This One Moment (Pushing Limits, #1)(58)

As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t stay in bed all day and dwell on those last moments. I had to go to work. I had to move on.

If I was lucky, no one at the sports center paid attention to the fan sites. But based on the reaction I’d seen when Nolan showed up there, I doubted I would get that lucky.

Still a little sore from yesterday’s attack, and maybe a little apprehensive of being stalked while running again, I decided to skip my run this morning. I grabbed my work clothes and hopped in the shower.

After I finished getting ready, I entered the tiny kitchen to make a quick breakfast. At the sight of the folded piece of paper on the table, my heart tripped over itself to read it.

Forget-Me-Not,

You looked so peaceful when I left this morning, I couldn’t bear waking you up to say goodbye. While I regret everything in the past twenty-four hours that has done nothing but hurt you, I don’t regret a single second I’ve spent with you.

I’ll never stop loving you.

Stay safe.

Nolan





My breath sucked at his second-to-last line, my vision growing blurry. I’d never told him I loved him, and he’d never said it to me either. Yes, he’d told me I was his heart and soul, but neither of us had actually laid out what that meant.

Not that it mattered anymore. It was time for me to move on. For us both to move on.

But even after acknowledging that, I couldn’t find it in me to throw away the letter. Instead, I refolded it and hid it in my underwear drawer. If I ever had the courage to open my heart to another guy, I’d make sure he never saw the letter. But for now, it and the memories from the past few weeks Nolan and I had spent together were all I had left of him.

And I already knew it wouldn’t be enough.





Chapter 37


Hailey


I hurried along the recently cleared path to the sports center. The brisk wind nipped my exposed skin and found its way through my winter coat and jeans.

“Hey, you’re early,” Chris called out behind me. I turned to him, giving him a beat to catch up with me.

“I figured now that I’m healed, I should register for the self-defense class for this weekend, if there’s still room. Though I think by now I’ve had my lifetime quota for attacks.”

He winced at the truth of it, even though he didn’t know about the latest one. The police hadn’t yet identified the body and hadn’t yet disclosed to the media the connection between the attack in Westgate and the man’s death. They wanted to rule out first if he had been working with an accomplice the night he attacked me in Westgate—a detail I’d neglected to tell Nolan, since he already had enough to worry about with recording the band’s upcoming album. As it was, I still had no idea why I had been in Westgate and why the guy had tried to kill me.

“I don’t think that makes a difference, Hailey,” Chris told me.

I shrugged. “A girl can always hope.”

“Well, ya know, when in doubt, go for the nuts. That will buy you time.” He flashed me a pained look to prove his point and opened the door for me.

Blondes #1 and #2 must have sensed his presence. We’d barely stepped into the building before they converged on us.

Expecting them to do their usual flirting with Chris, I walked toward the registration desk to check on the class.

I didn’t get that far. Blonde #1 stepped in front of me. “You’re not dating Tyler Erickson anymore, are you?”

“I wasn’t dating him.” That much was true. “We’re just friends.” Who had sex together, but she didn’t need to know that.

“Is he coming back here?” Blonde #2 asked.

A loud bang startled me.

The sound of metal hitting metal slammed through my brain. I cracked open my eyelids but was met by darkness. From my cramped position in the enclosed space, I couldn’t tell where I was. My head hurt. That was all I knew.

The world swayed around me.

Someone placed an arm around my lower back, steadying me. “I’ve got you,” a man said.

I blinked him into focus. Blondes #1 and #2 were eyeing me like I was a dye job gone wrong.

“What was that noise?” I asked the man, whom I’d seen a few times in the sports center, working out or talking to his stepdaughter, who had a part-time job there.

“Someone accidentally knocked a chair over,” Lindsey’s stepfather said.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Blonde #1 pointed out.

I shook my head. “It’s nothing. I just remembered something.”

“You remembered something that scared you? What the hell was it?” Chris placed a plastic chair from the nearby waiting area next to me. “Sit.”

“I’m fine. Really.”

Blondes #1 and #2 looked more interested in pumping additional info out of me about Nolan than finding out why I’d been suddenly dizzy. Given I didn’t want to discuss him with them or anyone, I added, “I keep remembering things about when I was attacked.”

Chris’s eyes widened. “Do you know who it was?”

“No. Not yet. I just keep remembering bits and pieces of that night.”

“Other than that, how are you doing?” Lindsey’s stepfather asked, his gaze sweeping over my body. But not in a sleazy, checking-me-out kind of way. Not like what Blonde #2 was doing to him. “Sorry, hazard of the job,” he explained. “I’m a firefighter.”