One More Chance (Lake Placid Series Book 9)

by Natalie Ann

  “Lots of people do. How does that make me stuck-up?”

  “Because no one around here was good enough for you.”

  She didn’t think at fifteen years old she’d felt that strongly about whether someone was good enough for her. Hell, she wasn’t even looking for anything serious, knowing she was leaving for college in a few years. Bryan was just as delusional now as he was back then when he wanted something more than she was willing to give.

  “I don’t know about that. You don’t harbor any lost love over our three months, do you?” she asked sweetly. “You dated plenty after me and it seems to me you’ve got a pretty great fiancée. Stacy is a sweetheart.” Poor girl stuck with Bryan, but she wouldn’t add that. She’d never realized he was that much of a dick.

  Bryan snorted. “I didn’t harbor anything over you. Out of sight out of mind,” he said, laughing now. “Just surprised you are back. Guess you realized it’s not all it’s cracked up to be outside of this area.”

  There was no use agreeing with him. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction and he was wrong. There was a lot the world had to offer outside of Lake Placid. She just wasn’t happy and it came down to that.

  Whether it was her choice in men, locations, or careers, or a combination of both, she had no clue. But she was home and she was happy now and she was going to take it.

  “To each their own,” she said. “Seems like you are making out well, so congrats.”

  “Taryn,” she heard and turned her head to see Stacy coming toward her.

  “Hi, Stacy. Well, what do you think?”

  “I think it’s great. You nailed mountains on the top tier, the lake on the bottom and the boats in the middle. Bryan, look at the fisherman with the fish on the rod.”

  “I see it. I was just telling Taryn it’s a great cake.”

  Bryan slipped his arm around Stacy and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She must like being handled and pulled in all the time. Back in the day, Taryn wasn’t a touchy feely person and didn’t like being “claimed.” Bryan liked the world to know who he was dating and she suspected her father had a big issue with that when he’d witnessed it at a hockey game one night.

  Or maybe it was Taryn trying to wiggle out from under Bryan’s arm.

  It was funny now that she thought of it since she’d voluntarily climbed into Justin’s lap the other night while they were on her deck. Guess things do change.

  “It’s wonderful,” Stacy said. “I’m kind of bummed I didn’t know about you before because Bryan’s cake is so much nicer than mine. And it’s bigger too for the same amount of people to feed.”

  Taryn had noticed her cake was bigger and nicer. She’d bet it tasted better too but wouldn’t say that.

  “I’m glad you’re pleased with it. Here’s my card if you ever want to refer me on.” She wasn’t about to ask her to put it on the table since she didn’t see a card from the other cake and this wasn’t the place for it anyway. No way she wanted someone to mistake the other cake for hers either.

  “I’ll definitely let people know. I’d already set up my wedding cake and I’m kind of bummed about that too.”

  “No worries,” she said. “But keep me in mind for any baby showers in the future.”

  Stacy laughed and Bryan just grinned at her. He’d been all about having kids and lots of them too. Come on. In tenth grade it was the last thing she was even thinking of. She was shocked he didn’t have any kids by now, but maybe other women weren’t willing to jump into marriage and families after high school either.

  “I will,” Stacy said.

  “If this tastes as good as it looks,” Bryan said, “maybe we can do a groom’s cake.”

  “Oh, it tastes great,” Stacy said. “It’s a s’mores cake and Taryn let me try a sample of cakes and different frosting before I picked.”

  “Really?” Bryan said. “We didn’t even get that when we were choosing the wedding cake.”

  “No?” Taryn said. “Guess that’s something I picked up by being out of the area. I’ve learned the clients like to make sure they get the flavors and tastes they want. But enjoy and congrats to you both again.”

  “I’ll be in touch,” Stacy said. “I think maybe we will do a groom’s cake.”

  “Thanks. You know how to reach me.”

