End of Eternity 3 Page 8

  “It’s also rude to break up with your ex seconds before trying to establish a relationship with a new chick! For god’s sake, Owen,” I say wearily. “Would you pick up the damn phone?”

  Grumbling to himself, Owen answers the call. “Yeah? … Sorry, Caroline. Yeah, I was serious… What? … No, this wasn’t a sudden thing… Good grief, woman, can you slow down? Please stop crying—no, you can stay in the apartment. I won’t be coming home… Caroline… Caroline, will you… Carol? Fuck, will you please… oh, forget this.”

  He hangs up the phone and sits down abruptly on the bed before turning to look at me with a sad expression on his face. He looks like a puppy who’s just been kicked in the gonads.

  “Now I’m all bummed out,” Owen says softly. “Why’d you make me answer that call?”

  “Were you actually serious?” I ask him, sitting up in bed.

  “Yeah. We said we’d give ourselves time to think about it, and I have—haven’t you?” Owen wrinkles up his face in confusion. “I mean, I understand if you don’t want to be with me. I didn’t break up with her contingent on you wanting to be with me—I wasn’t asking you for a guarantee. I was just putting myself out there. I just wanted you to know that I’m willing to twist my whole life around to make this work. I’ve been miserable these past few weeks and… I just needed to do this.”

  Moving closer to him, I rest my cheek against his back and wrap my arms around his stomach. “You’re the only person that makes me happy, Owen. But I don’t even know if I deserve to be happy right now.”

  “Let’s try,” he tells me, putting his hands over mine. “Forget about Brad for now. Forget about vengeance and justice and protecting everybody else. Just be with me, and let me protect you.”

  “I don’t know if I can. How do I let go? After what he did…”

  “Maybe you don’t need to let go completely. Maybe we can find a way to give Brad what he deserves together. You might have lost a small battle, but you didn’t lose the war. But for now, you need to rest and recuperate. You need to go on the defensive instead of the offensive, and take some time to gather the troops.”

  “Okay,” I tell him softly.

  He perks up and turns around to look at me. “Okay? To what? To taking a break from Breaking Brad? Or okay to trying to be with me?”

  “Yes,” I say with a smile. “Okay to all of it.”

  “Are you just saying that because you’re really vulnerable right now?”

  “Probably.”

  “Great! I was hoping that my timing was awesome,” Owen says, pumping his fist into the air. “I promise to be the best boyfriend you’ve ever had. I promise to always put the toilet seat down so you don’t fall in, and I promise to always let you have the last slice of pizza when we order delivery. I promise to always tell you that you look great in your jeans, even when you’ve had too many slices of pizza, and I promise to remember to get you a present on all holidays and birthdays. I promise to try my best to never fart around you, when you’re awake, and I promise never to shove anything into your vagina when there’s an ‘Out of Order’ sign hanging on the door.”

  “Gee, thanks,” I tell him mockingly. “I’ve always wanted someone to treat me like a princess.”

  A knock sounds on my bedroom door, and it creaks open. My sister walks in cautiously, and looks at me and Owen with suspicious scrutiny.

  “Is everything okay here?” Helen asks me with concern. “Dr. Howard wouldn’t tell me or dad anything about your condition.”

  “I’m perfectly fine,” I tell my sister with a smile. “Did Leslie leave yet? If not, see if you can make her stay a little longer and force her to chat with Dad.”

  “She’s actually talking with Liam about the conference,” Helen tells me softly. “What’s going on here, Carm?”

  “You’ll never guess! I’m dating Owen now.”

  “Ain’t I the luckiest guy ever?” Owen asks happily.

  “No, not really,” Helen says with her classic sardonic smile. “You’ve been sitting on my sister’s bed for over five minutes. I’m surprised you’re not engaged.”

  “Ouch,” Owen says, turning to look at me. “Is that true? Should we be engaged?”

  “That’s probably something the old Carmen would do,” I say, looking at my sister. “But I’ve learned my lesson about trusting men too easily.”

