Another Chance With Love (Chance Series Book 2)

by Blake Allwood

  About a month ago, Lisa introduced me to one of her therapists who requested Lisa have a family counseling session with me. During the session, I gathered some insight into why she was struggling so much with reconnecting. She continued to blame herself for what happened, and when she gave herself permission to reconnect, she’d spiral down into a depression and have to start over again.

  During the session, I was able to tell her how much I loved her and how much I’d always wanted her to be a part of Luka’s life.

  It was then that she shared a part of the story that always seemed to confuse me.

  After she gave Luka to me, she went back to live with her parents because she didn’t have anywhere else to go. She’d dropped out of college so she couldn’t get a job that paid enough for her to live independently.

  Her parents punished her for having a baby out of wedlock by telling her if she ever went out without them chaperoning, they’d kick her out onto the streets.

  I asked her why she didn’t just come live with us, and she came clean, saying part of her knew her father would become violent if he ever found out it was me that was Luka’s dad. He’d resented me throughout her childhood because I was a friend outside the church. She knew if he found out I was bisexual, he’d become… well, what he became.

  Staying away was the only way she knew how to keep Luka and me safe. It saddened me that she’d known he was what he was and that she stayed with her family instead of turning to us. I didn’t say anything, knowing it could make the situation worse. But if she’d trusted me, I know we could’ve kept both sets of our parents away.

  The therapist sat with me a moment after Lisa left to join a group session and told me that if it wasn’t for me and Luka, Lisa wouldn’t be progressing as well as she was. “Sometimes, the best catalyst to change is conflict. You and Luka are what drives her to keep working at it. I know it may not seem like it, but your commitment toward her gives her that hope.”

  With those words, I continued to keep the pressure on Lisa to be a part of our lives, letting her know she was always welcome. It was just a few weeks after the session, and right before the wedding that Luka called her mama for the first time. It was then I saw a light turn on that I hadn’t seen since before we’d had Luka. My prayer was that that light was the one that would lead to Lisa’s healing.

  Peter proposed to me the day after New Year’s, the anniversary of when Luka became my sole responsibility. We’d gone to the little café that had become a regular haunt of ours. I noticed everyone seemed to be acting strange, a couple of the serving women even chuckled and blushed when they looked my way.

  Catherine, the owner, and the woman that served me on that fateful day walked us over to the very seat I’d sat at with Lisa. I gave Peter a look.

  “What are you up to, Peter Reed?” I asked, knowing something was happening.

  This was one of the busiest days for Catherine. It was always a busy place, but the day after the holiday, people tended to just want comfort food without a lot of splash, so the fact the place was empty tipped me off further.

  Peter fell to one knee, pulled a ring box out of his pocket, and opened it. “Trevor Kovachich, I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love you…well, except maybe Luka, but besides him, you make me happy in every way possible. I wake up every day and thank whatever gods are listening that I get to hold you in my arms when I wake up and cuddle you when we sleep. I can’t imagine any other man I’d want in my life more than I want you. So, would you please marry me and be my husband forever?” he asked.

  I stared at him, dumbfounded. It’s not like I didn’t know we might get married someday. Hell, we’d discussed it several times since he’d moved in, but it never seemed like the right time. Luka took too much of our time, and then there was Peter’s work.

  It must have appeared as if I hesitated, and I watched as Peter’s face fell. I couldn’t help it, I laughed out loud. “Like I’d ever say no to you.” I fell to my knees in front of him, took the ring box, and wrapped my arms around him, kissing him with everything I had in me.

  When I pulled back, Peter had a dreamy expression on his face. “We’re really gonna get married?” he asked.

  “Seems like it,” I said, and kissed him again.

  We heard someone clear their throat behind us and looked up to see our entire family, including Lisa standing in the restaurant.

  A huge cheer went up when I made a spectacle of slipping the ring on my finger.

