“No problem. Be careful with those killer shoes. I can’t always be around to save you.” He gave me a wink and my face grew hot as I felt Connor’s laser-like stare intensify on us.

Connor cleared his throat and gave Ethan a polite smile. “Thanks for your help.” Then I heard the engine rev, signaling to Ethan that we were leaving.

Ethan smiled, never taking his eyes off me. “See you around.” There was nothing casual about the way he said those words. It wasn’t a goodbye. It was a statement—a promise he intended to keep.

I felt my body tense at his words and finally pulled my eyes away from him as Connor stepped on the gas pedal, quickly taking us away from Ethan.

We drove in silence for a few minutes, and with each passing second, I felt the awkwardness and tension grow between us.

“Who was that?” Connor finally asked. To my surprise, he didn’t sound angry or upset. His voice was calm, business-like, and distant, perfected from years of training.

“No one,” I reassured him. But on the inside, I wondered if he was the only one I was trying to reassure.

“Was he harassing you?”

I heard an edge of concern in his voice and smiled at how protective he was over me. “No,” I answered, though I knew that wasn’t exactly the truth. “I had almost tripped right before you pulled up and he caught my fall. And then you pulled up.” That is the truth, I told myself. But as much as I tried to convince myself of this, it felt like I had just lied to him. Am I a bad person? Why am I lying to my fiancé when I haven’t done anything wrong? I tried to push away those thoughts and turned to look at Connor. “Thanks for driving me home. I really appreciate it.”

He looked over at me and smiled. His warm, hazel eyes gleamed as I met his gaze. He reached for my hand and squeezed it. “Don’t be silly, Liv. Of course I’d pick you up and take you back home. I hope that with you being back at our house, it’ll help you with your memory.”

“Our house?” I repeated, surprised by this revelation. I realized that during Connor’s daily visits at the hospital this past week, I hadn’t asked him a lot of questions about our relationship.

“Yeah, we live together.” He tried to hide the frown on his face as he turned his gaze forward and looked straight ahead at the road.

“How long have we lived together?”

“About three months before the accident.”

“I’m sorry, Connor,” I said softly as I realized how hard this must be for him.

He looked over at me and pulled my hand up toward his lips and gently kissed it. “Don’t be. I know it can’t be easy to not remember anything.”

“Yeah. Connor…can you tell me more about…us?”

He smiled. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything.” I felt like laughing and crying at how strange this felt, to have to ask my fiancé to tell me about everything he could about our relationship. “Let’s start at the beginning. How did we meet?”

“We met at work.”

“Where do we work?”

“Brady Global, Inc.”

I looked at him with wide-eyes. “Brady Global? You own the company?”

He grinned and nodded. “I’m the CEO of Brady Global. We hired you on as the V.P. of Marketing about a year and a half ago.”

I stared at him in surprise. “When did we start dating?”

He thought about it. “So you were in the hospital for about two weeks, we were engaged for about a month before that, and we’d been dating for about eight months before that…so we started dating a little under a year ago.”

“So I was sleeping with my boss?” I looked at him, searching for answers.

“Well, I prefer to be called your fiancé,” he teased. “But yes, I guess you can say you were sleeping with your boss.” He flashed me a warm, inviting smile.

I frowned.

“What’s wrong?” His expression immediately changed when he noticed my disappointment.

I faked a smile. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine.”

He smiled back and I saw his body relax.

For the rest of the ride to the house, we were silent. I closed my eyes, pretending to have fallen asleep so that Connor wouldn’t try to talk to me. I felt tired and unsure of this life that I couldn’t remember. I had lied to Connor just now. I wasn’t fine. Something was wrong. Finding out that I was sleeping with my boss made me wonder what kind of person I was before I lost my memories. What kind of person slept with their boss after a few months at a new job? But I didn’t want to voice out my concern to Connor. I wasn’t sure how he would respond to it. After all, he had fallen in love with the woman that I once was, the one with the life that I couldn’t remember, the one whom I was now questioning.

“Liv?” Connor’s soft voice interrupted my thoughts. “We’re home.”

I opened my eyes and saw Connor standing over my opened passenger door. I looked around and noticed that we had pulled up in front of a building along a small pristine street lined with beautifully-aged brownstone houses.

“Where are we?”

“We’re in Rittenhouse Square, a neighborhood in Philly.”

“This is where we live?”

“Yup.” Connor held out his hand and I reached for it. When he pulled me out of the car, I gasped at what I saw. We were parked in front of a gorgeous three-story beaux arts mansion with an antique limestone façade.

“We have a unit in this building?” I stared at the massive structure in front of me and noticed a doorman at the front door waiting for our arrival.

“No.” He laughed.

“Oh.” I frowned and felt a wave of disappointment and embarrassment for thinking that we had actually lived in such an extravagant building.

“The entire place is ours,” he corrected.

I turned and looked at him in disbelief. I may not have my personal memories, but I did know a few things. I knew Rittenhouse Square was one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Philly, and this mansion was easily worth over $10 million. “The entire place?”

He nodded and beamed at me. “Now come on. Let’s get you inside.”

When we approached the front door, the doorman’s eyes lit up as he greeted me. “Good afternoon, Ms. Stuart. It’s so good to see you home.”

“Thanks.” I smiled at him and couldn’t believe he knew my name.

“I’m Jim, the butler of the house. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Oh. Thanks.” I fidgeted uncomfortably.

“Thanks, Jim. And if you could have Bill drive the Aston to the garage, that’d be great.”

I stared at Connor in disbelief. “Bill?”

“Oh yes, Bill’s my personal assistant.”

“Right. Of course.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. How rich is this guy? The thought made me a little uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure why but when I imagined a place I’d call home, I imagined a warm, inviting apartment, not a large, cold mansion I could easily get lost in.

But when we walked through the foyer and into the living room, I was pleasantly surprised and a smile crept onto my face. The interior was nothing like what I had expected from the outside. The decor was modern, chic, and casual with pops of color. There was something comforting and familiar about the space and I immediately knew that I had decorated it.

“Does anything look familiar?”

I grinned. “I don’t remember anything, but it feels familiar.” I looked at him. “Does that sound crazy?”

“Not at all.” He flashed me a warm smile. “I just want you to be comfortable here in your own house.”

“Thanks.”

“Oh yeah, I think Anna’s stopping by sometime this afternoon to see you. She might be able to answer any questions you might have.”

“Anna?”

“Sorry, Liv. I forgot I hadn’t mentioned her to you yet. She’s your best friend.”

“Oh. My best friend.” I felt a pang of sadness knowing there was yet another important person in my life that I couldn’t remember.

“Are you hungry? Thirsty?” he asked as he led me to the kitchen.