Starting Over (Second Time Lucky Book 1)

by Kat Catesby

  “Thank you,” I say genuinely. Because I could’ve been blessed with stubborn parents who dig their heels into their illogical beliefs and refuse to listen to reason. Thankfully, my parents are none of those things. Absent, yes. Stupid and unreasonable, no.

  “We broke up and it was horrible for both of us. We were apart for six months until a few weeks ago when Mason told me he was leaving Aspen. He moved to California to get away from his family and ex.

  “I stayed in Aspen until his family told Mayor Stevens that I had an affair with Mason and was the cause of Helen and Mason’s separation. He fired me for breaking some morality clause that was written into my contract. Then the Foxes blacklisted my name and no one in town would hire me. I was running out of savings so had to move in with Lucy. She convinced me to come out to L.A. as there was nothing left for me in Aspen. Mason and I got back together and I’ve just accepted a job as a senior assistant at a management company. Dad, I’m going to be working for the manager representing Greyson Holt,” I can’t help but beam; Dad is big into the Olympics, so on cue, he looks a little star-struck.

  “You have been busy,” mom says.

  “Congratulations on the new job, Sweetie.”

  “Thanks, dad.”

  “Sweetheart, we’re going to be in San Diego a week on Friday. Can we travel up and visit you and Mason?” my mom asks, looking hopeful.

  Looking at their faces I realize how much I want that and how I do miss them a lot more than I thought I did. I look at Mason who nods his head.

  “Of course. It’ll be lovely to see you both. Message me with the details? Love you both.”

  “Love you too, Kelsey,” mom says happily.

  “See you soon, Sweetie,” dad beams.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mason

  The following week is a whirlwind of sex and hectic lives.

  Kelsey and I had an amazing few days exploring the city and each other at every opportunity. I can’t wait for us to find a bigger and more private place to live; in Aspen, the options for outdoor sex (in the summer) were plentiful – always a secluded spot if you knew where to look. L.A. is a little overcrowded for that, especially where we’re living at the moment. It’s confined our dirty escapades to the small square footage of the apartment and I am itching to be a little more adventurous.

  The living situation didn’t stop me from fingering her sweet pussy while we went for a dip in the sea the other day though. Her hotness was the perfect antithesis to the slightly chilled water nipping at our skin. Kelsey was reluctant to get into the water at first, but after massaging her sweet spot to orgasm, she didn’t want to leave.

  Her first week of work seems to have gone amazingly and every day she comes home with a smile on her face. I’ve met Teddy Preston already after she invited us out for post-work drinks, and it’s clear that she and Kelsey get on well.

  I’m happy for her as there’s nothing worse than an asshole for a boss; that situation has the power to destroy even the most promising of careers. Thankfully, Teddy and Kelsey seem to be becoming fast friends, which will do wonders for their working relationship.

  Every day she’s learned something new, seen a new part of the city, or met a new client and is buzzing with exhausted enthusiasm. It appears Ethan Lewis was true to his word and ELM is a happy work environment. I’ve no doubt Kelsey will come across difficult clients or situations that will piss her off, but ELM seems to be offering her a career where she is happy more often than not.

  Kelsey’s been so focused on her work and learning the ropes that she completely forgot about her parents coming to visit until last night, where she then freaked out and went into full ‘meet the parents’ mode.

  Thankfully for both our sanity, I have the day off today so I can prepare for their arrival later. They are staying in a local hotel within walking distance so will be at the apartment a lot to catch up on lost time with Kelsey.

  I knew she was having a tough time with them not being around and that she was trying to ignore it. But I didn’t quite realize the depth of that pain until she erupted on the phone to them and it all came spilling out.

  Jerry and Eleanor were also blindsided, so they need this time with their daughter as much as she needs it.

  I can’t help but feel guilty and responsible for the added burden our breakup and my behavior had on Kelsey while a crucial part of her support network was nowhere to be seen.

  I’m also not going to lie and pretend my stomach didn’t painfully somersault when her father initially raised concerns about the age difference.

  I genuinely don’t see or feel the age gap – I look a little older but not so old that people look at us weirdly and Kelsey wasn’t lying when she said we’re on the same wave-length. Intellectually and emotionally we’re in sync. She isn’t some young, immature woman that I have to semi-parent. We’re a team and we complement and balance each other. And I’m so sick of the ageist bullshit Helen threw at me, that when Jerry Harper mentioned it, my heart lurched in my chest.

  Luckily, Kelsey was blessed with reasonable parents in possession of a brain cell or two and they were quickly talked around.

  Of course, meeting them in person, officially as Kelsey’s boyfriend, is a much different beast than just a phone conversation. Hopefully, they still like me after spending some time together with us this weekend.

  If only my parents were that amenable.

  I’m also under no illusions that if this weekend goes well, I can no longer put off talking to my parents and finalizing my divorce.

  As wonderful as it has been to be free of them, I know that I have to face them eventually and that I can’t avoid the fight with Helen forever.

  I just want a few more days with Kelsey in our bubble of bliss.

