I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with it.
The young woman hastily pulled her hand back and tucked it in her pocket.
Her cheeks glowed as red as mine.
“My name’s Isabella.”
“Isabella,” I said, savoring her name and rolling it around in my mouth.
It felt good.
“I would tell you my name but…”
She nodded, understanding I didn’t even know my own name.
I’m so lame.
“It’s nice of you to take me in like this,” I said.
“It’s not every day a pilot falls from the sky and almost crushes you.”
My eyes bulged.
“I crushed you? I’m so sorry. Are you hurt?”
I reached for her arm and the instant I touched her, a blue spark crackled, making us both hop back.
“No,” she said, checking her arm and rubbing the spot where the shock had occurred. “I was the one who found you. I feel… responsible for you now.”
Responsible.
She meant obligated.
She felt obligated toward me.
Maybe staying in the hospital was the best thing for me to do.
But I knew I couldn’t succumb to that idea.
Every fiber of my being railed against it.
“Shall we go?” Isabella said.
“Lead the way,” I grinned.
And let me watch that ass do its thing.
Neither of us noticed the nurse’s knowing smile or the gentle shake of her head.
The hospital was in full swing, taking no notice of me or—unbelievably—Isabella as we passed through the exit.
Couldn’t they see the beauty she was?
That they would not see a more gorgeous creature during their lives?
Couldn’t they see how lucky they were to be in her presence?
The sunlight was brazen when we passed through the twin doors.
I raised my hand to block the light and squinted against it as we descended the delicate steps to the curb.
A man dressed in a sharp uniform was there to greet her.
He smiled the way I thought all people in the hospital should have smiled when she passed by.
He extended a hand to take her by the arm but she twisted at the last minute and raised her hands to introduce me.
“This is the pilot.”
The uniformed man eyed me uncertainly, running his eyes over me from head to toe.
Whatever he saw, he didn’t seem to like.
A curdled look came over his face.
“I wish I could say I’ve heard all about you, but of course, that would imply you knew a lot about yourself. I’m Liam Posiek, sheriff of this here town.”
He extended his hand to me in the same gesture Isabella had earlier.
He too stared at me, waiting for me to respond.
I peered at his hand and extended my own toward his so they were less than an inch apart.
What did this gesture even mean? I wondered.
The look on the good sheriff’s face was not one of calmness as Isabella’s had been.
His eyebrows drew down into a hard frown.
He moved his hand over to meet mine and gripped it tight.
He shook it and squeezed hard.
I guessed it was part of the gesture and squeezed too.
Liam’s expression changed immediately.
His eyes pinched and he grimaced in pain.
“Yeargh—!” he grunted before cutting himself off and yanking his hand away from mine.
“Everything okay?” Isabella said.
Liam had turned as red as the nearby fire hydrant, his teeth clenched, and his eyes watery and boggled.
“Couldn’t be better.”
He tucked his shaking hand under his armpit and looked on the verge of bursting into tears.
“So, what’s the matter, fella?” he growled. “Cat got your tongue? What’s your name?”
Isabella scowled at him.
“He can’t remember his name, remember? He can’t tell you what his name is if he can’t remember it.”
“Well, he’s got to have one. We can’t go around calling him “Hey, you!”
“What name do you suggest?”
“I don’t know.”
The sheriff looked at me.
“What name would you like? It’s not every day you get to change your name.”
My mind was a total blank.
“What you suggest?”
The officer was about to speak but Isabella interrupted him.
“You look a bit like Clint Eastwood when he was young.”
“Looks like Clint Eastwood,” Liam said with a smirk. “Give me a break.”
Isabella’s shoulders shrank.
“Clint,” I said. “I like it.”
She perked up immediately and smiled triumphantly.
“See? He likes it.”
“So?” Liam said petulantly. “Dogs like their names too. It doesn’t mean it’s perfect for them.”
Liam seemed to attach a great deal of meaning to my new name.
Or maybe it was that Isabella had given it to me.
Names sure did seem to mean a lot to these people.
I blinked at that.
These people?
That was a strange way to address them, I thought.
Almost as if they weren’t my people.
And what did that mean?
That I wasn’t from here?
That I was from another country?
Another continent?
The thought had come from the depths of that shadowy mist.
I wondered if things would continue to bubble up and reveal themselves over time.
I would need to keep tabs on my thoughts from now on if that turned out to be the case.
It might be the key to unraveling the mystery of me.
We climbed into Liam’s car.
It was a squad car, Liam said, and his pride and joy.
“She’s a Ford Police Interceptor, with 3.5 liters, twin-turbocharged V6. Three-hundred and sixty-five horsepower, and a top speed of one hundred and fifty miles per hour. She’s top of the range.”
“The seats aren’t very comfortable,” Isabella said, wriggling on the front passenger seat to find a good spot.
“It’s not about comfort,” Liam snapped. “It’s about speed.”
I sat in the back behind the metal grille dividing me from them.
I felt like a criminal already.
“Will you be all right in the back?” Isabella said.
“Sure. I guess. At least the seats are comfortable back here.”
Liam gave me the worst stinkeye I thought I’d ever received.
“Maybe being in the back will bring something back memory-wise,” he said.
“I don’t think he’s a criminal,” Isabella said.
“How do you know?”
He squinted into the rearview mirror at me accusingly as he turned the ignition over and the engine roared into life.
“What do you think?” Liam said to me. “Are you a criminal?”
“It’s possible.”
But I didn’t think so.
Breaking laws didn’t excite or attract me.
But then again…
“I suppose if I can’t remember who I am, who I was, any personality traits I had would
