Remembering Him Read online

  Remembering Him

  Lucía Ashta

  Remembering Him

  Copyright © 2020 by Lucía Ashta

  www.LuciaAshta.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Cover design by Mirela Barbu

  Editing by Ocean’s Edge Editing

  Proofreading by Geesey Editorial Services

  Version 2020.07.03

  About Remembering Him

  Jace Rollini was my first kiss, my first boyfriend, my first everything.

  Gorgeous and tough, he was my high school’s bad boy.

  A motorcycle lover with a craving for danger, I thought I’d hold on to him as long as he let me.

  Fast forward twelve years…

  I ended up with a man who was the wrong sort of trouble.

  The kind that hurt me.

  The kind that left me in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury that erased the last twelve years of my life.

  Now I’m back in the small town I ran away from.

  And Jace is here.

  And he’s sexier than ever.

  I broke his heart.

  He’s right in not wanting anything to do with me.

  I shouldn’t want Jace anymore.

  I should definitely stay away from him...

  For my beloved James,

  who believed he’d find me … and so he did.

  When life gives you a second chance, seize it.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Epilogue

  Bonus Epilogue

  Sam

  Thanks for Reading

  Other Books by Lucía Ashta

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  “Hey, Rae? Where do you want me to put these?” Amy, my assistant walked up, arms wide, holding a large cardboard tray filled with small, potted begonia starters.

  “Oh wow. They turned out nicely, didn’t they?” I said. The small pots were tasteful terracotta. The flowers were bright blooms.

  “Yep. It’s gonna look great.”

  The live flowers would lend a sophisticated air to this event—a must.

  “They sent enough for each of the forty tables, right?”

  “They did. I counted them myself before I let the delivery guy leave.”

  “Good.” I smiled at Amy. She’d been with me for two years. I’d had to invest a lot of effort into training her at first, but it was all paying off now. She did things nearly as well as I did—but nearly wasn’t good enough.

  That’s why I was here today, overseeing the final touches on my law firm’s annual thank-you event. I worked for a medium-sized law firm in Ivy Vale, a hundred miles north of Willow Sweep, the postage-stamp-sized town where I grew up. Though the distance between them wasn’t vast, the differences between Ivy Vale and Willow Sweep were great enough to fill an ocean.

  When I’d outgrown my hometown, I’d left and never looked back.

  Though Bungle & Mooney was one of the most prestigious law firms in the area, we competed heavily with a few other offices for the top spot, and so showing our clients how much we appreciated them was essential. Two hundred of our most important clients would descend upon the finest hall in town in four hours.

  Everything had to be perfect.

  “Make sure the flowers go in the middle of the tables,” I told Amy. “And exactly in the center of the planters with the blue glass marbles, okay?”

  She was already nodding her head. “No worries. I got this.”

  As well as I knew her ways, she knew mine. I’d worry regardless. I was on a fast track to making partner. The two founding partners of Bungle & Mooney had been law school buddies. They were in their fifties now, interested in lightening their workloads and sharing some of the responsibility so they could golf on Mondays and Fridays—drinks in the early afternoon.

  They hadn’t made it a secret that they were eyeing me for the position. Sure, I’d have to buy in to the firm with sweat equity, long hours, and a sizable monetary investment, but I’d been determined to check partner off my achievement list since the moment they hired me. I’d show up and get things done and they knew it. Hard work paid off, and I didn’t shy away from it.

  “Catering just called,” one of two secretaries who worked the front desk of the firm announced as she breezed past, her finger scrolling across her phone. I’d gotten to borrow her, that’s how important it was to make the right impression today.

  “Food will be here at 5:30 precisely,” Mavis added.

  I turned from where I was leaned over the seating chart. “Isn’t that cutting it close? Some of our clients are sure to arrive early. They always do.” I rubbed at my temples, forcing myself to unclench my jaw before I developed a stress headache.

  “We’ve got that covered. Hors d’oeuvres will be arriving an hour earlier.”

  “And kept on ice in the back until it’s time,” Amy interjected as she carefully placed a pot on each table. “The ice is already here,” she added, anticipating my next question.

  “The caterers remembered that we have two seafood allergies, four strict vegans, one Kosher order, and a nut allergy?” I asked, ticking items off from the scrolling mental list in my head.

  “Yep,” Amy said. “There isn’t a nut to be found in any of the foods, including the desserts, and the special meals are labeled.”

