Second Chance Summer (Chance Series, #1) (18 page)

I push open the door to the bar and restaurant area. Most of the business the Eagle gets is people on road trips or passing through, and it’s obvious it’s the case today. There’s barely a pint in sight.

Clara, the bubbly, blonde, barmaid-waitress catches my eye, and points me in the direction of the corner with a wary smile. I wave in thanks and locate Dad’s table with my eyes, silently making my way over to him.

I take a good look at him as I sit down. He really hasn’t changed much – so he has a few lines around his eyes, but that’s it. He’s the same guy I loved so much as a young girl.

“I didn’t know if you were actually coming,” he says softly.

“I said I was,” I reply, shrugging one of my shoulders. “I guess I need to hear everythin’ from you. The truth. Not a story compiled of all Mom’s guilt trips and pity tactics.”

Dad rubs his hand across his face, breathing deeply. “What do you wanna know, Kia?”

“Everything,” I whisper. “Because no one ever told me a damn thing until Friday.”

I drop my eyes to the table and hear him shift in his seat. The noise in the Eagle is only a low hum, but thankfully it’s far enough out of the Grove that our meeting won’t be tonight’s gossip at the dinner table.

At least not everyone’s gossip.

“I don’t know if you remember, but your momma was always at home. She never worked; she didn’t have to. I made sure of that, or at least I tried to. Then the company I worked for started laying people off. I told her we had plenty saved to get us by if they laid me off too, but she had to go and get herself a little job just to keep us afloat.

“I guess that’s the moment it began. I should have tried to make her go sooner, before you were approaching high school age, but there was never any need for it. She moaned about it for a week until she realized I was serious. There was a real possibility I’d lose my job and we’d be left without a reliable income unless she got a job. So she did, at Denny’s bar. She was beautiful and easy to talk to. She was the perfect barmaid, and soon she was pulling pints like a pro.

“Turns out I didn’t lose the job. I was one of the few they kept on, but your momma was settled in at Denny’s. She enjoyed it there; I think she forgot about the freedom having a job provided you. She had a little extra cash and she got to meet new people. Of course, it quickly changed. Lookin’ back, the telltale signs were there. She began working more hours, longer shifts, and she was coming back drunk almost every night.”

My brain puts together some hazy memories. Memories I guess I’d blocked out of her. Drunk and angry. My parents arguing when they thought I was asleep. The faint scent of alcohol that began to cling to Momma whenever she’d been to work.

Daddy sighs. “It was the summer, and everyone knows a place like Denny’s gets busier in the summer, just like it does here. I passed her behavior off as that. Why wouldn’t I? I loved her, Kia. A part of me still does. She gave me you, and I will always love her for that. It wasn’t until Patty told me she’d been to Denny’s and seen your momma leavin’ with another man. She didn’t know who he was, but she said she’d rather me hear something like that from her than the busybodies around here.”

“What did you do?” My voice comes out surprisingly even. Hearing the story of the destruction of my family hurts more than I thought it would.

“I sent you to Luce’s for a sleepover and followed your mom after her shift.” He smiles wryly, holding it for a few beats before it drops again. “Patty was right. She left out the back with some other guy, and I followed them to a motel. They were all over each other before they’d even reached the motel room. Instead of going up there like I should have, I turned around, drove home, and went to bed.

“I confronted her the next night when you were in bed. She admitted it, and then I left. I shouldn’t have gone the way I did, Kia, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should have stayed and spoken to you, been honest with you. Or at least, me and your momma should have done it together and come up with a believable story.”

I nod slowly, meeting his remorseful eyes. “You should have. Do you know how many nights I spent staring out my bedroom window waiting for you to come home? Do you know how many times I locked myself away in the treehouse and cried because it was all I had left of you? I was thirteen years old, and you left me without as much as a goodbye. It took three months of whispers and crap around town before I realized what they’d all known all along. You weren’t coming back. You really had left.” I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to rein in my anger, aware of a few eyes on us. “I don’t know if I can ever forgive you for that.”

“I don’t expect you to,” he says sadly. “I don’t ever expect your forgiveness for the way I left and I won’t ever ask for it. I just ask that you try to understand.”

