Leoti (14 page)

Rex lowered the firearm and stepped back. Carlton tried to reach for Josie but Po growled at him again. Her refusal to look at him was breaking his heart. “Sheriff, I want this man arrested. She needs medical attention and he’s keeping her from it.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” Elu shouted.

“She’s my fiancé!” Carlton shot back. Josie released Elu. Her head turned, eyes pooled with tears. She finally did acknowledge him. He nodded to encourage her trust. “I don’t know what this man told you, but your name is Josie. Josie Eastman and we’re engaged. You’re an attorney. A famous one. You won the case of a lifetime. No shit sweetheart. Turn on a television. People all over the world know who you are. You have a mother and sister that you love, and a family waiting on you. You aren’t his Leoti.”

“I—,” she wiped her tears but Elu refused to let her go. “I don’t remember.”

Carlton smiled. “It’s okay. We’ll get you a doctor.”

“No. Everyone needs to leave!” Elu snapped.

“Wait, Elu.” The Sheriff said. “You’ve kept her here? Without a doctor? Without calling the police about the accident?”

“He didn’t do anything wrong.” Josie said quickly. “He saved my life. I stayed because I wanted to. I needed to.”

“Needed too? Josie, you don’t know who you are. He tricked you, and abused you.”

“No damn it! He didn’t.”

“Elu, you need to come with me,” Rogers said.

“No!” Josie said protectively. “Sheriff, please. I’m fine. I want to be here. I just need a moment to think. Can you please make everyone leave? Please.”

“No, Josie, you need help.” Carlton answered for him.

“Stop it!”

“That’s it.” Rogers cut in. “Let’s go, everyone, we can sort this out later at the station. Elu, I expect you to come in and pay me a visit.”

“Wait! You can’t leave her here. Look at her.”

Josie let go of Elu, actually forced him to release her and went to Carlton. “I’m okay,” she said. She reached for his arm. “You’re the one that’s hurt,” she inspected the tare along his sleeve.

“Come with me, please, I can take care of you,” Carlton pleaded.

Josie looked into his eyes. Sometimes love was stronger than memories, or time, it’s bonds unbreakable, especially when it was complete. Staring into his eyes she knew he was a man she loved, completely. She believed him when he said she was his fiancé. Part of her was tempted to go with him and lessen his pain and confusion. Trapped in his gaze she softened, weakened.

“Leoti,” Elu said in a firm voice behind her.

She glanced back. Elu stared at her with the same longing. He and Po. She smiled at her protector. She stepped away from Carlton. “I can’t.” she told Carlton. “But come back in the morning. Okay?”

“Morning?” Carlton said. “I can’t leave you here with him!”

“Sheriff, can you take him to a doctor? To make sure his arm is okay.” She turned and went to Elu. He took her hand and walked away with her, Po going along at their side.

“Josie! Josie!”

When her arm went around Elu’s waist and his over her shoulder, something in him broke. Never in his life had he felt such misery.

Chapter Seven

“Elu, please stop pacing.”

“Who fired the gun?”

Josie sighed. “It was the cowboy, Rex. We’re fine. No one was hurt.”

“He fired a gun at you? At Po?”

“He did it to stop Po from attacking Carlton.”

Elu stopped when she spoke the man’s name with such familiarity. Josie avoided that look in his eyes. “Just calm down please.”

Elu ran his hand back and forth through his hair, it was tossed to the side and then back reaching almost to the middle of his back. “I should have gotten here faster. I should’ve protected you.”

She stared into the empty fireplace. Her heart was a twisted mangled mess. She didn’t know anything in the moment. Just feelings. Lots of them. And oddly one of them was grief. Sending Carlton away, hurting him, it cut her deep, and that confused her.

“Did you read the journal?” he asked.

“No.”

“Maybe you should. Maybe… maybe you should read it now.” He turned and stormed out.

“Elu?”

