Money Man's Fiancée Negotiation by Michelle Celmer Page B

memory? Was he willing to jeopardize his plans? He’d been up half the night removing personal information, so it seemed unlikely anything would shake loose a memory.
    To confuse her, and hopefully buy himself a little more time, he not only removed things from the computer, but added a few things, as well.
    To give her the impression they attended social functions together—when in reality they rarely went out socially—he added a few entries for fictional theater dates and parties. He also included a meeting with a wedding planner, which he thought was a nice touch. One they had regretfully missed because Mel had been missing.
    The most brilliant switch, in his opinion, was her music. He knew from experience that some songs evoked specific memories or feelings. Like the knot he got in his stomach whenever he heard “Hey Jude” by the Beatles, the songthat was playing the day he drove home to break the good news about his promotion and found his ex in bed with her personal trainer.
    So, he deleted Mel’s entire music catalog and replaced it with his own music library. Mel had always preferred current pop music, while he listened to classic rock and jazz. There wasn’t much chance that would be jogging any memories.
    Now he was wondering if that hadn’t been enough. Or maybe the memories were going to come back regardless. Either way, he didn’t want to panic prematurely. Remembering something about the law was still a far cry from regaining her personal memories.
    He looked over at Melody and realized she’d stopped eating with nearly half her burger and fries still left.
    “Full already?” he asked.
    “Is there something you’re not telling me?” she asked. “Something you don’t want me to know?”
    The question came so far out of left field he was struck dumb for several seconds, and when his brain finally kicked back in he figured it would be in his best interest to play dumb. “What do you mean?”
    She pushed her tray aside. “I just get this nagging feeling that you’re hiding something from me.”
    He could play this one of two ways. He could act angry and indignant, but in his experience that just screamed guilty. So instead he went for the wounded angle.
    He pasted on a baffled expression and said, “God, Mel, why would you think that? If I did or said something to hurt your feelings…” He shrugged helplessly.
    The arrow hit its mark. Melody looked crushed.
    “Of course you haven’t. You’ve been wonderful.” She reached out and put her hand on his forearm. “You’ve doneso much for me and I’m acting completely ungrateful. Just forget I said anything.”
    He laid his hand over hers and gave it a squeeze. “You suffered a severe head injury. You were in a coma for two weeks.” He flashed her a sympathetic smile. “I promise I won’t hold it against you.”
    Her smile was a grateful one. And of course, he felt like slime for playing on her emotions. For using it to his advantage.
    Remember what she did to you, he told himself. Although, one thing he couldn’t deny was that Melody was not the woman she’d been before the accident. In the past, she never would have confronted him this way with her suspicions. Yet, at the same time, she was much softer and compassionate than she used to be. Not to mention uncharacteristically open with her emotions.
    When she told him she loved him he’d felt…well, he honestly wasn’t sure what he’d felt. It was just…unusual. No one had said that to him in a long time. He and his wife had stopped expressing sentiments of love long before the final meltdown. The pain of their breakup had been less about lost love than the humiliation of her deceit, and his own stupidity for not seeing her for what she really was.
    In the long run he honestly believed she had done him a favor, although he could have done without seeing the proof with his own eyes.
    Even if Melody thought she loved Ash, she obviously didn’t mean it or she wouldn’t have