Epoch (Transcend Duet #2)(42)

I don’t have one need. I have a million undefinable needs. My need doesn’t have a word. It’s a feeling. A nagging, soul-deep feeling. And maybe I’m the only one who can understand it, but something tells me Dr. Albright does too, even if she won’t say it aloud in front of Griffin.

So I go with the one thing that should make sense. “I need to feel safe.”

He grunts a laugh while shaking his head more. “I told you, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“You can’t make that promise!” I cringe.

Dr. Albright’s sympathetic gaze lands on me.

I release a slow breath of regret. “You have a job. I have a job. We can’t be attached at the hip for the rest of our lives.”

“And no one can guarantee that hypnosis will give us the missing piece of evidence to convict a man of a possible murder that happened over twenty-two years ago. But in the meantime, you risk remembering something that could haunt you forever, or you risk …”

Releasing the end of his sentence in a quick sigh, he rubs his lips together.

“Finish,” I say.

He stares off in the opposite direction.

“I need this, Griff.”

“Fine.” He stands and grabs his jacket from the back of the chair. “Whatever you need, Swayz.”

“Griff?”

“Let him go, Swayze.”

The click of the door behind him makes a tiny tear in my heart.

I hold my emotions intact, even with Dr. Albright’s empathetic expression. “Please tell me you understand me.”

“I do. But I also understand Griffin. He’s scared of losing you to Nate.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it? Some people would see this story as fate. Nate loses his first love, and when he loses his second love, he finds you—again.”

“Fate?” I cough a laugh. “You think it’s fate for us to be together again?”

“No. I’m not some people. But it’s no more crazy than you believing you have memories from that life for reasons of fate. Maybe fate exists, maybe it doesn’t. I love the idea of fate, but it’s possible you’re not recognizing your true fate yet.”

“What’s my true fate?”

She sips the last of her tea and sets her cup down before sharing a hint of a smile. “I have no idea. But if it’s fate … you’ll find out.”

“I’d better get going. I should go see if I need to call for an Uber.” I stand. “If I don’t try the hypnosis, I fear I may always regret it. And I don’t want to marry Griffin with that kind of regret lingering.”

“It’s ultimately your choice, and yours alone. I’m here for you in whatever capacity you need me to be.”

“Thank you.”

Griffin’s not outside her door, and there’s no sign of him down the hallway toward the elevators. He left. The curse of Daisy has made me self-destructive.

I take the stairs to the first floor and turn left toward the entrance to the parking lot.

He’s there.

I stop.

I stare.

I admire.

I dream.

And then I start to hurt.

Hands shoved in the front pockets of his jeans, and one leg bent with his foot on the wall, he pushes off and shoots me a sad smile.

I hurt more.

“You waited.”

“Of course.”

“But you’re mad.” I slow my pace the closer I get to him.

“Frustrated.”

“That’s code for mad.”

He holds out his hand. I take it.

“It’s not code for anything. Let’s just go home.”

I let him guide me to his truck. He even opens the door for me. Before he steps back to shut it, I clench his jacket and pull him closer.

“Let’s grab something for dinner.”

He nods, eyes searching my face. Dear God, I love him something fierce.

“And then let’s hide under the sheets and pause life for a few hours.”

Griff kisses one side of my mouth, then the other side, ending squarely on my lips while nodding ever so slightly.

At some point we won’t be able to press pause and hide from the world, but I’m going to do it for as long as I can—as long as he’s willing to love me back.





CHAPTER NINETEEN





“You recognize it?” Nate asks as we pull in the driveway to the pale yellow two-story house.

There’s an actual picket fence around the yard, caging ornamental grass and day lilies that need to be cut back before it snows.

“Swayze?”

I nod. I didn’t know this was in my memory until now. The way I didn’t know I knew Nate until I saw him. Twenty-two years isn’t long enough to understand or even describe this feeling of knowing something—someone—so intimately, yet Swayze Samuels has never seen this house.

I swallow hard. “It’s like …” I shake my head. “It’s like opening a new door to a new world. The second I saw you, I didn’t just think there’s Nate Hunt. A flood of memories infiltrated every inch of my brain.

“She has blond hair and blue eyes. He has slightly darker blond hair and brown eyes like Daisy. He painted the fence gray; she hated it and made him repaint it white. In the spring red tulips bloom beneath the maple tree in the backyard. There’s also an old shed in the corner of the backyard. Handprints in the concrete slab just off the deck.”