  There was a huge party, and more of our friends and coworkers showed up to celebrate with us. When the place was filled to the brim, I asked, “What would you have done if I said no?”

  “I’d have kicked your ass then thrown you over my shoulder like a caveman. I already had plans to haul you down to the courthouse for a shotgun wedding.”

  Matilda leaned over. “I have the shotgun in my car.” And then she smirked.

  For some reason, I thought the joke might not have been much of a joke. Peter might not have it in him to force me to marry him. Matilda, on the other hand, was capable of anything.

  Peter asked me if I’d consider getting married on the anniversary of finding Luka again. “That’s the day when everything went from black to light,” he said. “I’d like to commemorate it with the next best day of my life.”

  I readily agreed. I knew we all remembered the time Luka had been gone, and we tended to avoid each other during those days. I loved the idea of turning that ominous anniversary into one of celebration.

  When I mentioned it to Lisa, wanting to make sure it was something she could handle, she burst into tears. “That’s the best thing you could do!” she agreed. “I hate that day, more than any other of the year. If I could celebrate it with my best friend who lived despite my father’s hatred, it would make me happier than anything else in the world.”

  I teased her. “Better than a chocolate shake with strawberries and whipped cream?”

  “I can’t believe you remember that!” She laughed through her tears. “What were we? Twelve?

  “Something like that. I still can’t believe you ate all of mine when I went to the bathroom.”

  “Serves you right for telling Ashton Christianson I had a crush on him.”

  “You did have a crush on him. In fact, you wouldn’t shut up about it.”

  “Yeah, but you aren’t supposed to tell. God, Trevor, it’s a miracle you didn’t scar me for life.”

  “Psss, you’re the toughest broad I’ve ever known,” I said with humor.

  “Well, used to know. No one is tougher than Matilda.”

  We both laughed out loud and hugged.

  “Thank you, Trevor.”

  “You’re welcome, Mama…”

  “Oh no, you are not Mike Pence! I am not going to be called ‘mama’ by my baby daddy.”

  I choked. “Baby daddy? What the fuck?”

  Lisa roared with laughter. “Well, that’s what you are!”

  “Don’t ever call me that again!”

  “Then you agree never to call me mama again.”

  “Deal, I’ll just call you, bitch!”

  She poked me in the ribs. “I can still kick your ass, Trevor Kovachich. Hey, are you going to take Peter’s name?”

  “No, believe it or not, he’s taking mine. Peter Reed Kovachich.”

  “Why would anyone in their right mind become a Kovachich?” she teased.

  “Because he’s in love with me… and you should be so lucky!” I teased.

  “That true…” and she hugged me. “It sucks that we got drunk that night and did what we did, but I wouldn’t change it now. Luka is the best thing that’s ever happened to us.”

  I hugged her back. “Truer words were never spoken.”

  >>Keep reading for a preview of An Apothecary Romance<<

  A short story by Blake Allwood

  An Apothecary Romance

  by

  Blake Allwood

  A Short Story

  Coming Soon
r />   On

  Amazon

  Lane

  Still damp from the shower, I rushed down the steps when the doorbell rang for the second time. When I threw open the door, my ears echoed with the loud squeal.

  "You're twenty-five!" Kris, my cousin, burst into the apartment and began dancing and twirling in the foyer behind me.

  Her sister pushed past gracefully. "I wish I was still twenty-five," she whispered as she joined the gleeful dancing.

  "Y'all are so freaking crazy!" I said, still holding the door ajar. "And Bethie, you're only thirty-one. Geez, you're acting like your mom's age or something."

  "Shut that shit up! That's hate speech!" she said as she danced up behind me and dirty danced against my backside.

  I bumped her with my butt, almost knocking her down and causing Kris to laugh so hard she was in danger of falling over.

  Renee, the oldest of my three cousins, walked in the door and shook her head when she saw the chaos. "Dear God, y'all are already acting like you're drunk."