He left through the front door not bothering to take Po with him. Her eyes went over to the cast-aside journal. Between those pages were her words, her feelings, and the real truth. Not Carlton’s version or the one that Elu wanted. Just her words. She loved Elu, she wanted a life with him, and she wanted everything. That journal threatened those dreams. Josie dropped her face in her hands and cried. Not sure what else she was left to do.

****

Chicago Illinois

“So what time does your sister return?” Madeline asked waving off a store clerk who brought out a suit for her. “I told you mauve. That’s not mauve it looks like rose to me.”

“Yes ma’am.” The store clerk blushed and hurried off.

Tiffani rolled her eyes. She thumbed through the rack. Lunch was okay, now she would have to fill in the blank her sister left with shopping with Madeline. She wondered if Josie enjoyed these times with their mother. Mostly it just grated her nerves. “Carlton will call and tell….” She bit on her lip realizing her slip.

“Carlton? Did you say Carlton? Are they back together?”

“Ma.”

“Please tell me those two have worked things out.”

“He went to see her. They’re working things out.”

Madeline’s mood immediately improved. She smiled. “Well he can talk some sense into her. She has work to do. I was on the phone with her publicist last night. Diane Sawyer wants to interview her, after Oprah. Can you believe it? My baby, she’s changing the world.”

Tiffani’s phone rang. The store clerk cleared her throat and presented an array of suits for Madeline to inspect, thankfully drawing her mother’s attention away. “Let me get this.” Tiffani said turning away. She moved out of earshot when she saw it was Carlton’s number. “Hey, you and Josie okay?”

“No.” Carlton said looking down at the nurse wrapping his arm. “How soon can you and Madeline get to Mission Creek?”

“What?”

“Josie’s been in an accident.”

“Is she okay?” Tiffani asked, her pitch so high that Madeline’s eyes cut over to her. She put a hand to her heart because it beat so hard. “Carlton, is my sister okay?”

“No. It’s complicated. Look, I’ve sent my jet for you. It’ll bring you to Libby, you know where Mission Creek is from there, right? Come as quick as you can, and bring Madeline.”

“Wait? I want to know what’s going on?”

“Call me when you’re on your way. I’ll give you directions to the cabin. It’s best I tell you in person.”

“What happened to Josie?” Tiffani demanded.

Carlton sighed. “She has amnesia Tiffani, she doesn’t remember any of us.”

****

Josie rose from the chair. She walked past the journal. She needed a minute free of the tornado of emotions she found herself twisting in with no hope of rescue. In their room she found the bed was still in disarray, sheets scrunched up from the night of lovemaking. Last night had been so beautiful. Why did they ever leave that bed? Why? She sighed pulling off the sheets and gathering up the comforters, when her foot hit something. Dropping the haul she looked down. It was a woman’s bracelet. It had to have fallen out of her luggage when she was changing. She hadn’t seen it before. Josie knelt and picked it up. The bracelet looked expensive.

“Merry Christmas.”

He smelled so good after a shower. And this morning he had put on a dash of that aftershave she loved. Josie turned toward the warmth of his embrace. And Carlton had one perfectly chiseled body of perfection. Hours spent in the gym, and his favorite sport of boxing had left him fit and trim. It also garnered him a cover spread in GQ. Now when he performed he wore sheer silk shirts, open or no shirt at all. 

“Mmm, morning baby,” she groaned. Josie slowly opened her eyes. Carlton’s face rested in his palm with his elbow keeping it raised off the pillows. In his other hand he had a large square jewelry box. The gift was packaged in something too large to be a ring box. She glanced up into his eyes. Her stomach dropped with disappointment. For two months she had all but drawn him a picture of the ring and proposal she wanted for Christmas. Wasn’t he listening?

“Open it sweetie,” Carlton said.

She accepted the black velvet box and opened it. Inside was a platinum bangle bracelet with diamonds trimming the middle. “It’s beautiful.”

