Turn The Page (Kissed by A Muse Book 2) (16 page)

Fifteen

Ryan

R
yan had encountered a hell of a lot of tourists since he’d begun spending time in the Niagara Falls region, and when he’d tagged along with Leigh on the Maid Of The Mist the day before, he’d been impressed with how nonchalant she’d been about everything- moved, but not Kodak-crazy.

And then she got into his car, and became the tourist from every townie’s worst nightmare.

‘This place is so beautiful!’ Leigh was hanging so far out of his car window that Ryan was tempted to roll it up a little, just to hold her in place. ‘Just LOOK at that cute little shop! Oh! There’s that bridge… wow! It’s so huge! Isn’t it crazy that there’s another country right there?’

‘Really…? There’s a country over there? What’s it called? ’ Ryan joked, as he went for the automatic button and froze, hovering over a polished handle, the old-fashioned, rotary kind.

This is the only car I remember driving… ever! So why did I practically feel the plastic button in my hand, and how do I know what kind of noise they make?

‘You’re so funny…’ Leigh was probably aiming for a sarcastic delivery, but she giggled anyway. ‘But just in case you’ve had more damage done to your noggin’ than you think- that’s The United States. Right THERE! Seriously! How cool would it be to be able to just wave to another country out the window?’

Ryan glanced over at her, temporarily caught somewhere between surprise over his sense memories, and delight in her adorable, snub nose. ‘I don’t know if it’s as cool as it is problematic… historically speaking, anyway.’

‘Touché...’ Leigh leaned a little further out the window and squealed as someone walking a sharpei trotted past. ‘Whoa! Look at that dog! I’ve only ever seen those in movies before!’

But Ryan wasn’t looking at the dog- he was riveted by the sight of her upper thigh as she twisted toward and out the window, flashing him a glimpse of a stay-up stocking hugging her taut, golden leg. Her dress had ridden up a little, and though there was no garter and the stocking itself was beige with a plain lace band- hardly dominatrix wear- there was something mouth-wateringly sensual about the sight of it against her petticoat. The urge to lean over and smooth her skirt down, just so that maybe he had a chance of feeling the silken leg against his fingertips, had him so side-lined that he only realised that he was driving towards one o’clock instead of twelve, five metres before the dodge would have gone over someone’s letterbox.

‘Shit!’ he straightened the wheel and overdosed on a backwash of adrenalin for a few seconds. ‘Can you not draw so much attention to us?’ He glanced in his rear-vision mirror, checking for police cars. ‘I don’t actually have a license, and if you keep pointing out every piece of cool trash or ugly dog and making me look too, I won’t have a car soon either.’

Leigh squeaked and retracted from the window, landing on the leather seat, her full skirt generating a gentle wind, annoying him. It was so cold outside that Ryan wished he were wearing a jumper UNDER his leather jacket- so where did she get off, flaunting her sexy little legs in a summery dress and almost getting them killed?

Okay brother calm down… you’re still amped up over that scene with Bruce… just breathe...

‘Sorry,’ Leigh said quickly, and Ryan immediately felt bad for taking his issues out on her. The truth was that discovering the name of the café that Kathryn Praser wrote at on one of Leigh’s breakfast trays had sent him into a spiralling guilt funnel, and he was trying to chew himself free of it using his sharpest teeth. Leigh had taken the discovery hard too, and since she’d whispered that she’d have to call Bruce for that second date; to apologize and say thank-you, Ryan had been feeling even more anxious.

‘It’s okay-’

‘No. I... Hey… what do you mean, by you don’t have a license? Why are you driving without a license?’

Ryan frowned at the road, taking the exit that would lead them to his neighbourhood. ‘Because I need to drive, and no one will give me a license until I have an identity… it’s okay-

‘No it’s not! Ryan, that’s breaking the law! Oh my god!’

Ryan glanced at her to see if she was serious, and when he saw that she’d turned ashen in response to his criminal behaviour, he threw back his head and laughed. ‘You are so…’ he shook his head and tried to settle down. When he had a hold of himself, he glanced over at her now sullen expression. ‘Honey, you need to chill. Actually, you need to let your hair down a little! Always so concerned with what’s right and wrong… what about, what’s sensible or fun?’

