Her Second Chance Prodigal Groom

by Taylor Hart

  Aspen folded her arms. “No, DJ, the question you need to ask is, why didn’t you already know?”

  For a while, none of them spoke. Bill glared at DJ, making it clear that if he weren’t a cop, he would probably throw down with DJ right now.

  Aspen frowned. Her phone buzzed. She tugged it out of her robe pocket. “My mother is going to have a freak attack. And Harrison’s coming soon. I have to go.” She rushed away from them and up the stairs to her home.

  “Wait. Who’s Harrison?” DJ was even more confused now.

  “The boyfriend,” Bill answered. He shrugged. “The idiot mock proposes all the time.”

  DJ didn’t know why he and Bill were chatting about Aspen’s love interest as if they actually were old friends, but he wanted to know more. “Really?”

  “The guy’s flashy. Never thought she’d end up with someone like him.” Bill snorted. “I don’t get it.” He put his notepad and pen away.

  “Oh.” Wait, were he and Bill bonding? It felt wrong.

  “I’d better go. Got another call.” Bill turned to leave.

  “Cool.” DJ chased after Aspen before things could get any weirder. “Wait, Aspen!” He took the stairs two at a time, catching up to her. “Aspen, we need to talk.”

  She hesitated at her door, her back to him. Then she turned the knob and walked inside, but she paused in the entryway to answer. “I don’t think we do. You know my overprotective mother wants me to call her. I’ve missed my check-in time.”

  Memories of all the times she’d said “check-in time” played through his brain. He found himself smiling. “Old habits die hard, huh?”

  She rolled her eyes and relaxed a bit. “She’ll never change. And I really don’t want to tell her about tonight. She’s been on me to let them pay for cameras and alarms and all kinds of stuff.”

  Unexpectedly, he found himself agreeing with her mother—maybe for the first time in their lives. “You should let them.” His eyes grazed over her dark porch, and he pointed to the bulb. “At least flip on the light.”

  She winced. “It burned out. I told my mother I would do that last week, but I have just been so busy.”

  “Some creep-o is around, and you couldn’t make time to buy a light?”

  “I know. I just…honestly, I thought he would quit after he realized that I’m not one of those people who buys expensive things.” She threw up a hand. “I think the most expensive thing I bought in the past year was Travis’s present.”

  Travis. Her son. His brother’s son. DJ looked around, wondering if Travis was in bed.

  As if reading his mind, Aspen shook her head. “He’s at my parents’ house tonight.”

  “Oh.”

  Her lip turned down. “Thank you for trying to help, but I’ve got it handled.”

  He pointed down the street. “I just chased someone because I thought they were going to hurt you, and I covered up the fact you had a gun, too. Who are you? Captain Marvel?”

  Her lip turned up. “I liked that movie.”

  “You were opposed to guns. Like, fiercely opposed to guns in high school. Do you remember when we had that debate in World Civ about gun control, and you pretty much wasted me on the floor with all your arguments?”

  She let out a laugh. “That’s not the point.”

  “Oh, right. The point I think you were making is that you were going to kill a guy tonight.”

  “I’m fine with guns for protection,” she sputtered.

  Why did she need so much protection? “Are you okay? What is going on with you?”

  She shoved him in the chest. “What is going on with me? What is going on with me? You think you get to just show up here and demand to know what is going on?” She scrunched her face, and he wondered if smoke would be coming out of her ears at any moment. “News flash—you left!”

  With the force of her anger and sadness, she might as well have punched him in the gut.

  “Furthermore, you only came back here because I begged you to come see your father. So don’t show up on my doorstep demanding answers from me.” Angry tears filled her eyes. “I’ve taken care of your dad for ten years. Ten! I’m the one who’s been here the last decade dealing with all of this alone. Before the Alzheimer’s got bad, when he was still drinking like a fish, I would get calls from the bar at two a.m. and go pick him up off the floor and take him home.”

  Annoyance rippled through him. “Why didn’t you call me back then?”

