Desperate Strangers

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“Everyone has heard of Peterson Pawn, but I’ve never been inside the store.”

“Once you meet my family I’ll take you in with me and give you the grand tour.” Once again a roll of emotions swept through her. What had changed at the store over the past ten months? What had happened in her family’s life that she couldn’t remember?

Had Max finally found somebody to date? What about her other siblings? Max and Tony hadn’t even been dating anyone ten months before. Casey was the only one in the family who dated often, exchanging men as quickly as she changed her nail color. Had Julie gone to a wedding? Had she been Casey’s maid of honor like the two of them had always promised each other?

She wanted to pull her brain out of her skull and shake it violently until it started working right again. What was the amnesia protecting her from? A car accident?

Don’t tell. The two words thundered in her head, momentarily stealing her breath as an icy hand gripped her heart.

“Julie? Are you all right?” Nick gazed at her with a touch of concern.

“I’m fine.” She forced a smile as she stood. “I’m just going to set out some cups and cream and sugar for when the family arrives.”

“Can I help?”

“No, thanks. I’ve got it.” She needed to do something to keep the simmering fear in her at bay. Not only was she afraid of the phone threat, now a new rivulet of anxiety swept through her as she prepared for her family to arrive.

She placed the cups on the countertop and then turned to face him once again. “How do you feel about little white lies?”

“What are you talking about?” He said the words slowly...a bit warily.

“I was just thinking that I’d like to tell my family we’ve been dating for well over a year. I don’t want them to know I have no memories of you. That will just complicate things with them.”

He leaned back in the chair and nodded. “If that makes you feel better, then I don’t see why we can’t tell that little white lie.”

She sighed in relief. She loved her family, and her father and mother had raised them to be loyal to each other and to the pawn shop. She’d never made trouble. She’d worked long hours and done everything she could to be an obedient daughter.

She might not know what had gone on for the past ten months in her life, but one thing she knew for certain...if they made her choose between them and Nick, she wanted her man.

Chapter Four (#u3473dcc5-8cb4-5aea-9d76-02992825fead)

“Who in the hell are you?” George Peterson was a tall man with broad shoulders and a slight paunch. As he glared at Nick, he raised his square chin as if in anticipation of a brawl.

He and his wife, Lynetta, had entered the house without so much as a knock and now stood just inside the kitchen.

“Dad, be nice,” Julie said with what sounded like a nervous laugh. “Sit down and I’ll get you both some coffee while we wait for everyone else.”

George didn’t move. Nick walked over to him and extended his hand. “I’m Nick Simon. It’s nice to meet you.”

George hesitated a moment and then shook hands. Nick couldn’t help but notice the rolled-up morning paper in George’s hand. When Nick had awakened earlier than Julie, the first thing he’d wanted to do was to check the morning news, but he hadn’t been able to find the remote for the television.

“Sit down, George,” Lynetta said as she took a seat at the table.

He moved to a chair next to his wife and placed the paper in the center. “I brought in your morning paper.”

“To heck with the paper,” Lynetta said. Her dark eyes lingered on Julie. “What I want to know is why you didn’t call us immediately from the hospital last night after your wreck.”

“Everything happened so fast,” Julie replied as she poured coffee for her mother and father.

Once again Nick was struck by Julie’s prettiness. Clad in a pink T-shirt and a pair of jeans that hugged her slender hips and long legs, there was no question that physically she stirred something in him. Her dark hair hung down just beneath her shoulders, looking shiny and soft.

It surprised him. She couldn’t have been more different than the woman who had been his wife. Debbie had been blond and was always fighting with her weight, not that Nick had cared. Debbie had been short while Julie was tall and willowy.

Julie had just finished pouring coffee for her parents when Max and Tony came in. The two looked remarkably alike. They both had dark hair and eyes, but while Tony greeted him amicably, Max had a wealth of suspicion in his eyes.

Nick had just taken a seat at the table when Casey arrived. The long-haired, curvy young woman swept in and, with a dramatic wail, embraced Julie. “Daddy told us you hit a tree. You could have been killed.” She released her sister. “What were you thinking?”

“I don’t know,” Julie confessed. “In fact, I don’t have any memories of the past ten months.”

“Before we get to that, let’s talk about the white elephant in the room.” Max looked pointedly at Nick. “This is supposed to be a family meeting.”

