That all rang true and fit with everything Porter had been telling her. “What type of art do you enjoy?”
“Oh, I don’t know jack about art.” Sage waved a self-deprecating hand. “I was there for the canapés, champagne and movie-star company. And helping the homeless. I like being a part of charity work. It’s a rewarding way to spend my time.”
“That’s nice.” Alaina wasn’t sure what else to say to this refreshingly honest woman.
Sage leaned closer, her elbows on her knees. “Are you okay, really okay? I’ve been so worried. I came by the hospital when I heard and left flowers. But you weren’t allowed to have visitors. I would have a baby shower for you, but that might be awkward just now. Maybe we’ll wait until you get your memory back.”
“I think that’s best. And I’m still...resting.”
“Oh, right. Silly me. I didn’t mean to intrude. I was just so glad to see you and wanted to make sure you and Porter are doing okay.”
Now that was a loaded statement. Alaina opted for an answer that wouldn’t land her in hot water. “We’re enjoying being parents.”
“How is your little guy’s foot?”
“Healing.”
“I’m so relieved.” Sage studied her matching Christmas-green toenails for three crashes of the waves. “I wasn’t sure you would be back this year after, well, your male visitor last Christmas.”
Alaina forced herself to stay still. There was no answer to that revelation and she sure as hell wasn’t going to quiz a virtual stranger. “Thank you for stopping by.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything. I thought maybe he’d contacted you and I wanted to be sure you knew. I mean well.” She pushed to her feet and dusted sand off her legs. “Please accept my apology.”
“Accepted. It’s tough to know the right thing to say. Amnesia isn’t an everyday occurrence and it’s difficult to know how to handle it.” Alaina stood and saw Porter walking down the bluff carrying a picnic basket and an insulated bag. “There’s my husband.”
Sage crinkled her nose again. “That’s my cue to leave.”
“Merry Christmas to you and your family.”
“To you and yours, too, honey.” Sage squeezed Alaina’s hand quickly. “Enjoy your baby’s first visit from Santa Claus.”
Santa Claus?
Of course. She should be focusing on Thomas’s first Christmas. On doing normal family things like picking out toys for him to enjoy over the next year. Or making Christmas cookies, as her mother had always done as far back as Alaina could remember. Starting her own family traditions with Porter.
Or had they had traditions? Tough to tell in this generic-looking house without her own personal stamp.
She wanted that homey holiday life so desperately. Wanted to be normal again. To be herself again. Whatever that meant and whoever that was.
If things were normal, she and Porter might be standing in line somewhere, debating how to spoil their beautiful new son.
Anxiety ebbed back into her chest. Not that it was ever far away.
The thought of melting away into a crowd sounded a lot more appealing now than it had earlier.
A quick glance back down the sandy path toward the vacation home revealed that Porter had already started to make his way toward her. He was only about ten feet away and just the sight of him took her breath away all over again.
She allowed herself to examine him fully as he approached, basket in hand. His broad shoulders and chest, the clear suggestion of muscles beneath his casual light blue button-down. The way his jawline appeared to be chiseled out of marble. Strong. Defined. Like some of the statues she used to have in her old apartment.
But it was the lightness in his demeanor, the force of his smile that made her heart hammer. While he was made up of hard angles, his smile made him seem approachable. Understanding. Maybe even affectionate.
Was that what she’d seen in him from the first?
She wanted to kiss him. To know what they were like together. In bed. Or in the shower. Or in the dozens of other places her imagination wandered with fantasies.
Or were those memories? She couldn’t be sure. There had been an undeniable physical connection between them from the moment she’d seen him in the hospital. It had laced each of their conversations so far. Amnesia or not, that much of a connection had persisted.
How could she have looked at another man as Sage had not too subtly insinuated?
Alaina had wondered more than once if Porter had been hiding something from her. She just hadn’t considered that whatever he might be hiding was her fault.
* * *
Sunglasses shielding his eyes from the late-morning sun, Porter jogged down the last step cut into the bluff, his deck shoes hitting sand. He’d expected to find his wife napping in the hammock. Not chatting with their gossipy neighbor. Hell, he’d even checked with the staff to make sure the Hardings wouldn’t be here for Christmas.
Apparently, staff intel was wrong.
Sage Harding fanned a wave at him as she slid her own sunglasses back on her face and sashayed through the sea oats and around a bluff back to her white mansion on stilts.
Between his mother and Sage, he couldn’t catch a break. Although a voice in the back of his mind persisted that he didn’t deserve one. He was deliberately keeping parts of their past from his wife. He tamped down that voice, not just for his own reasons but for her sake, as well. The doctor had said not to push her, but rather to let her recover the missing years on her own.
All the CT scans and MRI scans hadn’t shown any brain damage, and yet her coma had persisted. The doc had said her mind was most likely protecting herself from something she wasn’t ready to deal with. Again that voice piped up that maybe she didn’t want to recall how close they’d been to signing the divorce papers their lawyers had drawn up. That she wanted this second chance at creating a family every bit as much as he did.
His pace quickened as he approached. He could see that there was something sparking beneath the surface of her eyes. It was in the way she cocked her head to the side and studied him up and down. A question in her expression. A curiosity. One he wanted to answer.
Time was limited now as their son napped—and the holidays were a brief interlude, too. Soon, they would have to return home. She would find out all that he’d been keeping from her and all hell could break loose. He intended to use this time with her, away from all that, wisely.
Porter placed the picnic basket and insulated bag on the Adirondack chair so there would be nowhere to sit except beside his wife. “You’ll want to stay clear of Sage Harding.”
“Sage?” Alaina shifted, the roped hammock swaying beneath her. “Why on earth should I avoid her?”
“Because she’s not as genuine as she tries to appear. She’s cultivating wealthy friends to fund her husband’s run for the US Senate. Plain and simple, she uses people.”
Alaina slowly nodded as if she was unsure how to respond. As if she didn’t trust his word. Ouch.
“Okay. That’s sad to hear, that someone’s using others.”
“You’re not sure if you believe me about Sage’s motivations for coming over?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. But people can have different impressions of someone.”
A