  “Darn,” Owen says in disappointment. “Well, there’s always tomorrow.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Are you really just going to stay here?” I ask Owen softly. He has been curled up in bed with me and watching a funny movie on Netflix, which he insisted would make me feel better.

  “Why not?” he asks, putting the movie on pause. “I’m homeless now since I just kicked myself out of my apartment. Do you think it’s too soon for us to move in together? I could always crash on Liam’s couch—especially since he’s not using his apartment much lately.”

  “No,” I tell him with a shake of my head. “I’m just really happy. I’ve been miserable for weeks, too. I felt like I had to constantly fake a smile around Brad so he wouldn’t know how I really feel about him. It’s nice to just be me.”

  “I promise that you’ll never have to fake a smile around me,” Owen promises. “I think I’m man enough to give you real ones. In fact, you shouldn’t have to fake anything around me, because I’m man enough to give you lots of real ones.”

  I try to suppress my giggles, but I fail.

  A knock on my bedroom door alerts us to my sister’s entry. “Carm?” she says gently. “Dinner’s ready. Do you want to come downstairs and eat with us, or do you want me to bring food up here?”

  “Who cooked dinner?” I ask in surprise.

  “Liam did,” she says with a smile. “He’s pretty skilled with a skillet. What do you think?”

  I look to Owen for his preference, and he shrugs.

  “It’s up to you, Carmelita. I’ll eat wherever you’re eating.”

  “It has been a while since we ate together as a family,” I tell Helen softly. “Even when you came back home a few months ago, you wouldn’t eat with us. You just stayed in your bedroom the whole time.”

  “Really?” Helen asks me in confusion. “That seems weird. Sorry for being such an antisocial prick, Carm. But I’ve decided to stay here at the house for a few days, and I convinced Liam to stay, too; so we can have plenty of meals together.”

  “That sounds righteous!” Owen says, rubbing his hands together in excitement. He turns to look at me with a grin. “Liam is an awesome cook. My mouth is watering just thinking about dinner, and I have no idea what it is!”

  “Hellie,” I say suspiciously. “You’re staying here at the house to keep an eye on me, aren’t you?”

  “Of course, big sis,” she says with a wink. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her wink before—it didn’t make sense for her to do it when she was blind. “It seems like you need a babysitter to keep you out of trouble, so I’ve volunteered to be your guardian.”

  “No fair,” Owen says in a wounded voice. “I’m her guardian. Besides, Carmen doesn’t need anyone to help keep her out of trouble. We need to keep trouble out of Carmen, if you know what I mean.”

  Helen scrunches up her face at this terrible joke, and I groan and shove Owen off the bed.

  “Too soon?” he asks innocently.

  Ignoring him, I nod at my sister. “Just let me get some clothes on, Hellie. I’ll come down to dinner.”

  “Great! I’m so glad you’re feeling up to it. I don’t think we’ve ever both had boyfriends over at dinner—not that I can remember. This is going to feel really grown-up.”

  “Is Leslie still here?” I ask hopefully. “Then Dad can have someone too; it can be a triple date.”

  “Dr. Howard and Dad? Since when?” Helen asks me.

  “Since never. I’m trying to make it happen. Dad’s crazy lonely.”

  “Aww. That’s sweet of you, Carm. I think Dr. Howard was just leaving, but I’ll pop d
ownstairs and see if I can catch her and invite her to dinner. Thanks for looking out for Dad while I haven’t been able to.”

  “He’s Dad,” I say with a shrug. “He’s always looked out for us. Besides, I don’t want to lose him like we lost Mom.”

  Helen’s smile disappears, and I realize that it’s still fresh to her. Losing the past three years of her memory erased all the coping and acceptance that she might have achieved.

  “And I don’t want to lose you,” she says finally. “So please, for the love of god, Carm—will you get your shit together? Why must you insist on letting all the freaks, creeps, and weirdoes of the world bone you? I didn’t get the whole story, but apparently you knew this Brad guy was a murderer and you were hanging around him? Sleeping with him? What on earth is wrong with you?”