  "Your sisters are harassing me!" I said as I kissed her cheek. "Sooo... are y'all ready to go?" I asked.

  "Someone's in a hurry," Kris singsonged. "Do you think you're gonna get lucky tonight?"

  I flipped her off. "Hardly, with my three old cousins cock-blocking me."

  I had to duck for cover when all three of them came for me at once.

  My cousins and I have always been close. I didn't have any brothers and sisters, mainly because my dad came out as gay shortly after I was born, and mom never remarried. As we headed out the door, I thought of my parents and sighed inwardly. "So, are my parents coming?" I asked.

  "Of course, they are! You think they'd miss their only son's birthday?" Renee asked, then took a long drink from her water bottle as she tried to hide her smile. I almost said “bitch” but caught myself, knowing my power-woman lesbian cousin would beat my ass for using the word. My gay friends and I might toss that word around like it was nothing, but Renee had zero tolerance for it.

  The four of us piled into Renee's minivan while dodging the baby toys and melting in around the two baby seats. "You could've removed these, sis?” Bethie fussed as she climbed in the back.

  "You wouldn't ask that if you knew how hard it was to get them back in," her sister replied.

  "How are the girls?" I asked Renee as I slipped into the front seat and threw a baby giraffe at Bethie. I was taking advantage of my status as the birthday boy to take the front seat. Usually, I'd have to sit in the back on the far side, which was the most difficult seat in the van to get into.

  Without responding, Renee opened her phone and handed it to me. We usually got daily pics texted to us of the three-month-old baby girls, but none of us ever felt like we could get enough of them.

  Unfortunately, Renee's wife, Fiona, a fiery Irish redhead who was the life of every party, refused to leave the babies with a babysitter so she wouldn't be with us tonight.

  It was a little after eight when we arrived at the club. I gasped when I walked in. There were streamers and balloons everywhere. Champagne was thrust into my hand by someone I didn't know while friends swarmed around me, everyone talking at once.

  The bar was packed with our group. Both my mom and dad gave toasts. After that, I was forced to endure a horrible rendition of “Happy Birthday,” before Renee passed around the cake, and the DJ began pumping loud music through the speakers.

  Mom disappeared shortly after the music started; she was never a fan of loud, crowded clubs. As a gay romance novelist, she was happier writing about the gay nightlife than being a part of it.

  My father lasted a bit longer, but when the club's regular crowd began arriving, he too disappeared. I loved my parents, but when they were gone, I felt I could let loose. It wasn't like they were uptight or anything, but shit, they were still my parents.

  My cousins plied me with beer and various other alcoholic beverages. Honestly, I knew better than mixing my drinks. Still, we were having so much fun I figured the hangover I'd have tomorrow was a small price to pay.

  By the time midnight struck, I was toasted.

  "We should take you home," Renee said. "You look like you could pass out at any moment."

  "No!” Kris yelled over the music at Renee. "Just one more hour. Lane, start drinking water before you force Mother Superior here to end the fun!"

  "Yes, Your Highness," I slurred, bowing toward her and almost falling over. Kris was the most controlling of my three cousins, so I constantly called her “queen,” “her majesty” or anything I could think of when she began bossing me around.

  A glass of water was thrust into my hands just as the world stopped in front of me. The most handsome man who’d ever walked the earth stepped through the door and into the bar.

  "Who the fuck is that?" I asked. The look of the gorgeous man, whose sheer presence sobered me, was enough for me not to slur my words.

  All three cousins turned at once to check him out. He turned toward us and smiled, causing my already flushed face to burn in embarrassment.

  Just as my heart began to pull me in his direction, a smaller man slipped around him and possessively grabbed his hand.

  "Fuck, he's taken," I said, and turned toward the dance floor loudly announcing, "I'm gonna go dance."

  Like the drunken fool I was, I argued with myself all the way to the dance floor. Several people looked at me, but fuck if I cared. All the handsome men seemed to be taken. I fell hard for an idiot three months ago. We’d had a torrid love affair with sex almost every night, only for me to find out the asshole was married to and cheating on a military guy away on assignment.

