Chapter Ten

My pulse quickened when I took in the expression on Nick’s face. His eyes burned with anger as they bore into Luke’s, and his cheeks flushed a dark red. The hand on Luke’s collar tightened, and his clenched fist trembled at his side.

“Stay back, Julia,” he said, his voice hard.

“Sounds like good advice to me, princess.” Luke stared back at Nick, an amused glint in his own eyes. “Looks like loverboy wants to defend your honor.”

An uneasy feeling spread through my stomach. Nick would hit him, I knew that. It wasn’t like he’d been involved in a ton of schoolyard brawls or anything, but he’d been goaded into fights before by arrogant jocks who couldn’t keep their mouths shut.

I bit my lip as I looked from one to the other. If Nick wanted a fight, Luke would give him one. He wouldn’t hold back, especially if Nick threw the first punch.

“Nick,” I said in a warning voice, taking a step towards them.

He barely glanced at me, his eyes still locked on Luke’s. “I’m not going to let him say all that crap about you…about us.”

Luke laughed. “You didn’t even understand what I was saying. Besides, you don’t have it in you.”

Nick set his mouth in a tight line. “Want to bet?”

“He’s just trying to provoke you, Nick! Walk away.”

“I don’t think so,” he said. He caught Luke’s collar in both hands now and gave him a rough shake.

All trace of amusement vanished from Luke’s face. His eyes turned ice cold. With a grunt, he clamped his hands on Nick’s shoulders and shoved him…hard.

Nick staggered backwards and grabbed the arm of a chair to regain his balance. “You bastard.”

A malicious smile spread over Luke’s face. “Come on then. You want to do this? Let’s do it.”

Panting, Nick strode toward Luke. I flung myself in front of him and grabbed his arm. “That’s enough! I didn’t come in here after you so I could watch you get hurt. Just let it go.”

Nick raised his eyebrows. “He’s threatened you, constantly insults you—and you want to me to let it go? I can’t do that.”

“You can,” I insisted. “He’s not worth it.”

He glanced sharply at Luke. “Julia, I—”

“I know he’s a major asshole. Believe me. Hardly a second goes by when I don’t want to punch him out. But it wouldn’t help get us out of this mess. And if you fight him and get hurt—if both of us are hurt—then we’re screwed.”

His eyes softened. “All right. I’ll let it go…for now.”

“Jesus, Parsons. You didn’t tell me your boyfriend had such a temper.”

“What are you doing here?” I demanded. “Why aren’t you with your father?”

Luke pulled out his cigarette lighter and twirled it between his fingers. “I tried, all right? I did what you said. I talked to him about our life in St. Peter’s, about his stint in the military and blah, blah, blah. He didn’t want to listen to any of it.”

I pressed my fingers to my eyes. “You didn’t give it enough time.”

“Oh, I gave as much as I could stand. It’s pointless.”

“It’s not. You’re just not trying hard enough.”

“Really?” Luke said with a sneer. “What about what you’re doing with Nick here? I don’t see you making much progress. Does he remember you yet? Does he remember anything?”

Before I could answer, Nick touched my sleeve. “Julia.”

I turned to look at him. The anger had disappeared from his face, and there was an urgency in his eyes that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “What is it?”

“I do remember something.”

I drew in a breath. “You do?”

“Yeah. It came to me all of a sudden when you went to the bathroom. I was going to tell you, but then he showed up,” he added, jerking his head at Luke.

“Tell me.”

“I remember…M&Ms.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “Oh, give me a break. Of all the things in the real world for you to remember, it’s candy?”

I barely heard Luke’s snarky comment over the wild beating of my heart. I fastened my eyes on to Nick. “What about them?”

Nick licked his lips, his gaze moving rapidly over my face. “I gave them to a little girl when she fell off her bike and skinned her knees. I wanted her to feel better.”

“That’s right,” I said in a husky voice.

“I saw it in my head. I crossed the street to give her the M&Ms, then my mother came out of my house after me. But the girl… It was you, wasn’t it?”

I nodded, tears stinging the back of my throat. “Yes.”

“I knew it. This memory? It kind of feels like it belongs to someone else, but I see it so clearly in my mind.” He smiled at me. “And when it came to me, somehow I knew you were the girl.”

“You’re remembering the day we met.” I wanted to throw my arms around him and weep in relief. “Do you remember anything else?”

“No. Just that one memory. It seems out of place with everything I know, but I think it really happened.”

“It happened. Things are starting to come back to you. You see?” I shot Luke a look of triumph. “His memory trigger is starting to work. Now it won’t be long before your father’s does, too.”

