Last Chance

by Natalie Ann

  “I can adapt to anything. What’s this about, Riley?”

  “Nothing. Just talking.”

  “No. It’s something or you wouldn’t keep asking more questions about the same thing.”

  He’d always been perceptive, but then again, so was she. That’s why she’d spent as much time as she did with him and his parents during the past week. Not because she wanted to, but because she knew he did.

  “Just thinking about us,” she said.

  “What about? The future?” he asked.

  “Yeah. We both have houses. Places we own.”

  “And you just bought yours and fixed it up the way you like.”

  “I did. You’ve lived in your house your whole life. You like it.”

  “I like the location. The house itself needs a ton of work. I know that.”

  “You’d change things?” she asked, more out of curiosity than anything else.

  “Lots of things. The kitchen is ugly as sin, but I don’t cook, so I don’t care. But you do and you would care. The loft upstairs suits me, but the bath is tiny. The rooms downstairs are small. The house needs work. I’ve just never had a reason to do anything other than make it a little different than what my parents had it as.”

  Her heart sank. He could make changes, but didn’t have a reason to do it. “Okay.” She didn’t know what else to say to that.

  “When we get down that road, when you think you’re ready, then we can talk about houses. Right now, we’ll do what we’ve been doing and not worry.”

  “I can do that,” she said. He seemed open to change and that was enough for now.

  See the Stars

  After they checked in at their hotel, they hopped back in her SUV and started to drive around. “It’s so beautiful and peaceful here,” she said.

  He followed her gaze to the mountains in the distance. Things he was used to seeing daily. “It is. This move wasn’t too quiet for you?” he asked.

  “Not at all. I’m sure you probably think I’m being silly. I mean, I live in a development with little to no view of anything other than the houses around me. I can see mountains in the distance, but nothing like this. Still, I can sit on my deck and look up at the sky and see the stars now. I couldn’t do that before.”

  He couldn’t imagine. He’d been in a lot of places when he was in the army, but nothing like the places she’d lived in New York City. “So it’s all good?” he asked.

  He just wanted to be sure. He didn’t want to think she’d get sick of this life and want to move, but part of him had that fear. He’d been down that road before and knew it’d hurt twenty times worse than ever if she felt that way years from now.

  “Yeah.”

  He felt her eyes on him, so he turned his head. “What?”

  “You don’t believe me. You think I’m going to regret this move at some point, don’t you?”

  He could lie, but didn’t want to. It wouldn’t have sat well with him and it was best to talk about it. They’d been honest with each other all along, and he wasn’t going to change that now. “It crossed my mind.”

  “Then let me put your mind to rest. My father was born and raised in Mississippi. My mother’s from Manhattan.”

  “Your mother looks like someone who has lived there her whole life. Your father, too.” Janice looked the part of a successful surgeon’s wife. She wasn’t snooty or snotty, but she was graceful. Classy was the word he was looking for. George looked the same to him, too. Like someone who enjoyed the outdoors when he visited, but couldn’t wait to get back home to the action.

  “My mother has known no other life. She always hated visiting my grandparents in the South. Max and I loved it. My grandmother was a simple woman. My grandfather, too. Working middle-class family. Down to earth and not afraid to tell you what they thought. They were polite about it, but still told you.”

  He laughed. “You must take after your grandmother.”

  “Not really. I’ll tell you what I think, but we both know I’m not always polite.”

  No use agreeing with her. “So how did your father end up in New York?”

  “He got a scholarship to Columbia and never went back. He didn’t care for the slow pace of the South. My mother, not at all. But Max and I, we adored it. Couldn’t get enough of it.”

  “Then why didn’t you move before?”

  “I needed to get experience before I opened my own practice. Big cities have better technology and equipment. More modern approaches to medicine than smaller, more rural areas. And because I put my career above everything else, I followed my brain there.”

  “You followed your brain?” he asked, finding that an odd statement.

  “Yep. Max did the same thing. He concentrated on his career until everything in life started to go downhill. Then he decided to follow his heart.”

  “He met Quinn here, though,” Trevor said. He knew most of Max and Quinn’s story.

  “But his heart told him he had to get out of the city to get his life back in order. To raise his kids the way he felt was best for them. To find a part of himself he knew he wanted but thought was lost.”

  “And you?”

  “I needed to do the same. You see, Trevor, Max and I are more like our grandparents. We can appreciate the bigger city for all it has to offer. I can go back and visit anytime I want. But my life isn’t there anymore. It can’t be there. My life is here. It’s where I want it to be.”

  “Wanting and staying are two different things,” he said.

  “Are you trying to talk me out of what I want?” she asked, smirking at him.

  “No.”

  “Sounds like that to me.”

  He just wanted to get a better understanding of things. “I want to make sure you’re looking at the bigger picture.”

  She laughed at him. “I’ve looked at every picture and angle there was. If you’re afraid I made this change and moved here because of fear—because of what was happening to me—and that once it’s over I’ll want to go back, that won’t happen.”

  He was thinking that. “How do you know?”

  “Because you’re not there. You’re here.”

