Remember Jamie Baker (16 page)

The first thing Ryan did
was take me to a small town in Middle-of-Nowhere, Illinois. It was a nice change from New York City. When we arrived, stopping on the main street of town, I took a moment to enjoy the peace and quiet. Ryan smiled as he watched me relax. “Better?”

“Much. Thank you.”

The town around us was nothing special—old and a little run down. Nothing stood out of the ordinary at all. It worked better for me than New York, but I had to wonder what we were doing here. “So…?”

Ryan laughed. “Take a deep breath.”

Trusting him, I inhaled and my mouth began to water. “What is that?”

“That would be Ricci’s Pizzeria.”

“It smells
amazing
.”

“I thought you might like it. Hungry?”

“I am now.”

Ryan led me around the corner to the source of the delicious, spicy Italian scent that had me salivating. The restaurant was just a tiny hole-in-the-wall place with only a handful of tables, but every seat was packed and there was a line at the walk-up counter.

Behind the counter there was a window that opened to the kitchen. A large man in a grease-stained white apron and big fluffy hat stood behind the window, tossing pizzas over his head like they do in the movies. I instantly loved the place.

“Something else you need to know about Jamie Baker,” Ryan said as we waited for our turn to order. “You love pizza.”

He smiled as if he’d just revealed the world’s biggest secret. It was sad that I had to burst his bubble. “I already know I like pizza.”

He shook his head. “No. You don’t just like pizza; you love it. You love it the way a man loves it. Fat, greasy, and loaded with toppings. If it’s the right pizza, you could eat it seven days a week and not get tired of it. And this place in particular was always your favorite.”

I was intrigued. I liked pizza well enough—Teddy loved it, so he constantly made the frozen kind—but I didn’t think I loved it the way Ryan believed I did. Then again, this place smelled nothing like the stuff Teddy had given me.

When we reached the cashier, I started to ask Ryan what I used to order, but before I could get the words out, the man behind the register looked at me and gasped. “
Jamie?
Is that you under all that green hair, sweetheart?”

It was startling to be recognized. “Um, yes?”

The man looked like a smaller version of the guy in the kitchen. They had to be brothers. A wide grin split his face as he shook his head in disbelief. “Yo, Leo!” he called in a thick Brooklyn accent. “You ain’t gonna believe this! Look who’s here!”

The chef glanced out at me through the kitchen window and dropped the pizza he’d been tossing. “You’re right, Marco! I don’t believe it!”

He burst through the kitchen door and, without warning, scooped me off my feet into a big bear hug, planting kisses on both of my cheeks. “My favorite customer is back! Where you been girl? You broke my heart disappearing for so long. I thought you found a new pizza place. I cried for months.”

I was overwhelmed by the boisterous man, but I laughed at his excitement. “Sorry. I just uh…” I looked to Ryan for help, but he shrugged as he stood there trying to wipe the smile from his face. “I had a rough six months. Couldn’t get out as much. I’m really looking forward to some pizza, though.”

Both men cheered. Behind us, a booth opened up. As a group of teenagers were about to sit, Marco snapped his fingers and shooed them off. “This one’s reserved.”

Leo scooted me into the booth and flashed me one last smile. “You just sit tight, sweetheart. I’ll make you the best pie you’ve ever tasted. On the house tonight. You just promise me you’ll come back more often. We miss you.”

“I promise.”

After the men went back to their restaurant duties, I blinked across the booth at Ryan. “You could have warned me about them.”

He laughed. “I didn’t know. I’ve never been here before.”

That didn’t make sense. “You haven’t?”

“Nope. I told you, you didn’t like passing your energy to me. You always called for takeout and brought it back.” At my bewildered look, he said, “I promised you I’d try not to
remember
. Tonight’s all about making new memories. This is new for both of us.”

Warmth spread out in my chest. I hadn’t expected that, and I was surprisingly touched.

“It’s also about getting to know yourself again. I figured we could check out the town where you grew up.”

I gasped. “What?”

Ryan leaned back in his seat and swept an arm out toward the window in front of our booth. “Welcome to Mendota, Illinois. The world’s greatest little city. Birthplace of Jamielynn Baker, and home of the Sweet Corn Festival and the Miss Sweet Corn Pageant—of which you won the crown when you were sixteen.”