“I understand, Daddy. And I know it wasn’t just your fault, but only one person walked away. Only one person made that decision and that was you. No matter what Momma did or said, you didn’t have to leave the way you did. Your reason for leaving is her fault, but your actions are yours.”

“I know, Kia bear. And believe me when I say I tried to make it right. I tried to contact you so many times, but she was always in the way. She stopped me at every turn.”

“Why didn’t you get a lawyer? Take her to court?” The words come out sharper and more bitterly than I intend them to. “Why didn’t you fight until you were blue in the face for contact?”

He says nothing. He just looks at me, his blue eyes curious.

“I would have,” I say simply. “If I knew what I know now, even half of it, I would have bugged her like hell to let me speak to you and see you.”

“I was a coward,” he admits, glancing away from me. “And cheap. I didn’t have the money to hire anyone to fight the case for me.”

I swallow. “I would have thought you couldn’t put a price on true love. I would have thought you would have fought until the ends of the Earth for me, but I guess the Daddy I thought I knew and the one that walked away were two different men.” He flinches at my words, but I’m not mincing them anymore. I’m not being pushed around, and if it means feelings get hurt along the way, then that’s tough.

It might be juvenile and immature, but I’ve been hurt for so long, it’s about time they felt even an ounce of the pain I’ve carried with me.

“So, what’s taken you so long?” I ask bluntly. “Why has it taken you six years – six freakin’
years
– to come back?”

Dad fidgets, twisting his hands on the table, then dropping them to his lap. “I need a divorce from your mom. It should have been done years ago.”

“I know that, but why? Why is it
so
important now?”

“You already know I’m getting married again… But Dee, my fiancée, is pregnant.”

~

I don’t know how I managed to walk out of The Eagle Inn and drive to Reese’s. I don’t know how I managed to do anything except scream at my father. Which, oddly enough, I didn’t do, even though I wanted to.

No, I didn’t scream, shout, or make a scene. Instead, I’d stood up and walked away silently.

I mean, shit! What a thing to drop into a conversation with your daughter.

Not to mention a part of me finds it kinda gross that my forty-something father is having a baby again.

I blow out a long breath and lean back against the couch in Reese’s den. His mom let me straight in, asked no questions, and left me to it. Not because she doesn’t care, but because she knows me almost as well as Luce and Reese do.

And, naturally, she knows all about my estranged father arriving unannounced.

I count the ticks as the second hand goes around the clock, echoing in the silence of the den. I need to focus on something else other than my family issues.

On the shelf above the blocked fireplace is a photo of me and Reese. I’ve never noticed it before but I remember it. It was taken a week or so before I left for New York, at Leo’s twenty-first birthday party. Reese’s arms are tight around me, and both of us are smiling so wide our cheeks look like they might crack. To the side of it is another photo – one taken that I don’t even know about. We’re lying on the dock by the lake, him leaning over me, and we’re both grinning about something. I bet Luce took it since she took way too many pictures last summer… Most of which are in that box in my closet.

I bet if I looked in it hard enough, I’d find that exact picture.

Last summer. It really was the summer to end all summers, despite the way it actually ended. It was the summer I understood what it was to fall in love. What true friendship was, and that the right amount of laughter and silliness could make even the darkest day a rainbow of color to rival the Northern Lights. It was a summer of firsts, one of which happened right here in this room.

Reese’s hazel eyes had darkened to a chocolate brown, and he slid an arm around my back, pulling me toward him.

He leant his head into me and his lips captured mine. My arms snaked around his neck, and his other hand cupped my head, keeping my lips firmly against his. His kiss was rough. It was wanting and hot and sent earthquake tremors through my body as my need mingled with his until his was barely distinguishable from mine.

His hands moved beneath my shirt, and the feel of his bare skin against mine was too much. I groaned into his mouth. He pushed me against the wall. The cold, gritty surface contradicted the heat spreading through me, through both of us.

His lips blazed a trail of kisses down my neck and across my collarbone as I tilted my head to the side. I fanned my fingers out in his hair, breathing deeply as he dropped kisses along the swell of my chest.

