Page 8 of Memories of the Lost

He still made no move to share what he did, and she let it go. Looked back at the menu. “I’m trying to decide whether to be healthy-ish and have a salad, or say to hell with it and dive into the pie.”

“I’m going for the honey cake, myself,” he said, tossing the menu down. “If that helps you decide.”

“I don’t know that I’ve ever had it,” she said.

“A classic. If it’s true honey cake, it will be soaked in honey syrup. I’m intrigued enough to give it a try.”

“I’ll look forward to your verdict,” she said. “I’m going with the pie.” She dropped her menu on top of his. Her gaze caught on the flesh of his throat, so golden (like honey, she thought), and her imagination gave her an extravagant visual of flinging her body over his naked one.

A slight smile curved his mouth.

Embarrassed, she thought,Where did that come from?

Except that it had been a while since she’d had sex with anyone, since she’d broken up with her fiancé five months before. She thought of honeybees buzzing around an open flower. She smelled honey.

Suddenly, as if a knife slashed open reality—

She stood in the dark, surrounded by trees and stars, hearing a roar of animal sounds, birds, and insects in a cacophony that swept her up, enveloped her entirely. She heard water nearby and the buzzing of bees or crickets or—

And then, just as suddenly, she was back in her body, in the booth, with Liam across the table. A sliver of the migraine aura edged around the outside of her iris.

“You all right?”

“Yeah.” She literally shook it off, moving her shoulders and head. “Food will help.”

She was glad not to be alone.

The coffee and sugar helped. By the time the waiter brought their food—the honey-soaked cake for Liam, peach pie for her—Tillie was feeling fairly normal.

Which, of course, meant her ex started texting.

I have been thinking about that trip we made to Colorado last year, he said.Remember that moose we saw?

Tillie sighed and turned the phone over on its face. The phone buzzed, buzzed again, and then again. She ignored it and took a bite of the indulgent pie. As the sugar, peaches, and crust hit her tongue, she widened her eyes. “Wow. This is amazing.” She pointed with her fork. “Is yours?”

He’d admired the cake enough to shoot a photo. “For my mum,” he said. “This is her big thing. Honey.” Now, he was three bites in, almost wolfing it down. “It’s the real thing, I reckon. No sugar. A little orange zest.”

“Maybe you need two pieces.”

Beside her on the table, Tillie’s phone vibrated again. Once, twice, three times.

“You can answer,” he said.

“No.” She picked it up and put it under her thigh, where she could feel it but it wouldn’t interrupt. “An annoying ex.”

“Ex-husband?”

“Oh, God no!” But that made it sound like he was only an old boyfriend. “Fiancé, actually. We broke up a couple of months ago, and he’s having a hard time with it.”

Liam gave her his full attention, even setting down his fork. “Yeah?”

For some reason, the focus made her want to talk. Explain. Although, really, that wasn’t exactly the right move with a guy you wanted to impress. And she did want to impress him. His lip shone with a brush of honey.

She said, “I should block him, but it feels mean.” She plucked a sliver of peach and ate it with her fingers. “Has that ever happened to you?”

He watched her eat with her fingers. “A fiancée?” he returned with a slight smile.

“Maybe. Or someone you couldn’t be with, even though you knew they loved you?” She heard the sentence and straightened. “Wow, sorry, that was really personal. I’m a little off tonight.”