“And soon he’s going to be family. Everyone, this is Nick and he’s my fiancé,” Julie said.

Chaos broke out. Everyone talked at once until Lynetta raised her hands. “Everybody shut up,” she yelled. Surprisingly everyone did. She looked at Julie. “And how is it that you have a fiancé we didn’t know about?”

“Yeah, I can’t believe you didn’t even tell me,” Casey added. “I thought we shared all of our secrets.”

“I totally get why she kept it a secret,” Tony said. “Every man Julie has ever dated, you all have chased off.”

“Nick isn’t going anywhere,” Julie replied with a warm smile at him.

A sick guilt surged up inside him. Now there were more people to lie to and Julie gazed at him with such certainty, such open trust.

He was trying to be present for Julie, but it was becoming way more difficult than he’d anticipated. Besides, more than anything, he wanted to grab the newspaper from the center of the table and see if Brian McDowell’s murder had made the news.

Her family members began to fire questions at him. Where did he work? How long had he held that job? Where did he live? What did he love about Julie? He answered them all as truthfully as he could.

“I’d like to know about your financial situation,” George said. “One day Julie will own part of the business. That makes her quite a catch for somebody who has nothing.”

“Dad! Enough,” Julie finally said in protest.

“I want to know more about this memory loss thing,” Max said. “Is it really true that you don’t remember the last ten months?”

“It’s true, but we’re hoping that I’ll get my memories back very soon,” she replied.

“That’s so weird,” Casey said and gazed at her sister as if she were an alien from another planet.

“Weird or not, what I need to know is if you’re okay to take your shift tomorrow,” George said. “You’re on the schedule to open and work until five.”

“Please don’t tell me I have to start covering your shifts. It’s bad enough I have to cover for the baby half the time.” Max shot a pointed glare at Casey.

Was Nick the only one who saw the dark hesitation that leaped into Julie’s eyes as one of her hands rose to the base of her throat?

“What do you say, girly?” George persisted.

Julie’s hand dropped to her side and she raised her chin. “As long as nothing has changed in the last year at the store, then I’ll definitely be at work tomorrow.”

Nick couldn’t believe her family didn’t think it a good idea for her to take a little time off given she’d been in a serious accident and had missing memories. But he kept his mouth shut. He didn’t know enough about Julie or her family to form an opinion, although he wasn’t especially eager to be friends with a man who called his daughter “girly.”

George shoved back from the table and everyone else rose as a unit. Lynetta gave Julie a quick hug and George cast Nick a dark stare. “The verdict is still out on you,” he said.

Nick merely nodded in return and then they were all gone. “Why didn’t you tell them you weren’t really ready to return to work yet?” he asked.

“Was it that obvious?” she asked as she led him into the living room.

“Apparently only to me.” He eased down opposite her on the sofa.

“It will be fine and it’s not as if I have any real physical injuries. I’ve been working in the pawn shop since I was fourteen. I could do the work there in my sleep.”

“You still should have told them you needed a few more days of recovery,” Nick replied. “Remember the doctor said you needed time to rest.”

She shrugged. “It will be okay.” A worry line darted across her forehead. “I just realized again that I don’t have my car.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take you and pick you up from work. That’s probably for the best right now anyway.” He didn’t want to remind her of the strange and threatening phone call from the night before, but it was obvious that’s exactly what he had done.

Her bright eyes changed to a midnight blue and she wrapped her arms around herself as if she’d just experienced a deep chill. “I can’t lie. I don’t mind you having my back right now until I remember what I’m not supposed to talk about.”

“I’ve got your back.” Meeting her family had been a particular kind of torment for him. It had been one thing to lie to Julie but quite another to lie to her entire family.

She rose suddenly. “I know it hasn’t been that long since I got out of bed but, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go upstairs and lie down for a little while. I have a bit of a headache starting.”

He jumped up. “Is there anything I can do for you? Do you need anything?”

“No, but thank you for asking.” She gave him a warm look that once again stirred a touch of desire that he didn’t want and tried to ignore.

He watched as she went slowly up the stairs. When she disappeared from view he raced back into the kitchen. He grabbed the rolled-up newspaper and sat.

His heart pounded as he unfurled the paper and checked the front page. The usual headlines...sports, politics and advertising. Tension pressed tight in his chest as he turned to the second page. And there it was, at the bottom of the page: Northland Man Murdered.