  “I did. You didn’t answer.”

  Right. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly.

  Aspen scowled deeper. “I’m the one who got your dad into rehab, who helped him get sober. I’m the one he called when he was having a hard time.” She pointed to her chest. “I’m the one he was close to, the one who let him be part of his grandchild’s life, and now…” She steadied herself on the door. “You show up and act like I should thank you for chasing down a creeper? Like I should treat you like you’re some hero for actually being here?”

  He couldn’t say anything, because she was right.

  “I don’t need you, DJ.” She spit out his name like it was bad food. “I don’t need you chasing down the guy who’s been stealing packages. I don’t need you coming to my house. Okay?”

  DJ realized how idiotic he’d been to think he would come here and demand answers from her.

  Aspen let out a hiccup that sounded like a sob. “I haven’t needed you for ten years.”

  “I’m sorry, Asp. You can go back in and get the whip.”

  She hesitated, looking confused.

  “Go on.” He nodded to emphasize his point. “I’ll take the beating. I’ll be happy to take whatever punishment you want to dish out to me, because I deserve it.” Seeing things through her eyes, he realized all the pressure and pain and worry and difficulty his father had left in his wake. He, DJ, had shirked that difficulty, and she’d willingly taken it on. He was the biggest jerk on the planet. “I’m so sorry.”

  Her nostrils flared. “Don’t do that.”

  He reached out and touched her hand, remembering all the years of calming her when she was keyed up. “Asp.”

  She batted his hand away.

  “Aspen, I mean it.”

  She pushed at him without any real effort, crumbling in on herself. “DJ.” She broke off into tears.

  He didn’t know what he’d expected, but it hadn’t been this. He found himself taking her into his arms. Memories burned him like a hot poker, except that now, along with all that pain, Aspen’s joined his. His shirt grew damp with tears. Distinctly, he remembered his mother holding him after his father had hit him. She’d told him God was there, that He cared, and that God was the soothing balm for all pain. Chills rushed through him, and he found himself tearing up too. “Shh,” he said, stroking her head. “It’s okay.”

  It hit him like a ton of bricks. Through all this pain, time, and distance, the only place he should have been was here, holding this woman.

  When she finally pulled back, her eyes shone red. “I’m sorry.” Now she looked like the child she used to be—the little girl who’d been his friend and gotten into trouble with him when they’d stepped on a jellyfish together one night to find out what it felt like and had to get rushed to the emergency room. Quickly, she tugged away from him. “I shouldn’t have broken down like that.”

  DJ kept himself calm. “Of course you should have; it’s me.”

  “As I mentioned, you’ve been gone ten years,” she said, exasperated. “It’s not like you can walk in and we just pick up where we left off.”

  He found himself asking, “Where did we leave off, Aspen?”

  She froze, her eyes on his. “Oh, you mean the day of the funeral, and how you looked at my pregnant belly, and then told me you would never see me again?”

  He regretted that day. He regretted so much. “Listen, I want to—”

  She threw up her hand and cut him off. “You want to talk about how you haven’t really spoken to me since your broth
er asked me to the graduation dance? Or about how you left Southport that night and never called me? Never returned my calls? And then you just ghosted me forever.”

  “I need to talk to you,” he demanded, feeling like he was trapped back in the night his father had told him to leave.

  “Don’t act like you deserve any answers.”

  He waited, and tension ratcheted up between them. “Please?”

  She let out a long sigh.

  “Please? Can we just talk?”

  After what felt like forever, she whispered, “Fine, come inside and we’ll talk.” She glared at him. “Only because you tried to catch the creepy guy.”

  Chapter 6

  The world seemed slanted and surreal as Aspen stared at the hulking boy-turned-man standing in her entryway. It’d felt so natural to slip into his arms and cry a couple of seconds ago. It felt so natural to fight with him, too. She stepped back. “Come in.”

  DJ nodded as he took it in, moving into the kitchen, and then back to the foyer, looking down the hall. “It’s looking good.”

