Last Summer(29)
Nathan doesn’t answer. His expression is unreadable.
Ella looks at the sky. It’s almost dark and the wind has picked up. It’s up to him now. She prays he’s game to take another chance on her.
When he doesn’t say anything right away, Ella purses her lips and slowly nods. Okay, she tried. Hopefully Paul won’t fire her.
“I’m staying at the Ponderosa Lodge in Truckee,” she says. “I won’t check out until noon. Sleep on my offer. Call me in the morning if you change your mind.” She watches him for a moment, then turns to walk to her car.
“All right, I’ll do it.”
“You will?” She turns back to him and grins, her smile broad and bright. “You won’t regret it, I promise.” She opens the passenger side door and reaches for the bag with her voice recorder and notes.
“One condition.” He holds up a finger, stopping her. “You’re not coming to Alaska. We’ll cover everything in two days, starting tomorrow morning.”
“Why not now?” Two days wouldn’t be enough time to finish the feature or to get to the bottom of her amnesia.
“I’m not in the mood. Meet me here at eight in the morning.” He turns and retreats into the garage.
Ella raises her hands in exasperation, tempted to run after him. But he’s already in the garage and tinkering with god knows what, so reluctantly she shuts the passenger door. She doesn’t like that he’s making her wait until tomorrow, but at least he changed his mind.
Ella folds into the driver’s seat and shuts the door. Tomorrow she’ll worry about negotiating more time with him. Meanwhile, her mind reels back over their conversation, picking it apart as she tugs off her gloves and pushes the ignition button. Turning the car around, she thinks about the man she just met. The man who apparently knows her better than she initially thought.
He said they spent two weeks together. Why had Damien and Rebecca told her otherwise?
He called her El. Only Damien does that, and she isn’t sure how that makes her feel.
His eyes teared up when she told him about her accident. Her story hit a chord. Ella could have sworn he wanted to hold her, offer comfort.
“Who are you, Nathan Donovan?”
And what role does he play in her memory loss?
Glancing in the rearview mirror, her skin prickles as an eerie sensation, something akin to déjà vu, falls over her. Nathan stands in the middle of the driveway, arms at his sides, watching her.
Ella picks up dinner and checks into the lodge. It’s after 7:30 p.m. when she settles in. She wants to call Damien, but his flight doesn’t land in Heathrow until after 2:00 a.m. her time. She texts instead, requesting that he call her when he gets to their flat. She wants his confirmation about the time she spent with Nathan last summer. Fourteen days on one assignment is a long time. One would think she was working on a biography, not a ten-thousand-word article.
Her conversation with Nathan left her bewildered and his familiarity with her uneasy. The sooner she can finish the interview and question Nathan about last summer, the sooner she can join Damien in London. He doesn’t expect to be home for a couple of weeks, what with the investigation, so she promised this morning she’d meet him there after her assignment.
She already misses her husband, the deep timbre of his voice and the warmth of his body. She misses the way he was before her accident. The little things he’d do to show that he loved her. The phone call in the middle of the afternoon because he wanted to hear her voice, make her laugh as he told her a silly story about something that happened at work. The coffee mug and stainless steel filter he’d leave on the counter for her pour-over coffee after he left for the day on those mornings she slept in. The bunches of daisies he’d buy on a whim as he passed the floral cart on his walk home at the end of the day. Or the way he’d look at her when they went out, as though he couldn’t believe she was there with him. Or that she stayed, as he asked of her that first morning together and other mornings since.
Of course she’d stayed that first time. She was already falling in love with him. And she’s so in love with him right now, despite their tragedy and lack of communication.
They’ll get through this. She knows they will. Their love is strong. They are a team.
Setting aside her phone, Ella boots up her laptop and pores over the notes she wrote yesterday about Nathan, reorganizing. They have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow from his youth to his marriage to Stephanie. For the more involved lifestyle pieces, Ella likes to understand how her subjects tick, and to do that, she has to delve into their childhood.
CHAPTER 12
Ella wakes at 6:00 a.m. more tired than she felt before going to bed. The altitude does that to her. It always takes a day or two to acclimate.
She yawns and stretches, then gets out of bed. After a quick shower and a stop at the café across from the lodge, where she picks up a coffee and breakfast sandwich, chugging a Red Bull along with, Ella arrives at Nathan’s promptly at 8:00 a.m. Pulling to a stop in his drive, she cuts the engine. Two large dogs charge the car. Rising up on their hind legs, they peek in her window and, seeing Ella, start barking. Madly.
Ella’s heart lodges in her throat. She eases down the window a few inches and yells, “Sit!”
Her command doesn’t do squat. If anything, it aggravates them. Spittle foams at their mouths.