  Not that cleaning and tidying the apartment feels particularly blissful right this second, but I want to make a good impression when Jerry and Eleanor get here.

  Being in California away from my family and soon-to-be ex-wife, enjoying the sunshine and new work challenges, has been the best time of my entire life. Kelsey moving out here is the cherry on top of my new life sundae and I don’t want its new-found deliciousness soured by facing the problems I turned my back on. But I can’t run from them forever.

  Sooner or later (and I have a feeling it’s going to be much sooner than I’d like), I’m going to have to stand up to my parents in a way they’ve never seen me do. I’m going to have to break their hearts a little more than I already have until they realize that a place in my life isn’t just given out of duty and obligation, it’s a privilege that they have to earn.

  I’m also going to have to face Helen. Kelsey believes it’s going to be some fiery showdown full of hatred, but I’m not so sure. Helen only behaves that way towards people she doesn’t need anything from. She might have a mean streak but she’s not stupid when it comes to burning bridges; she doesn’t incinerate the ones she needs.

  Helen doesn’t need me, even she realizes this if she’s honest with herself. We’ve lived apart for almost two years and we’ve both survived daily without the help of the other. In fact, without her interference, I’ve thrived.

  No, Helen doesn’t need me, but she wants me, and that’s a different fight altogether. She won’t come at me in a full-frontal assault, both guns blazing; there’ll be tears and emotional manipulation. It will be subtle and designed to cause maximum heartache until she gets what she wants.

  …Except this time, she won’t.

  I’m not sure what to expect from her when that realization sinks in.

  Helen likes to pride herself on her powers of persuasion and she has a disturbingly high success rate with getting what she wants. But her tactic of ignoring the divorce papers to buy herself more time to work me around to coming back to her, have inadvertently painted her into a corner. In a few short weeks, I’ll be able to seek an uncontested divorce.

  Time is almost up.

  I’ve not told Kelsey this because the closer
to the end things get, the more desperate people become. Helen will be no different in this scenario and I don’t want her figuring out where we are and causing trouble until the divorce is granted by default.

  Helen had no qualms about ruining Kelsey’s life and career in Aspen for no reason other than she wanted to and because Kelsey had the one thing she wanted and could no longer have: Me.

  Being a Fox is more important to Helen than either of our happiness. Getting divorced is a sign of failure or weakness in her eyes. She would rather live a comfortable lifestyle, be childless, and have us both be miserable than let Kelsey have me. Because heaven forbid Kelsey ‘succeeds’ where she failed and gets pregnant with my baby.

  My almost ex-wife has some very warped views on the world and given the tenacity she went after Kelsey, I’m not giving Helen any scope to mess her life up again, not now that it’s on the up.

  No. A few more weeks and I can emerge from the shadows a free man with my new girlfriend and work on repairing the relationship with my parents on my terms.

  Speaking of parents…

  “They’re here,” Kelsey calls out twenty seconds after walking through the front door herself. She sounds equal parts excited and apprehensive. “They’re early.”

  “That’s okay; they probably wanted to spend as much time with you as possible. And I’ve finished tidying the apartment so nothing to worry about.”

  “Please don’t leave.”

  “Where exactly would I go?”

  “I don’t know. For a walk or something, giving me space with my parents. I know you are considerate like that, but I don’t want you to go. I need moral support more than I need undivided attention from my parents. At least until the frost has thawed a little. I feel awkward about my conversation with them last week and I’m not sure I can just jump into a parent/daughter relationship as if no time has passed and they haven’t been MIA from my life.”

  “I’m at your disposal, Baby Girl. You want me here? Then here is where I’ll be,” I say, planting a swift but sweet kiss on her forehead.

  She lets out a contented little sigh before a knock on the door startles her to attention. Her focus zeroes in on her parents waiting on the other side.

  “You got this,” I whisper in her ear.

  She shivers as my warm breath tickles her skin, nods her head, and walks towards the door.

  “Kelsey!” her mom squeals and wraps her in a restricting bear hug, her dad beaming at the two women who make up his world.

  It takes a second, but Kelsey relaxes fairly quickly into the embrace and I see her lips quirk into a small smile.

  “Mom, dad,” she says, reaching for her father’s hand.

  They look so genuinely pleased to see her that I feel a little bad for them that Kelsey kept her true feelings about their absence quiet for so long. They’d have been back in a heartbeat if she’d dared to say something sooner.

  You live and you learn, and it’s a life lesson I’m sure Kelsey won’t forget.

  Open communication solves a lot of life’s problems, and I think we’ve both learned that the hard way this year.

  Jerry looks in my direction and I know it’s my turn to introduce myself officially.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Harper, it’s great to see you again,” I hold out my hand for Jerry Harper to shake.

  “Please, call me Jerry,” he says as he shakes my hand with the appropriate level of firmness for a guy meeting the man who’s sleeping with his daughter; not too firm as to be intimating but hard enough that you know you’re in trouble if you break his little girl’s heart.

  “I’ve known you for years, Mason Fox, don’t you dare start calling me Mrs. Harper now; it’ll make me feel old,” says Eleanor and she gives me a brief hug.