I stared out the window with new eyes. The town wasn’t much to look at, but it was mine. Ryan startled me out of my reverie. “You lived here until the start of your junior year. Then you moved to Rocklin, California, where you showed up at Rocklin High and stole my heart before you even hit the front steps of the school.”

I looked back at him with a wry smile, and he grinned. “Gorgeous, mysterious new girl that didn’t care what anyone thought about her? How could I not fall in love?”

I was grateful for the low lighting in the pizza place when my cheeks heated up. Ryan wasn’t like other guys—not that I really knew any other guys. On TV men were always perceived as emotionally stunted or afraid of commitment, but Ryan didn’t seem to have a problem declaring his feelings. I was sure he’d put his ring back on my finger in a second if I asked him to. “Mysterious?” I asked, wanting to move far past his use of the
L
word.

“Oh, yeah.” Ryan laughed. “You were confident and
so
hot, but you were a loner. You had zero friends and only spoke to people if you absolutely had to, and usually then you were biting people’s heads off. Everyone in school was scared of you. They called you the Ice Queen. You were pretty terrifying. That’s why it took me until senior year to finally get up the guts to ask you out.”

I frowned. “That doesn’t sound like me.”

“Not the real you, no. That’s why you were so intriguing. I couldn’t figure you out.” Ryan’s smile fell a little. “You’d had a really hard time since the accident that gave you your powers. You were grieving, scared, and didn’t have much control over your power. You were afraid of hurting people or having them find out about you, so you pushed everyone away.”

I pushed
everyone
away? The engagement ring I used to wear would suggest otherwise. I was curious as to how we got together, and how he discovered my powers if I’d been so closed off, but I was even more curious about how I got my power in the first place.

Marco appeared at our table then, with the most mouthwatering pizza I’d ever seen or smelled and a refill on our sodas. “One Jamie Special for my favorite girl,” he announced, sliding the masterpiece onto the table between Ryan and me.

Ryan placed a piece onto a plate and pushed it in front of me. His eyes twinkled as he waited for me to taste it. Even Marco was still standing there waiting for me to try it. I happily indulged them and immediately moaned, making both Ryan and Marco laugh. I didn’t care. Living in the desert with Teddy completely unwilling to take me into the city for fear of being discovered by Visticorp, I’d lived mostly off of canned, frozen, and boxed food that had been stored in the safe house bunker. Occasionally, if Teddy really needed something, he’d go out and bring back takeout or pizza. But that pizza was nothing like
this
pizza.

After Marco left, Ryan helped himself to his own slice of pizza while I practically inhaled mine. As I grabbed a second piece, I laughed and said, “Good call on the pizza. You’re right. I love it.”

“Do you love it enough to make me your boyfriend?”

I snorted. He was relentless, but the persistence was flattering. “I love it enough not to zap you for asking to be my boyfriend again when I’ve already made my opinion on the subject clear.”

Ryan refused to give up. “How about a kiss, then? Tell me I at least earned a kiss for reintroducing you to your favorite food.”

It wasn’t fair. How was a girl supposed to have any kind of resolve when so much charm was being thrown at her? But what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just give him what he wanted even if I did feel butterflies at the thought of kissing him. He’d be a billion times worse if I gave in to him even a little. Rolling my eyes, I smirked and held my hand out across the table. “Fine. Go ahead. Kiss away,
Romeo
.”

Surprise flashed in Ryan’s eyes, but he was clearly thrilled with my response and wasted no time scooping my hand into his. He didn’t kiss it, though. Held it and gently rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand as he gave me a searching look.

The fact that I’d surprised him had me curious. So far he’d known me inside and out. He’s seen everything I’d done or said from a mile away. Why was what I’d done so unexpected? “Am I different now?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

He took a moment to look me over before answering, studying me as if trying to figure out a puzzle. “Yes and no.”

He stared at me so long that I began to feel self-conscious. His thoughtful gaze weighed down on me. What was he thinking? Was he judging me? Comparing me to the girl he used to love? He kept her on such a high pedestal, always talking about her as if she were this perfect angel. I was far from perfect. Did I fall short of his dream girl? That possibility didn’t sit well with me.

