Second Chances (Fairshore Series Book 1)

by Christina Butrum

  “Give me a break! He’s absolutely handsome, he’s polite, and…” Amelia’s mouth opened in a big smile. “He’s great in bed.”

  Bailey put her hand to her forehead. “Lord have mercy.” She laughed when Amelia slapped her arm. “I’m joking!”

  Amelia laughed. “Seriously, I’m not a ho.”

  Bailey lost it. She burst into laughter. “Who said you were?” Bailey asked between laughs. “I never said that, did I?”

  Amelia laughed and shook her head. “No, but I’m just saying.” Amelia’s face was serious now. “I don’t want this town thinking I am.”

  Bailey patted Amelia’s leg and stood up. “Trust me, honey, people in this town will think and believe what they want to think and believe. All that matters is that you know the truth and that you’re happy.” She walked into the kitchen. “People are going to talk. Some will be jealous. Others won’t even care. It’s the crazy jealous ones that should make you worry.” Bailey cackled like a crazy woman.

  She returned to the living room with two cups of tea. Amelia covered her face with her hands. “What have I done?”

  “That’s easy to answer.” Bailey handed her a cup of tea. “You fell in love with a man every girl wants. Fairshore’s Prince Charming.”

  “You got that right.” Amelia blew into her cup before she took a sip. She never drank hot tea until recently. “The way Courtney talked, there isn’t one single girl in this town who hasn’t swooned over him.”

  Amelia looked at Bailey. Bailey shook her head. She waved her finger back and forth at Amelia. “Oh no, don’t you look at me like that. This woman hasn’t and won’t!”

  Amelia chuckled. She loved how dramatic Bailey was. Bailey was the good dramatic and the funny dramatic. Bailey’s personality shined brightly. “Well then, I guess it means there are still five-hundred other girls who are?”

  Bailey shrugged. “Sounds about right.”

  Amelia smiled.

  “What’re you all smiles about?” Bailey glanced sideways. “You should feel special. The one every girl dreams of being with chose you. Isn’t that something?”

  “I do feel special.” Amelia sighed and stated, “I also wonder why me. You know? I’m so broken.”

  Bailey smiled. “Because Mr. Right doesn’t care about the broken pieces. He’s already swept those up and he’s busy putting them together. One jagged piece at a time.”

  Bailey winked at Amelia. Amelia smiled. She felt blessed to have great friends and family. Even more blessed to have a Prince Charming come to her rescue.

  The phone in the kitchen rang. Amelia hopped up and sprinted to the kitchen to answer it.

  “Could it be your lover boy?” Bailey teased.

  Amelia smiled as she grabbed the phone. She held the phone to her right ear and turned her back to Bailey as she answered, “Hello?”

  “Amelia Jean?”

  She turned to Bailey and stuck her bottom lip out in an attempt to make a quick pout face. Bailey snapped her fingers and mouthed the words dang it.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “It’s been so long since I’ve heard your voice. I almost thought I dialed the wrong number,” her mother replied.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t called lately. I’ve been busy working and meeting new people.”

  “That’s good to hear. How’s working at the store?”

  Amelia’s mind flashed to what happened yesterday with Courtney. She refused to tell her mother any of that. “It’s going great. Anna’s a wonderful boss. The store gets busier than I imagined it would. There are a lot of customers.”

  “That’s a good thing, dear,” her mother stated. “Say, I was thinking of coming and visiting again. Your father and I miss you so much.”

  Amelia hesitated and gave Bailey a deer in the headlights look. She mouthed the words oh no to Bailey. Bailey looked puzzled. Amelia shook her head and placed a hand on her hip. “Let me check my schedule and I’ll let you know the days I have off that you could come visit.”

  Bailey made the “o” face. Amelia looked frantically at Bailey. Bailey mouthed the word eek. Amelia nodded in agreement.

  “Okay, dear. Let me know soon.”

  “I will, Mom.” Amelia was relieved her mother had not asked for the days.

  “Well, it was nice talking to you. I have to cut it short, though. Your father will be home any minute. And the food smells a little hot. I think it’s close to burning,” her mother stated quickly.

