A Forever Christmas(62)

Exasperated with herself, Angel shook her head. “I’ve tried over and over again, but I just can’t pull up anything. I’m drawing a blank,” she emphasized. Angel sighed, looking up at the vehicle’s ceiling. “Wouldn’t I be able to remember him if I actually knew him?”

While Alma had looked into Wynters’s background, he’d spent the time trolling the internet, learning what he could about amnesia. The more he read, the less he seemed to know. Other than the condition defied boundaries.

“There are lots of different types of amnesia, Angel.” It wasn’t really an answer to her question, but it was the best that he could do.

“Right,” she murmured. “And I’ve got the annoying kind.” So where did that bring her? That she knew him? Or that she didn’t?

“Maybe there’s a reason you don’t remember,” Gabe suggested. “Maybe your mind is trying to protect you from something you couldn’t deal with at the time and maybe still can’t.”

She rubbed her forehead. Her head was beginning to hurt. “Well, I won’t know about that part until I remember, will I? If I remember,” she amended, the frustration in her voice growing.

He tried to lighten the mood. “Right now, all you have to remember is that you’ve got a starving man with you.”

And for that, she thought, she was eternally grateful. She was exceedingly lucky to have Gabe in her life and she knew it.

“Hungry, huh?” She laughed.

He glanced in her direction, his eyes sweeping over her. Loving what he saw. “In more ways than one,” he assured her with feeling.

A warm feeling rushed over her, banishing everything else into the background, as she anticipated their evening together. All that mattered to her, really mattered to her, she reminded herself, was in this car with her, driving her to his home.

To their home, she told herself, taking tremendous solace in the feeling that generated.

Everything was going to be all right, she silently promised herself. Clinging to that promise. And when everything died down again, then she’d tell Gabe her news. That was another promise.

* * *

“NEED HELP?” GABE ASKED as she began to head to the kitchen the moment they walked into the house.

Angel shook her head. This was her domain and she did best in it alone. “Thanks for offering, but it would only take longer that way.” She laughed.

Off the hook, he pulled his shirttails out of his trousers and began to unbutton his shirt. “Okay, then I’m going to go upstairs, wash up and change,” he told her.

A nervous anticipation danced through him. It had been like this for most of the day. His uniform shirt hanging open, he shoved his hands into his pockets and did his best to appear as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

Gabe curled his right hand around the item he’d tucked in there earlier. As his fingers made contact, his heart sped up, launching into double time.

He was still trying to decide whether to give it to her tonight, or tomorrow morning. Tomorrow was Christmas but the day was all but bursting at the seams with the activities planned into the framework of that special day. Alma and Cash had invited everyone in the family to come spend it at their house, and of course, there was the celebration in the town square.

But he wanted to snag a private moment with Angel because this was a private gift. He wanted it to be their secret for a few moments before they wound up sharing it with everyone else.

Tonight, after dinner. He’d give it to her after dinner, he decided, wavering again.

Moving toward the living room, Gabe caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. Angel was going to turn him down if he didn’t do something about the way he looked, he thought. He looked one step removed from a saddle tramp.

“Right now, I wouldn’t even say yes to me,” he muttered under his breath. He needed to wash up—fast.

Whistling, he hurried up the stairs and into his bedroom to get a fresh set of clothes.

He didn’t notice the shadow along the floor in front of him until it was too late.

* * *

ANGEL DID HER BEST to bank it down, but the tightness in her chest insisted on coming back the moment Gabe left her, quickly growing until it struck her as being almost too large to manage.

Certainly too large to ignore.

Relax, you have to relax, she silently ordered herself. There’s no reason to feel like a cornered rabbit. There’s—

Turning around, she barely stifled the scream that leaped to her throat.