Tell Me Lies (23 page)

“No, not at all,” Jonas said, forcing a smile to his lips for Paige’s benefit.  “I’m sure there is plenty.”

“Well, how about you come on out of there and we will get started on lunch.  I understand you have to be back to your room by 2 P.M.,” Darren said, easing from the doorway, his hand outstretched toward Paige.

Paige glanced at Jonas and smiled, the regret reaching her eyes.  He shrugged lightly, smiling back at her.  There was nothing he could do or say to make Darren leave without alienating Paige, so he had to grin and bear his presence. 

He watched as she eased to her feet, taking Darren’s hand.  He led her to the lounge chairs by the edge of the pool and noticed that there was a cart with three trays on it, along with some glasses and a pitcher.  Lunch, he assumed, and by looks of it, enough for three.  Sighing, Jonas slipped from the water, reaching for a towel that he had left by the side of the pool.

“So tell me, Darren, is it?  What do you do?” Jonas asked, toweling the water from his chest.

Darren looked over at Jonas and smiled.  “I’m an artist,” he said, knowing full well that Jonas knew what he did.  So, he wanted to play nice, did he?  Well, he could play nice too.

“That’s cool.  So am I.  We should compare techniques sometime,” Jonas said, lifting one of the covers from the trays.  “Hmm…looks good.  What did you get Paige?”

Paige lifted the cover from the tray nearest her and wrinkled her nose.  “You know I could really go for a greasy cheeseburger and some fries right now.  There’s this place in New York City that has the best burgers.”

Jonas’s head snapped up and he grinned widely at Paige.  She had remembered something else from their time together, even if she didn’t realize it as of yet.

“What?” Darren asked.  “You don’t like greasy burgers and fatty French fries.”

“No, these are the best burgers I have ever had.  The outside of the diner looks like a dump.  The interior is not much better.  But my God the food is out of this world.”

“So, Sara must have taken you there, huh?” Darren asked, eyeing Barnett who was grinning like an idiot.

“No,” Paige said, shaking her head.  “I don’t think so.”  She turned and looked at Jonas and grinned.  “You took me!”

~*~

Darren stalked through the underground garage after visiting hours, fuming.  Damn that Barnett!  His presence was helping Paige remember more and more.  They had talked most of the afternoon once she had realized that she had remembered some more of their time together.  Of course, Barnett didn’t give her any hints as to what he knew, which didn’t surprise him.  The man was playing fair.  Well, he wasn’t going to play fair.  Not when his life, his lifestyle, was at stake.  Not by a long shot.

~*~

Chapter Nineteen

~*~

March 11

Darren crossed the street, rushing toward the curb as a car sped by.  It had been three days since the scene at the pool with Barnett and he’d had little time alone with Paige.  Every time he had shown up at the hospital, Barnett had been there, laughing and joking with her.  Of course, Jonas hadn’t told her anything that she hadn’t remembered on her own.  But Barnett was always there and that wasn’t helping his own cause.

He needed some alone time with Paige, time to help her remember all the good times that they’d had together.  Sure, the last year had gone horribly wrong, but he still loved her in his own way.  He had strayed, made mistakes, but she had made mistakes too.  And once they talked more in length, he was sure that she would see that.

He had, after all, tried to talk to her the night of the accident.  He had grabbed her arm, pulled her close to him on the sidewalk, accused her once again of lying to him, pleaded with her to tell him the truth about the child she carried.  It wasn’t his fault she had jerked her arm free of his grasp and lost her balance.  He hadn’t tried to pull her back onto the sidewalk, but he had been frozen in shock.

He could still hear her words ringing in his ears as she jerked away from him. 

“
You want to know the truth, Darren? Fine, I’ll tell you the truth.” Paige lifted her head, her lips close to his ear. “The baby is…mine.”

Then the tires squealed, her scream echoed in the night sky and he had fled through the throng of people.  He hadn’t pushed her, as some of the witnesses had said, but he hadn’t tried to rescue her from her slip into the street either.  There hadn’t been time.

Darren stopped in front of a floral shop and stared at his reflection in the window.  Was he really the horrible bastard everyone thought he was?  There had to be some redeeming qualities in him or Paige would never have loved him at all, right?  He was good looking; strong jaw, bright green eyes, high cheekbones, nice hair.  He was a talented artist, though not well known.  He didn’t have a lot of money, but that would change once the artistic world caught wind of him.

He wasn’t a goody-two-shoe, by no means, but he wasn’t a horrible person either.  He tried to be as fair to people around him as possible, he didn’t talk about people behind their back, and he was as honest as he could be.

But when it came to Paige, he somehow slipped beyond those good traits that he knew he had and became a totally different person.  Maybe he wasn’t as good as he thought.  Maybe he just wasn’t good enough for her.  But he loved her and even though he had strayed, he knew that they had had something good, great even.  They just had to find it again.  And the way to do that was to be completely honest with each other.

Smiling, he went inside the floral shop.

