There was no way I was imagining hearing her voice. This really had to be her.

I had tears in my eyes when I looked up.

“It all started in a place like this, didn’t it?” she asked. And then she pointed to a spot next to me. “May I?”

I nodded wordlessly as I watched her sit down next to me on the sand.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. A fleeting thought crossed my mind that Matt may have known Aerin was in the get-together at Logan’s, and that’s why he’d insisted I come over.

“At least that’s what you told me,” she added, and then shivered slightly. I saw that she was in a sleeveless top and didn’t have anything on to cover her bare arms with – which I noticed were much more toned than when we’d been together. They had a sexy, sinewy, sleek look to them. I unwrapped the pashmina from my body and threw one end over her shoulders.

She gave me the devastating smile that still had the power to slay me.

She inhaled deeply as she pulled the edge of the pashmina around her shoulders and smiled again. “Smells like you.”

I swallowed drily, and hesitated before asking, heart pounding, “Do you remember anything now?”

She gave me a long look and then answered, “To be honest, it’s more about sensations that come to me … like the smells, touch….”

I couldn’t hide the disappointment in my face at her answer.

She pulled my chin up slightly, and whispered, “But I do remember every word that you said when you were telling me about everything, Harley. And I’ve been living with a sense of that magic I could sense in your .. our .. story, and found I couldn’t let go of it.”

My lower lip trembled. “But you broke things off, Aerin. And you told me to find someone else …”

She laid a soft kiss on my trembling lips. I moaned and shut my eyes.

“I was in a bad place, Harley. And I thought I could see only fights and frustration and a world of hurt that lay ahead for us. I was blinded by so many extraneous factors, and I knew I was hurting you. That I was blaming you, deep down inside, at that time … even if I never said so outright, and I didn’t want to get to a point when I might actually say that out loud,” she said haltingly, tearing up.