The memory hurt. He dug his thumbs into his eye sockets in an attempt to ease the pain. Bitter failure coated his tongue. He knew it was his fault she’d left him. But he didn’t know how to fix their broken relationship.
Heaving a deep sigh, he opened his eyes and glanced around the waiting room. Surprisingly quiet for a Friday night, or rather early Saturday morning. A homeless man rocked in the corner, keeping a tight hold on his paper sack. One kid within a group of three—all looking like candidates for a Milwaukee gang with spiked hair dyed garish colors and rows of heavy silver chains encircling their necks—held a bloody bandage over his arm. An elderly woman coughed into a tissue and huddled in her seat, as far from the gang wannabes as she could get.
Gage ground his teeth together, detesting the idea of Alyssa working in this place every day. Shortly after she’d agreed to marry him, a junkie strung out on drugs had swung at her, knocking her to the ground and nearly breaking her jaw. He’d been appalled and angry—but even then, she’d refused to quit. Despite some serious arm-twisting on his part. He’d wanted her to stay home, to be safe. Or at the very least, to find a different type of nursing job. What was wrong with working in a nice clinic somewhere? His construction company was doing well enough that he could support both of them, but she wouldn’t even discuss the possibility. She’d claimed she liked her job, even the part that required her to care for patients who threatened to harm her.
Gage willed the painful memories away. He was here because he needed to find a way to win Alyssa back. Getting up at two-thirty in the morning and picking up Mallory after her accident should win him some extra credit points, right?
“Gage?” Jennifer, the nurse who’d thought he and Alyssa were still engaged, poked her head into the waiting room. “You can see Mallory now.”
Relieved to put the depressing sight of the waiting room behind him, he straightened and followed Jennifer into the arena, an open area surrounded by cubicles. His steel-toed construction boots clunked loudly against the shiny linoleum floor. A sweeping glance at the various employees clustered around the center workstation made him wonder if any of them knew where Alyssa might be. He frowned. He’d dialed her town house at least twenty times since the hospital called. Why hadn’t she answered?
Another man? Gage stumbled, managing to catch himself even though his gut twisted painfully. Logically, he knew Alyssa’s personal life wasn’t any of his business, since she’d broken off their engagement two months ago. A spear of pain stabbed his heart. When she’d given him the ring back, Alyssa’s reasons were that he was too overprotective and that he didn’t have a close relationship with God. He couldn’t figure out what she’d meant. After all, he’d done everything she’d asked of him.
He went to church with her, hadn’t he? And he’d joined her Bible study group. It wasn’t his fault that he had to work late, missing most of the sessions. He owned his own business and couldn’t just switch shifts to get off work the way she did.
After she’d walked out, he’d wondered if maybe the basic truth was simply that Alyssa hadn’t loved him. A possibility that had hurt, more than he’d ever imagined it could.
He scowled, pushing the pain aside, and walked into the doorway of the small cubicle. His gaze rested on his ex-fiancée’s twin sister. He didn’t particularly care for Mallory. She was so completely different from Alyssa. But since she was Alyssa’s sister, he made an effort.
“Hey, Mallory,” he greeted her with forced politeness. “What happened? How are you feeling?”
She opened her eyes and turned her head toward him. A square white bandage partially covered a large abrasion on her forehead. Gage sucked in a quick breath; the physical resemblance shouldn’t have caught him off guard, but it did. Mallory’s blond hair was shoulder length and wavy, whereas Alyssa wore hers much longer and straight. Blue eyes, identical to Alyssa’s, stared suspiciously into his.
He’d subtly avoided his fiancée’s twin because he hadn’t appreciated the way Mallory had flirted with him before they’d gotten engaged. Alyssa had brushed it off as Mallory’s way of protecting her twin, making sure he would be true to Alyssa, but he didn’t buy that theory. He suspected Mallory either wanted to get rid of him, because she was jealous of his relationship with Alyssa, or that she’d wanted to steal him away for herself.
He could have saved her the trouble, because despite their broken engagement, his heart belonged to Alyssa.
Mallory was completely different from Alyssa in too many ways to count. Alyssa upheld her Christian beliefs in everything she said and did, including her stubborn dedication to her career as a trauma nurse. Mallory, on the other hand, was outgoing, known to be the life of the party and an outrageous flirt.
Both women were beautiful on the outside, but in his opinion, only Alyssa had the same beauty deep within. Mallory’s personality held a hard edge, whereas Alyssa’s was softly inviting.
He missed Alyssa. Desperately. He tried not to dwell on the past, but it wasn’t easy. Mallory wordlessly glared at him with distinct annoyance. The corner of her hospital gown slipped off to the side, providing him a distasteful glimpse of the rose and dagger tattoo she wore just below her collarbone.
He quickly averted his gaze, wishing he could just leave. But his job was to get Mallory home. Surely he could manage something so simple.
“Are you ready?” he asked with forced brightness. “I think you’re about to be released, so let’s bust out of here.” There was no sign of the nurse, Jennifer. Where had she gone? To get the discharge paperwork, he hoped. Reluctantly, he tucked his hands in the back pockets of his jeans as he slowly approached Mallory’s bedside.
She bolted upright like a shot, bringing up a hand as if to keep him at bay. “Hold it! Who are you? You don’t work here.” Her suspicious gaze sliced him. “Get out!”
Get out? Was she kidding? He ignored the tiny hairs on the back of his neck that rose in alarm. “Yeah. Very funny.”
“This isn’t one bit funny.” She tugged her gown higher over her chest but thrust her chin in the direction of the door. “I told you to get out.”
Gage held out his hands in mock surrender. “You’re upset about being stuck with me? Well, too bad. They called me because you have a concussion and can’t drive. If I leave, how are you going to get home?”
For a long moment she stared at him, as if he were an alien creature she needed to dissect with X-ray vision. “Home?”
“Yes. Home.” He sighed, desperately seeking patience. “To your fancy downtown condo. The sooner I can drop you off, the sooner you’ll be rid of me.” And then his good deed for the day would be finished.
She reached up with one hand and massaged her temple. “I can’t— Let’s try this again.” Dropping her hand, she leveled a look at him full of uncertainty. “Who are you?”
He stared at her in suspicious shock. Was this some sort of weird game? If so, he wasn’t in the mood. He’d already spent his entire evening solving problems at three of his construction sites and had gotten less than four hours of sleep. No way was he doing this.
“Fine. You don’t want me to take you home? Then I’m outta here.” He spun on his heel but Jennifer walked into the room, blocking his escape route.
“Mallory?” The nurse glanced past him but didn’t move from the door. “Dr. Anderson is writing your discharge note as we speak. Would you like to get dressed?”
“No. I want to know what’s going on.” The tone of her voice held a note of desperation. “Who is this guy? My head hurts. You’re telling me to go home, but where is home? Why can’t I remember anything?”
Dumbfounded, Gage swiveled toward her. Mallory’s confused-yet-defiant gaze met his without an ounce of recognition. Doubt assailed him. Could she honestly be telling the truth?
The