“Kia,” he whispered against my skin, pushing my shirt up. He slid it over my head, taking his off after. His perfectly formed body was an afterthought as I watched him rake my body with his eyes. One look was all it took from it. It’s all it ever took. He always could make me feel beautiful with a mere glance. I blushed under his scrutiny, and his fingers brushed down my sides, following the curve of my waist.

“Beautiful,” he raised his eyes, gripping my waist. He moved me over to the bed. He kissed me again, his tongue mingling with mine, and we fell backward onto the soft surface.

My knees bent upwards, my feet hooking round his waist and holding him against me. The material between our lower bodies felt like a barrier as he massaged my skin softly, making sure to touch every bit of my skin. I wanted all of him, nothing separating us. Even then, I knew it was goodbye.

I rubbed my hands down his back, and he peppered kisses to my shoulder. His hands eased into my jeans and tugged them down. His eyes fixed on my silky thong as the denim peeled away from my legs. My breath caught deep in my throat as he touched me lightly.

He teased the material, rubbing me through it. A moan escaped my lips and I heard him breathing heavily. My hips bucked toward him slightly.

“Reese,” his name was a breathless whisper, a desperate plea tinged with the heartbreak of the future.

“Oh, fuck,” he groaned out. He hooked his fingers in my thong, yanking them down my body. He stepped out of his jeans, taking his boxers down with them. I blinked as he rolled the condom on, leaning back into me.

My legs opened to him as he settled between me.

“Reese,” I whispered, holding my breath again. I felt like I was going to explode if he didn’t give me what I wanted, I needed.

“I love it when you say my name like that.” He nipped my earlobe and pressed into me.

Pain seared through me but I tried to relax. I didn’t care how painful it would be. I needed him.

“Kia?” He pulled his head back, my name a question on his lips.

“Don’t stop,” I whispered, pushing my face into his neck. “Please.”

He exhaled in a long breath. “Okay.”

In, out, in, out. The pain subsided and pleasure took over as he worked my body gently. Sweat stuck our bodies together. My nails gripped his back. Kisses were hot and passionate, hello and goodbye mixed in… Because a part of me already knew I’d be gone before morning fell.

Bittersweet. That really is the only way to describe that night. Even if I can’t think of it without blushing.

I press my palms against my cheeks as I glance down at the sofa. Yep. My cheeks are burning. The light flicks on.

“I’m not complaining at you being here, but – hey, are you blushin’?” Reese grins, pushing the door shut behind him.

“No. Why would I be?” I answer hurriedly, blood flushing my cheeks all over again at the sight of him. Even grimy and oily from work, he looks good. Damn good.

“You tell me, baby.” He kicks his shoes off and approaches me, touching my chin lightly with his fingertip.

“I was, um, thinking about last summer.”

“Oh yeah?” His grin turns predatory. “Anything… In particular?”

I understand the question he’s asking, and his hot breath makes me go weak at the knees. Goddamn, he’s a good distraction from everything.

“Perhaps,” I say evasively and wrinkle my nose. “You smell.”

Reese laughs. “Way to welcome me home from work.”

“Well, it’s true.” I step back and drop my hands from my now-normal cheeks. “You need a shower.”

“You can keep me company if you like. It’s a big shower.”

“Reese.”

“Hey, I meant you could sit on the toilet and talk to me or something.”

“I’m not watchin’ you shower.”

“Why not?”

Because after that memory, I’m likely to jump you.

“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before,” he reminds me.

“That’s the problem,” I mutter under my breath.

Reese catches it and chuckles. His hands suddenly thread through my hair and his lips mold themselves to mine. I grip the front of his shirt to stop myself staggering backward as his mouth moves hotly against mine and his tongue teases the seam of my lips.

He pulls away as suddenly as he kissed me, leaving me panting slightly. He glances at me over his shoulder as he walks casually to the bathroom just off the den.

“I know exactly what part of last summer you were thinkin’ about,” he says in a deeper voice, his twang pulling any remaining air from my body. His darkened eyes flit down my body and back up again. “And if you’re thinkin’ about that, then I’m not doin’ good enough right now, am I?”