Never Far Away (The Never #2)(7)

“A week before your accident, we met at my mom’s bar. You had come to the beach after finding your boyfriend with another woman and you were drowning your sorrows, so to speak. Your car battery died, so I gave you a ride to your rental house.” Porter ran his fingers through his hair, trying to figure out how to tell her what had happened between them. In all the scenarios in his head that included them speaking to each other she always remembered him. He felt pretty stupid that he hadn’t considered the fact that he might have to explain their relationship. “Anyway,” he continued, “after a few days of meeting up and getting drinks, I asked you out on a date.” He looked up at her hoping she would be giving him some sort of reassurance, but her face was blank.

“And this all happened a week before the accident?”

“Yes, well, ten days to be exact,” he replied.

“What happened between us?” She pleaded with him through her eyes, begging him to give her something.

“We spent ten amazing days together, falling in love, and making plans to be together.” He paused again, trying to find the right words. “When you woke up and didn’t remember me, or us, I didn’t really know what the next step should be. And I definitely didn’t have any say in your care. I had only met your parents because of the accident. They felt like it would be better for you to recover with as little stress as possible and to them that meant that I should stay away.” He looked down at his hands, mostly because he didn’t want to look at her face. He didn’t want to be telling all of this to a stranger; he wanted to be reliving it with his Ella. “I called your mom every day for weeks, trying to convince her to let me see you, that I could help in some way. I texted Megan constantly, trying to get any updates from her that I could.” He shook his head and looked back up at Ella and her blank eyes. Frustrated, he let out a loud and exasperated sigh. “Maybe this was a mistake. I should go.”

“Wait,” she said, placing her hand over his. “Please. Don’t leave.”





Chapter Three


Ella


The last thing Ella wanted was for him to leave her again. She heard his voice in Poppy and immediately her blood ran heated through her veins. She was sure she would have to search for him, but then he just appeared in her shop. She would have known his voice anywhere. At that moment all she wanted to do was listen to his voice forever. That was until she turned around and saw him, and then she realized she wanted to spend forever looking into his chocolate eyes. He was the kind of handsome that made women weak-kneed and swoon. His dark brown hair matched his eyes and his strong jaw made his face look all kinds of manly. Somewhere, deep inside of her soul, she knew exactly why she felt like he loved her at the hospital: because she knew she would have fallen in love with him in an instant. Something pulled her towards him and if she didn’t stay grounded, they would collide.

“I asked my mom and Megan many times who you were. I knew someone was there with me, I felt it. But no matter how many times I pleaded with them, they would never give me any information. Eventually I gave up on asking.”

“I never left your side at the hospital. I was there every day,” he paused, realizing that all of this information might be overwhelming for her. “I am sorry if this is confusing for you.”

“You have no idea how confusing this is. I don’t think ‘confusing’ as a word really encompasses how bizarre it is to deal with amnesia. I woke up to a strange man kissing me, who wasn’t my boyfriend, but was kissing me regardless. And everyone just tells me that I was imagining things, that it must have been the medication,” she laughed a little as she looked out the window. “I might have been drugged but that kiss, small as it was, felt more real to me than anything since.” She shook her head and raised her eyes up to meet his again. “Every day something pops up, something that is tied back to those six weeks of memory I lost. It is a struggle every day to try and figure out what’s real, what’s probably not true, and then there’s what my gut tells me about you.” Ella saw him swallow hard and then he spoke softly with a tentative voice.

“What does your gut say about me?”

“It says to trust you.” A small smile crept across her face and his relief was evident to her as he let a sigh past his lips. “I know this sounds crazy, but I’ve been looking for your voice in every man for eight weeks now. When I heard your voice in the store, I knew it was you. I knew you had come to find me and that you would have all the answers I was looking for.”

“I’ll tell you anything you want to know. I’m tired of hiding things.” Ella cocked her head at him and thought hard about her next question.

“Will you tell me what happened to me the night of the robbery?” She was looking him directly in the eye and she saw his eyes flash anger. Once they softened slightly he ran his fingers through his hair and she liked the way it looked after he’d rumpled it.

“It was Sunday afternoon and you had left my house about two hours earlier. I was in my shop working on my boat and you texted me that you had made it home safely. We joked around a little, and then you said you would call me when you were going to bed.” She watched him take in a shaky breath as he seemed to be gathering strength to continue on. “About a half hour later, maybe forty-five minutes, you called me. You were crying and upset. You told me that Kyle had been at your apartment and that he had hurt you. You never told me the whole story. You were upset and I just wanted to get to you. I never got all the facts.” His head fell into his hands and he was breathing in ragged breaths. “I was so upset with myself for letting you go back home alone. I’m still upset about it. None of this would have happened if I had just stayed with you. I never wanted to let you go.”