Pure Redemption (Tainted Legacy) (14 page)

“What’s one hundred thirty-six times ninety-two?” Julia demanded of Gabe.

He shot her a look of confusion. “Do I get a pencil and piece of paper? Or at least a few minutes to figure it out in my head?”

“Oh, right,” Julia said, looking flustered. “What’s two times ninety-two?”

“One hundred and eighty-four,” Gabe answered after only a moments’ hesitation.

“See?” Julia proudly asked. She cocked her head to the side; eyes narrowed and looked at Gabe again. “What’s the capital of Brussels?”

Concern washed over his features and he paused for a long while before answering. Ava looked at Julia, a baffled look on her face, before she looked back to Gabe.

“I have no idea,” he finally admitted. “I didn’t think Brussels had a capitol. I thought it
was
the capitol? Of Belgium?”

Julia flashed him a huge grin and clapped her hands in excitement. “You’re right. It was a trick question. See?”

Gabe and Ava blinked at each other, apparently neither of them did see.

Molly wrinkled her nose. “Why do you two even know that?”

Julia ignored her. “I’m pretty sure you’re suffering from
psychogenic amnesia.” Her voice turned serious as she turned to Ava, speaking to her as if Ava was the parent and she was giving the prognosis of a child. Gabe
scowled
so deeply crevices were wedged between his eyebrows. “The good news is that he’s likely to retain memories from now on.  Also, people with psychogenic amnesia tend to retain a working knowledge of facts, which he clearly does. The bad news is that he might not ever recover his past memories.
”

Ava nodded slowly. Gabe watched her and realized that he wanted to remember for Ava’s sake, not necessarily for his own.

Why would
that
be
? he wondered. And then realized with a start, for the first time, that he wasn’t so sure he
wanted
to remember his entire past, if it were entirely up to him.
Why
wouldn’t
I want to remember
? he wondered this time. It made no sense. What kind of person doesn’t want to remember nearly twenty years of their life?

The question made him uncomfortable.
It also
left him feeling more than a little guilty.

“Gabe?” Ava asked as she began to slide her hand across the table to reach for his. She thought better of it and pulled it back, placing it in her lap. “Are you okay?”

He nodded and tried to look nonchalant. “Not any better or worse than usual.”

Ava tried to hold his gaze, to tell him without words that while what Julia said might make sense, at least under normal circumstances, she wasn’t convinced. She had a suspicion that whatever had stolen his memory was far more mystical than something as explainable as
psychogenic amnesia. Gabe gave her an almost imperceptible nod before taking a sudden, irrelevant, interest in the menu board.

While Ava appreciated Julia’s concern and her effort at trying to help, she was certain that this was something she and Gabe were going to have to figure out on their own.

Their food came and they ate with the usual amount of playful banter, primarily spurred on by Molly. Ava tried to force down at least half of her meal but Gabe’s sudden reluctance to even look at her caused her appetite to dwindle. Typically, even now, he wasn’t shy about finishing off her food when she didn’t finish. But this time, though he eyed it up, he looked away before she even had a chance to offer.

“Oh, he did make it!” Molly said as she gazed at the door and smiled. She looked at Gabe. “That’s Oliver, my boyfriend. You met him
once
. We all went to a movie together. You don’t really know him.” She shrugged. “I mentioned to him that you were back but I didn’t tell him about your memory loss because, well, that’s your business. So you can tell him if you want or you can just see how things go. It might not even come up since you don’t know each other well.” Her words tumbled out quickly, as she waved Oliver over.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” he said as he leaned over and kissed Molly’s cheek. He grabbed a chair and placed himself at the end of the booth, Gabe on one side, Molly on the other.

“That’s okay. We already ate, though,” Molly pointed out. “If I’d known
for sure that
you were coming, I’d have ordered you something.”

He shrugged. “I’m okay for now. Maybe I’ll get something later.
”

“So, you remember Gabe, right?” Molly asked him.

Oliver looked to Gabe, tossed him a friendly smile. “Yeah, hey, man. What’s up?”

“Not much,” Gabe admitted looking a little wary.

“Um,” Molly began, scrunching up her face in hesitation, “I know you just got here, but would you and Gabe maybe want to go shoot some pool? Julia’s got some stuff going on and we could really use a little bit of time for some girl talk. We’ll be quick about it,” she hurriedly added. “So maybe just one game?”

“Yeah,” Oliver agreed. Neither he nor Gabe looked the least bit offended.

After the guys had sauntered away Julia
frowned
at Molly. “Why me? Why is it always me?”

Molly shrugged. “Because usually it
is
you,” she said diplomatically. “And if I had said it was Ava, Gabe might not have been so easy to get rid of.”

Julia scowled at her and grabbed one of Ava’s French fries. She popped it into her mouth and chewed it thoughtfully.

“Wha-…
Did you,” Molly stuttered as she blinked at Julia in surprise, “did you just eat a French fry?!”

“So what if I did?” Julia challenged.

“I thought French fries were hazardous to your health? Overly processed and covered in trans fat and all that business?” Molly said, still somewhat in shock.

Julia took on a defensive air. “I guess since Gabe came back, I’ve been rethinking things. I mean, I’ve always been so careful and I’m not saying I plan on going all crazy but look at what happened to him. Just out of the blue, a big pile of crazy lands in his lap and now he doesn’t even know who he is. I mean, what’s the point of always being so careful about everything all the time when really, if fate decides to throw something at you, most of the time she doesn’t give you the opportunity to duck.”

“Holy crap,” Molly mumbled. “I think that’s the most insightful line of bull you’ve ever come up with.” She grinned. “I like it! Have another fry!” she offered as she slid Ava’s plate her way.

