Justin’s hand moved from her back to her hip and his fingers closed around it and he gently pulled her body a little closer. She could feel her knees getting shaky and her chest getting a little tight as the kiss continued to deprive her body of oxygen. When Justin finally withdrew with an agonizing slowness, she sucked in a breath so fast that she got a little lightheaded and had to reach out to graph the edge of the counter to keep herself steady.

Justin had pulled his head away but his hands remained still, one on her cheek and the other still on her hip. He was looking at her and she lowered her eyes to avoid the intense stare. It was silent for a moment.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said quietly, the hand on her face dropping to his side. “Should I not have done that?”

She wet her lips and shook her head. “No, it’s okay,” she whispered. “I…”

“You what?” he asked when she trailed off. “What were you going to say?”

She could feel her cheeks redden. “I liked it,” she said softly, risking a look at him.

A smile spread across his face. “Me too. I’ve missed being able to kiss you, Bren.”

Her face went a bit redder and she lowered her gaze again. A thought crossed her mind that it shouldn’t be so awkward to kiss her husband.

Justin’s hand moved from her hip as he pulled her into a hug. She turned her head to the side and rested it against his chest. She closed her eyes when she felt him rest his chin on the top of her head.

She felt like crying but didn’t know why. It was just so much to process. She had been developing feelings towards Justin for a couple weeks now but it had all felt so new and she had never said anything to anyone. He must have saw that something was there since he had kissed her.

Justin kissed her head and then pulled back. “Did you still want to watch that documentary? It’s almost eight.”

“Oh. Yeah,” she said, stepping back. She looked around the kitchen. “Are you going to watch it?”

“Sure but I have to call the producer for tomorrow to arrange the time. But I’ll come and watch once I’m done.”

She nodded silently and left the kitchen. She went downstairs to the den and settled in the corner of the large couch. She had been watching the show for about ten minutes when Justin came into the room. He sat down in the middle of the couch, a foot away from her.

“Is it good?” he asked, stretching out his legs and crossing his ankles.

Brenna drew up her legs to the couch. “It’s good. Makes me glad I’m not a drinker.”

He laughed. “Hope this doesn’t mean I’m in trouble.”

She smiled and looked over at him. “You make yourself seem like an alcoholic or something.”

“I’m not, don’t worry. I’m not opposed to a drink every once in a while though.”

“I got that from the Coors in the fridge.”

He simply shrugged.

She turned back to the TV as the commercials ended and the show started again. She looked down when Justin put his hand on her feet and rested it there. A small smile formed on her face a she turned back to watch the show, her mind now far from the documentary.

“You really are off in another world today.”

Brenna looked up from the table of folded shirts she had been staring at. “Huh?”

Kate smiled. “See? I’ve been telling you a story for like five minutes now and I’m pretty sure you haven’t heard a word of it.”

“Sorry,” Brenna apologized. “I guess I’m being a little spacey.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m good actually.” She lifted up a shirt and examined it before setting it back on the table. She looked over at Kate who was sorting through a rack of clothing. “Hey, Kate?”

“Yeah?” she replied, not looking up.

“Justin kissed me last night for the first time.” Kate looked up and Brenna swiftly continued. “I mean not the first time ever obviously. But the first time since the accident.”

Kate began to smile. “You guys kissed? Aww…that’s so cute. I knew you would realize that you could love him again.”

“I wouldn’t stretch it that far,” Brenna said. “But…but I think I’m starting to feel something.”

Kate surprised Brenna by coming to her and giving her a hug. “That’s awesome, Bren. I’m so glad things are starting to go back to normal between you guys.”

“Me too,” Brenna agreed softly, although she was still a little unsure of what “normal” exactly was.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist that hot action for too long.”

Brenna felt her cheeks go hot and she looked back at the table. “Yeah well…”

Kate leaned back against the table. “So…was it just a kiss or maybe something more?”

“Just a kiss,” Brenna quickly said. “I don’t really want to rush into this. It’s still really new.”