  She tried to act normal as she watched him look around her home, but she felt stripped bare in front of him. Vulnerable. “It’s a work in progress,” she said, offering an explanation for all the half-done things. She wasn’t about to offer a full tour. There were holes in Travis’s bedroom she still hadn’t fixed. They were small and hidden behind superhero posters, but it still felt like too much.

  “I’ve been doing some rehab work on my own house. It’s not easy.” He flashed her a grin. “You’re doing a good job.”

  She found herself opening up and rambling about every little change she’d made. “When I first moved in, there was this retro green-and-orange thing happening in the kitchen.” She scoffed, walking over to flip on the kitchen light. “I just had to change it, make it mine. I’ve really just followed a guy on YouTube who can do pretty much anything.”

  “Jack Fix-It?”

  She laughed. “What in the world? Yes.”

  He looked way too satisfied. “I follow him, too.”

  Aspen let out a light laugh, taking her phone off the counter and scrolling through pictures. “Hold up. I’ll show you before and after shots, but I have to call my mom first.” She turned away and tried to quell her nerves.

  Her mother answered on the first ring. “Aspen? What happened?”

  She wasn’t in the mood to tell her everything. “Sorry, Mom, I just got done with school stuff and was puttering.” She scrunched her hair. DJ was here. She couldn’t believe it.

  “Okay, well, Travis is fine and we’re all ready for our trip,” her mother said.

  “Thanks for taking him. I have to go; I’m exhausted.”

  “Okay, sweetie. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.” She pressed end and frowned up at DJ’s amused expression. “Shut up.”

  He laughed. “I didn’t say anything.”

  She pulled up photos on her phone. “Look at this before and after of the kitchen backsplash.”

  DJ moved to her side to swipe through the pictures, and she picked up a whiff of spicy cologne. “Impressive.” He brushed past her, gently moving her out of his way, and electricity sparked between them. He picked up a tile in her kitchen. “This is hard work.”

  She walked over and took the tile from him. “You have to be so precise in the last cut or it ruins the whole line.”

  “I know,” he said, letting out a breath and smiling at her. After a moment, he moved back to the living room. “And your floor looks amazing.”

  “Check it out.” She retrieved more pictures, and he stared over her shoulder as she walked him through everything she’d done. “And yes, that was the living room before I took a wall out.”

  He grunted. “Oh dang.”

  She laughed. “And they were smokers. Twenty years of smoke damage to scrub off, and then prime and paint.”

  “Ew. Smoke damage is the worst.” He continued scrolling through her photos. “I’m impressed.”

  She got another whiff of him. Attraction pulsed through her.

  He caught her looking at him. “What?”

  She shut her phone down and took a step away from him. “Nothing.”

  “You’re lying. Still have the same liar face.”

  She couldn’t help her smile. “Anyway,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  “Must have been a good thing you didn’t tell me.” DJ grinned, then sighed. “But please explain more about the creep-o from earlier.”

  She moved to the couch, gesturing to the chair across from her. “For the past few weeks, I kept hearing this knocking on the door. It was at all hours, and it would wake me up, but no one would be there when I answered. Bill says the guy’s been taking a bunch of packages.”

  DJ frowned. “Right.”

  “It bugged Travis, too.”

  His face went blank. After a moment of thought, he nodded.

  “My father gave me his shotgun for protection.”

  “And you’ve been calling the police …”

  Her mind ran through the events. “Bill. Yeah. He’s just…The truth is, we’ve tag-teamed your father a lot over the years, and he’s just the easy one to call.”

  DJ rubbed the center of his palm. “Oh. Makes sense.” He shrugged. “Kinda weird he’s buying my dad’s house.”

  “Bill’s had his own life struggles. His wife passed from cancer last year, and it was a hard road.”

  DJ frowned. “That stinks.”

  “Everyone has their stuff, don’t they?”

  “Some of us have a lot of it.” The intense way he looked at her put her off guard. His eyes trailed over her small desk in the corner. “Is that Dad’s toolbox?”