~*~

Paige laid in the hospital bed, propped up against three pillows, a diary in her hand.  Doctor Gates had said to write everything she remembered down in a journal, giving her something to go back and re-read when she was feeling a little lost.

A knock at the door startled her.  Placing her pen in the book, she called out to her visitor to come in.  As the door opened, a huge bouquet of flowers filled the opening.

“What’s this?” Paige asked, as Molly appeared from behind the brightly colored blossoms.

“They just arrived for you.  There’s a card too.”

Paige leaned forward and snatched the card while Molly placed the flowers on the stand by the window.  Opening the card, Paige sighed.

“Are they from Mr. Barnett?” Molly asked, hoping the handsome actor was finally making a play for his love.

“No.  They’re from Darren, my boyfriend.”

Paige re-read the card, frowning. 

“I’m sorry, Paige.  For everything.”

Now what did that mean?

~*~

Darren stood on the street, staring up at the hospital room that he knew Paige occupied.  He knew she had received the flowers.  He could see them in the window.  Now to go face the music.  It was going to be hard.  And he doubted that she would forgive him any time soon.  But he had to tell her the truth, before someone else did.

Taking a deep breath, Darren crossed the street.  Once inside the hospital lobby, he took the elevator to the fifth floor, all the while thinking about what he was going to say to Paige.  The doors slid open and Darren stepped out, only to run into Darcy Milian in the hallway.

“Darcy,” Darren said, surprised that he had run into her.

“What are you doing here?  Haven’t you done enough to Paige?” she asked as the elevator doors slid closed.

Darren could feel his hackles rise, but he took a deep breath and
tried to smile.  “Listen Darcy, I’m sorry that things have gotten so out of control with Paige.  Whether you believe me or not, I do love her.  I screwed up, royally.  But I want to come clean and make it up to her.  I’m going to tell her about the affair with Natalie.”

“You can’t do that!” Darcy practically yelled.

“It’s not like she doesn’t know anyway!” he said, throwing his hands up in the air.

Darcy grabbed his arm and pulled him back toward the elevator.  “Darren, Dr. Gates told you that you couldn’t tell Paige anything that happened in December that she hasn’t already remembered!  Do you want to traumatize her even further than what you did then?” she asked, punching the down button.

Darren leaned against the wall and sighed.  “No.  Darcy, I love her.  I want her back.  And the only way I am going to succeed in that is to tell her the truth.”

Darcy sighed.  “Darren…I know you’re trying to make a bad situation better.  But you have to ask yourself one question.  Who’s going to benefit from this more?  Paige or you?”

Darcy looped her arm around Darren’s, dragging him back into the elevator.  “I know you love Paige, Darren, but what’s really best for her?  Once she remembers everything, do you think she will come back to you?  You screwed around with another woman in her bed for Christ’s sake!  Paige is no fool!”

“I know that, Darcy, but I have to try to make her understand, to forgive me. I do love her and I know I screwed up.  I just want to tell her that I’m sorry, that I understand her anger and hurt.  I want to make it up to her.”

“Then let her go, Darren.  Let her move on with her life.”

“With Barnett, you mean,” he said, the bitterness he felt laced in his words.

“She loves him, Darren.  And he loves her,” Darcy tried to reason with him.

Darren sighed.  He knew that.  Every time he looked at Barnett, he could see the love in his face.  And Paige practically glowed when he was around.  Her eyes got all soft and her smile was warm.  It
rather made him sick.  Paige had never looked at him like that.

“I just want her to be happy, Darcy.”

“Then let her go, Darren.  Just let her go.”

~*~

Paige waited all afternoon for Darren to show up, but he never did.  The cryptic note that came with the flowers worried her.  What was he sorry for?  She couldn’t remember being angry with him, so what could he have done that he felt the need to apologize to her?  Sighing, she flipped open the diary and re-read the last few pages.

She was surprised to find that most of her memories so far had something to do with Jonas Barnett.  The lunch at the greasy diner, dancing with him after dinner.  She had listed several other memories, hoping that’s what they really were.  She still had to ask Jonas.

A knock at the door pulled her from the words in her little book and she was pleasantly surprised to see Jonas’s smiling face appear around the door.

“I was just thinking about you,” she said.

“Anything good?” he asked as he entered her room.

“All good.  I’ve remembered some things I wanted to ask you about.”

Jonas sat on the edge of her bed and smiled brightly.  “Ask away.”

“Did we ever go to a jazz club?” she asked, thumbing through her journal.

“We did.  Do you remember where?”

“Lucille’s?  And I ordered for us both?” she said, reading what she had jotted down.

“Yes!  That’s wonderful Paige!  Is there anything else?”

“Were you ever in the ladies’ room?  I distinctly remember you standing in the ladies’ room.”

“I was only in the doorway.  I was worried about you.”

“Why?  What happened?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.

“You don’t remember?” Jonas asked, not wanting to give anything away by what he said.

“Nope, just that you were in the ladies’ room.”

“Well, when you remember the rest let me know.  I may want to pay you off,” he laughed.