  I knew all this already. Amy was good at following through on the tasks I assigned her, which was why I’d kept her on and was grooming her to transition with me to the partners’ wing of the office when I was made an official offer—a formality at this point. I had the job in the bag. It was just a matter of time. Rob, my favorite of the two partners due to his generally easygoing nature, had all but told me so.

  Amy was a petite brunette with bounce in her step. Her brown eyes grew dreamy as they pointed behind me, and so I wasn’t surprised when arms wrapped around my waist.

  Todd.

  Amy lit up all over anytime my fiancé was nearby. Her gaze darted to him, then away, and then back again like she didn’t want to be obvious she was staring at him, but also couldn’t stop herself.

  I didn’t blame her. It was hard not to notice the athletic body he spent ninety minutes honing every day at the gym. His eyes were a stark blue, his hair a dark blond. When he smiled, he beamed with a mouth full of straight, white teeth.

  He was … perfect.

  “Hey.” I smiled, leaning into him.

  “Hey, gorgeous,” he said. I briefly met Amy’s stare; it was filled with enough longing to make me uncomfortable.

  When she noticed me looking back, she quickly busied herself arranging a centerpiece.

  Spinning in Todd’s hold, I draped my arms around his neck and
gave him a quick peck. When he pressed for more, I shook my head. “Not here. I’m at work.”

  He huffed and stepped away from me. “This isn’t work. This is you playing party organizer.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, trying unsuccessfully not to notice how well he wore his navy-blue suit. The dress shirt beneath it was the exact shade of his irises; his tie was knotted tidily at the collar.

  “Of course this is work,” I said. “I told you how important it is to keep our clients happy.”

  He stepped closer. “This is beneath you. This is the kind of shit you’re supposed to be delegating.”

  Snapping a quick glance at Amy, her eyes were still glazed as she snuck looks at him.

  Moving next to him so Amy hopefully wouldn’t hear us, I said, “It’s too important. Why are you still giving me grief about it? We talked about this last night.”

  “An attorney who hopes to become partner should be focused on billable hours, not party planning,” he said as if he hadn’t mentioned this several times before.

  “You say that because you already made partner at your firm.”

  Todd was a newly minted partner of one of my firm’s competitors. At thirty-three, he was the youngest partner by two decades.

  “I have to make a good impression.”

  “You make a good impression by making the firm money.”

  “This”—I swept my arm across the large, open-air patio of the event hall—“is how the firm makes its money. By keeping its clientele happy.”

  “The clientele doesn’t care about a stupid, catered dinner. They care about the lawyers they hire getting shit done.”

  I huffed and turned away, taking in the beautiful garden that bordered the patio. Little lights would illuminate the lush plants once darkness fell, making the evening magical. After dinner, I’d encourage our clients to take strolls along the flowerbeds. The place was perfect. The off-white linens draped the tables just so, the chairs were elegant and understated, and a well-known local chef designed the five-course meal just for this event.

  “Did you just come here to hassle me?” I asked over my shoulder.

  Todd’s shiny dress shoes padded softly across the tiled floor until he was behind me. His arms circled my waist again. “I took a late lunch and figured you’d want to see me. Don’t you want to see me?”

  A nervous chuckle slipped out. “Sure I want to see you. I agreed to marry you, didn’t I?”

  “You trust me, don’t you?”

  “I do.”

  “And I made partner before you did, didn’t I?”

  “You did,” I replied tightly.

  “So listen to me. This is a waste of your time, and the partners are thinking that even if they aren’t telling you. They’re testing you. They want to see if you know where your priorities should lie, and based on this, you’re failing spectacularly.”

  I didn’t say a word, my shoulders bunching beneath the coat of my pencil-skirt suit.

  He grabbed my arm. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  I whirled on him. “What are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere.”

  He barked an incredulous laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No, I’m not kidding.” I yanked my arm free.

  “So you’re just going to risk the partnership over some stupid party that doesn’t even mean anything?”

  When I didn’t answer, grinding my jaw, he continued, more softly. “You put in the hours, Rae. I should know it. I hardly see you.”

  “Yeah, that’s because I’m a hard worker and I know my job.”

  “Don’t waste all that hard work.”

  “Ohmygod, Todd.” I flung my hands in the air. “I’m not wasting it. I offered to organize this event and the partners were pleased, okay? They wanted me to do it because they know I’ll make it perfect.”

  He was shaking his head, his precisely trimmed and styled hair not moving an inch. “God, are you really this stupid? They. Are. Testing. You! Do you think they want a new partner who knows how to hang streamers and hand out party hats? Or do you think they want a partner who knows how to buckle down and rack in those billables?”

