Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
The Reunion
Shelby's Chance Meeting
Book #4 in the Starting Over Series
By Angelina Rose
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Chapter 1
Shelby Ashwood never dreamed her life would end up so off track at thirty eight years old. As the youngest of her nursing school friends - Ashley, Claire and Emma - she thought that she had more time to make a big life for herself. Turned out she was wrong.
She’d had everything planned out since she was in junior high. Find her perfect soul mate. Date him through high school and college. Marry him and have a brood of cute little kids and a house with a white picket fence. And she had done just that. And it had failed miserably.
How had this happened to her? After coming from a family where marriage was revered and successful, she felt like a total fraud. Her parents had been married for forty three years, and she was only able to keep hers together for a measly fourteen years.
She had enjoyed going to her fifteenth nursing school reunion and seeing her friends again. To her surprise, all of them were now divorced. She didn’t feel so alone in her pain, but she knew her situation was different. Her former husband had been her best friend and partner since they were just fifteen years old. Living without him in her life had been the hardest thing she had ever had to do.
Her marriage to Kenny had been great at first. She had just graduated from nursing school and had her whole life and career in front of her. Two years into their marriage, she found out she was pregnant with their first daughter, Elena. Two years later, Austin came along. Being a mother took over her life, and she put her nursing career on hold for a few years. Once the kids were in school, she got a job as a school nurse so she could be near her beloved children.
Kenny continued to work at his family farm, just as he had done since she had met him one fateful day in freshman year of high school. With his sun-kissed blond hair and dark tan, she had immediately fallen head over heels for him. They dated all through high school and while she was in college and nursing school. Kenny didn’t go to college as his life plan was to run the family farm until the day he died.
As Shelby got older and more mature, she realized she really wanted to see more of the world than Kenny’s South Georgia farm. She wanted to travel and see museums and landmarks and beautiful things. She wanted her kids to experience all that life had to offer. At thirty seven years old, she realized that she had to let him go along with her lifelong idea of a soul mate.
Kenny had been terribly hurt by her decision, and her kids had been affected. Shelby often wondered if she had made the right decision for them. She felt guilty for taking them away from everything they’d ever known. Feeling torn between her own needs and those of her kids, she felt ambivalent about her final decision. But, a year later, it was now water under the bridge.
“Good morning, baby,” she said the next morning as her daughter, Elena, stumbled into the kitchen with bed head. With her long, wavy blond locks of hair, Elena reminded her of Kenny a little bit. But, she reminded her of herself even more. Elena was quick witted and smart, but she was also fiercely independent for her age.
“Morning,” she mumbled as many pre-teens do. She stumbled over to the breakfast bar and put her head down.
“Are you excited?” Shelby asked with a smile.
“About what?” Elena asked looking up and wiping the sleep from her eyes.
“Seeing your Dad for a few weeks?” Shelby reminded her. She and Austin would be leaving Atlanta and going down to South Georgia to spend a few weeks with Kenny and his family. Every year they held a summer camp for kids with disabilities, and Elena and Austin were going to help out as they always did.
“Oh, yeah. Excited,” Elena mumbled as she put her head back down on the breakfast bar in Shelby’s humble kitchen. After the divorce, she’d found a small condo just outside of Atlanta in a quaint suburb. Although it wasn’t as expansive as the farm, she enjoyed having her own space with the kids and being close to so many things like schools and shopping.
As usual, Austin came bounding into the kitchen with his unlimited energy. Always a morning person, he reminded Shelby of Kenny. He had the same blond hair and tanned skin, but he was different from Kenny in one major way - he wanted to go to college and become a doctor. He had no interest in long-term farm life.
As Shelby got the kids ready to be picked up by Kenny’s sister, Megan - who was also going to the farm - she thought about her conversation with her nursing school buddies. Ashley, the craziest one of their little group, had concocted an insane plan for each woman to spend two years looking for Mr. Right. Shelby had gone along, but could she really do that?
With her “girl next door” looks and simple lifestyle, could she really muster up the courage to go out looking for love? She knew Ashley could because she was so outgoing. She knew that Emma would find love simply because she had classic beauty. And Claire? Well, she was so exotic looking that she wouldn’t have a problem either. But her? She was just a simple former farm girl who had only been with one man in her whole life. Who would want her anyway?
As Shelby waved goodbye to her kids at the top of her condo stairs, she felt a wave of loneliness hit her. She hated when her kids had to leave to visit their Dad, and yet she knew that she was at least one of the causes of that. Wiping back a tear that had escaped her eye, she walked back inside of the now quiet condo and sat at her breakfast table.