“Of course,” Kate agreed. “That’s a smart idea. Rushing would be bad. Yeah, just take it slow and soon it’ll be good again.” She straightened and went back to the clothes rack. “I really like this shirt,” she said, pulling a hanger form the rack.

Brenna examined the shirt. “Yeah, it’s nice. But I just don’t think I need to be buying maternity clothes yet. I’m not that big.”

“No, but you’re just starting to show. I can tell with that shirt you’re wearing today.”

Brenna self consciously pulled her t-shirt away form her stomach and Kate swatted her hand away.

“Don’t be embarrassed about it,” she scolded gently. “You look cute with a little tummy. What’s there to be embarrassed about?”

“This is still all a little weird, Kate.”

“Oh. But you’ll get used to it.”

Brenna nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

“And, Bren, can you honestly say that your pants aren’t getting just a little tight?”

Brenna sighed. “Maybe just a little.”

“Well we’re in a great maternity store and this is the perfect reason to blow a whole bunch of money on new clothes. Come on…you know you want to spend money.”

Brenna found herself beginning to smile. “Well…maybe. I guess I could get a couple new things.”

“That’s the spirit!” Kate smiled, handing the shirt to her. “Let’s find stuff for you to try on.”

“Just a couple things.”

“Of course.”

Five stores and nine bags of clothes later, Kate pulled into the driveway to Brenna and Justin’s house.

“Well I think that was a successful trip,” Kate said, turning off the car engine.

“I got way too much,” Brenna said, unbuckling her seat belt. “I might return some of it.”

“No, it’s all so cute. You have to keep it. It’s not that much either. You should see Justin when he goes on a spree.” Kate looked down the driveway at the sound of a car. “Speaking of the devil.”

Brenna opened the car door and stepped out into the driveway as Justin drove up in his BMW. He parked beside Kate’s car and got out.

“Hey,” he greeted. “Did you guys go shopping?”

“Yeah, we got a lot of good stuff. Don’t let Bren return any of it. It’s all really nice.” Kate opened the trunk to reveal the bags. “There are so much cute maternity clothes out there. I almost wish I was pregnant so I could buy some.”

Justin smirked. “Knowing you, Kate, I’m sure you could take care of that pretty easily.”

“Oh shut up. Make yourself useful and grab some bags.”

He laughed and reached into the trunk to pull out some bags. Brenna and Kate grabbed the remainder of the bags and then they all went inside. In the kitchen, Brenna set her bags on the counter and then noticed a magazine laying near the stove.

“Is this yours, Kate?” she asked, picking up the magazine.

Kate glanced up from looking through one of the bags. “Yeah. I must have left it there.”

“Buying more tabloids?” Justin asked.

“They aren’t tabloids. It’s just an entertainment news magazine. So what if I read them. Leave me alone.”

Brenna began to flip through the magazine and was startled when she came to a picture of her and Justin sitting in a restaurant. Kate and Justin’s voice faded as her thoughts jumbled.

“They’re completely invading our privacy!” she cried, throwing down the tabloid to the ground. “How did they even get that picture? The club wasn’t letting any paparazzi in and they still managed to get a picture.”

“I dunno, Bren,” Justin replied, rubbing his forehead. “Someone must have snuck in. You know how it goes.”

“But it was my birthday, Justin!”

Brenna’s hand reached out and grasped the edge of the counter to steady herself. Justin and Kate looked over at her.

“Brenna?” Justin asked, coming over to her. “Are you okay? You’re really pale.”

She reached up her hand to rub her temples and looked down at the magazine again, hoping it would evoke the same effect but nothing happened. She shut her eyes.

“Bren?” Kate asked.

She opened her eyes to see Justin and Kate watching her, both with slightly worried looks on their faces.

“My birthday at the club. And our pictures were in a tabloid,” she said softly.

A confused look came over Justin’s face. “Your birthday? What about it?”

She wet her lips and rubbed her forehead again. “No, there was this tabloid with our picture in it.”

“What are you talking about, Brenna?” he asked, looking a little exasperated.

