I hated how gleeful he looked. “I know! I couldn’t have planned it any better. We weren’t planning for me to disappear that day, but it was the perfect out.” He hesitated. “Look,” he said, “I will explain everything later. But for right now, we need to go. I have a plan. We can restart our lives together.”

Now I was really confused. “What are you talking about?”

He put his hand to his forehead. “Sorry. I’m just so excited to see you that I’m jumping all over the place.” He wrapped me in his arms again and planted a kiss on my lips. I was so unsuspecting that I let him. “There’s so much to do, Al. We can get our life back.”

We can get our life back. The idea was so tempting. For the briefest second, I could pretend that we were picking up where we left off, that I was a new bride, and I was finally going to get my happily-ever-after with the man I had fallen head over heels for when I was just a girl. So, no, maybe he hadn’t exactly been the man I thought he was. But who was when you got right down to it? Weren’t we all different from what we seemed?

Even in my haze, I thought of Elliott. Thinking of him gave me pause. I wasn’t in a rational enough head space to think clearly about what Jeremy being alive meant for me, for our future, for what came next. But rational or no, I did have the feeling that I didn’t want to be apart from Elliott. Then again, if Jeremy was really back, wouldn’t I have to at least try to make things work with him? I was so confused. And surely I’m dreaming. Right?

Jeremy took my hand and led me over to the dining room table. We both sat down. He looked around and said, “Wow. You really did it, babe. I just wish we could stay here.”

I took a deep breath. Focus, Alice. It was starting to occur to me that a man who had faked his death and had obviously been in hiding for nearly two decades was maybe not stable. Not even stable-ish. I needed to get him out of here—but my curiosity got the better of me. And, even more than that, I had pined for this man for most of my adult life. I loved him. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t just walk away now.

“And why can’t we stay here?”

“Well, we’re going to have to leave the country.” He did this little half-snort. “I’m technically dead, if you hadn’t heard.”