“Shit,” Luke said, his eyes round with disbelief. “Maybe you’re right.”

* * * *

I stood in front of the village pub. It occupied a space at the end of a narrow lane, just where I had painted it in my mural. A trio of tall fir trees stood in a row to one side of it. A narrow stream flowed on the other side, a small foot bridge arching over the strip of crystal-clear water. I stopped and stared, amazed at how both the stream and the bridge shone like silver in the moonlight.

I turned my attention to the pub. The long, narrow building had a thatched roof, a coat of gleaming white paint and windows made of frosted glass. Lush green bushes flanked a curving stone walkway. Over the door hung a rectangular sign that read Village Pub in curling black script.

“Julia? You okay?”

I turned to look at Nick. “I’m fine. It’s just that all of this is too familiar. It makes me feel kinda sick.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything. He’d been strangely quiet on the way over. I was glad Luke had rushed ahead of us into the pub. Now I had a chance to talk to Nick alone.

“How about you?” I asked. “How are you doing?”

“I…” He glanced at the door of the pub, then back at me with a slight laugh. “I feel strange. Disoriented.” He slipped his hand in his pocket and withdrew the picture. It was creased in the middle and curling at the edges. “When you first showed this to me, it didn’t make any sense. All I kept thinking was how could I have been at this house, with you, and not remember it. But now…”

“Now?” I prompted.

“Now I think I was there. Somehow I just know that this is me.”

“It was you.” I felt a wistful smile cross my face. “Your parents hosted a party for us that night. And when you walked me home, you—”

“I kissed you for the first time,” he finished.

My heart skipped a beat. “Do you remember?”

He pocketed the picture with a rueful laugh. “No. You told me yesterday.”

“Oh. Right. Well, I remember it.” Before I could stop myself, I put my hand on his face and stroked a line along his jaw. I was filled with an intense longing to feel his lips on mine again. “It was one of the best moments of my life.”

He drew in a sharp breath, his eyes trained on mine.

The door of the café burst open and Luke stuck his head out, scowling. “You coming in sometime this century?”

Startled, I dropped my hand. “Yeah, coming,” I called.

Nick stepped back, rubbing the back of his neck. “I guess we better go in.”

“Right,” I said again, my cheeks burning. “Let’s go.”

He held the door open for me, and when I stepped over the threshold, the noise hit me like a wave. It seemed like every villager was packed inside the pub. They lined up in a scraggly row at the bar, crowded around the fire that roared in the large stone hearth, crammed into booths and squeezed around tables. A few even lounged on upholstered window seats. The flickering candles placed on each table gave the dim pub a cosy glow.

The counter behind the bar was filled with bottles of varying shapes and sizes. They housed an assortment of liquids—rich red, golden amber, clear and shimmering—all winking against an exposed flagstone wall.

The laughter and chatter abated as we entered but returned with a roar as people came forward to greet us. Some pumped my hand, some patted my arm, all welcoming me in, their voices hearty and loud, their faces shining. I endured it with sweaty palms and a churning stomach, wishing for an escape. It was one thing to meet a couple of villagers, but to have an endless throng of them pushing against me was something else entirely.

This isn’t real. None of you are real.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, a voice boomed over the crowd. “All right now, let’s give the girl some air.”

It was Susan, threading her way through the crowd until she was close enough to take my hand. Before I could say a word, she pulled me towards the bar. I glanced over my shoulder at Nick. He called out to me, but his words got swallowed up in a fresh wave of loud chatter. He disappeared in a sea of people. I didn’t see Luke anywhere.

Susan led me to a bar stool and took my arm to help me up onto it. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

“I’m okay. I’m sorry I didn’t come back for Luke. When I found N—Daniel—he wanted to take me to his cottage.”

She waved a dismissive hand. “Say no more. Doris explained the whole thing to me. I’m just happy you had a quiet place to rest.”

I shifted uncomfortably on the bar stool. “Ah, yeah. I guess it probably wasn’t too quiet for you when Luke woke up.”

“Well, I won’t argue with you there,” she said, laughing. “That boy was fit to be tied.”

“And didn’t that bother you?”

“No, dear. Not really.” Her laughter died down, but she kept smiling that eerily bright smile of hers. “He was understandably upset that you’d left. That’s all.”

“Still, I’m sorry you had to deal with him. I know what he’s like.”

“Don’t trouble yourself about it, Julia. I only spoke with him for a moment before he went off in search of you. Besides,” she added, treating me to a glimpse of her startlingly white teeth, “not much bothers me. I’m just glad he found you. I saw you come in together.”

“You’re just happy about everything, aren’t you?” I muttered.

“What was that, dear?”

“Nothing. Ah, listen… Have you seen Dave? I need to talk to him.”

“Right here,” said a voice at my side.

I turned to find Luke’s father staring at me, his expression inscrutable. “Come with me.”

“Where?”

He bent close to me so he could be heard over the escalating noise. I could smell alcohol on his breath. “Just outside for a minute, where it’s quiet. I want to talk to you.”

“I really should find Daniel first,” I shouted.

“We’ll find him after.”

He took my arm and guided me through the crowd in much the same way Susan had done. We squeezed our way through the press of bodies towards the door. The urge to escape the overheated room grew stronger by the second.

After what seemed like ages, we made it to the door. Outside, the evening breeze was like a cool caress on my burning face. I stood with my back against the wall of the pub, breathing in the pine-scented air.

“It even smells lifelike,” I said.

“What?” Dave raised his eyebrows.

“Never mind.” I waved a hand. “So, what did you want to talk to me about? Is anything coming back to you?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Well, that’s just it. I let that Luke boy hang around with me this afternoon. It was the neighbourly thing to do. But then I had to listen to him go on and on about how I’m his father and his mother left us.” He fingered the dog tags. “I even let Daniel talk me into wearing these things. Now it’s time for you to tell me what you kids are up to.”

“We’re not up to anything. Everything Luke told you is the truth. And if you—”

“Are you bored? Got nothing better to do than try to get a rise out of me? Is that it?”

“No.” I pushed my hands into the pockets of the coat I’d borrowed from Susan. “That’s not it at all.”

His thin lips stretched in a condescending smile. It was a far cry from the warm, friendly smile he’d worn earlier. Is Tom’s personality starting to show through? Did Luke trigger something in him, after all?

“I get it,” he said. “You’re new here, so you may not understand how things are in this little village.”

“Oh?” I arched a brow. “And how is that?”

He shuffled closer. His eyes sharpened and latched onto my face in a way that made a shiver glide down my spine. “We don’t play tricks on each other. The young people that live here? They respect their elders. So why don’t you and your friend stop this charade and go back to wherever you came from.”

“But you don’t understand.”

“Oh, I understand plenty. I understand you’ve gotten your kicks out of wasting my time. Now let’s go find Luke so you can be on your way.” This time when he took my arm, his grip was anything but gentle, his fingers curling around my biceps painfully. I clenched my teeth, about to pull away, but before I could, he dropped my arm like it was on fire.

“What the hell?” He took a hasty step backwards, horror written all over his narrow face. “There’s something wrong with you.”

A shudder ran through me. “What? What are you talking about?”

“You’re trying to mess with my mind somehow, aren’t you?”

“No, I—”

“I saw you. Just now, in my head. You were a little girl, and you did something horrible. I just don’t remember what it was.” He put his hands on his temples as if he were in pain. Then he lifted his eyes to meet mine again. They were cold and hard like his son’s. “What did you do?”

I looked down at my boots. “When Luke and I were kids, I almost sent him away. You were angry. But you have to understand that it was an accident.”

“I didn’t know you when you were a kid, so how am I seeing you in my mind?”

“It’s a memory. Your dog tags… They’re starting to trigger memories of your life in St. Peter’s.” I paused, trying to choose my words carefully before I spoke again. Tom needed to remember that life before he could go back through a portal, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to like the parts that included me.

I was saved from having to continue, though, because at that moment Nick burst out of the pub. His gaze flicked between us a few times before coming to rest on me. “Julia,” he said, breathless.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I need to talk to you. Alone.”

Dave backed up to the door, shaking his head as if to clear it. “And I need a drink.”

“Dave,” I said, “if anything else comes to you—anything at all—come find me.”

“Right.” He staggered a little as he turned to go inside. With one last uneasy look in my direction, he fumbled open the door and disappeared inside the pub.

“What was that all about?” Nick asked.

“He had an image of me as a little girl, just like you did.”

“Oh. Well, that’s good, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it is.” But a wave of apprehension washed over me as I recalled the horror in Dave’s eyes.

“Julia.” Nick crossed the distance between us in three long strides. Taking my hands in his, he let his eyes wander over my face. They gleamed with a kind of certainty I hadn’t seen since finding him. “After we went inside, it came back to me.”

“What did?”

“Our junior high graduation. I remember it now. Every detail.” He released one of my hands. With a touch as light as a feather, he tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, grazing my cheek. My breath hitched. He opened his mouth to continue, but the words caught in his throat. He cleared it and tried again, his voice husky and low.

