Page 2 of Deserving Maisy
“Hi,” she said weirdly.
“We’re married? You’re mywife?” Jack blurted, franticallysearching his mind for the tiniest memory of this woman…and coming up blank.
But instead of Maisy answering, it was her brother who said, “Of course she is. You two have been married for a couple years. You were out hiking together and you fell. Were out for hours. The doctor said you’d be fine, but we’ve been extremely worried…you don’t rememberanything?”
Jack slowly shook his head. Everything was a complete blank. His breathing sped up as alarm spread through his body. But then he felt a light touch on his arm. Maisy.
“It’s okay…you’re okay,” she said urgently.
“Well, shit. Guess that means the vow renewal ceremony you’ve been planning is off,” Jason said.
Maisy bit her lip as her head shot up and she stared at her brother.
“What?” Jack asked.
“You two lovebirds were planning to renew your vows. The ceremony was supposed to be this weekend. Then you got hurt. And my darling sister, who’s spent a ton of time working on the details, was so excited. I guess we’ll have to postpone…although we could simply downsize things. Instead of the hundred guests Maisy invited, we could do a smaller ceremony, stick to just family.”
“Jase,” Maisy protested weakly.
“Jason,” he corrected immediately. He looked down at Jack. “She can never remember that I hate that stupid nickname from childhood.”
“Maybe we should give him time to get his memory back,” Maisy suggested.
“Are you going to stand there and tell me that you don’t want to do this?” Jason asked his sister.
Jack could feel tension in the air between the siblings, but he couldn’t begin to understand why.
Jason didn’t give Maisy time to respond before continuing. “You two love each other more than any couple I’ve ever met. You were both so excited about this. We’ll scale it down. I’ve got a friend who’s ordained, we can bring him in. It’s your new start. You know Mom and Dad would want this.”
The color leeched from Maisy’s face at the mention of her parents.
Frustration swam through Jack. He hated not knowing what was going on.
“Our folks died in a carjacking years ago. Maisy was their baby. Spoiled rotten. She was lost without them. Had to drop out of high school because she couldn’t handle losing them. I moved back here to the family home to help her out, and we’ve been here ever since.”
“How long have we been married?” Jack asked Maisy in a gentle tone. He felt terrible for her. He didn’t know if his own parents were still alive or not, but he imagined losing your parents had to be awful, and if it happened while you were a minor, it must be even worse.
But again, her brother answered for her. “Only about two years, and things were rough between you for a while, but they’ve been a lot better recently. So you guys decided to recommit yourselves to each other. Hence the renewal of vows ceremony.”
Nothing Jason said rang a bell within Jack. In fact, it felt…wrong. If he was married to this woman, if he loved her as much as Jason insisted he did, surely he’d feel something deep down inside? Instead, it felt as if he was meeting two strangers. It was disorientating.
“Are you hungry?” Maisy asked softly.
“Starving,” Jack admitted.
“I’ll get Paige to make something and bring it up,” Jason said. “She’s our cook.” Then he looked at his sister as he said, “I’ll leave you two to bond…and I’ll call my friend about this weekend.”
“Jason, please,” Maisy said.
“It’s for the best,” Jason told her. “You know it is. I’ll take care of everything. You know how overwhelmed you get. The last thing we want is you having a relapse and for the doctor to have to come and sedate you. Relax, sis. I’ve got this.”
Once again, Jack felt as if he was in the dark. He didn’t understand what the hell Jason was talking about, and he hated it.
As soon as the man left the room, Jack turned to Maisy. “Relapse?Sedateyou?”
Maisy licked her lips nervously. “I don’t deal well with stress.”
That didn’t really answer his question, but because she looked so uncomfortable, Jack let it drop. For now. His eyes swept the room, desperately willing himself to recognize something, but nothing about the somewhat austere space felt familiar.
