The Lost Fisherman (Fisherman #2)(60)



“Join us. I’ll grab you a glass. Angie just needed a little girl time.” Rory’s hard gaze was a little more intense at the moment. Angie’s visit resurrected her anger. Rose nervously chewing her lips confirmed it.

“How have you been?” I took a seat, feeling overdressed in jeans and damp panties from Fisher’s hand down them. Yes. I absolutely thought about that while smiling at his fiancée. Ironically, I found it easier to feel sorry for her when I wasn’t in the same room, except the wedding dress day. I fell victim to that trap like everyone else.

“I’ve been better.” She rolled her eyes.

Maybe Rose and Rory thought I’d feel uncomfortable. Guilt-ridden. It wasn’t my fault that Fisher loved me.

“Oh?” I curled my lips between my teeth and smiled at Rory when she set a wine glass on the table and slid the wine bottle toward me.

“Fisher wants to postpone the wedding. And I don’t know what to say. I’ve done everything I can to help him remember me, remember us. And he is getting some memories back, but it’s not enough to give him the bigger picture, to make him feel what he felt before the accident.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I felt Rory’s judgmental gaze on me, but I didn’t give her a single glance. My brain was caught on the word “postpone.” Cancel and postpone were not the same thing. So who was telling the truth?

“He’s just been really distant with me. I moved out. We agreed to ‘date.’ We were intimate. Things were back on track. Then it all came to a sudden stop. It’s hard to fall in love with someone when you never see them.”

They were intimate? Once? Right? Just once?

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I tried that on for size. It received three out of three frowns.

“I think I need to try a different tactic. I’ve requested a room with a king bed instead of two queens on our trip to Costa Rica. And I’ve scheduled a couple's massage the day before the wedding. Maybe the issue is I’ve been trying too hard to get him to remember how he used to love me and not enough time making him fall in love with me now. You know?”

Yes, I knew. That was my MO. Except I didn’t try to make him love me. He just did. It was effortless and inevitable. Was that enough to thwart temptation on his horizon?

“I shopped for all new lingerie for the trip. Maybe spice things up a bit? He can’t say no to lace and satin, right?”

Rose cleared her throat just as I opened my mouth to speak. I had a lot to say on the matter.

“Just don’t set yourself up to be disappointed. I really don’t think the issue has anything to do with physical attraction. You’re beautiful. What man wouldn’t be attracted to you?”

Rory slid her gaze to Rose, and I had to stifle my giggle. Rose was taking it too far, making Rory a little jealous.

What woman wouldn’t find you attractive?

Angie nodded. Of course she knew she was attractive. No need to show even a little bit of modesty.

“Have you considered the possibility of there being someone else?”

I eyed Rory with caution. Where was she going with that? She didn’t look at me like I was supposed to fall to my knees and confess. Maybe she was gently preparing Angie for what I’d hoped would be the inevitable. And I kinda loved my mom for that.

“Wow …” Angie’s eyes widened like two brown saucers.

Nope. She hadn’t thought about that.

“No. I mean …” She shook her head. “No. That’s not Fisher. He wouldn’t do that. Did he say something to you?”

Rory shook her head. “No. He’s never said a word to me.” I didn’t miss the hint of bitterness in her tone. “But if he doesn’t remember his past with you, he might not feel…” Rory pressed her lips together, searching for the right word “…committed.”

“No.” Angie didn’t care for that possibility. “Not Fisher. We’ve been friends for too long. He knows this has been my dream. And before the accident it was our dream. Besides, who would it be? Nobody. He goes to work. Comes home. Hangs out with you guys. No.”

“Maybe he’s on a dating app. Just hooking up. Meeting his needs without the pressure of remembering his past or leading you on.” I grunted and flinched when Rose kicked my shin.

“What?” Angie seemed to find that possibility even more appalling than the idea of him simply being with someone else.

I personally viewed a random hookup for sex much less threatening. That was just sex.

I, however, wasn’t just sex to Fisher. Angie should have wished for that. Instead, she was going to lose Fisher to the adorable and cute girl she never saw coming. The way she never noticed our magnetism on the triple date to the concert or her complete unawareness that while she slept in Fisher’s bed that night, he had the head of his cock pressed between my legs on the pool table.

They were destined to always be friends (if she was lucky) and we were destined to always be lovers, no matter how destructive and shameless our path to each other ended up being.

Man … I sure hope that’s our destiny.

“I don’t think you know Fisher very well.” She scoffed.

Rose wrinkled her nose. “Well, I don’t know about now. But when you and Fisher weren’t together, he was …” She shot Rory a quick look as if she’d offer some backup.

Jewel E. Ann's Books