More Than Memories (7 page)

His cell phone rang. He usually turned it off when
he needed some time alone, but Molly had the number and he wanted to make sure
she could always get a hold of him.

It wasn’t Molly, but his boss, Kevin Davison.

“Trent, how’s the vacation going?” he asked. Kevin
kept a professional, but friendly, relationship with everyone he worked with,
so while Trent answered he wondered why Kevin was calling him. He usually
jumped right into business. “It’s going well, so far.”

“Trent, Judy Lofton’s making noise again.”

This wasn’t anything new. The postmaster, a middle
aged gossip, had nothing good to say about Trent and shared it with anyone
wanting to listen. She wasn’t quiet about her belief that Trent was responsible
for Molly’s disappearance.

Except now Molly was back. Trent said as much to
Kevin.

“But without her memory of why she left.
Everyone’s heard the story. Beverly Marshall really enjoyed spreading it.”

Bev. Great.

“Something in your voice sounds like you’re more
than just irritated this time,” Trent said as he walked back down the hill, not
wanting to have this conversation in this spot – his and Molly’s spot. It felt
like he was talking in the middle of church.

“People are listening to Judy. They’re calling me,
actually. She wants you put on leave and an investigation started.”

“Kevin, you’re buying into that?” Trent didn’t
mask the anger he felt. If the entire planet couldn’t see how much he loved
Molly, good grief, how could he ever prove it to them?

“You’re already on vacation. We’re looking at the
case again. If only her parents weren’t dead, they could have cleared this up.”
Kevin paused. Trent stopped walking and allowed the silence to linger as he
thought about the implications of Kevin’s words.

Finally, Trent said, “That’s what this is all
about? Judy Lofton heard Molly’s parents are dead and thinks she can pin it on
me. Or at least make me look bad yet another time?”
The
suspicious looks Trent received every so often wearied him. The gossip. Knowing
people
thought he hurt Molly, or anyone
for that matter.

He called Mark the minute he hung up the phone
with Kevin. Trent had reached his truck, but leaned against it to talk to his
friend.

“Sounds like you’ve heard,” Mark said.

“From Kevin himself. That’s what makes me worried.
I’m never going to get around this.” He rubbed his face, closing his eyes to
the trees beside the country road. The wind sang above him along with a few
birds, but that didn’t drown out his maddening thoughts.

“If Molly remembers, it’ll clear everything up.”

Trent made a fist, wanting to hit his truck, but
controlled himself.

“What if she doesn’t?” Trent asked. “I don’t want
her knowing about this, feeling even more pressure.”

“Trent, I don’t know how you’ll keep it from her.
The town’s having a hay day. Nothing this big has happened since the Andersons
disappeared.”

He groaned. “We have to try. I’m supposed to head
over to see her now. Could you give Alicia a call and ask her not to say
anything?”

“Alright. Didn’t you say you wanted to drive down
to Redding and search her parent’s things?”

“Yes, we need to, but she seems to be discovering
her old self here. Plus I think she’s afraid of finding out what really
happened.”

“That’s not going to stop her, though, is it?
She’s always been determined once her mind is set, and she still has the same
character.”

“Molly wants the truth,” Trent said. “You’re
right, we need to get things moving and make sure there isn’t anyone looking
for her.” Trent ended the call and drove to Molly’s hotel under a dark cloud
speeding across the sky behind him. It passed over him and he wished his dark
mood could pass as quickly. Somehow he needed to protect Molly from the town’s
talk. She didn’t need more to deal with, more that could keep her memory from
returning.
He couldn’t let Judy Lofton
get
to Molly.

Molly lay face up across the bed, an arm thrown
over her eyes, pulling all the facts together to see if they amounted to
anything. She knew she and Trent had been in a serious relationship and he
hadn’t even dated while she was missing. She knew merely looking at him, or
smelling his scent, evoked something in her. And, finally, she knew even if she
didn’t remember her life before, she already felt at home in this town
with t
he people she’d met here. Even though she’d
arrived nervous about how people would react to her, she now felt safe knowing
people around town knew her. She liked Ridge City, so why did she ever leave?

