Kisses to Remember (9 page)

Holden just sat there. Sure, his memory was fuzzy, but were people really this…nice? This woman was prepared to take him into her house without knowing anything about him. Lucky for him.

Even if he were a bad dude in the past, Holden decided that guy would never resurface.

When Johanna came back into the room, she had a clipboard tucked under her arm, a tote bag hanging from her wrist, and a doctor right behind her.

“Well, Mr. Lancaster,” Dr. Sakala said, “it appears you have been claimed by this lovely, compassionate woman here.” The doctor rested a hand on Johanna’s shoulder, and her cheeks pinked slightly, making her indeed lovelier. “Sign here and off you both go.” Dr. Sakala, satisfied he’d found somewhere to dump Holden, took the clipboard from Johanna and dropped it in Holden’s lap with a pen.

Holden signed his name and let out a breath of relief when he recognized the signature as his own. A comfort to know his mind hadn’t been completely wiped clean.

“Now, Ms. Ware, here are brochures about concussions and traumatic amnesia. Keep an eye out for irritability and other personality changes, not that you know Mr. Lancaster well enough to know his personality, but you may still notice a change. Watch for sensitivity to light and noise, sleep disturbances, depression, or complaints of altered taste and smell.”

“That’s a lot to watch for,” Johanna said. “Are you sure he’s ready to leave the hospital?”

Was she having second thoughts?
Holden took a deep breath, but his muscles ached when he did so. Sleep. He wanted to go to sleep somewhere that wasn’t here.

“He’s ready. If any of the symptoms I mentioned occur, give me a call.” Dr. Sakala handed Johanna his card.

She fingered the edges of the card as she chewed on her bottom lip. Holden knew he should probably let her off the hook. Say he remembered his home in Texas. That he was okay to fly back there. He couldn’t get himself to say the words though.

Dr. Sakala reached into the pocket of his white coat. “One more thing.” He held out something that resembled a thick marker. “This was among the things salvaged by the rescue crew after you crashed, Mr. Lancaster.”

“What is it?” Johanna leaned forward to get a better look.

“It’s an Epi-pen, which has a dose of epinephrine in it. It’s used to treat life-threatening allergic reactions to things like insect stings or bites, foods, drugs, latex. Do you recall if you’re allergic to any of those things, Mr. Lancaster?”

Dr. Sakala and Johanna glanced at each other, and something unspoken passed between them. Holden made a mental note to ask about that at some point and focused instead on allergies.

“Banana-nut muffins minus the nut.” The words came spilling out almost as if someone else had said them.

“Now that’s a weird thing to remember,” Johanna said.

“It could be a life-saving thing to remember,” Dr. Sakala said. “I’d stay away from nuts until your memory comes back all the way.” He handed the Epi-pen to Johanna and spent five minutes showing them both how to administer it if needed.

“You’re turning out to be high maintenance,” Johanna said after the doctor left.

“I know. Again, my apologies.” Holden accepted the tote bag she gave him.

“Some clothes. Figure you don’t want to flash your ass to everyone on our way out.” She smiled then grew serious when he pulled a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt out of the bag. “They’re my ex-husband’s.” She studied the clothes for a moment longer, then hitched her purse higher up on her shoulder. “I’ll wait for you in the hallway.”

Am I somebody’s husband?
Somebody’s ex-husband?
God, he hoped no one was waiting at that Texas address for him. Someone would have answered the phone when the hospital called, right? He’d been here a few days now. If he belonged to someone, she would have come looking for him.

Unless she didn’t want to find him.

Johanna navigated her way through the parking lot toward her vehicle. A few steps behind her, Holden Lancaster followed. His eyes had been beautiful when she’d seen them in the crashed plane and her field, but she hadn’t noticed that the rest of him was beautiful too. When he’d emerged from his hospital room wearing Alex’s jeans and T-shirt, she’d felt as if she had opened a magazine. The one where they counted down the fifty most beautiful people and she’d just gotten to number one.