  Truth is, I have known them both for years. I always called them Mr. and Mrs. Harper and they corrected me every time. But as the town’s fire chief, it felt right to address them formally, as I wouldn’t say we were friendly enough to use first names. Now I’m dating their daughter and potentially a future son-in-law, I better get used to calling them Jerry and Eleanor.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it, Eleanor,” I smile and help her with a bag of what I assume are gifts for Kelsey.

  The Harper’s aren’t on the same level of financial frivolity as my parents but they are more than comfortable. They are also outwardly generous people. I never met a person who had a bad word to say about the Harper family, until my ex-wife of course.

  I suddenly get a shiver of self-consciousness as Jerry casts a glance around my humble apartment; he’s not a snob and wouldn’t turn his nose up at this place like my parents would, but he is used to the finer things in life.

  “It’s only temporary; we’re planning to move into something bigger once we’re a little more settled in the city,” I say whilst scrubbing my hand roughly through my hair before pulling it abruptly away (even I know that tugging on my hair is my tell).

  “No judgment here,” says Jerry. “I was just thinking how much bigger this place is compared to the last place Kelsey lived; that apartment was an inhumanly small shoebox.”

  “Hey! I loved that place.”

  Kelsey’s mock outrage only makes me grin. Only she would try to defend that place.

  “You’d have to, to live there for as long as you did,” I tease.

  “I’ll have you know that it had charm, Mr. Fox.”

  “It had zero square feet of free space and no bathtub.”

  “That was its charm.”

  “I think you’re confusing the word ‘charm’ with ‘horror’. There’s a reason that the rest of your possessions managed to fit in Max and Dix’s garage – even with their junk cluttering it – instead of requiring the use of a storage company. And it’s because you could barely fit anything into that shoebox,” I tease, while her parents try (and fail) not to laugh.

  “I had all I needed,” she pokes her tongue out as if that will end the debate.

  “Bathtub? Dishwasher? Dryer? Space for a sofa that wasn’t cramped when two people sat on it? Room for a tv with a screen bigger than a postage stamp? Natural light?”

  “Okay, okay. It was a crap apartment,” Kelsey finally admits defeat. “But it was mine.”

  And then I feel bad.

  It wasn’t much and she had to live modestly, but it was hers…until my family took it from her.

  Every time I think I’m making progress and getting closer to wanting to fix the relationship with my parents, I remember what they did to the beautiful woman in front of me and I’m a hair’s breadth from hating them all over again.

  “No, Sweetheart, home is where you decide to feel at home. That apartment wasn’t yours; you leased it from a company that took three weeks to fix your heating last winter. You loved the fact that you were independent, that you didn’t need anyone to survive and that apartment became a symbol of that freedom, and it was taken from you. Doesn’t make you any less capable or any less free. Moving in with someone isn’t admitting defeat and telling the world you can’t survive on your own; it’s about admitting that you don’t want to survive on your own. That you’re ready to make space – metaphorically and physically in your case – for someone else,” Eleanor says.

  Kelsey looks intently at her mom, possibly appreciating a level of wisdom she’s overlooked in recent years, and nods in understanding.

  I get what Eleanor is trying to say, to both of us. Kelsey losing her apartment because of my family sucked, it wasn’t right and should never have happened. But being with me means that inevitably she’d have moved out of it at some point, and perhaps we are both attaching too much guilt and sentimentality to her last home.

  Doesn’t mean I’m going to go any easier on my parents when the time comes.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kelsey

  The weekend with my parents flies by far too quickly and by the time they leave, it’s easy to admit how much I’ve missed them and need them around.

  They’ve promised to
visit again in a few weeks and to help out when Mason and I decide to move.

  I didn’t realize that would come around as quickly as it has, but I can sense that Mason is itching to have more space for us and to ‘provide’ somewhere that we both can call home. And now that I have a decent job, I can contribute on my terms. Several times I’ve caught Mason scrolling through property websites, building a shortlist of places that he wants to view.

  I’m not going to complain; the places I’ve managed to glimpse over his shoulder look very nice indeed, and if moving again is on the cards, it just means my parents will be back sooner and it’s no secret I’m happy about that.

  Initially, I had some concerns about them meeting Mason in the boyfriend capacity but I’m pretty sure my mom has married me off to him already. It didn’t take us long to find a comfortable groove and my parents seem to like him.

  It also wasn’t as hard as I thought to feel the missing connection between me and my parents. I think I just spent so long telling myself that I didn’t need them around as a way to cope with their absence, that I eventually started to believe the lie.

  I do need them around and more than that, I want them around. And it only took a short while to remind me of that.

  My phone rings loudly and vibrates on the kitchen counter as Mason and I prepare dinner. I’m tempted to let it go to voicemail as it’s been a long and tiring day at work for both of us and I just want to crash on the sofa with him and relax, but a glance at the screen shows me Lucy’s face and I haven’t spoken to her since last week. I’ve sent a few messages, so she knows that everything went well with my parents, but we haven’t spoken.

  I grab the phone and swipe to answer before my voicemail kicks in.