School was closed, so she wouldn’t need to go back to her job as a school nurse for a few weeks. Sometimes, she worked with a local insurance company doing at-home medical evaluations during the school breaks she had, but she didn’t want to do that right now. She really felt like she needed a break for once.
Deciding that she couldn’t sit around the house, she opted to take care of a piece of business that had been gnawing at her for a few days now.
Chapter 2
Shelby walked up the sidewalk to the tall Piedmont Towers building in downtown Atlanta. As one of the tallest buildings in the Southeast, she got a little nervous due to her hatred of elevators. She’d always hated heights. While other kids liked roller coasters and hot air balloons, she preferred to keep her feet firmly planted on the ground, thank you very much.
She walked through the revolving door into the grand lobby of the building. With its gray marble floors and regal mahogany reception desk, she felt surrounded by elegance. It was certainly a far cry from where she lived in her modest condo.
“May I help you, ma’m?” the perky, yet professional, woman behind the desk asked.
“Yes, please. I am looking for Chadwick and Associates,” Shelby said with a smile. Her Southern hospitality was something that she was proud of. She was saving her anger for whoever at Chadwick and Associates had screwed up the renovations going on in her condo complex.
The real estate management company handling the renovations had ignored her calls when she complained one of their contractors had hit her car. She had been parked on the street, and they sideswiped her small compact car and caused some damage. As a now single mother, she had to make sure her only car was always in working order.
The woman behind the desk pointed for her to go up to the fifth floor. She got on the elevator and listened to the calming music as she tried to prepa
re what she would say. As the doors opened, she saw another beautiful lobby with sea blue chairs, white marble floors and very modern fixtures. It was a far cry from the more traditional lobby she’d just left.
“Can I help you?” the young woman behind the reception desk asked. She looked to be all of twenty years old and had her smart phone on the desk making it obvious she was either on Facebook or texting people. Although she was dressed professionally for her young age, she was not at all the maturity level Shelby would have expected at such a prominent company.
“Yes. Some of your workers are doing renovations in my condo complex, and one of them hit my car…” Shelby started.
“Not again… Great,” the girl said rolling her eyes in her head. “Here. Fill out this form…” She slid the form across the desk without so much as looking at Shelby.
“Um, no. I’ve called and left messages, and I got no response. I didn’t come down here to fill out a form. I want to talk to someone.” Shelby was holding her ground even though it was not in her nature to be combative at all. She slid the paper back to the receptionist.
“This is how we do things…” the girl started to say with her hand on her hip.
“It’s not how I do things.” Shelby put her hand on her hip and glared at her.
“Fine. I will go talk to Mr. Chadwick,” the girl said smacking her gum as she walked away. Shelby could see her talking to a man through the smoked glass doors of a nearby office. “Mr. Chadwick will see you now,” the girl said pointing.
Shelby walked to the large double doors and pushed the right one open. As she walked in, she could see a broad shouldered man with wavy dark brown hair standing there facing the outside windows. When he turned around, her heart jumped a bit at how handsome he was. With piercing green eyes and a little stubble on his jawline, she found herself feeling jittery and even a little faint. Having been with one man her whole life, she was not accustomed to having such an instant attraction to any man, let alone a perfect stranger.
“Brian Chadwick. And you are?” he asked with a smile as he stretched out his large hand and dwarfed hers. He wore a crisp black suit with a bright white shirt under it. The emerald green tie he wore made his eyes pop, and she swore his teeth were made of actual pearls.
“Shelby… Ashwood…” she responded with a stammer.
“Nice to meet you. Please, sit down,” he pointed her to a chair in front of his desk. He sat on the corner of his desk with one foot on the floor and the other dangling precariously close to her knee. “Now, how can I help?”
“Well, I live in The Meadows condo complex down off Rivershire…”
“Ah, yes. We have a couple of crews working over there.”
“Yes, and one of your trucks sideswiped my car last week. I ran out to catch the tag number, but they had already pulled off. It was a blue truck with an orange logo on the side,” she said trying to keep her wits about her. She had come there to settle an issue, and she intended to do just that.
“That’s Donny. He’s not such a great driver in tight quarters,” he said with a slight smile.
“Well, I called for days and left messages with your receptionist. No one ever called me back.”
“I am so sorry about that. My guy who handles issues like this is out of town. Becky should have given those messages to me. I will speak with her about it. She’s a little young and probably not quite mature enough for this job, frankly,” he said quirking his lip up. Why did she want to bite his lip right now?