  “Okay, I’ll call you in a day or two. Love you.”

  “Love you, too. Bye.” Her mother clicked the phone before Amelia could say bye.

  Amelia wiped the back of her hand across her forehead dramatically and said, “Whew. That was close.” She shook her head and chuckled. “We need to plan this trip. We need to plan it and go. This week needs to hurry up.”

  “Did she want to visit?” Bailey asked as she chuckled.

  Amelia dramatically threw her arms out to the side and said, “Yes, of course she does! She might even show up unexpectedly one of these days!”

  Bailey chuckled and drank her tea.

  “It’s not funny,” Amelia said as she laughed. “My mom is random like that. I want the visit back home to be a surprise. I can’t tell her my days off. It’ll ruin the whole trip.”

  “I agree. What day are we leaving?”

  “Friday night after work. I have to allow myself enough time to say goodbye to Zach.”

  Bailey raised an eyebrow. A look of confusion crossed her face. “Wait…Zach isn’t coming with us?”

  Amelia shook her head sadly. Her bottom lip stuck out in a dramatic pout. “He says he’s too busy with Gallagher’s Furniture and helping his grandma at her store.”

  Bailey frowned. “That’s sad.”

  “It’s okay, though. I understand. I’m glad he’ll be helping Anna while I’m gone.”

  “Anna’s his grandma?”

  Amelia tilted her head. “You didn’t know that?”

  “I do now. I learn something new every day.” Bailey grinned.

  “And here I thought in small towns everyone knows everybody and everything.” Amelia joked.

  Bailey smirked. “Almost, but not quite.” She stood up. “Let’s make a list of things we need to pack to take with us.”

  “There’s got to be paper around here somewhere,” Amelia said as she looked around the kitchen and dining room for her pad of paper. She found the pad of paper and ripped off a few sheets. She handed a piece to Bailey.

  As Amelia wrote she said, “I don’t want to forget anything.”

  Bailey agreed. “Let’s make the lists and compare them.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Minutes later, both of them had written their lists. They looked over each list.

  “I think we have everything written down. I can’t think of anything we might have missed.”

  Bailey tapped her pen on the counter as she took a second look at each list. “The lists are good.”

  Amelia turned to Bailey and held up her hand. As Bailey gave her a high five, Amelia shouted, “Woohoo!”

  Bailey looked at the calendar and counted the days until they were to leave for Linford. “One week from today! I’m so excited!”

  “Me, too!” Amelia said. She grabbed her list and hung it on her fridge. She looked at the clock. “Anna asked me to take the day off today. So now I have this whole day on my hands and I’m not sure what to do with it.”

  “Why’d she ask you to take today off?”

  Amelia shrugged. “No idea. I guess I didn’t think to ask her. I just said okay.”

  “I don’t blame you. A day off is a day off.”

  “Exactly. I hope it’s not because of what happened yesterday.”

  “What happened yesterday?” Bailey sat confused and quiet.

  Amelia got excited and her voice raised. “I didn’t tell you?”

  Bailey shook her head. “Nope.”

  Amelia grabbed a chair at the table and sat down.
“Yesterday started off fine. I went to work. Clocked in. It was cleaning day, so Courtney and I grabbed the mop bucket and mops. We were laughing and joking as we mopped. Even Tony was joking with us.” Amelia sat back in the chair and crossed her arms. “Then we were asked to run the checkout because Anna had errands and wouldn’t be back. I’m not even sure what in the hell happened, but Courtney made some remark I took as her thinking or saying I’m perfect. I, of course, blew up.”

  Bailey gasped. She leaned forward in her chair. “What made her say that?”

  Amelia adjusted herself on the chair. “We were talking about guys. She was telling me about her and Zach. Blah blah blah.” She rolled her eyes. “She said she fell in love with him and he let her fall.”

  “Poor thing.” Bailey pretended to care. “Does she know she isn’t the only person who has had their heart stomped on?”

  Amelia cleared her throat and said, “She does now.”