“You were gorgeous, wearing that white dress. All through the ceremony, you kept looking over at me and smiling. And all I could think about was how much I wanted us to be more than just neighbors, more than just friends. I had it all planned, you know.”

“Had what planned?”

He traced the outline of my lips with a fingertip. “I planned to kiss you at the end of the night. And when I did, I remember thinking I was the luckiest guy in school.”

“Nick,” I breathed. He knew me. He knew us…or at least part of what we’d had together.

“I remember you on your bike. And I remember the night I first kissed you. Both of those times are so clear to me now. But everything else is hazy. I just wish that…” He made a deep sound, a cross between a sob and a sigh. “I just wish I could remember the rest. Will you help me?”

“Of course I will, whatever it takes.”

His eyes locked onto mine. “I’m not Daniel.”

“No,” I said, my pulse jumping, “you’re not.”

“I want to know what it feels like again…to kiss you.”

He bent his head and put his mouth on mine. It was the briefest of kisses, just a quick press of his lips, but it sent a million tiny sensations dancing along my spine. When he pulled back, his eyes shone with an intensity that took my breath away. Then he slid his arms around my waist. I desperately wanted him to kiss me again, and I leaned into him, that sense of yearning overpowering any last shred of reason I might have held. This time when he lowered his head, I met him halfway.

At first his lips were soft and tentative, but as soon as I kissed him back, they became more urgent. He pulled me tighter against him, taking the kiss deeper. All thoughts of Luke and Tom and the other villagers fell away. The stress and frustration of being stuck in the mural, of finding a Nick who didn’t know himself, poured out of me like water from a fountain. In that moment, no one and nothing else mattered, just me and him and the feel of his body pressed against mine. I was aware of the familiar taste of his mouth and a sensation of blood pounding in my ears. We fit together again, like we had before.

I wanted to sink into him, let myself fall further and further. He tilted his head to change the angle of the kiss, exploring in a way that made my head spin and my body tingle in response. Despite the cold evening, my skin felt like it was on fire.

“What is this?”

We broke apart, breathless, and turned to face Stacey, who’d twisted her face in an ugly grimace.

“Stacey—” Nick began.

“What is wrong with you?” she interrupted in a shrill voice. “Why are you kissing her like that? Why are you kissing her at all?”

Nick took a step forward, a patch of red climbing up his neck. “You have to understand. We have a connection.”

“No, you don’t.”

“It’s true. I don’t think I belong here.”

“Of course you do! You can’t listen to her, Daniel.” Stacey glared at me. “She’s just—” She stopped as something on the ground caught her attention.

I followed her gaze.

And my already-thundering heart went into overdrive.

The photograph had fallen from Nick’s pocket and fluttered to the ground. It lay on the snow a few feet away, where the evening breeze had likely taken it. I hurried forward. Stacey got there half a second before me and scooped it up.

“Give that to me!” I lunged at her.

She stepped back, holding it out of my reach. “I don’t think so. Now what could be so important that—” The words died on her lips as she took in the smiling faces of me, Mom and Nick. “When was this?”

“Two years ago,” I said.

“Where?”

“St. Peter’s. It’s where I’m from. It’s where Nick…well, Daniel is from.”

“No, I don’t believe it.” She continued to stare at the picture, unmoving.

“Will you please give it to me?” My voice was patient, but inside I was screaming at her. Every second that passed by without Nick having the photo in his possession was a second closer to him losing the memories he’d regained.

Stacey lifted her chin. Her eyes narrowed. “No. I won’t give it back. Because this is a lie or some kind of trick. And I don’t want Daniel looking at this. Ever again.”

With that, she flung open the door of the pub and ran inside. I followed her, Nick close at my heels.

Back in the suffocating warmth of the pub, I searched for Stacey among the tightly packed villagers. She couldn’t have gone too far.

Nick grabbed my arm and pointed. “She’s over there.”

She was slipping through a knot of people at the back of the pub, the photo still clutched in her hand. Together, we fought our way through the crowd and had almost caught up to her when she stopped in front of the stone hearth.

“Stacey!” Nick said in a sharp voice.

She looked back at us. Her eyes flashed in the light from the fire. Shadows played across her face, giving her a sinister appearance. I watched in horror as she held the picture over the hearth, mere inches from the red-hot flames.

“No!” I stumbled forward. “Don’t!”

Before I could reach her, she gave me a cold smile, refocused her attention on the hearth—and dropped Nick’s memory trigger into the fire.