  She walked back to her vehicle and looked at the time. It was about two thirty and she needed to talk to someone. She had no idea what Riley and Trevor were doing, but she didn’t want to bug them. Trevor was just that much older than her and he wasn’t around when she was in high school. He wouldn’t be much help.

  Though Kennedy was a few years older, she’d be the one to understand. Maybe she’d sneak down and see if she could catch her on a break between clients.

  When she got back to her place she noticed cars in the parking lot, but still walked into the spa. Nikki did pedicures and was at the counter ringing someone out. There was an older woman waiting in the seating area who looked to be eating a mini cupcake. Since she’d had to bake that cake last night, she’d done extra for the spa.

  “Hey, Taryn,” Nikki said. “Your cupcakes are a big hit. I’m surprised there are any left, but you brought so many down and Kennedy kind of spaces out putting them there.”

  She smiled. “I think Kennedy likes to keep them for herself, but don’t tell her I said that.”

  “I do not,” Kennedy said, coming out from the back with a customer. She wanted to think it was good timing, but there was someone else waiting, and it was probably for her sister. “Give me a minute.”

  Taryn nodded and moved to the side to wait while Kennedy rang up her client. The woman in the seating area said, “Did you make these? Did I hear that correctly?”

  “I did. I’m Taryn, Kennedy’s sister.”

  “I know who you are,” she’d said.

  Taryn was trying to place her but couldn’t. She just figured it was someone who knew her parents. “You do?”

  “You don’t remember me, sweetie, but that’s fine. I’m Trixie Miller. I know your parents. My granddaughter is about your age.”

  She remembered Trixie now. She was older when Taryn was a teen and it looked like the woman barely aged. “It’s so good to see you again. I’m sorry I don’t remember your granddaughter.”

  “Oh, she didn’t go to school here. She just visited, but she lives here now and is married to Cole McGuire.”

  “Rene works for Max. I met her a few weeks ago.”

  “When she took the stitches out of your leg,” Trixie said.

  Yep, talk still happened. “That’s right.”

  “Trixie, I’m ready for your pedicure,” Nikki said.

  “It was nice to see you again. And boy, are these cupcakes delicious.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “What’s going on?” Kennedy asked. “You don’t normally come see me during the day.”

  “Nothing,” she said. “I can see you’re busy.”

  “Not at the moment and I can tell you’ve got something on your mind. You don’t hide things well.”

  Taryn sighed. “I guess not. Can we go talk in your office?”

  “Sure.”

  She followed Kennedy to the back and then said, “I just dropped a cake off for Bryan Reynolds’s party. I had no clue it was for him.”

  “Did he give you shit over something? He kind of creeped me out how he always wanted to pull you next to his side so that others knew you were together.”

  “It was weird. He was nice about the cake and complimenting it. More so when Stacy came over. But when we were alone he got a few digs in about me being snotty and that he was shocked I came back to the area. Said I was stuck-up and thought I was better than everyone. I wasn’t like that, was I?”

  Kennedy started to laugh. “No. You were quiet in your own way, but you had ideas that many didn’t share. I’ve learned one thing in life, if people don’t agree with you, then you’re wrong or the odd one.”

  “Yeah. I’ve heard that e
nough in life. More so from men. Not just Bryan either.”

  “You’re smiling about it though, so it can’t be that bad.”

  “Not bad, just my horrible taste in men. How much time do you have?”

  “Enough if you want to share a story with me,” Kennedy said.

  “I suppose I do. Not sure why this popped into my head, but it did. I was dating this guy Sam in Tampa. We’d been together about a month and hadn’t done much more than just kiss. Pretty intense kissing and I didn’t know why he wasn’t going further. Don’t get me wrong, I was fine with it, but he was a few years older than me and most men don’t wait that long.”

  “Do you think he was waiting for you to say you were ready?”

  “I did at first, but then one night I started to hint toward more. Not words, just actions and he stopped me and said that he was waiting. That the first time should be the honeymoon.”