Holden’s legs filled the jeans as Alex’s had, but the T-shirt fit was a new experience. Alex had always been in good shape. He went to the gym, ate right, could wield heavy farm tools when called upon to do so. Holden, however, must have spent more time at the gym, ate more right, and wielded much heavier tools, because that black cotton was stretched across serious pectoral muscles. Johanna suddenly wished she had forgotten to bring a shirt for him so she could get a peek at his abs.

You’re taking him home. You’ll get to see the abs.
She shook her head.
No, that’s not why you’re taking him home.

But wasn’t it? Would she have agreed to let him hang out at her farmhouse if he looked like a troll?
Probably not.
Everybody knows trolls are trouble. Holden was definitely no troll. Wasn’t she searching for someone to fill Alex’s shoes?

Wasn’t Holden actually wearing Alex’s shoes?

Johanna huffed out a breath and stopped at the passenger side of her vehicle. She was being silly. She had to get her head on straight. Let Holden rest, hope he got his memory back, and send him off to Texas where he belonged. He really wasn’t a lost puppy. She couldn’t keep him.

“This is what you drive?” Holden’s voice startled her.

“Yeah.” She turned to face him. Mistake. He was even more handsome out in the sunshine. She focused on the slant of his eyebrows as his blue gaze swept over her beat-up Bronco. “Something wrong with my wheels, Mr. Lancaster?”

“Ah, no. I just…” A faraway look washed across his face.

“You just what?” Johanna touched his arm, and he snapped his gaze to her face.

“I think cars are important to me somehow.”

“Aren’t cars important to
all
men?” A loud creak echoed into the parking lot as she opened the passenger door for him. Why hadn’t she asked Ted to fix that?

“Just because I can’t remember myself, doesn’t mean you should apply every male stereotype to me to fill in the blanks.” He got into the Bronco, wincing a little as he repositioned himself in the seat.

“Right. Okay. So I shouldn’t expect you to leave the toilet seat up while you’re staying with me?” She liked the way the left side of Holden’s mouth turned up in a smirk as she closed the door. She walked to the driver side and slid into the seat.

“I will make a special effort to put the seat down. Promise.” He held up his hand as if taking an oath.

Johanna pushed the key into the ignition and started the aging Bronco. Now every grumble and groan of the engine embarrassed her. Kam never said anything about riding in the beast, but maybe the Y-chromosome didn’t truly get active until puberty. Ted never commented on the Bronco either. Maybe he just didn’t want to have to fix it.

“This thing is going to make it to your house, right?” Holden patted the dashboard.

“It has yet to fail me.” Johanna caressed the steering wheel. “Although, I don’t drive that often. Don’t have to.”

“Why not?” Holden stretched out his right leg and rubbed his kneecap. The movement shouldn’t have hypnotized her, but it did.

She blinked and reluctantly focused her gaze out the windshield. “Work from home. Don’t have to haul my butt anywhere each morning but down the hallway.”

“What do you do?”

“Is this the twenty questions portion of our encounter?” Johanna plunged her hand into her purse and pulled out her sunglasses.

“I can’t remember me,” Holden said. “I may as well get to know you.”

“Good point. Maybe me saying something will jog your memory.” She merged onto the highway and settled in her seat for the twenty-minute drive home. “I’m a graphic designer. Make promotional items for companies. In fact,” she glanced at him quickly, “I designed the logo for the company you may or may not work for.”

“Donovan Electronics?” Holden pulled on his lower lip. “The doctor showed me the logo, but I didn’t recognize it.”

“And the company doesn’t recognize you apparently.” That little tidbit still unsettled Johanna. It was like a splinter subtly irritating her flesh. And knowing the plane was no longer in her back field only added to the mystery…or the danger. “Maybe Holden Lancaster isn’t your real name?”

He shook his head. “It’s my name. It’s the only thing I’m absolutely sure about. That and my birthday.”

“Which is?”