  ***

  They ended up in a bar around the corner from their hotel after they finished with dinner. It was only half-full, probably the busiest it got.

  They were sitting at a table in the corner. He was feeling lighter than he was earlier. He was starting to believe her. That her reasons for ending up here weren’t necessarily because it was the place she landed when she ran, but rather where her heart led her.

  If he believed in that stuff. Which he didn’t. But he believed in her, and that was good enough for him.

  “Would you get upset if I got a little tipsy tonight?” she asked, her eyes already slightly glossy, her smile lopsided.

  “Depends on how tipsy you plan on getting. I don’t feel like carrying you back to the room.”

  “Nah. I can walk just fine. I just want to have fun. I haven’t drunk more than two glasses of anything since college. I always had to be aware of my patients. Or people knowing me. New York is a big city, but someone always knew someone else in the crowd we were with.”

  “Same in Lake Placid. Can’t be too careful.”

  “So you can have a few tonight too,” she said, then ordered another glass of wine when the waitress came over. He shook his head over another beer, choosing to nurse the one in front of him for now.

  “I’d rather let you relax and have fun tonight. Go ahead. Just don’t pass out on me.”

  “Never going to happen. I’ve never been drunk. Just tipsy. That’s all I’m looking for tonight.”

  She was on her way already, so he was thinking this last glass would put her over the edge. “This is our weekend to have fun. So go at it.”

  “I want you to have fun too,” she said.

  “I’m having plenty of fun just watching you.”

  She scrunched her nose up at him. When the music being played throughout the bar cha
nged to a Stevie Nicks song, her eyes lit up and she adjusted her slouch to more of a sitting position. “Let’s dance.”

  She was pulling him up next to her and into her arms before he could say no. Their table wasn’t that far from a small dance floor. No one was on it right now, but another couple had been. “This is silly, Riley.”

  “No, it’s not,” she said. “This could be our song. Listen to it.”

  He listened to the words of “Leather and Lace” and realized she was right. At the moment he was just content to hold her in his arms, her head on his shoulder, her body swaying with his.

  “Do you know there is a Stevie Nicks song for pretty much everything in my life?”

  “Really?” he asked. He supposed that could be said about a lot of musicians, if he thought about it.

  “Yeah. It seems like the last two major events in my life, Stevie was playing around that time. Or a song came on and it just pushed me to make a move. Guided me to a decision. It’s got to mean something that she’s playing right now for us, don’t you think?”

  “Depends on if those major life events you’re talking about are good or bad,” he said.

  “At that time, they would probably be considered bad, but I’m finding out they were good all along.”

  “You’ll have to explain that to me,” he said, his hand on her lower back, pushing her closer, claiming her as his for anyone to see.

  “After the song ends. Just hold me for now. Then I’ll tell you. I like being surrounded by your arms. It’s a good thing. Really, really good.”

  So he held her. Like he had a choice, because he didn’t.

  Just like he didn’t have one when he fell in love with her.

  ***

  When the song ended, Riley stepped out of Trevor’s arms and took her seat. The waitress brought her wine over and set it down, taking her empty glass away. “Are you sure you don’t want another?” she asked him, eying the remains of his beer.

  “I’m good.”

  “Can I tell you about my life and Stevie now?” she asked, smiling. Though she was dead serious about her comment, maybe it wasn’t the best time to talk about those things. Maybe he didn’t want to know. Or maybe he’d just think she was being dramatic and silly. She was ready to change the subject.

  “I’d like to hear it,” he said.

  She took a sip of her wine, put her chin in her hand, and looked at him. Might as well then. He had a nice five o’clock shadow going. Strong and sexy. Manly. There wasn’t a thing about him that turned her off. She couldn’t say that about another man she’d been with before. There was always something that annoyed her or turned her off. But not with Trevor. If he did manage to annoy her, it was so short lived, it didn’t warrant thinking much of it.

  “Things had been going south with Jason and me for a while. I told you that. I just couldn’t seem to pull the trigger and end it, though. I kept asking myself what was wrong with me, that it never seemed to work out the way I thought it would.”

  “If it’s not the right person, it’s not going to work out no matter how much you want it to.”

  “I know that now. I guess wishing for something so much doesn’t matter if deep down you aren’t happy with yourself, let alone the other person. The last straw was him not believing in me. I was ticked off. I knew right then, anything I was trying to hold onto was gone. I was home one night, seething over his remarks.” There was no need to tell Trevor the things Jason had told her. That she was overreacting, that she was paranoid. That if she just called Daddy, he’d take care of it for her like he always did. “I turned the radio on, because the apartment was just too quiet. Stevie came on and started singing about dragging my heart around. It was like she was coming to me through the radio saying ‘drop that loser.’”

  He laughed. An honest to goodness laugh that reached his eyes and made her think he wasn’t humoring her but actually thought it was funny, in a good way. “So that was all it took?” he asked.

  “Pretty much. The next day I just ended it with him. Said we both knew it was coming, so why drag it out? Of course, I didn’t tell him Stevie told me to do it. Then he’d really think I was losing my mind.” Jason had already told her she was plenty of times, no reason to give him an excuse to say it again.