  Bailey leaned back into her chair and said an exaggerated, “Oh, boy, here we go.” She rubbed her hands together. “Let’s hear it.”

  “Ha! It wasn’t the best thing for me to do. She didn’t even see it coming.” Amelia smirked. “I blew up and I said, ‘why does everyone think I’m so perfect?’ and I continued on and told her about my five year relationship. And blah blah blah.” Amelia took a drink of tea and continued to tell Bailey about the incident. “I had her in tears and she ran to the back room.”

  Bailey looked at Amelia. “That poor girl. She’s going to be scarred for life.”

  “Oh, whatever. It wasn’t that bad. I’m just tired of people assuming my life is perfect.”

  “I know. I don’t blame you.”

  “What made the whole situation worse was when Zach showed up at the store and walked in. That’s when Courtney ran to the back room and the floodgates opened.”

  Bailey rolled her eyes dramatically. “Oh, Lord.”

  “Everything went back to normal after Zach left. She came back up front and we talked about my shitty gumdrops and lollipops,” Amelia said, followed with a sigh.

  “Your life’s getting better. Those lollipops might not taste like shit much longer.” Bailey winked at Amelia.

  “My life would still be far from perfect even if I rode on a purple unicorn.”

  “A purple unicorn?” Bailey chuckled. “Interesting.”

  “Hey, it’s my perfect life. If I want a colorful rainbow and a purple unicorn, I can have it.”

  Chuckling, Bailey said, “Whatever you say.”

  Amelia laughed. “As long as people continue to believe my life’s all rainbows, unicorns, and gumdrops.”

  “Anyways, happening elsewhere in the real world today, we’re back to you in the studio, Bailey.” Bailey said as she held an imaginary microphone in her hand. “Yes, Tom, here in the real world, we’re seeing shit storms devouring the planet.”

  They both burst into laughter. Amelia held up her hand and said, while laughing, “I can see it now. Headlines of newspapers read shit storm meets rainbow and unicorn world. Shit storm devours the rainbows. Produces quarter sized rainbow shits.”

  After they laughed for five minutes, they stopped and looked at each other.

  “We don’t even make sense!” Bailey said while she raised her hands. “What the heck were we even saying?”

  “I have no idea!” Amelia burst into laughter again.

  “If people hear us talking like this, they’ll think we’re crazy!”

  Amelia nodded. “We aren’t are we?”

  Bailey laughed. “They aren’t going to know if we are or not! Ha! People are probably already thinking we are!”

  “You’re right.” Amelia sat back in the chair and cleared her throat. “No more talking about my mystical life.”

  Bailey changed the subject. “So you two are friends still?”

  “As far as I know we are.”

  “Is she going with us to Linford?”

  “I don’t think so. She acted like she wanted to go with.”

  “Are you going to let her?”

  Amelia hesitated and thought about Courtney going with to Linford. She shook her head. “No, she can’t go.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, aside from me not asking her if she wanted to go with, someone has to stay around for Anna’s store. Can’t leave Anna, Zach, and Tony to run it by themselves.”

  “That’s true. Anna needs to take some days off.” Bailey said.

  “I agree. She works a lot.”

  Bailey looked at the clock. “Let’s go get some lunch. I’ll buy.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “I’m thinking pizza.”

  “Sounds good. Do you want me to drive?” Amelia asked while she grabbed her keys off of the table.

  Bailey nodded. “If you want to. I’ll give directions.”

  They hopped into Amelia’s Taurus and headed to the Pizzaria.

  “I’m starving! I don’t know what kind of pizza I want.”

  “They have many kinds to choose from.” Bailey said. “You’ll turn right up here and then drive for four blocks. Pizzaria should be on the left side. You can’t miss it. They have a huge pizza shaped sign.”

  Amelia drove until she saw the sign.

  “See, there it is,” Bailey said as she pointed to the restaurant.

  “I’m so hungry, I could probably eat a pizza that size by myself,” Amelia said as she pointed to the pizza on the sign.