“I remember seeing out picture from my birthday in a tabloid and I was really upset about it.”

“Wait,” Kate interrupted. “You remember like…you remember something from before the accident?”

“Yes!” Brenna exclaimed, glad they finally understood what had happened.

“You remembered?” Justin asked excitedly. “Just now?”

“When I was looking at the magazine.”

“What did you remember?”

“I told you. I saw our picture in a tabloid from my birthday and I was really upset about it.”

“I bet you were remembering your birthday last year. We went to Suede. Do you remember going there?”

Brenna shook her head. “No.”

“Is this the first time you’ve remembered something?” Kate asked.

“First time,” Brenna confirmed.

“Maybe if you hear about your birthday you’ll remember more,” Justin said, drawing her attention back to him. “We had your birthday at Suede. You thought it was going to be just a few of our friends but I rented out the club and flew in some of your cousins and your mom and my parents were there. Remember?”

She tried to recall that but her mind was blank. “No.”

“Okay, um, well we were there like all night. Oh and you wore this really hot dress. I swear every guy in there was jealous of me.”

Kate rolled her eyes. “Of course you would remember THAT.”

Justin ignored her. “Do you remember any of that, Bren?”

She slowly shook her head. “No.”

He bit his lip and was silent for a minute. “Alright. Well with the tabloid, I don’t even know why you bought the damn thing in the first place but I guess there was a picture of us in it. You probably got so upset over it cause I had really tried to keep any press out but they always get in somehow. You know, I remember you getting upset over that actually. You seriously didn’t get over it for like a week. I thought you were gonna break up with me just so you could be away from the press.”

“Yeah, I remember that too,” Kate chimed in. “You even told me you wanted to move back to Tennessee just to get away from it all.”

“But you got over it and everything was okay. And then for you last birthday we made sure to keep any paparazzi out. That birthday was cool too.”

Brenna rubbed her forehead as Justin and Kate kept talking about her past birthdays. As hard as she tried, no more memories were coming to the surface. And they were both starting to be pushy with trying to get her to remember. It was starting to just hurt her mind by straining to remember.

Justin and Kate were now almost talking over each other and had somehow gotten onto the topic of a Christmas party. And at the end of almost every sentence was a question to her on whether she remembered. She finally had enough.

“Please just STOP,” she said, halting them mid sentence. “Just stop.”

They both just stared at her and she sighed and moved past Justin to go upstairs. She went into their room and shut the door behind her. She sat down in an armchair and crossed her arms over her chest as she stared out the French doors to outside. She blinked a few times and sniffed, trying to keep her tears at bay.

It was exhausting and emotional living like this. Sometimes she just wanted to shut her mind off and not have to constantly be thinking and trying to remember her past. She wanted nothing more than to just remember everything but when she tried to force herself to, it just exhausted her.

A knock on the closed door caused her to raise her head. She didn’t say anything or make a move to get up and a moment later the door eased open.

“Brenna?” Justin asked, coming into the room. “What’s wrong?”

She turned her head to look back outside and Justin came over. He sat down in front of her on the edge of a small table. She looked at him.

“It does not help when you guys overload me on memories,” she said slowly. “It just gives me a headache.”

He sighed. “But it might help bring back more memories.”

“It didn’t. Don’t force memories on me.”

“Fine.” He looked out the French doors and then back at her. “Are you going to write down what you remembered like Dr. Waters said to do?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“And we see him on Friday so that’s good timing, huh.”

“Yeah it is.”

He continued to look at her and began to smile. “I’m so glad you remembered something, Bren. This is such a good sign.”

She felt herself smile as well. “I know.”

He kept smiling at her and raised his hands to cup her face. “I think things are going to be okay.”

She closed her eyes as he leaned forward and gave her a slow, sweet kiss. His hands lingered on her cheeks when he pulled back.

“Want to come back downstairs and show me what you guys bought? Kate’s pretty excited about it.”

She smiled and felt her exhaustion slipping away. “Yeah. Let’s go.”