I nodded, forgetting he couldn’t see me. “Okay.”
We spoke for a few more minutes about the case, but he had no new information about that night. Nor did he have any new information about the days leading up to it.
I ended the call and let out a long breath. Why couldn’t I remember anything? Why did my brain insist on keeping the truth from me? I could understand it with Nolan. He didn’t want to remember. But I did.
I picked up my mug, ready to hurl it across the room. And I would have if Kayla hadn’t given me the mug as a birthday present and if it hadn’t still been full of coffee, albeit lukewarm coffee.
“What did he say?” With his chin, Nolan indicated the phone in my hand.
I filled him in on the call and everything the detective had told me, then I left to shower. When I stepped out of the steamy bathroom after taking longer than I needed to, Nolan was leaning against the opposite wall.
He pushed away from it. “I’m making you dinner tonight.”
“I’ve never seen you cook before. I mean, other than macaroni and cheese.” Which was not my favorite food. Not even close.
He smirked, and everything south of the equator heated up. Damn sexy smirk. “I’ve learned a trick or two since I was nineteen.”
I didn’t doubt it. “What are you making?”
He winked. “It’s a surprise.”
I snorted, remembering what we had, or rather didn’t have, in the fridge. As did Nolan. He suggested we hit the store for groceries. As much as I wanted to talk about why he’d been showering in his clothes last night, I knew he didn’t. And I didn’t want him to put up any walls between us because of it.
As we wandered around the store, a girl my age rushed over to Nolan. “You’re Tyler Erickson! Can I have your autograph?”
I glanced around, half expecting a horde of other fans to come screaming at us from both ends of the aisle, trampling me in their haste to touch Nolan.
“Sure,” he said, “but I don’t have a pen on me.”
Before I could say I probably had one, the girl whipped out a Sharpie from her back pocket and handed it to Nolan. Seriously? Did she normally walk around with a Sharpie in her back pocket in case she saw a celebrity? I guessed so.
She yanked down her low-cut T-shirt, exposing her lacy bra—her transparent lacy bra, which left nothing to the imagination when it came to her large breasts and nipples.
I rolled my eyes and looked away.
Without paying much attention to what I was doing, I snatched up a package of bran-loaded cereal—the kind that would make you regular for a month with just one spoonful. She didn’t care about Nolan. She was only hoping to get laid. She didn’t even notice how tired he looked.
But who was I to judge? How many of my one-night stands had I cared about? How many of them had I wanted to date after we screwed, and how many had I given fake phone numbers to when they asked for my number? The difference was I hadn’t hooked up with any of them because of who they were. None were celebrities.
“Where are we going?” I’d asked, watching the passing scenery.
“It’s a surprise,” a man said, his voice familiar, comforting.
“Since when did you start eating this stuff?” Nolan asked, grinning like he was pleased with himself. I blinked. The fan was gone, as was the memory.
Nolan was standing next to our shopping cart, holding the box of cereal I’d grabbed off the shelf. And it looked like it wasn’t the only one I had grabbed. Five other boxes mocked me from the cart.
“I…I…” I didn’t want to lie and say I’d decided to try the stuff, because then he’d expect me to actually eat it for breakfast. No thanks. “I don’t.” I grabbed it from his hand, returned it and the rest of them to the shelf, and got the sugary brand I really wanted.
Without saying a word to him, I pushed the cart down the aisle, eager to escape him. The last thing I wanted was for him to see how much his groupies bothered me. They shouldn’t have, but they did.
On the drive back to the apartment, I deliberated if I should mention the brief memory that had hit in the store. But really, what was there to tell? I didn’t even know if it was related to the attack or if it had happened during one of the other days I didn’t remember and so had nothing to do with what had left me in the coma.
Ahead of us, on the main road back to my apartment, a car was pulled over on the side, its hazard lights flashing. An old woman was staring at the rear tire, which was clearly flat.
Nolan pulled up behind her and parked the car. He didn’t get out, though. He just stared at the tire, and I instantly knew why.
Chapter 18
Nolan
FIVE YEARS AGO
As I drove to the dance studio where my asshole father had left my eleven-year-old sister, Hailey talked to her on the phone, reassuring her that we were on the way.