  Bailey laughed. They got out of the car and walked into the restaurant.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Amelia woke up and rubbed her eyes. She looked over at Bailey. Bailey was snuggled in a blanket sound asleep on the couch. Bella was curled up at her feet. Amelia stood up and walked to the kitchen. She thought about making a Saturday morning breakfast, but decided to wait. The weekends were her only days off. Weekend days were usually rest days for her.

  Amelia looked around the living room. They had watched movies when they finished eating at the Pizzaria downtown. Empty bowls sat on the coffee table. Pieces of popcorn were spread out all over the floor and couches. The popcorn fight they had last night did not last long. They ate some of it while they watched the movie, and there was only a few handfuls left to throw.

  Amelia loved to have Bailey around. She was a really good friend. She sat back down in the chair and watched Bailey sleep. She decided she would cook breakfast when Bailey woke up.

  She thought about her trip back home. She thought about her friends and co-workers from Linford. She wondered if things had changed for them as much as they had for her. Her mother never informed her of the latest news in Linford, unless it was something that affected them.

  There was movement on the couch and the sound of a yawn. Amelia looked over at Bailey. Bailey yawned and stretched her arms over her head. Bella stretched and plopped onto her side. Bailey looked over at the chair Amelia sat in. “How long have you been up?” Bailey asked while she yawned.

  Amelia glanced at the clock. “Not long. About an hour or so.”

  “Why didn’t you wake me? You should’ve woke me up.” Bailey said.

  “No. That would’ve been rude of me to wake you,” Amelia stated. She didn’t like to be woke up when she slept. She respected others when they slept. She always remembered the golden rule her mother taught her.

  “True. I hate being woke up when I’m sleeping. I always tell everyone, unless there’s a fire, don’t wake me up.”

  Amelia chuckled.

  “It’s the truth, though. I hate being woke up.” Bailey spoke in a serious tone. “I had a friend who’d wake me up just to tell me the sun was up!”

  Amelia laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

  Bailey shook her head and sat up. “Every time I stayed at her house or vice versa. ‘Hey. Hey, Bailey. Bailey, the sun’s up.’ She’d say this as she rocked me with her hands.” Bailey rolled her eyes. She threw her hands in the air dramatically and said, “Like why do I have to be up just because th
e sun is?!”

  Amelia shook her head. “No kidding. I can’t say I’ve ever had someone wake me up for that reason. My mom always had the habit of coming into my room and opening my blinds and curtains. Of course, then I’d wake up because the sun was peeking into my room. It made it too bright to sleep.”

  Bailey tossed her arms up. “What’s everyone’s damn obsession with the sun?”

  “No clue.” Amelia laughed and stood up. She walked to the kitchen. “I’m going to make breakfast. Is there anything specific you want?”

  Bailey walked by on her way to the bathroom. “Nope, I’m not picky. I’ll help you cook in a minute.”

  “Okay,” Amelia said as she opened the fridge and grabbed the eggs, bacon, and butter. She walked over to her cupboard by the sink and grabbed a skillet.

  Bailey walked into the kitchen and grabbed the loaf of bread from the bread box. She placed the bread on the counter next to the toaster.

  Amelia turned around and asked, “Fried or scrambled eggs?”

  “Definitely scrambled.”

  Amelia nodded. “Good choice.” She reached into the fridge and grabbed the half gallon of milk. She cracked open the eggs one by one and allowed them to fall into the bowl. After cracking four eggs, she poured milk into the bowl with the eggs. She beat the eggs with a whisk.

  “Have you heard from Zach since the other night after your lovemaking fest?” Bailey asked as she buttered the toast.

  Amelia thought about the last time she had heard from him. Thursday night was the special night. She had yesterday off from work and had only talked to Bailey. Amelia felt a pang of devastation and guilt. She realized she had not heard from or seen him since their night together.

  She paused and looked at Bailey. “No, actually I haven’t.”

  Bailey could see the fear on Amelia’s face. She knew exactly what Amelia was thinking. Ever since Ryan, Amelia had a fear of abandonment and of being hurt. “Hey Amelia, don’t think anything of it. I’m sure he just got busy.”