  I was sick of married men, even though I secretly wanted a fairytale love for myself... as if those really existed.

  "Fucking men," I said as my cousins came up behind me.

  The thumping beat of the music and my cousins dancing around me allowed me to momentarily forget the hot man and my former lover. I was slowly beginning to enjoy myself again when I looked up and noticed his eyes were locked on me. Everything in me was drawn to those eyes. I was dancing toward him when I noticed the little twink from earlier dancing behind him. "Fuck!" I said out loud and turned to leave the dance floor. I would not end up in the same situation with a cheating asshole again.

  I ordered three more shots and downed them before my cousins could stop me.

  As soon as the tequila hit my stomach, I knew I was in trouble. My stomach gurgled, and I turned to rush to the bathroom just as the hunk stepped into my path.

  Before I could stop myself, I puked all over him. "Fuck!" I yelled. "I'm so sorry. Damn!" But the man just laughed. I could feel my face and ears grow hot with embarrassment.

  "It's OK," he said as he peeled his shirt off and tossed it into a trashcan next to the bar. I gawked at the muscled man in front of me. Huge biceps flanked a beautiful chest that led down to a perfect six-pack. If I hadn't just puked all over the man, I'd have probably leaned in to lick him. To be honest, my inebriated brain was considering it anyway. Only the sheer mortification of what caused him to shed the shirt held me in place.

  When my cousins got to me, I shamefully turned to them and said, "I think I should go home."

  The little twink appeared. "You should've gone home thirty minutes ago, asshole," he said in a sassy voice. His anger was palpable and strong enough that it infiltrated my very compromised consciousness.

  I turned and rushed toward the door and hoping my cousins would follow.

  As I stepped outside, a large hand landed on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, my ex can be a total ass."

  His ex? Did he say the twink was his ex? I couldn't think about that, though. I needed to get home and deal with my embarrassment. I doubted a hunk like him would be interested in a homespun guy like me, even if I hadn't just emptied the contents of my stomach all over him.

  I decided to ignore him as I stumbled toward the mini-van. Luckily, it wasn't parked very far away.

  I heard the door alarm chirp, tel
ling me Renee had unlocked it and was on the way. I climbed into the front seat and leaned my head back, closing my eyes. The memory of me vomiting all over the hot guy kept rolling through my brain, intensifying my mortification.

  It seemed to take forever for my cousins to get into the vehicle. When I finally heard the door open, I jerked and looked around. Renee was smiling wickedly at me. I tried to ask her what the look was for, but I ended up hiccoughing instead.

  In a flash, Renee reached over me into the glove compartment and grabbed a trash bag. “This is your puke bag, if you puke in my van, you will be licking it up!” I caught the humor in her expression just as all three of my cousins burst out laughing.

  "Shut up!" I slurred. But my cousins' laughter had always been contagious, and I ended up laughing with them.

  I heard Kris in the back seat saying, "I can't believe it. The first time you have a total hunk come onto you, and you puke all over him."

  My embarrassment warred with the humor of the situation. "He had a boyfriend anyway, so it didn't matter."

  "Had a boyfriend," Bethie said. "The little shrew is his ex."

  "It doesn't matter," I yawned. "If there's a God, I'll forget all this by tomorrow anyway."

  Renee laughed. "I don't think you're quite that drunk, especially since you threw up your last drink... you'll remember," she said and laughed when I flipped her off.

  Join Blake’s email list to get advance notice of new books and receive his occasional newsletter:

  www.blakeallwood.com

  Titles by Blake Allwood:

  Aiden Inspired

  Suzie Empowered

  Bobby Transformed

  Romantic Renovations

  By Chance Series

  |

  Love By Chance (Book 1)

  Another Chance (Book 2)

  Coming in 2020: