘Are you able to take care of yourself and do the basics?’

‘I don’t need a nurse to bathe me if that’s what you mean, but doing the simplest things can be difficult. I can’t remember...
anything
.’

‘Is she taking care of you?’

There it was again—that word,
she
—as though Claire’s name didn’t deserve be spoken. Stefan knew that his mother must be alluding to something, but he had no idea what and he didn’t have the energy to be bothered finding out.

‘Claire is definitely taking care of me,’ he said. ‘She’s doing an excellent job.’

‘Hmm.’

‘I don’t know what I’d do without her. She’s a gem.’

‘We’ll be there soon. Hang on ‘til we get there.’

As if he could do anything else. He wasn’t giving up. That was something inside him, something Stefan could feel, even if he couldn’t remember it. He certainly wasn’t going to take some drastic action or commit suicide in the time it would take his parents to reach him, though it occurred to him that even if he’d been in the most dire of straights, they wouldn’t have be here to help.

He had an all new appreciation for Claire. She’d given him so much more than they had. So had her mother, for that matter. She’d been calling Claire daily, hadn’t just left Claire to go through things alone. She’d dropped by. And she made a damn fine lemon cake to boot.

This didn’t make sense. His parents were supposed to be on
his
side. Claire’s mother had made it clear her allegiance was to her daughter, but had done more for him than James and Barbara Porter.

Still, they
were
his parents, even if that didn’t mean much to him. But he couldn’t help feeling disappointed, as if something was missing.

They simply didn’t get it.

Between her mother and sister’s constant calls, Claire felt like lately she spent half her time on the phone. Sophie was on the other side of the country, but Claire wasn’t going to let a few thousand kilometres come between her and her sister.

‘How long until you finish work?’ Claire asked.

She was determined to find out more about her sister’s pregnancy and how she was coping. They’d had the Claire-Stefan discussion last time, so they could have the Sophie-Jeff-Junior conversation.

‘Yesterday was my last day,’ Sophie said. ‘But if I’d known how I’d felt, I’d have left work sooner. Also, there’s mostly men I work with, and they just wouldn’t have had a clue.’

‘So how do you feel?’

‘Fat.’

‘No, really?’

‘I feel like an elephant. Baby elephants have a gestation period of twenty-two months and that’s what this feels like. I have a lot of sympathy for the female elephant right now. It feels like I’ve been pregnant for a hundred years.’

‘How long to go?’

‘Four weeks exactly, if Junior is on time.’

‘That’s wonderful,’ Claire said. ‘And, seriously, have you been feeling okay?’

‘Tired, mostly. My back hurts and my ankles are swollen, but I’m so happy and excited, I can’t believe it’s really happening.’

Claire could believe that. She’d imagined it happening many times to her. She longed to have a child. Claire had other goals in life but the yearning inside her to have her own little one felt different, like it ran deep, to her core.

She wasn’t stupid, and knew that though her biological clock was ticking, but there were still plenty of good years ahead of her. It wasn’t like she’d missed the boat completely, but her whole life was so far out of whack that she wasn’t in any position to have a child.

That didn’t stop her thinking about it.

‘I don’t want to rub it in,’ Sophie said. ‘And I hope it’s okay if I talk about it. I didn’t mean to complain about this whole pregnancy thing.’

Sophie deserved all the happiness in the world. Claire just wanted a little for herself, too.

‘Of course, it’s all right.’ She said, deciding to lighten things up. ‘For your sake, I only hope it’s a human child and not a baby elephant.’

Sophie chuckled. ‘At this point, nothing would surprise me.’

‘I’ll visit you after the baby is born,’ she said. ‘I won’t be able to get time off work right away, but I should be able to make it by the time the baby is a few months old.’

‘Whenever you get here, I’d love to see you. Jeff would, too. But that’s enough about me. That wasn’t why I called. I wanted to hear how you were coping.’

‘I’m hanging in there. Stefan still hasn’t remembered anything. He’s him but not him, if you know what I mean I don’t know how else to explain it.’

‘You’re still in love with him,’ Sophie said. ‘That’s it.’

‘For crying out loud, we’ve been separated for six months. I’ve got on with my life, my career and my friends.’

‘Claire, I’ve got a brilliant job where I’m well-respected and they’ll miss me now I’ve gone. But work goes on.’

‘I know the job I do is important, and I’m valued at work. There’s no question about that.’

‘That’s not what I mean. Work won’t come to a standstill because you’re not there. It’s not the same.’

Claire figured she might as well come out with it and confess. ‘I’m trying to tell you something here. I was offered a promotion at work, even though there were others who’d had more experience than me.’