She longed for things to be simple so she could go
about her life and stop trying to look back. She trusted Trent and felt
thankful that came easy. Then again, he was looking into all of this, and maybe
wondering if she had something to do with her parents’ deaths. That thought
chilled her and she pushed it aside.

She would rather think about Trent, even though
she had doubts about their future. If she never regained her memory, maybe they
could start from scratch and simply move forward. Except their past would haunt
her whether or not she remembered it. These questions nagged at her daily but
she couldn’t answer them. However, she had no problems picturing Trent and she
could easily guess why she fell for him in the first place back in high school.
She found herself thinking about him, him and her together.
His house with those beautiful roses planted outside.
They’d popped into her thoughts several times, usually as a picture of them in
bloom in shades of red. This time she also thought of a small, wrought iron
table lamp, the base shaped like a vine with iron leaves and the glass shaped
like the rose at the top. In her mind, it glowed in the corner of a warm living
room, enchanting the space. While trying to picture the inside of Trent’s home,
she dozed off.

“Oh, no!” Molly jerked straight up in bed,
suddenly awake and not wanting Trent to find her asleep again.

Getting ready turned out to be quite a lengthy
task. Should she dress up in the clothes she’d brought with her? Or wear the
ones she’d bought here in Ridge City, ones that supposedly looked like the old
Molly? All the questions about their past and her feelings now toward Trent made
her question her choice of clothing
repeatedly. She
wanted
him to notice she took time getting ready, but she didn’t want him to think she
was falling for him again. Or should she say in love with him still or
subconsciously in love with him? She needed a drink.

She put on nylons and heels, thinking
what the
heck
, it was dinner after all and she enjoyed looking nice.

When Trent knocked, Molly threw open the door,
proud of herself for being ready in the lavender shirt she’d bought earlier and
a floral skirt. Trent stood, flowers in hand, in an olive dress shirt that set
off his brown eyes and a nice pair of slacks.

What caught her then and held her motionless was
the gleam in his eyes and his smile as he gazed at
her
from top to bottom.

“I’m read
y. On ti
me.”
Now that was a classy ‘hello.’

“And looking gorgeous.” He handed her the flowers
and followed her inside. She murmured a thank you while smelling them, and
realized he must have picked them himself because the bouquet included wild
irises and violets. They were growing on the hills around the town, she’d
noticed. They did every spring . . . and he picked them for her each time he
came over to her house.
One ti
me, in the
second grade, he’d handed her flowers and planted a kiss right on her mouth and
took off running before she could say a word.

“Molly?”

She became aware of her hotel room and Trent
beside her, and could see how strange she must look standing still and staring
at those flowers.

She looked at him and whispered, “You brought me
flowers in the second grade and kissed me.”

At first he turned red, then a lop-sided grin
appeared on his face. “You remembered something.”

She did remember! Staring into his eyes now, she
could picture his childish face and the glow in his eyes. He’d plunked that
kiss on her mouth and looked so shocked with himself, or maybe the sensation of
their lips meeting ever so briefly. She felt the breeze that had been lightly
blowing, carrying the smells of Oregon spring in all its wet glory.

“That’s it. One little memory in a big, blank
sea.” She sat on the bed, looking at the flowers again, wanting to get lost in
the memory that felt so real like it was really happening all over again. “The
doctor said I’d probably remember earlier memories first, and then slowly move
closer and closer to present day.”

“So you’re on your way.” The tremble in his voice
piqued her attentio
n. She gla
nced up and saw
the intensity in his eyes. He seemed to want her memory back as much as she
did. The excitement in his voice was too much, she wanted to jump up, grab him
around the waist, and dance. She finally felt she’d done the right thing by
returning to Ridge City.

Maybe he felt it, too, that she wanted to step
into his arms, share the moment, enjoy it. Yet, she felt they knew each other
in some other world. Trent sat on the bed next to her for a strained minute,
their arms barely touching, but she felt his warmth. Then, they both stood,
ready to leave. She stopped him first.