A wistful smile crossed his face and he looked down at our hands, mine still cradled in his. “You’re still the girl I fell in love with, but there seem to be a few slight differences. Good ones,” he added, as if he knew his confession had made my stomach twist inside out. He met my gaze again. “It’s hard to describe, but you seem more…lighthearted. Less closed off. You’re…friendlier. Happier.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You can’t be serious.”

I’d been nothing but untrusting, cold, and standoffish to any of the ACEs since meeting them—especially toward Ryan because of our history. With my memories gone, never to return, I’d been an emotional wreck. What part of all my crying and ranting suggested I was
happier?
What kind of depressed, crazy freak had I been before?

Ryan laughed once. “It’s hard to believe, I know, but I swear it’s true. You deserved your Ice Queen title, but it wasn’t because you were naturally mean. You used to be so afraid of your power. You were terrified of hurting people. You’d hurt someone once before, accidentally, and you carried the guilt all the time.”

A somber mood fell over us, and his voice quieted. He squeezed the hand he was still holding and started caressing it with his thumb again. “You’ve had some really hard years. Your memories used to control you. You lived in constant fear and guilt. Now, it’s as if you’ve been freed of the past. As much as I wish you remembered me, I’m relieved that your nightmares don’t haunt you anymore.”

I gulped. What could have been so awful? I’d never considered the possibility that my memories might be so horrible that I’m better off without them. My heart raced as I debated asking for details. Eventually my need to know won out. “Will you tell me about it?”

“Your accident?”

“The accident. Getting my powers. What I was like. Why I deserved being called an ice queen. All of it.”

With a slow, subdued nod, he finally brought my hand to his lips. His touch was light as a feather and gave me the chills, tearing down any resolve I had, as if he himself were some kind of drug to me. It was only a peck on the back of my hand, but he practically had me melting in my seat from it. How in the world did he
do
that?

Startled, I glanced up, hoping Ryan had missed my reaction to him, but he was waiting for me to look with a self-satisfied smile on his face. He knew
exactly
what he was doing. He was doing it on purpose, and he was thoroughly enjoying himself. When my jaw dropped open, he winked at me and laughed as I ripped my hand away from him.

I’m not sure who I was more annoyed with—him or myself. He was cocky for sure, but his arrogance was completely justified. I played right into his hands every time he made a move. “Would you just tell me about my accident?” I snapped, reaching for the pizza on my plate.

With a sigh, Ryan launched into the story, filling me in on everything. And I mean
everything
. He talked for nearly forty-five minutes. First he told me about my parents, and that I’d been raised a small-town girl right here in Illinois. He seemed to love the fact that I was once a blonde-haired blue-eyed beauty queen and cheerleader. Honestly, even though I’d seen a picture before blowing up Teddy’s computer, I still couldn’t believe it.

After giving me a bright, happy foundation, he finally got to the darker memories he’d hinted of earlier. He was right that my past was pretty horrific. After learning how I’d killed my boyfriend with my powers, and had a few close calls with my parents once or twice, I understood the Ice Queen thing.

The atmosphere was a lot heavier as we finished our dinner, thanks to the downer story that was the life of Jamie Baker. I had a lot of info to digest, but I didn’t want to kill the mood for the rest of the evening. I scrambled for something to say that might cheer us both up. The only topic I could think of was a dangerous one. Bringing it up could start something with Ryan that I wasn’t sure I was ready to jump into. But at the same time, I couldn’t ignore the excitement and hope growing in me. “So how did we get from Homecoming King and Ice Queen to future Mr. and Mrs.?”

Just as I suspected would happen, Ryan grinned from ear to ear as he held the door to the pizzeria open for me. “That is a much more entertaining story, and one I would love to tell you. But it’s all about remembering for me. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

As much as I loved that he was trying to respect my lack of memory, he’d been the one to suggest ignoring my past, not me. Personally, I was so desperate for my memories that borrowing his was better than having none at all. I stepped out onto the sidewalk, not sure which direction to go. When he caught up with me, I said, “I’m sure. Please tell me. I really need to know.”