  “Oh, sorry.” Aspen rushed up to it, hoisting it up. “I had to borrow some tools and he always used to let me, so I just…But I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry.” She held it out to him.

  For a moment, he just stared at her. When he took it, he said, “It’s no problem.”

  She sensed DJ was dealing with a bunch of his own stuff, too. “No, I should have asked you.”

  “No, you shouldn’t have.” His eyes met hers. “My dad wouldn’t have cared, and we both know it.” He sighed and stared at her computer desk, which was covered with books. “You’re still working on school?”

  “Yes, I’m getting my P.A. degree.” She gestured to the kitchen. “I’ll be able to make more and pay for all the projects I want done.”

  “That’s pretty amazing, you know that? That you’re working full time, a mother full time, putting up with my father full time, and going to school.”

  Warmth filled her chest, but she pushed it away. It was disconcerting to hear all the praise. “It’s fine. Anyway, I got done with my schoolwork tonight, and I was just…”

  “What?” He frowned, moving to the edge of his seat.

  “Nothing,” she said, embarrassed. “I was listening to music and just blowing off steam.”

  “You were dancing.” He laughed. “You still do dance-offs?”

  She laughed too, remembering all the times they’d done schoolwork together and then had a dance-off. “Hey, I don’t compete anymore. I just like to dance.”

  A smile lit up his face, making him seem so much younger than he had when she’d first seen him at the care center. He blinked, and his smile faded. “I’m worried about you. Do you want to go stay with your parents?” He looked around as if a thought had just occurred to him. “Where do your parents live? Your old house looks amazing, but I saw different people there.”

  She sighed, hating the truth. “They sold out, took the money, and moved out of town.”

  “Oh.”

  There was a knock at the door. She jumped up and went to the door, flinging it back. When she saw who it was, she let out a little gasp. “Oh my gosh, Harrison.”

  Chapter 7

  Standing at the door was a man DJ had never seen before. His hair was curly and stood out around his head. He stared wide-eyed at Aspen’s out
burst. “Hey.”

  She gestured for him to come in. “Why are you here? What’s going on?”

  He walked inside the apartment and looked at her with questions in his eyes. Slowly, he looked at DJ. “I was concerned about you and decided to come check on you. What’s going on with you?”

  “This is DJ. He’s Travis’s uncle.”

  Harrison eyed him up and down slowly. “This is the football player?”

  DJ nodded, feeling simultaneously awkward and annoyed. “Hey, man,” he said, reaching out his hand and letting it hover in the air when Harrison didn’t immediately take it.

  Harrison looked between them, keeping his hand at his side. “Yeah, I’ve heard about you.”

  DJ put his hand down. “That’s funny. I haven’t heard about you.” He gave him a wide grin.

  Aspen turned to Harrison, a rubbery smile on her face. “Harrison is running for mayor next election, aren’t you?”

  DJ instantly noted by her tone that she was trying to please him and it ticked him off, too.

  Harrison only shrugged.

  DJ cocked an eyebrow, but didn’t respond.

  Aspen’s eyes widened in accusation at DJ.

  So what? DJ was being a jerk. He wanted to point out the fact that her boyfriend didn’t have the decency to even shake his hand. He sucked in a breath, putting away all of his defensiveness about her. “That’s great,” he said without any feeling behind the words.

  Harrison let out a long breath, putting his arm around her. “And you’re going to be at my side, looking beautiful, darling.” He bent and lightly kissed her lips.

  Aspen seemed paralyzed, but she let him kiss her.

  A million ways to take the guy down went through his brain, the way his head would sound crunching against the floor.

  “Okay, then.” Harrison pulled back, frowning at her. “What’s going on? My secretary called me and told me she heard on the police scanner that the cops were called out to your house. You okay?”

  Her eyes met DJ’s for a second. “Yeah, fine.”

  DJ moved to the door. “I’ll just be going. But I’ll see you tomorrow at the care center.”