“I would agree with that. She wanted me to fill out a form after I came all the way down here.”
“She’s my niece.”
“Oh, sorry…”
“No, like I said, I agree. But, you know family business and all…” he said. It immediately made her think about Kenny and how he couldn’t and wouldn’t leave the family business even though it was one of their biggest marital issues.
“Just because you are family doesn’t mean you have to work together, you know…” she said. In reality, she wasn’t saying it to him but to Kenny.
“Excuse me?” he asked with another cute smile.
“Sorry. I wasn’t really talking to you,” she said trying to recover.
Brian turned around and looked behind him. “Then who were you talking to?”
“No one. I mean… Ugh…”
“Why do I get the feeling you were talking about a different situation?” he asked smiling.
“Because I was. Let’s leave it at that, okay?” she said putting her head in her hands out of embarrassment. “Can I get a do-over?” she asked with a smile.
“You have a lovely smile. And because you have such a lovely smile, I will grant a do-over.” His bright grin immediately eased her embarrassment. “Now, I do have to ask you to fill out a form, but I will be personally handling the repairs to your car.”
“Great. Thanks,” she said trying to keep her mouth shut.
He pulled a form out of his drawer and sat behind his desk. As he started to fill it out, she stared at him. How could a man this good looking live near her and she had never seen him? It was a big city, after all, but she thought for sure she would have seen such a handsome specimen at some point.
“Have you lived here long?” she asked without thinking.
“About five months. And you?” he asked looking up with a slight smile.
“I lived in South Georgia for a long time, but I moved up here about a year ago. I’m a nurse.” Why was she telling him all this? For all she knew, he was married, engaged, dating, gay…
“Well, I lived in California for many years until my divorce last year. I came here to take over my Dad’s business so he could retire.” She realized how easy he was to talk to.
“I divorced last year too,” she said looking down.
“How many years?” he asked putting down the pen and focusing on her.
“Fourteen years of marriage, twenty two years together,” she said with a half hearted smile.
“Wow. You must have been ten when you met him.”
“I was fifteen when we started dating, actually.”
“Well, you have me beat. I was only married for three years.”
“Oh,” she said.
“Turns out she wanted to date other men and be married to me,” he said with a laugh. “Needless to say, I wasn’t cool with that.” His laugh was infectious. “So, what about you? How did yours end?”
“That’s kind of personal…” she said with her eyebrows raised.
“Hey, I thought we were sharing,” he said grinning.
“We honestly just grew apart. He wanted to stay in South Georgia running the family farm forever. I wanted to see more of the world.”
“I guess that’s what happens when you meet so young. You grow up together, but you may also grow apart together,” he said. She had never thought of it quite that way.
“I guess so. But we are on good terms. We have two kids,” she said.
“Well, you have to be on good terms with kids. I hate when parents drag their kids through a nasty divorce or custody battle. I went through that as a kid. No fun,” he said without any emotion as he went back to the form.
Shelby sat quietly for a moment trying to process why she just bared her very soul to a stranger. What was it about him that made her start talking?
He stood up and walked toward her with the paper. Sitting on the edge of the desk, he placed the paper in front of her. “If you will sign right here,” he said in a soft, yet husky voice. She slid forward on her chair and took the pen from his hand. A bolt of electricity ran through her as she touched his hand.
“Thanks,” she said softly as she looked down at the paper. He was sitting so close to her now, and it was unnerving her greatly. After she signed, she stood up quickly to make her exit. Instead, she forgot her purse was on the floor and tripped on it. Falling forward, she landed squarely with her chest against his and her face in the curve of his neck. For a brief moment, she stalled as his cologne
wafted past her nose. Would it be inappropriate to lick his neck, she wondered?
As he caught her, his strong arms stretched around her waist. She’d never felt quite so safe and protected. What was this man doing to her?
“So sorry…” she stammered as she got her feet under her. He held on for a moment to make sure she was stable before he released his hold. She swore she heard his breath catch as her face brushed up the side of his neck on the way up.
“We’ll be in touch,” was all he said as he turned back toward his desk and she backed out of the office.
Chapter 3
Shelby sank deep into her garden tub full of bubbles and took a sip of her glass of wine. Sure, most women would like to be out on a date on a Friday night, but she was content with a quiet house and thoughts of the dashing Brian Chadwick she had met earlier in the day.
The Reunion: Shelby's Chance Meeting (Starting Over Series) Page 1