‘I wasn’t aware that spending time in lock-up was sensible or fun,’ she seethed, making him chuckle again.

‘I’ll be okay. Besides, the traffic laws are a lot more lenient here than back home and-’

‘How do you know that?’

Ryan paused, taking the question verbatim at first, before hearing the question beneath the question. How DID he know that? He ran his hand through his hair and leaned his elbow on his open window, frowning at the nothingness behind him. ‘I don’t know,’ he said honestly. ‘The doctors don’t know either, but I’m not as rare a case as I’d like to think. I’ve retained information, just not personal information. And because I don’t remember any personal experiences, I don’t know what I know until something triggers it. Like you with your Gilbert Blythe- I’ve seen that movie heaps of times, I just didn’t know until I Googled him and saw a photo and then the movie title and it all came back, you know- scenes from the movie, lines... Or with playing the guitar- I didn’t know I could do it, until I was doing it and the moment I started playing one song, my fingers remembered all of these other ones.’ He glanced over at her, relieved that she’d stopped glaring and now wore a contemplative look. ‘So yeah, I can remember that trying to get a license down under is even harder than trying to get a firearm there, nowadays. I know how to drive on the wrong side of the road here and yes- it feels like the wrong side, and a few minutes ago, I went to push an automatic power window button that I don’t have and cannot remember ever working, but know that I have worked before...’

‘Melody… come to me… I live and breathe…’

‘Shit.’ Ryan reached for the dial on the radio and clicked it back to Imogen’s old favourite station, silencing the rock ballad before his skin could completely break out in goose pimples. ‘That fucking song…’

‘Whoa.’ Leigh leaned back and stared at him. ‘That’s like, the anthem for the naughties- I danced at my prom to that! Why the bad juju? You don’t like Lonesome October?’

‘Try a little tenderness’ was halfway through, and Ryan’s accelerated pulse immediately began to settle. ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ he said gruffly. ‘But that song makes me…’ his throat closed over and he shook his head, waving his hand away. ‘I don’t know okay? It’s just like the driving thing…’

‘Wow…’ Leigh shook her head. ‘That’s weird. You might want to keep the radio on old stations for the next few weeks though, because Hunter Marks is touring right now so they’ve been flogging that song everywhere, even though he hasn’t been with that band for years.’

Ryan sighed. He’d actually love to go to a Hunter Marks concert- but not if he was doing THAT song. Ryan didn’t know why it chilled him so, but it did. ‘That’s okay. I can groove with the classics for a few weeks.’

‘Do you think you were this eclectic before the accident?’

Ryan nodded. ‘I must have been. Music doesn’t strike me as something that ever leaves someone’s heart, you know?’

‘True. Must be frustrating though- it’s like everything you do is reflexive, or instinctual.’

‘Exactly. Which is how I know that I haven’t read The Hardest Fall before, because the names are doing nothing for me, other than my own,’ he paused, pursing his lips in a smile before letting it slide into a grin. ‘And it’s also how I know that I’ll be good in bed… ‘cos of the dreams, you know?’

Leigh snorted. ‘Yeah well, your date from last night wasn’t exactly beating down my door this morning, desperate for your return, was she? So maybe you need to have your penis reflexes tested…’

Ryan tickled the bottom of his top teeth with his tongue. ‘The sight of one of your suspenders a few minutes ago had it reflexing just fine…’ he shifted his hips in his drivers seat and let his knees fall open invitingly. ‘But if you want to double check… by all means…’

Leigh scowled at him and smoothed her skirt. ‘Doctors do it with a hammer though, don’t they? If that’s the case, I volunteer to take a swing!’

Ryan had completely forgotten about the girl from the night before- and he’d also forgotten to clue Leigh in on the fact that though he’d gone to her room, he hadn’t defiled her (or whatever it was Leigh thought men did to poor, whorish women). He opened his mouth to say so, but then clamped it shut. She’d been a lot cooler with him since he’d left the bar, and he had a feeling that she was turned off flirting with him because she really did believe that he was a whore now.

The less she likes me- the less she’ll flirt back or give me ‘those’ eyes and tempt me to cross her line. Best to keep my mouth shut and let her think me a creep, than reach for her and prove it so, yeah?

