Captain Morgan grinned at me. “Once upon a time, I knew you.”
I blinked.
“You did?” I asked.
He nodded once. “I did. You grew up in the house next door to me. One I used to share with my wife.”
I looked down at his bare wedding ring finger and frowned.
“We’re divorced,” he answered my silent question. “Have been for about ten years now.”
“That sucks,” I admitted.
Captain Morgan tilted his head and stared at me for a few long moments.
“I’m not upset about it,” he finally admitted. “My wife and I were best friends. Still are, in fact. We just realized that we were no longer in love with each other.”
An amicable divorce.
Those were rare.
“Anyway,” Captain Morgan said. “Belle and I used to watch you growing up. Wishing we had a kid like you for a kid of our own. We saw how your parents treated you. How you were more of a commodity to them than an actual child.” He grinned. “I think you were over at my house more when you were a kid than you were at your own. Always wanting to know how to do this or that. How to mow a lawn or ride a bike. How to fix a car. Shit. There was this one time you asked Belle how to bake a cake for your mother for her birthday. Y’all spent three hours in the kitchen baking this cake, and you presented it to your mother only for her to tell you that she didn’t eat cake because it made her ass fat.”
I winced.
“Yeah,” he said. “Exactly.”
“So, you felt sorry for me?” I asked. “That’s why you hired me?”
He shrugged. “You were qualified. Oh, and I didn’t want to see you floundering. You were a kid, but I still cared a lot about you. When y’all moved, I think that’s what set Belle and I back. When we realized that we were just skating through life together and not living it like we were supposed to.”
Belle sounded like someone that I wanted to know again.
“And Belle?” I asked. “Where’s she?”
Captain Morgan grinned.
“She used to be a cop,” he said. “Used to see her all day every day. And she still picks up the odd shift or two. But, saying that, she now owns a CrossFit gym and exercise facility. All the cops go out there and workout. You probably got a membership letter for there about a week after you started the job,” he said. “You should go. See her. Belle misses the hell out of you.”
I would.
I’d go.
Belle sounded like a good person.
And, even though I didn’t remember her at all, I was more than willing to be friends.
I couldn’t have enough of those.
“I’m back!” Frankie breezed in.
That ring, the tiny, miniscule rock, joke of a ring, winked on her finger.
I narrowed my eyes and wished I could rip it off.
But I knew if I did anything like that, she would be devastated. And there were a lot of things I was okay with in this world, but hurting Frankie wasn’t one of them.
“Yay,” I said dryly.
“With your injuries, this would normally be a nurse’s job. However, you’re in luck and got the second-year resident to do you,” she chirped.
“Second-year resident?” I asked. “What’s that?”
“A resident is me,” she said. “I went through four years of college. Then four years of medical school. Now I’m in my second year of residency. You have to do three years of that total in this particular program.”
I looked at her skeptically. “You’re a child.”
She rolled her eyes.
“We’re the same age, bozo,” she countered. “And I graduated high school early. College early. Medical school early. You get the picture, right?”
“You’re a Brainiac,” I said. “Got it.”
She snorted. “You always were a wiseass. You and Luca.” She went suddenly quiet. “I’m glad that you still have that going for you.”
A wiseass.
Right.
“I don’t remember who I was before,” I admitted.
“Nothing?” she asked, pausing in ripping open packages.
“Nothing,” I confirmed. “The only reason I knew my name was because I had my dog tags still.”
She swallowed.
“You don’t remember any of how this happened?” She indicated my scarring.
She sat down on the doctor’s chair behind me, then got started on cleaning the wound on my back.
I tried not to flinch.
I didn’t like people at my back. Even her.
But mainly, I didn’t like having her so close to the worst part of me.
My scars I could handle.
But my back? It wasn’t something that I wanted anyone to see. Ever.
Luckily, she didn’t ask questions.
Unluckily, I knew that the only reason that she didn’t was because of Captain Morgan standing across the room staring at the two of us.
“No,” I admitted. “I don’t remember anything beyond waking up in the hospital. I was told my name. Where I was from. Who my parents were. Who my best friend was.”