  “After a month he was talking about marriage?” Kennedy asked.

  “No. He actually wasn’t. He was telling me that he didn’t want to have sex. He was saving himself for marriage. I thought, okay, well, good for him and I let it drop.”

  “He was a virgin then?”

  “I wasn’t sure. I mean he’d talked about other relationships going bad. He said he’d lived with someone. I thought he was just making a change. I mean if he lived with a woman, you’d think they’d slept together, right?”

  “I’d think that,” Kennedy said.

  “Well, I guess they didn’t. And I found out because one night I made a comment about an ex and must have said something causing him to ask if I was a virgin. I said I wasn’t and he got all up in arms over it. I asked him what made him think I was.”

  “Why not ask something like that right away if it means that much?” Kennedy said. “Did he think you were tainted or something?”

  “No clue. I knew he was pretty religious, but again, that was his choice. It’s not like we went to church together or he even asked me to go. But he said he just assumed I was because of the way we were introduced. One of his friends, Jane, whom I’d known through a coworker, set us up. Sam said Jane knew how he felt and figured she wouldn’t do that unless the woman felt the same.”

  “Then I guess he should have never assumed that,” Kennedy said, laughing.

  “I know. I went back to Jane after Sam and I split and she said she had no clue he was like that and didn’t know why Sam thought she would know. She apologized, but I just chalked it up to bad taste in men.”

  “Don’t let it get to you,” Kennedy said. “We’ve all been there. At least none of them has come back to stalk or threaten you.”

  “You’ve got me there,” she said. “Thanks for listening. I’m not even sure why it bothered me just now. I think it was the whole thing about Dad watching over me more than Bryan’s words.”

  “Bryan is an ass. He did it to get under your skin because Dad scared him and Trevor does too. You know that. He has his life and you have yours. Speaking of that—what is going on with you and Justin?”

  “Not much,” she said. “I cooked him dinner on Thursday and he’s working now. We text now and again, but it’s laid back with no stress. Just like we’d said it’d be.”

  “And how is that working for you?” Kennedy asked.

  “Surprisingly, pretty good. I like the no pressure or stress thing. But I do enjoy time with him.”

  “Then push everything and everyone else out of your head. You said you came here to be happy, so don’t let things in the past bring you down.”

  “Good advice from my older sister,” Taryn said, giving her a hug. “I might go bake you a pie now.”

  “Blueberry please. Logan likes blueberries too. This way I won’t eat the whole thing.”

  “Blueberry it is,” she said, walking out the door and back to her car to buy the fruit. Maybe she’d do individual tarts or hand pies instead. That might work out better and she could put a few aside for Justin too.

  14

  Getting Good

  “Why can’t they make it go faster?”

  Justin looked over at his father in the chair reclined back with a heated blanket on his lap. It may be summer with the air conditioning barely on, but the room temperature IV fluids normally caused patients to feel cold.

  “Because it goes at the rate it does. You’ve already told the nurse to set it as fast as the drip can be. There is a reason drugs go in as a drip and not an injection.”

  His father had lost most of his hair , but since he had a short cut and was slightly balding, it wasn’t as shocking as it might be on someone else. He still had his eyebrows and eyelashes and with a baseball hat on his head, if someone didn’t know he was going through chemo, they might not realize it.

  If anyone saw him on the street they probably wouldn’t think much of it in terms of him being sick. But the dark circles under his eyes and a little bit of bloating gave that away if someone looked closer.

  “I hate these steroids too. I was up all night and will be again tonight too.”

  “Or not,” he said. “Can’t win with you. You’re going to be falling asleep soon enough and you know it and if you keep the anti-nausea meds in you, then you’ll sleep this afternoon and tonight. Even tomorrow rather than spending it suffering.”

  “I don’t like having no control over my body. They make me feel drugged.”

  “Because you are drugged.” He sighed. He’d tried every tactic he could with his father. Tenderness. Sympathy. Guilt. Now he was just frustrated but trying not to get angry either. He didn’t want another pissing match and he sure the hell didn’t want it here.