“I want to hear something from you, want you to
admit it.” Molly started slow, nervous, but collected her words after that. “I
want you to tell me we were dating.”

She couldn’t read his brown eyes, just felt the
sensation he wanted to hide something. “All right,” Trent said. “We were dating
when you disappeared.” The words slipped out easily, telling her there was so
much more to the story.
That “more” m
ust be
the part he didn’t want to share with her yet. She pleaded with her eyes,
wanting and needing to hear the rest. For a second, he stared at her while she
held her breath. The moment faded.

Trent walked toward the door despite her
beseeching looks. She sighed and let it go. Maybe she didn’t need him to tell
her just yet.

“I want to take you into the city and eat
somewhere nice.”
That sounded like a date to
her, and that meant they were acknowledging there was something
between them. Maybe something more than just their past.

They took Trent’s
midsize pickup and Molly recounted her day with Alicia and cautiously added,
“She asked me what I plan to do, if I’m staying.”

“Do you intend to return
to California?” His voice
held steady, but somehow she knew his insides
weren’t.

“I didn’t have plans, really. It’s hard to plan
with so many things undecided. I know I want to figure all this out, see if I
can remember my life here.” She couldn’t be truthful and tell him she was
afraid to plan.

“I guess that’s good enough for now.” He shifted
the conversation. “Speaking of answers, I looked over the police record from
Arnold and Ellen’s accident.”

“And?”

“Well, it really does look like an accident. But
you seem to think otherwise?”

She sighed
.
“I’ll
admit I don’t have any reason to, not any proof anyway. It just seemed curious
that I lost my memory and then that happened. I was mad and wanted someone to
blame, but it still seems strange.”

Trent nodded. They’d reached the city and slowed
down to drive through traffic. She studied his profile in the fading daylight,
wondering if she used to sit next to him in the middle seat when they were
dating. Instead she asked, “What now?”

“I think we’re starting from the wrong point.”

“How’s that?” she asked.

“Maybe we should go all the way back to when you
disappeared. Tomorrow we can go to the station and go over the file on you.
There are interviews of neighbors and friends that lived in Ridge City four
years ago. We didn’t see anything there, but you might.”

“But I don’t remember.”

H
e pulled into
the restaurant parking lot and shut off the engine. “You might.”

“What if I don’t, then what?”

Instead of answering her, he surprised her with a
laugh. “Usually I’m the one asking all the questions. You used to tell me to
forget the details.” Glancing at her, he went serious again. “I thought of
that, too. Let’s go inside and talk about it.”

Inside, Trent asked for a corner booth and the
hostess took them past a gas fireplace to the back. The lights were dimmed and
a hanging lamp shone a soft light down on their table, creating a cozy
atmosphere. Molly ordered the drink she’d been wanting and looked through the
menu. The waiter came before she decided, so many things sounded good. Trent
ordered, then added, “I think she wants the salmon filet.”

A small smile lit her face while one curious
eyebrow rose. “I do.”

The soft lighting, the country music, and the look
in his eyes sent warm shivers through her, funny shivers that tickled and felt
nice. Their eyes locked and it wasn’t uncomfortable at all. While looking at
his adult face, she could see the little boy from her one memory. His face had
been narrower then, like the rest of him.

After a minute, she asked, “So what are your plans
after going over the police interviews?”

He leaned forward and clasped his hands. “I
thought it’d be a good place to start, just to cover all our bases. I want to
make sure we don’t miss anything that we might need later on. After that, I’d
like to visit your home in California.”

“Why?” she asked. “You think that’ll help?”

“I want to talk to your neighbors there. I also
wanted to ask you, did you keep your parents’ belongings?”

“I haven’t packed their things away.” In fact, she
hadn’t changed the house at all. “They didn’t unpack everything, though, from
the move. Our basement has a file cabinet and tons of boxes. Everything’s still
there.”