  “Leave me alone. Get back to your own billables before you’ve wasted your long lunch on giving me shit.”

  He took my arm again, pulling me toward him. I stumbled over my moderate high heels and he caught me, wrapping an arm around my waist.

  “Come on,” he said again. “Let me help you when you’re too foolish to help yourself. You’ve wasted too much time this week on this nonsense.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you. You just called me ‘foolish!’”

  He shrugged. “I just call it like I see it.”

  I worked to free myself from his hold, but he gripped me tighter. “You want to be partner, don’t you?”

  I stopped struggling to snap, “Of course I do.”

  “Then let the man who knows better show you how to do better.”

  I waggled my jaw and I was pretty sure my nostrils were flaring. He started to lead me from the patio toward the interior of the hall.

  “Todd, let me go.”

  “Stop being such a bitch, Rae.”

  “I am not a bitch,” I seethed.

  “Sure are acting like one.”

  When I untangled myself from his hold, he clasped my hand and continued to guide me toward the doors that led to the entryway of the hall.

  Tugging my hand free, I planted my feet and glared at him. “Stop this. You’re mistreating me.”

  He laughed, his incredulity obvious. “I am not. I’m trying to help you, can’t you see?”

  “No, I can’t,” I snapped another time. “Just leave me alone.”

  He stared at me for a few beats. “Fine. If you want to mess this all up for yourself—for us—then go right ahead. But I don’t want you to come whining to me about it later when they give the partner spot to someone more deserving. I’m sure Cameron will be all too happy to take your place.”

  I gasped as he continued: “He loves the whole buddy-buddy system. He’ll be scratching the bosses’ backs in no time. He’ll join them for golf and drinks and whatever secret shit they do, and they’ll love him. They’ll be glad they chose him over you.”

  “You know I’m the most deserving.” I was sure my face must be red.

  “Honestly, Rae, no I don’t. Not anymore.” He turned to leave. “I’ll see you at home.”

  “Actually,” I said before I stopped to think, “I don’t think so. Maybe this isn’t a good idea anymore.”

  “Finally! You’re getting it. Let’s go.”

  “No, you’re not getting it.” I held up the hand with the engagement ring and wiggled the finger at him. The large diamond flashed, catching the light streaming in through the windows. “I’m saying maybe we shouldn’t get married.”

  He stared at me for several long seconds before throwing his head back. He laughed—just once. When he spoke, it was over a sneer. “This is just like you. Any time we have any kind of disagreement you just want to run away.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Yeah it is. You think you can do better than me?”

  My stomach sank at the realization of what I was doing.

  “You think you’re going to find someone out there who’ll look out for you the way I do? Who’s willing to get in fights like this to keep you from throwing your career down the toilet? Well then, go right ahead.”

  I reached for him but stopped short of touching him. “Todd, wait. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.” Looking around, I took a moment to be grateful Amy, Mavis, or any of the members of the rental hall staff roaming around weren’t there to witness our fight.

  He glanced down at my hand but didn’t move to take it. “Yeah, I’m not so sure. Maybe you should go to your sister’s for the night. Think about what you did.”

  “I don’t want to go to Sam’s. I want to come home to you.” I pressed myself to his side and looked up at him. “Let me make it
up to you. I’ll do all your favorite things.”

  “You can do that tomorrow. Tonight, I want you at your sister’s.”

  “But I don’t want to spend time with her. She’s impossible.”

  “Yeah, well, sometimes, so are you. You’re messing up the good thing we have here. If you aren’t sure you want to marry me, then maybe you should go look at how the other half lives. And maybe I need some time to think if I want to marry you after all.”

  My mouth dropped open. “I want to marry you. I promise.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have been such a bitch to me.”

  He turned to leave and I reached for him again. This time it was me grabbing his arm. He looked down at my hand like it didn’t belong despite the shiny ring that confirmed it did.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said. “Then we’ll talk and I’ll make a decision.”

  “But, Todd—”

  “This is part of being a grown-up, Rae. You’ve got to live with your choices, even when they’re bad ones.”

  I squeezed his arm, trying to keep him there with me. He flung me off and gave me a little push.

  I tripped over my heels and toppled backward.

  I registered a hard, sharp blow to the head, and then Todd disappeared.

  Everything did.

  Chapter Two

  I opened my eyes with a groan and blinked groggily at the recessed lights. So bright.

  “Wha—?” I started to ask but stopped when I discovered my throat felt like a sandpaper slide.

  Squinting into the room, I spotted my mom just as she popped up from a faux leather chair by a window.