  “So what’s the other time? You said two events.”

  “It was the Friday morning I was leaving town. I told you how I had it all planned out. Well, I was on the subway and put my earbuds in. I normally did to shut out the noises around me. ‘Landslide’ came on. It just seemed fitting. A song about climbing mountains, being afraid of change, finding yourself and getting stronger. Coming here was that mountain. You’re my landslide, Trevor. It brought me to you.”

  She watched him look at her, his body unmoving, his eyes just searching hers. She might have been drinking more than normal, but she knew what she was saying. She hoped he knew that.

  “I guess I should see if there is a way for me to thank Stevie then.”

  “I’m probably the one who should be thanking her,” she said.

  “Nah,” he said. “It seems to me that she brought you here, and I’ve been waiting. Now I don’t have to wait any longer.”

  Delicate Areas

  Saturday morning, the weather didn’t cooperate enough for Riley to want to hike. It was either that, or her excuse of a mild hangover. Trevor wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t going to question it. It was her weekend and her call.

  She’d finished her glass of wine the night before and they’d walked back to the hotel. She looked to be exactly what she said she wanted, relaxed and loose. Nothing more, nothing else.

  The shorts she was wearing with a pretty flowing top and high-heeled sandals were nothing that he’d ever expect a dentist to be wearing. Of course, he’d never expected to have a dentist that looked like her, either.

  But their walk back to the hotel was calm and almost normal for a dating couple away for the weekend. Holding hands, looking at each other, smiling. Even a little giggle out of her.

  When they got back to the room, though, that was a different story.

  The minute they were in the door, she shut it behind her, then placed her hands on his chest, ran them around a few times, and reached down to pull his shirt from the waistband of his jeans. “Slow down, Riley.”

  “Nope. I want dirty hotel sex. You’ll give it to me, right?”

  What the hell? “How dirty?” he asked, not sure what was going on with her. Where did that sweet, relaxed woman holding his hand go?

  “Not that. Nothing like really kinky dirty. It’s the room. It’s a hotel room. Other people stayed here before. I’m not sure how clean it is. Dirty. Dirty hotel…sex. Get it.”

  “Oh,” he said, trying not to laugh. Her face was priceless. As OCD as she was about germs, he realized it wasn’t as bad as he’d thought. It hadn’t come up often, so he was guessing something really had to get under her skin for her to make a comment.

  “I had planned on having sex while we’re here. So maybe you’ll get a lot of dirty hotel sex.”

  “I can handle it. As long as there is wine involved.”

  He burst out laughing. “That’s why you had more to drink? So you could relax and have sex with me.”

  “No. I don’t need to relax to have sex with you. It’s just there are so many germs here. The wine relaxes me so that I don’t think about it.”

  “You should have told me. I would have tried to find someplace else to stay.”

  “I’ve stayed in hotels before. This is a nice one. It’s clean. I know it is. But it’s not really clean. I mean, I wouldn’t want to shine a black light in here.”

  He rolled his eyes. “You’ll be guilty of leaving traces under a black light too when we’re done,” he said.

  “Yep. So let’s get you out of those pants. Hurry up,” she said, attacking the button of his jeans.

  He toed off his shoes. He was done talking for now. He reached for her shirt and helped her out of it; then t
hey both managed to get the rest of their clothes off fast.

  He picked her up and brought her down on top of the bed, but she shrieked and jumped off. “What?” he asked, looking around.

  “I’m not getting on the bedspread naked. There isn’t enough wine in the world for that.”

  He looked at her standing here, both of them without a stitch of clothing on, and wondered what the heck he was supposed to do next.

  She walked over to him and whipped the bedspread off. “Good grief, Trevor. I said the bedspread. Not the sheets. The sheets are clean. They should be, at least. That much I know and that is what I’m rationalizing. The bedspread…no way. Not letting that touch any delicate areas of my body.”

  “Can I touch those delicate areas of your body?”

  “I expect it.” She pushed him on the bed and climbed on top of him. “After I’ve had my fill, though.”

  “I don’t think so,” he said, rolling her again so he was on top. Then he rolled her onto her stomach and pulled her up to her hands and knees.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, giggling.

  “You said dirty. My mind went in this direction. Let’s make it dirty for us both.”

  “How dirty are you talking?” she asked. “Because some things are always off the table.”

  “Not that,” he said. “The position. You liked it last time.”

  “I did. That’s because you’re big and strong and it makes me feel weak.”

  “You aren’t weak in any sense of the word,” he said.

  “Well then, it let me bring my inner doggie out.”

  “Riley,” he said, fighting back a laugh. “You’re killing the mood.”

  She laughed loudly. “Sorry. It just slipped. That’s the wine talking. You can’t have it both ways, you know.”

  “I’m going to have it any way I want tonight.”

  “Now you’re getting cocky,” she said. “I like that, too.”

  She was on her hands and knees right now, her head turned and looking over her shoulder at him, urging him on. “What are you waiting for? It’s right there for the taking.”