Desperate Strangers. Carla Cassidy

she stirred something in him. Her dark hair hung down just beneath her shoulders, looking shiny and soft.

      It surprised him. She couldn’t have been more different than the woman who had been his wife. Debbie had been blond and was always fighting with her weight, not that Nick had cared. Debbie had been short while Julie was tall and willowy.

      Julie had just finished pouring coffee for her parents when Max and Tony came in. The two looked remarkably alike. They both had dark hair and eyes, but while Tony greeted him amicably, Max had a wealth of suspicion in his eyes.

      Nick had just taken a seat at the table when Casey arrived. The long-haired, curvy young woman swept in and, with a dramatic wail, embraced Julie. “Daddy told us you hit a tree. You could have been killed.” She released her sister. “What were you thinking?”

      “I don’t know,” Julie confessed. “In fact, I don’t have any memories of the past ten months.”

      “Before we get to that, let’s talk about the white elephant in the room.” Max looked pointedly at Nick. “This is supposed to be a family meeting.”

      “And soon he’s going to be family. Everyone, this is Nick and he’s my fiancé,” Julie said.

      Chaos broke out. Everyone talked at once until Lynetta raised her hands. “Everybody shut up,” she yelled. Surprisingly everyone did. She looked at Julie. “And how is it that you have a fiancé we didn’t know about?”

      “Yeah, I can’t believe you didn’t even tell me,” Casey added. “I thought we shared all of our secrets.”

      “I totally get why she kept it a secret,” Tony said. “Every man Julie has ever dated, you all have chased off.”

      “Nick isn’t going anywhere,” Julie replied with a warm smile at him.

      A sick guilt surged up inside him. Now there were more people to lie to and Julie gazed at him with such certainty, such open trust.

      He was trying to be present for Julie, but it was becoming way more difficult than he’d anticipated. Besides, more than anything, he wanted to grab the newspaper from the center of the table and see if Brian McDowell’s murder had made the news.

      Her family members began to fire questions at him. Where did he work? How long had he held that job? Where did he live? What did he love about Julie? He answered them all as truthfully as he could.

      “I’d like to know about your financial situation,” George said. “One day Julie will own part of the business. That makes her quite a catch for somebody who has nothing.”

      “Dad! Enough,” Julie finally said in protest.

      “I want to know more about this memory loss thing,” Max said. “Is it really true that you don’t remember the last ten months?”

      “It’s true, but we’re hoping that I’ll get my memories back very soon,” she replied.

      “That’s so weird,” Casey said and gazed at her sister as if she were an alien from another planet.

      “Weird or not, what I need to know is if you’re okay to take your shift tomorrow,” George said. “You’re on the schedule to open and work until five.”

      “Please don’t tell me I have to start covering your shifts. It’s bad enough I have to cover for the baby half the time.” Max shot a pointed glare at Casey.

      Was Nick the only one who saw the dark hesitation that leaped into Julie’s eyes as one of her hands rose to the base of her throat?

      “What do you say, girly?” George persisted.

      Julie’s hand dropped to her side and she raised her chin. “As long as nothing has changed in the last year at the store, then I’ll definitely be at work tomorrow.”

      Nick couldn’t believe her family didn’t think it a good idea for her to take a little time off given she’d been in a serious accident and had missing memories. But he kept his mouth shut. He didn’t know enough about Julie or her family to form an opinion, although he wasn’t especially eager to be friends with a man who called his daughter “girly.”

      George shoved back from the table and everyone else rose as a unit. Lynetta gave Julie a quick hug and George cast Nick a dark stare. “The verdict is still out on you,” he said.

      Nick merely nodded in return and then they were all gone. “Why didn’t you tell them you weren’t really ready to return to work yet?” he asked.

      “Was it that obvious?” she asked as she led him into the living room.

      “Apparently only to me.” He eased down opposite her on the sofa.

      “It will be fine and it’s not as if I have any real physical injuries. I’ve been working in the pawn shop since I was fourteen. I could do the work there in my sleep.”

      “You still should have told them you needed a few more days of recovery,” Nick replied. “Remember the doctor said you needed time to rest.”

      She shrugged. “It will be okay.” A worry line darted across her forehead. “I just realized again that I don’t have my car.”

      “Don’t worry, I’ll take you and pick you up from work. That’s probably for the best right now anyway.” He didn’t want to remind her of the strange and threatening phone call from the night before, but it was obvious that’s exactly what he had done.

      Her bright eyes changed to a midnight blue and she wrapped her arms around herself as if she’d just experienced a deep chill. “I can’t lie. I don’t mind you having my back right now until I remember what I’m not supposed to talk about.”

      “I’ve got your back.” Meeting her family had been a particular kind of torment for him. It had been one thing to lie to Julie but quite another to lie to her entire family.

      She rose suddenly. “I know it hasn’t been that long since I got out of bed but, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go upstairs and lie down for a little while. I have a bit of a headache starting.”

      He jumped up. “Is there anything I can do for you? Do you need anything?”

      “No, but thank you for asking.” She gave him a warm look that once again stirred a touch of desire that he didn’t want and tried to ignore.

      He watched as she went slowly up the stairs. When she disappeared from view he raced back into the kitchen. He grabbed the rolled-up newspaper and sat.

      His heart pounded as he unfurled the paper and checked the front page. The usual headlines...sports, politics and advertising. Tension pressed tight in his chest as he turned to the second page. And there it was, at the bottom of the page: Northland Man Murdered.