“I got it in Greece. I wanted something special. Babe, things are good right now. For the both of us. I know you’re pissed about the radio interview. Andy thought it best I dodge the question about being in a relationship. But you know you’re my girl. My only girl, Josie. This bracelet proves it. Now when you wear it you can be thinking of me.”

“Carlton, I… it really is lovely.”

He kissed the top of her brow.

“My girl deserves the very best. Name it and it’s yours.”

“I want to get married!” She blurted out.

Carlton drew back. The look of irritation on his face made her feel like a fool. Josie bit down on her bottom lip and stared at the bracelet instead of him. “Sorry, it came out wrong,” she said.

“For Christ’s sake it’s Christmas, can we please talk about anything but this shit again?”

“I’m sorry,” she said. His rejection made her throat tight and all the emotional control she could summon shrivel. She looked away to keep him from seeing her tears. He turned her face around. She gazed into his eyes. Something was missing from her life. She needed more. And she wanted it with him so desperately. Professionally things were moving at warp speed for them both. When would it truly be about just them? Didn’t he know how much she loved him?

“I love you, Josie. I’m not going to marry any woman at twenty-seven. But when I’m ready and you’re ready we’ll do it. Please, babe, give us some time okay? It’s only been three years.”

Josie smiled. She nodded. “Forgive me for ruining Christmas,” she said. And just like that she pushed it all down. Her hurt and disappointment was shoveled away and she pretended at being okay. She had grown good at pretending. Especially when it came to Carlton and his rock star fame. She’d mastered the art of doing so with her mother for many years. Being the perfect child and perfect girlfriend was what she was good at.

“Make it up to me.” He pulled her over so she could ease on top of him. The sheet fell away revealing her nudity. He lay back in the pillows with his arms folded behind his head as she straddled him. Josie licked her lips and played with her nipples the way he liked. He was hers. There was no hurry in getting married.

“Josie?”

Her head shot up. Elu stood in the door staring at the bracelet. She blinked at him flushed, and sat on the edge of the bed to catch her breath. The feeling of Carlton making love to her was prevalent between her thighs and in her heart. It felt like such a betrayal of what she and Elu shared.

“Oh god,” She wept.

“Don’t. I can’t stand to see you cry.” He came in and sat next to her. She wouldn’t let him hold her. She rose, putting space between them, wiping at her eyes. “I feel like my mind has been split in two. Like part of my heart was carved out.” She paced. “I don’t want to remember. I don’t want to lose it all to who I was. I just want to be Leoti. Why ca-can’t I be her?”

He rose. Walking over he drew her into his arms. “You are my Leoti.”

“I’m your Leoti, but I’m his Josie.” She walked out on him, leaving the bracelet behind. Elu didn’t go after her. Instead he stared down at the fancy bracelet and rubbed his fingers over the diamonds. He held it up to the rays of sunlight pouring in through his window and read the inscription.

To my Josie, for our love – Carlton

His heartbreak was real. It was here. And for the first time since he’d watched his beloved Ella wither and die from leukemia, he had no idea what to do to stop it.

****

“What do you mean she has amnesia?” Madeline demanded.

Tiffani swerved around a car then back into her lane. Madeline gripped the door handle. “Slow down.”

“I don’t know, Carlton said we have to get there now. That’s all I know.”

“Is she in the hospital?”

“I dunno.”

“Was she in an accident?”

“I dunno.”

“Is she okay?”

“Momma! I don’t know!” Tiffani shouted at her. Madeline blinked in shock at her daughter’s tone. Tiffani and Josie never called her Momma unless something was seriously wrong. It was Ma for Tiffani and Madeline for Josie. Never Momma.

“Okay baby, slow down, we’ll get to the airport. Carlton is sending his jet right? Let’s pack some things and go find her.”

****

Josie walked over to the journal. Sniffing she stood there staring down at it. She remembered her devotion to Carlton, she also remembered the disappointment of him not wanting to be married. Why had he lied to her?