“July 31
^st
.” He said it with enough conviction to convince Johanna it was true.

“My son’s is July 2
^nd
. Generally speaking, I like folks born in July.” She risked another glance in his direction, and his smile made a flash of heat zip through her body. Her hardly-used woman parts wiggled under the layer of dust that had been collecting on them and paid attention to this man sitting beside her.

We like him
, they said.

Shut up
, Johanna thought. “I hope you like animals. We’ve got cows, chickens, a couple of ducks, and a dog.”

“Sounds like a full house. Sure you have room for me?” Holden rubbed his hand over the stitches on his forearm as if he were trying to scratch them without scratching them. Johanna recalled when Kam had needed stitches after falling out of his tree house. His one complaint was how much they itched.

“We’ve got room. It’s just me and Kam in the house.” Would have been more if the dice hadn’t rolled the way they did. “And there’s Ted, my father-in-law, well,
ex
-father-in-law technically. He lives in a cabin on the edge of the property. He’ll be the one giving you vicious glares upon first meeting you, so be ready.”

“Thanks for the warning. Should I sleep with one eye open?”

“Not a bad idea.”

“Doubt I can manage it. I’m exhausted, and I have a monster headache.” He pressed on his temples, and Johanna got the urge to massage that headache away for him. She noted the small shaven patch on his scalp and recalled the blood that had been oozing out of that wound when she’d pulled him out of the plane.

“Tell me you have aspirin or something.” He pressed his palms to his closed eyes.

“I’ve got whatever you need.”

“Whatever I need?” He dropped his hands to his lap. “I’ll remember you said that.”

“Said what?”

“That you have whatever I need.”

“I never said that.”

“Yes, you did.”

Johanna pulled the brochures the doctor gave her out of her purse. Pretending to read from one, she said, “In the event the patient incorrectly remembers conversations, emergency help should be sought.”

Holden elbowed her and grabbed the brochure. He stuffed it back into her purse. “Making fun of the injured. Real nice.”

“I never claimed to have a good bedside manner. I only promised a guestroom and some rest.”

“And that you have whatever I need.” Holden stared out the windshield, but Johanna could see his grin.

Playing with a hot amnesiac was fun. More fun than she’d had in a while. What other fun would Holden Lancaster bring?

****

Nothing was familiar about riding in that dilapidated Bronco. Not the trees, farms, or miles of highway that whizzed by as Johanna drove. And yet, Holden wasn’t anxious. His head still throbbed, his stitches itched like crazy, and the muscles around his ribs ached, but the worry over not remembering his past was not the first thing on his mind.

Instead, this woman sitting beside him filled his thoughts. He couldn’t recall the people he knew, but surely they weren’t as nice—or as gorgeous—as Johanna Ware. She’d saved his life, driven to the hospital, offered him a room in her house, and now was funning with him as if they were old buddies. She was making this entire ordeal so much better, and it was more than a pleasure to look at her. That red hair was fiery around her fair-skinned cheeks, and that rose on her T-shirt sure looked fine stretched across her breasts. Light freckles were sprinkled along her arms while a bracelet encircled one wrist. A bracelet made of…acorns?

“Acorns as jewelry. Interesting.” He pointed to the bracelet.

Johanna lifted her arm and shook her wrist. The acorns knocked against each other making a musical instrument of her arm. “Yeah. My son made this for me for Mother’s Day.” She glowed every time she mentioned her son.

“Talented kid.”

“Kam is always working on a project. He loves building things.” She held up her wrist again. “His grandfather helped him with this one. I’m hoping for matching earrings next year.” She grinned and switched lanes on the highway.

“No fear of rogue squirrel attacks?”

“Let them try to steal my fine jewelry. It’ll be the last nut they get.”

The fierce mama bear was right there at the ready. He’d stay away from the kid just to be safe. No need to get mixed up with a kid anyway. Did he even like kids? Who could remember? If all went well, his memory would come back quickly, and he’d be on a plane to Texas soon.