Julia wrinkled her faintly freckled nose. “N
ah. They’re cold. But moving on,
why did you send them away?”

“Oh, right,” Molly said as she folded her hands all business-like on the table. She turned to Ava. “I take it things aren’t going well?”

Ava fidgeted with her napkin. “Define ‘well’.”

Molly groaned.

Julia’s face fell into a look of pure sympathy. “That bad?”

“No,” Ava said decisively
. C
onsidering the alternative, this was a blessing
. S
he wasn’t going to take it for granted. “It’s not bad at all. It might not be exactly what I want but it’s better than what I had a few weeks ago.”

“You know,” Molly said, “if for just once in your life you decide to be ‘the glass is half-empty’ kind of girl instead of ‘the glass is half-full’ kind of girl, no one would blame you. Especially not us.”

Ava finally shrugged, feeling pathetic. “I c
an handle his memory being gone, e
ven if it’s permanent. What I’m having a hard time with is that lately, I feel like he’s only sticking around because he told me he would. Not because he wants to.” She’d been thinking it but it felt a little too real having said it out loud. “But then sometimes, I catch h
im looking at me and it’s like…” she paused,
“I don’t know how to explain it other than to say it’s like he’s trying to see inside of me.” She didn’t add that it was the
intense
way he looked at her that made her feel that way. She was sure Molly would misconstrue it for something that it clearly wasn’t. She’d tried to talk to him at those times but he never seemed to be in the mood to discuss it.

Gabe’s laughter
bounced
through her thoughts. For just the tiniest of moments she felt a twinge of jealousy that she’d yet to be able to make him laugh like that since he’d come back. In fact, this was the first time she’d heard him laugh at all. Then, after realizing that, she smiled because she was just happy to hear his laughter despite the reason.

“What I think,” Molly inserted, “is that the two of you just need to get out of the house and do something fun. He’s been back for what? Two weeks?”

“Nine days,” Ava interjected.

“Right. And almost every time I’ve talked to you, you’ve been cooped up at the cabin. It would be enough to give anyone well, um, a case of cabin fever. I think the two of you just need to get out and have a little fun.” Molly frowned at her. “So why haven’t you?”

“What?” Ava asked.

“Why haven’t you been taking your guy out every night? The two of you should be out having fun. Living it up!” Molly stressed.

“Oh,” Ava mumbled.

“What?” Julia asked. Her tone was drenched in suspicion.

Ava sighed. “I haven’t told my parents about Gabe yet. They know half the town and I’ve been a little worried we’d run into someone that would mention it to them.”

Molly collapsed back into her seat, staring at Ava with wide eyes.

“What you mean,” Julia c
orrectly
guessed, “is that you haven’t told them because you don’t want them to know he’s living with you.”

Ava scrunched up her face in a look of pure guilt.

“Oh. Wow,” Molly said on a breath of air. “Just how long do you think the two of you are going to be able to play house before they find out?”

“How is it that they haven’t found out yet?” Julia wondered.

“They’ve been busy working on this housing project. Dad was pretty instrumental in getting the organization going. Luckily for me, it’s keeping them really busy,” Ava explained. “I call and check in with them at least once a day. So far, they’ve been satisfied with that.”

“You’re going to have to tell them,” Julia pointed out.

“I know. I will. I’m not lying to them but believe me, I feel bad enough. It’s not like I usually keep things from my parents.” That used to be true, she realized with a sinking feeling. But since she’d met Gabe, there had been a whole lot that she’d needed to keep from them. Not necessarily by choice, but by necessity. And then, her heart sank even further when she realized that as if kee
ping things from her parents were
n’t bad enough, she was still keeping things from her friends. She felt beyond rotten for it.

“Don’t look so glum,” Molly ordered. “It will all work out.”

Ava tried to force a smile. She wanted to believe her but Molly’s optimism was severely misplaced.

“They must be done,” Julia
murmured.

Everyone’s eyes darted toward the game room. The guys were headed back to the table.

Molly slid out of the booth.

“Where are you going?” Ava asked.

“Nowhere. But you,” Molly told her, “are going to go have some fun with
that bundle of hotness
. Now go,” she said, pointing back toward the direction of the game room.

Ava smiled as she slid from the booth.

Gabe gave her a questioning look. “Are we leaving already?”

“No,” Ava told him as she led the way, “we’re going to go play a game of darts.”

Gabe grinned in response, sending Ava’s heart into a fluttery dance it hadn’t followed in a very long time.

They didn’t notice Molly’s smug look as she watched them play. She thought they both looked a whole lot more relaxed than when they arrived. She smiled each time one of them laughed.

“Seems I’ve forgotten how to play darts,” Gabe admitted to Ava when the game was over. He looked a little troubled by his admission.

Ava laughed. “No, it’s just that I’ve always excelled at darts.”

“Was I good at pool? Because I don’t think Oliver knew what hit him.”

“Yeah,” Ava said with a grin, “you were always good at pool.
You beat me every time.
”

“So let’s play
now
,” Gabe suggested and Ava followed.

They were only minutes into the game before Gabe started to laugh. “
Oh, sweetheart,
I’m not sure if it’s that I’m so good or the fact that you’re
so
incredibly
bad.”

She
shrugged good-naturedly
and laughed along with him
. “I won’t disagree.”

“It’s your stance,” Gabe informed her. “It’s off.”

Ava tried to reposition herself as she lined up her stick with the ball.

“You should be more like this,”
he said as he stood behind her. H
is body form
ed
to hers, one arm scoop
ed
around her waist, accidentally sliding up her shirt and across her stomach. Before his other hand could reach hers the pool stick tumbled from her fingers, bounced off the edge of the table and clattered noisily across the floor.