“Her happy nature is one of the countless reasons I love her,” he said. “I love her intelligence, the mad mischief in her eyes, the way she makes me laugh, and the way she challenges me. I love her tremendous joie de vivre, her passion, her deeply affectionate nature, her belief in goodness and kindness. When I’m with her, I feel so alive and the world seems full of wonder and possibility.”

I desperately wanted to be the woman he described. “Whatever you’ve done to hurt her, can’t you make it up to her? Won’t she forgive you?”

“I shall never forgive myself,” he said. “If I could do it yet again, I would have tried harder to let her go instead of allowing my desire to rule my actions.”

“She’s an adult. She can make her own decisions about her life. It’s rather patronizing of you to determine what’s best for her.”

“Perhaps it is.”

I wanted to do things to Ian Ducharme that made a lickathon look like a chaste date with your spinster aunt. I wanted to rip his clothes off and suck the very air out of his lungs like a succubus. I wanted to fall at his feet and submit entirely to his most perverse desires like a minion. I wanted to pin him down and tear into his flesh like a wolf. I wanted to drink his blood and possess him like a vampire.

However, a sincere and serious young amnesiac in therapy does not attack a stranger in a field, no matter how gorgeous and in need of comfort he is, especially when her fiancé and his most-beautiful-in-the-world girlfriend were nearby.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t listen to me,” I said. “I’m not qualified to give advice about your love life.”

“What disqualifies you?”

“The usual—a dead boyfriend and his misplaced corpse, amnesia, an engagement held together by duct tape, ghostly visions, a tendency to walk into crime scenes, and unknown enemies.”

Ian laughed and said, “Besides that,” making me laugh, too. “Tell me about your ghostly visions.”

“I think they’re over. I must be getting better, or worse. You can ask Lily for her opinion, although I’m sure it will be dire.”

“Milagro, do you want to stay here, to be with Oswald?”

“It’s very beautiful here and Oswald’s been wonderful. He took me back when I needed help. And I know he loves me, because he’s given me gifts that only someone who truly understood me could give me, like a first edition of Jane Eyre.”

“He gave you the ring around your neck,” Ian said.

“It’s more traditional than my usual style, but I think these earrings are from Oswald, too, because I kept them with my special things.” I turned my head from side to side to make the disco balls swing. “See how fun they are?”