  “It’s just a waste of my time to sit here for all of this,” his father said again. “The doctor said my count was down so why am I getting treatment? Just let me skip this one.”

  “For the third time, there is no skipping treatments. If your count is too low, then they skip a week or two and push your treatment back, but you’re still getting eight of them. If you follow orders and do what you’re told, then maybe you can get through them in the four months allotted. You probably pushed too much this past week. And though it’s down, it wasn’t low enough to not get treatment.”

  “This is our busy season. I need to be at the course and helping your mother. She can’t do it alone.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Not only is that a weak excuse because you know as well as I do Mom is more than capable of doing it alone, but you’re stressing her out because you’re pushing yourself too hard. Is that what you want? More stress on her? It’s not like you are letting me help her do anything there.”

  “Nor do you want to so don’t even try to act like you do.”

  “I’d do anything for Mom and Ashley and you know it. I’d do it for you too, but you refuse to believe it.”

  His father just shut up after that, then pulled his blanket up and shut his eyes to tune Justin out.

  Twenty minutes later when the machine beeped, the nurse came over and then said, “All ready to start now?”

  “You know I am,” his father said. “Just get it over with.”

  The premeds were done and his chemo would start now. “Do you want me to go get you some lunch since you didn’t have anything with you today?”

  Normally he had a little bag with a sandwich and crackers in it. It was good that his father was able to handle food during treatment while many couldn’t. It was best he kept the food and fluids in him today knowing tomorrow would be a completely different story once the meds from today wore off and his father refused to take more.

  “Your mother forgot to make me a sandwich this morning, so yeah. I could use something.”

  “No one says you couldn’t make one yourself.”

  His father snorted and he stood up to run out before a snarky comment could be made. They’d be there for three more hours and through lunch. “I’ll be back. What kind do you want?”

  “Ham and cheese,” his father said.

  He nodded his head, w
aved at the nurses and ran to a deli not that far down the road. He got them both sandwiches, then a bag of baked chips they could share. They’d be less greasy and his father always wanted something crunchy with his sandwiches. There weren’t any crackers there, but there were cookies and he picked up a dozen of them to bring back for the nurses.

  When he walked back in, he moved to the nurse’s station and got the attention of his father’s nurse for the day. Trina, her name was. He’d had three of the four that worked here, but they all seemed nice. “Hey. Got some cookies from the deli down the road for you guys.”

  “That’s so sweet,” she said. “Thank you.”

  “Consider it combat pay for my father’s grouchiness.”

  Trina laughed. “No worries. We’ve dealt with much worse. I know you’re a doctor so you get it. He’s fine. It does help that he has you to explain more to him so that is a help to us too. Many want things done fast and want to get out of here. I don’t blame them,” she said, grinning at him.

  All the nurses were nice and friendly and treated the patients well. Maybe he’d talk to Taryn and see if he could buy some cupcakes for them next time too. He should have realized it himself, that it was the little things that helped those that help others.

  By the time the first of his father’s two chemo meds were done, they’d eaten their sandwiches and had some chips. He kept on his father until he’d finished his second bottle of water and was onto some cranberry juice now. Best to keep him full of fluids to combat tomorrow’s adventure.

  And when he was back at his parents’ house a few hours later, he was sitting on the deck staring off at the mountains while his father was napping on the couch. He’d stay until his mother got home and then would come back tomorrow to deal with the worst of the two days. It was a good thing his mother wasn’t around for this, as he was right earlier when he said she didn’t need this stress.

  Before his mother got home on Tuesday nights, he’d managed to get his father to take the meds to sleep that night and not keep his mother up all night with worry and caring for him.

  He checked on his father one more time, picked up his empty water jug, filled it back up and put it within reach. Then he got himself some iced tea and went back to the deck to check email and reach out to his closest friend that was watching over his townhouse.