Saige laughed when he caught her watching and offered her a cheesy grin. She shook her head and select
ed scrambled eggs and a slice of toasted rye bread.
“Morning,” Christina mumbled, taking her usual seat at the table. She looked like she hadn’t slept well.
She was still beautiful, even with tiredness clouding her face. Not the kind of tired from lack of sleep, but the kind a person gets when they’ve completely had enough of life.
Saige frowned while Christina served herself a small spoon of fresh fruit, and then shook the thoughts from her mind and asked Alex, “Sleep well?”
“Surprisingly, I did.” Alex swallowed a mouthful of food. “I didn’t think I would, but I had a lot taken out of me last night, so I slept like a baby.” He grinned and glanced at Christina.
Saige raised a brow, especially when her stepmom gave him a startled look before she focused on her breakfast and ignored them.
Alex caught Saige’s silent question and gave a slight shake of his head, which she’d have missed if she hadn’t been looking.
“Christina,” Saige waited for her stepmom to meet her gaze before continuing. “Can we talk to you and Dad about what happened to me?”
Christina’s fork clanged back to the dish, disturbing the silence in the room. She glanced between Alex and Saige before answering. “Depends on what you want to talk about,” she hedged.
Saige got the feeling that her stepmother was very uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going, and that caused her stomach to churn.
Her own breakfast in front of her no longer looked appetizing so she pushed it away. “Christina, not only do I want my memory back, but I want to remember my time with Quinten Peterson. I’m sure you remember him.”
Christina paled and nodded.
“Nothing to say, Christina?” Alex sneered looking angry. He slammed his hand on the table and stood. The plates rattled, and Saige thought her stepmom was about to be sick. “My brother is fucking innocent. All he ever did was love your stepdaughter, and refuse to fuck you.”
Saige gasped. “What?”
“Forget it,” Alex snapped.
She stared at him, her stomach and thoughts churning at the implications of what Alex had just said. She glanced at Christina who was extremely pale, her gaze focused on the melon ball sitting on her spoon and not on them. “I can’t.” Saige shook her head and grabbed hold of Alex’s wrist to keep him in the room. “What did you mean?”
Christina swallowed a few times and, after she threw her napkin on the table, dashed out of the room.
Alex breathed through his nose and his whole body tensed in anger. “I got angry and spoke out of turn. Leave it, please.” Alex smiled, and took Saige’s fingers from his wrist and gave them a reassuring squeeze. “I’m going to take a walk near the jetty to cool down. Come and find me when you’re ready to head into town.”
Saige nodded and watched him leave while she pondered what the hell his comment about her stepmom meant. Had Christina come on to Quinten? And Alex?
Saige felt like she was the last to know with everything, and she found it frustrating that everyone who knew her had her memories.
“Saige, honey.” Her dad walked into the breakfast room and interrupted her thoughts, but it didn’t remove the frown from her brow.
“Morning, Dad. You’re up late.” She smiled.
“Not really.” Her father helped himself to half a plate of food and a small bowl of fruit before he sat opposite her, instead of his usual seat at the head of the table.
He looked tired as he poured a cup of coffee. His usual dusky blond hair had more than a hint of grey around the temples. He’d been lucky that he hadn’t shown any sign of going grey until he reached fifty. Her father had always been a strong man, and she knew that he still was, but there was now a weariness to him. His square shoulders sagged and the stress around his eyes told her that he worried. Saige had a good guess as to what about, so she decided to get it all out in the open and hoped her father would too.
After Christina and Alex’s reaction to each other, she no longer wanted to wait for everyone to come together. Christina, especially, could wait until Saige got her alone. No way did she want Alex setting her off again.
“Spit it out, Saige.” He offered her a wry smile. “I’ve always been able to tell when you had something on your mind, but didn’t know how to get it out.” He took a sip of his coffee. “You know what I used to say, and you always used to agree with me.”
“You’ll feel better once you’ve had your say, Saige,” she mimicked her father from years gone by.
“That’s the one.”
Saige glanced toward the bay window with a view of the water, hoping for courage. “I can’t leave the past alone.”