  A frown settles on my face. “’This Brad guy’ destroyed my husband’s life. He is responsible for hurting a lot of people I care about, including you, Hellie. Maybe if you knew the whole situation, you’d understand—but you don’t. You can’t understand anything without your memories. So please, be here and be my sister, but do not judge me.”

  Owen holds up his hands. “Whoa. I’m sensing some tension in the room, ladies. Some unresolved issues, perhaps? Do we need to sit down and talk it out?”

  “I’m going to judge you all I want,” Helen tells me, with an appraising glance at Owen. “Sometimes I really wonder about your sanity, Carmen. I mean, what do you see in this joker? Must you let all the circus clowns in the universe bone you, too?” With a roll of her eyes, Helen turns to leave the room.

  “Hey!” Owen shouts after her. “You used to like me before you lost your memories! We used to be friends! Jerk!” He turns to me with a pout. “Your sister’s being mean to me.”

  I smile at him. “She’s just being a little overprotective. She used to give all my boyfriends a hard time when we were younger. I miss it, to be honest.”

  “Jeez! If she keeps busting my balls like that, my sex organs are going to be as useless as yours.”

  I grimace at these words. “That’s not very nice, Owen.”

  “Sorry, sorry. I was just trying to poke fun at you to make light of things. I can’t seem to stop making really inappropriate jokes. What is wrong with me today?”

  “No—we should talk about that. Let’s get it out of the way now.” I take a deep breath and cross my arms. “Do you really want to be with me? You know that I can’t have children. What if things work out great between us, then we get to that point… and I’m just a dead end.”

  Owen moves to my side and rubs his hands up and down my arms soothingly. “Carmen, when I met you, you were massively pregnant and probably the most magnificent creature I’ve ever seen. I think I fell in love with you right there and then, to be honest. You were so sad, and I would have moved mountains just to cheer you up. Now, do I think that I’d find you ten times more stunningly, irresistibly gorgeous than I did then if I could somehow make you pregnant with my baby? Heck, yes. But I like you pretty damn well when your oven is empty, too.”

  I look at him in confusion. “Okay, that was sweet. And then weird. And then sweet again.” Reaching out to grasp his shirt, I study his blue eyes. “How do I know that you’re not just going to call me up someday and be like, ‘Found a better chick! She can have my babies. You can’t. Laterz.’”

  “Did I really say ‘Laterz’?” Owen asks in horror.

  “You did.”

  “Wow. I suck,” he says with a guilty look on his face. “Carm, can I be honest with you? I’ve never started a real grown up relationship in the right way. It’s always just… I met a girl at some party, and we hit it off after a night of drunken conversation and drunken sex, then we decided we might as well try to be together. Then it either kept going relatively well, or it flopped hard.”

  “That’s mostly what I’ve done, too.”

  “But this is different. You and me? We got to know each other first. We got to figure out who we are and what we want, learn about each other and become friends before the sex complicated everything. Heck, we’ve never even had sex! Isn’t that weird?”

  “Yeah, it is.” I look up at the ceiling as I scan my memory. “I haven’t had a relationship that started without sex since I was a teenager.”

  “Exactly. I think this is a really good start. I think that this is something special, and I’m in this for the long haul. I delayed breaking things off with my girlfriend because I was being a scaredy cat, but let’s face it; I had dumped her in my heart from the very moment I met you.”

  “That’s really sweet, Owen,” I tell him, moving closer to give him a hug. “But the whole not-having-had sex thing—what if we totally hate having sex with each other? What if after what happened to me today, it takes me a while to be comfortable with having sex again? At all? What if you get bored of waiting for me, or what if when we finally try, you think I suck in bed?”

  “I certainly hope you suck in bed,” he says with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Shut up,” I say, smacking his arm. “I’m being serious!”

  “Okay, little lady,” he says softly, dragging me closer. “I can assure you that I have absolutely no concerns about that. We’re going to be great together. And like I promised before, I will take you to the best doctors to see if we can get you healed up so you can have a baby. And when the time comes, even if everyone says you can’t get pregnant, I promise that I will try anyway. I will try very, very hard.”