Ryan smiled, steering onto his street. ‘Those are awfully small hammers…’ he mused. ‘I don’t have memories of my prior conquests no, but I do have physical proof that, well… you’re a sweet, untouched innocent so let’s just say: you’re going to need a much, MUCH bigger hammer to put a dent in my, uh… self confidence.’

Leigh went rigid on the seat beside him as they pulled onto his driveway. He glanced at her, pleased to note that not only had she turned as red as the leather seats, but that her eyes were full of ire and her perfect little lips had practically flattened into one thin line. The expression was amusing, but hardly sexy and Ryan laughed as he turned off the engine, relived.

‘I’m joking Leigh…’

‘I know,’ Leigh said tersely, staring down at the book she’d pulled into her lap- his book, and probably thinking of how badly the author, or Imogen, had stuffed up by choosing the name ‘Ryan Weaver’ for the hero. The strange, wistful glint in her eyes made something inside him hurt and he opened his car door and got out, moving to her side of the car to open it for her.

She really is too uptight for me. And that’s what’s got me all hot and bothered, isn’t it? Knowing that I CAN’T have it? It’s so infantile… what would I even do with her anyway? Man, it would take me hours just to break her in… oh sweet merciful crap, do NOT go there Ryan! Aren’t you sweaty and testy enough?

‘We’re here,’ he said quickly, opening her door and praying that the house would impress her enough to gloss over the last few minutes in her mind.

But Leigh didn’t appear to hear him- she’d already ducked beneath his arm and was running. Not striding- but darting across his lawn as though he’d pulled up in front of a biker’s den instead of Imogen’s looming Victorian. Ryan closed the door behind her, gob smacked and wondering what the hell she was up to, until he saw something small, brown and furry running even faster in front of her.  Once he’d realised her ambition, Ryan’s face almost cracked under the width of his abrupt smile.

Ha ha… maybe there is a reason why they filled colonies full of people like us...

‘I just want to like, squeeze you!’ Leigh cried, resting against the trunk of the rusted white oak that dominated Imogen’s front lawn. She attempted to sneak around the side of the truck and surprise the squirrel that had also paused, seemingly for breath, but the leaf litter crackled under the weight of her first step and the squirrel took off again. Its little legs powered it swiftly towards the furthest corner of the house, and before Leigh had taken her fourth step, the creature was out of sight, safe from her adoration once again. ‘No!’ Leigh gripped the hem of her full skirt and tugged down on it in frustration, before turning back to Ryan and pouting. ‘It got away.’

Ryan’s laugh came as naturally as her returning scowl did. ‘Yeah, they do that…’ he moved toward the back of the car and popped the button on the boot, feeling warm again. ‘But I tell yah what, you gave it the best damned shot I’ve ever seen.’

‘Don’t laugh at me,’ Leigh began to trot towards him, looking back over her shoulder every few seconds to blink up at the house. ‘I said good-bye to being cool a good twenty years ago. If I see a squirrel, I’m gonna chase it. At least until the novelty wears off.’

Ryan smiled, pulling her suitcase out of her bag. ‘I’m not judging you, fellow Aussie. The novelty still hasn’t worn off for me either- you just beat me to it that time.’

Leigh looked back at him, a pleased smile on her face. ‘You chase squirrels too?’

Ryan put her suitcase on the ground and then, reached for her carry-on bag while she grabbed the handle of her luggage and collected her handbag off the ground. He made no move to get the heaviest bag out of her hands- she’d already lectured him back in the hotel driveway about such sexist behaviour. ‘I spent basically my first two weeks of consciousness doing that. Imogen thought I was nuts, but I was on meds and covered in bandages so yeah, I probably looked a little nuts.’

Leigh tittered. ‘Then why did you laugh at me?’

Ryan glanced down at the back of her shapely legs as she strode up the driveway. She didn’t teeter in heels like most girls- she waltzed. He liked the way she did that; changed outfits constantly, and her entire appearance with it- almost like a superhero slipping into a costume; Rock-a-billy one day, Anne of Green Gables later that night, then siren in a mini dress later the next evening. Any other girl who took her attire so seriously and changed up her look so drastically ought to have been a pain in the ass, but there was nothing superficial about Leigh; she was both a Barbie AND a doll who was grimly determined to be herself, even if that meant chasing a squirrel in something so dressy and risking being laughed at, and that was sexy.