  “You dweeb,” I say softly, before heading over to my closet. But somehow, I do feel reassured.

  Chapter Twelve

  “We think that in cases such as Helen’s, multiple touch-up surgeries might be required before the vision improvement is permanent,” Liam is saying as we enter the dining room. “Previously, we just thought that it simply wouldn’t work on some people. But she responded really well to the second surgery, and we anticipate that we might need a third in a few months. It’s just all guesswork at this point, but it should be fairly easy to figure out the required dosage and frequency.”

  “That’s some really amazing work, young man,” Leslie says with a smile. “And to think that a few years ago, you were considering becoming a regular ol’ family doctor like me.”

  Dad shakes his head in refusal of this sentiment. “You’re hardly a regular family doctor, Les. You’ve kept me alive for this long, haven’t you?”

  “You can be a very cooperative patient sometimes,” Leslie responds playfully. “Especially, when you’re not working yourself to the bone and pretending you’re a machine instead of a man.”

  Sending Owen a secret look, I lift my eyebrows to indicate the chemistry between my Dad and Leslie. He gives me a knowing nod of recognition to indicate that he approves of the match.

  “Here’s my other daughter,” Dad says, noticing my presence. “Why don’t you and Owen join us for some dinner and wine?”

  “I made honey-glazed salmon,” Liam says, gesturing to the center of the table. “There’s also some New England clam chowder being kept warm in the kitchen.”

  “I can bring some bowls out for them,” Helen says, standing up quickly.

  “I’ll help,” I tell her, moving toward the kitchen.

  “Not so fast, young lady,” my dad says, gesturing for me to sit down. “You and I need to have a little conversation.”

  “Can’t it wait until later?” I ask him nervously. “We have guests over.”

  “Carmen, I’m fairly certain that everyone in this room knows more about what’s going on with you than I do. So I’m going to ask you a few questions, and you’re going to answer truthfully.”

  “Dad, I…”

  “Why did you have to call Dr. Howard here tonight?” my father asks. “What’s going on with your health?”

  Moving to sit down in my chair, I clear my throat awkwardly, feeling everyone’s eyes on me. “Honestly, Dad—it’s just some female complications from the pregnancy. I’m not healing up as quickly as I
hoped I would be.”

  “Excellent job, Carmen. You’re a really smooth liar, and that’s a skill that will take you far in life. Now what’s the real situation? And what does it have to do with Brad?”

  “Brad?” I say nervously, swallowing a clump of my saliva. I look to Owen first, and then to Dr. Howard, the two people in the room who know nearly everything. “How do you know it has anything to do with Brad?”

  “I’m not stupid, darling,” my father says softly. “I’ve seen the way you’ve been acting around him for weeks. I know that you’ve been up to something, and I didn’t want to interfere. But when there’s something so wrong that you have to call the doctor to come over late in the evening? That’s when I need to step in.”

  I lower my eyes to look at my empty plate. A delicious aroma reaches my nostrils, and I get a sudden craving for Liam’s salmon. “You know, Dad, I’m pretty hungry. Maybe we could eat first, and then talk about—”

  I am reaching for the salmon when my dad pulls the bowl away abruptly. “Please be honest with me, Carmen. You know everything about my health, and you take care of me so well. All I want is the chance to be your father again, and to take care of you.”

  Looking at the salmon longingly. I place my hands in my lap and begin to fidget.

  “It’s really nothing, Mr. W.,” Owen chimes in, trying to rescue me. “Brad and Carmen just decided that they’re going to end things. It turns out that she likes me better!”

  “Actually, I’m still in the process of deciding that,” I correct Owen.

  “Fine,” my dad says suspiciously. “But why, when Brad rang the doorbell a few minutes ago and said he wanted to join us for dinner, did Helen send him away so viciously? I thought she was going to punch him in the face.”

  “Aww, Helen did that?” I say in surprise, touched by the gesture.

  “She was just covering for us,” Owen says, throwing an arm around my shoulders. “She didn’t want Brad to find out that Carmen was hanging out with a much better bloke.”