Bella Cove_A Second Chance Romance

by Rochelle Katzman

Kayla swallowed. What was it about this man that made her body pulse and her heartbeat quicken? That made her question every decision she had made in the last two years?

  Gabe ran his hands through that thick, dark hair that she loved. She turned to go back outside.

  “The problem wasn’t me, Kayla. The real problem was that you didn’t fight for us. You abandoned me and everything you and I had built, which was trust. You killed that, and that’s on your head, not mine.”

  Kayla froze mid-step. “I checked up on you, on the internet. When I missed you so much it hurt. By the way, congratulations on graduating. Your name was listed as a graduate on the campus website. Did you end up working for your dad?”

  “I had my own practice, about twenty patients. My dad supervised me while I was getting my doctorate and until I got my license. When Grandpa gave me his properties, I informed all my patients. I haven’t lost a single one. We Skype and have phone sessions daily. With Alice being such good help and with the buildings being in great condition, I have a lot of time on my hands. But I think I like running my grandfather’s properties more than being a psychologist. I think my grandfather knew I would.”

  Kayla gripped the cake plate in her hands tighter. So Alice was such a wonderful helper, huh? Did the secretary have some kind of an ulterior motive? “So…you’re still blaming me for leaving?” she whispered.

  “Absolutely,” he said.

  Kayla hadn’t thought her heart could sink any further. She closed her eyes and sighed.

  “But I’m not blaming you for this.”

  Without warning, Gabe grabbed Kayla and pressed his lips against hers. She opened her mouth in shock. The moment she did, Gabe slipped his tongue inside. Her heart thudded. God, what if her parents looked this way? With all her strength, she pushed Gabe away with her elbow, making sure not to drop the cake.

  “Gabe, my parents are right outside.”

  His breathing was just as fast as hers was. “I know. I was watching. But they’re preoccupied with my house plans.”

  Her lips were still tingling from his kiss. “Why did you kiss me? Especially now, with my parents right outside the door!”

  Gabe’s eyes grew distant. “I wanted to see if your kiss was the same, because nothing else about you is.”

  Kayla was about to open her mouth and tell him off, but her mom opened the back door.

  “What’s keeping you two? And grab some plates, forks, and knives while you’re in there.”

  Kayla nodded and grabbed what her mom wanted, but she couldn’t look Gabe in the eye anymore. He held the plates while she held everything else, but they were both silent. There wasn’t much left to say. Regardless of the kiss, he blamed their failure on her, and he was right to a certain extent. Besides, he had finished his degree and had a whole bunch of patients. If he didn’t want to continue with his practice, he had his grandfather’s properties to run, which he enjoyed doing. He was living his dream while she’d turned her back on hers.

  Right before they stepped outside she forced herself to look at him. “That kiss. Was it the same or different?”

  Gabe grunted. “Way different. Your passion is gone, Kayla. You’re a shell of yourself. And the funny thing is, Bella Cove is one of the most inspiring, beautiful towns I’ve ever been to—and yet, your soul has died here. How ironic, huh?” He stepped out and held the door for her, acting all gentlemanly.

  Her mom came to take the cake from Kayla’s hands, so she didn’t get a chance to respond, but what did it matter? Two years ago, he could read her so well, and apparently, he still could. But her soul hadn’t died because she was in Bella Cove or because she had all these responsibilities to her family… she loved it here. He was right; the little town was beautiful and inspiring. But the emptiness, the dead space inside her had appeared the moment she’d lost him. And she had no one to blame but herself…

  When she sat at the table, her dad eyed her suspiciously. She was too devastated to hide how she felt. If her nana was here, she would have helped Kayla feel better. She would have thought of some solution for the situation between Kayla and Gabe. But grandmother was dead and had left the problem-solving to Kayla.

  Her dad sat next to her and squeezed her hand under the table. She was grateful for that, but the kind gesture made her want to cry. She was stronger than that, though; at least, she needed to be. Thank goodness Gabe had made sure her parents hadn’t seen him kiss her.

  Her mom seemed oblivious as usual. Mom sat at the head, and Gabe sat across from Kayla. Needing to do something, she took a small piece of cake, but then she realized she hadn’t eaten any dinner. Her mom started asking Gabe more questions about his house, and her dad added his opinion, which Kayla found odd. Usually, her dad was so quiet.

  Gabe ignored her. He hadn’t even glanced her way once. She looked at him a few times, mostly out of disbelief that he was sitting on her back porch. The times she’d allowed herself to envision him here had been nothing like this. For one thing, in her fantasies, Gabe never ignored her.

  Unable to tolerate the situation a moment longer, she stood. “I haven’t eaten dinner yet,” she said. “I’m going inside and getting some real food.”

  “Oh, absolutely,” her mom said. “There are leftovers in the refrigerator, dear.”

  Gabe didn’t even say goodbye. He simply nodded at her. She hoped the kiss hadn’t turned him off completely. They may not have a future, but she did have her pride. Her dad blew her a kiss. At least he made her feel loved. It wasn’t Gabe’s job to make her feel that way anymore, but she wished he didn’t have to act like a detached asshole toward her.

  When she got back inside the house, she grabbed some leftover pasta salad and a glass of water and went upstairs to her bedroom. Both her sisters were at a yoga class, so, thankfully, she wouldn’t be disturbed for the rest of the night. And Josh wouldn’t be speaking to her for a while. When she reached her bedroom, she kicked the door closed behind her.

  She liked her room…her only sanctuary. She sat on her queen-sized, canopy bed. Her room was decorated in shades of lavender, her favorite color. The walls were painted a light shade of lavender. Her canopy bed was also lavender, as was her bedspread. Her floors were dark wood like the rest of the house, but she had a white and lavender area rug. She put her drink on the floor and took a forkful of pasta, but she wasn’t hungry. Her window had been left open from this morning. She liked feeling the breeze from outside. But tonight, she wanted to shut it. Hearing Gabe outside her window charming her parents was killing her.

  She put her barely eaten food on the floor, debating whether she should go back downstairs and put it in the fridge, but her tiredness won out. Gabe’s words from earlier were playing in her mind like background noise. That, and the memory of that short-lived kiss. He was right…the kiss hadn’t been so great, but what did he expect? She’d been scared to death her parents would see.

  She shook her head. She had to stop replaying those moments in the kitchen with him. This wasn’t any way to live. The only way to stop her swirling thoughts was to sleep. She lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. With Gabe back in her life, she was forced to look back on all the mistakes she’d made in the last two years, and she couldn’t take the pain anymore. So she did what she always did when life became too much. She fell asleep.

  * * *

  An hour later, Kayla woke up with a completely different mindset. She was pissed. How dare Gabe kiss her? And how dare he accuse her of being different? Her family had been through hell and back when her grandmother passed. Between Josh’s addiction, and her mom acting hysterical and telling everyone she should have died instead of Nana, of course she’d be different. And that didn’t include Sarah and Lauren running amok or Matt being sick in the hospital. Nor did it include her dad’s depression.

  But they’d come out the other end stronger. Not perfect. But stronger. She’d come out the other end stronger. So, no, she wasn’t the same naïve girl he’d fallen in love with. In her mind
, she was tougher. She was a fighter. And if Gabe didn’t like it, maybe he shouldn’t have kissed her, maybe he shouldn’t have moved his office across from her store, and maybe he shouldn’t be building a house where she could see it from her bedroom window.

  Chapter Seven

  The next morning, Kayla awoke to the sounds of bulldozers and construction workers speaking loudly. From what Gabe had said last night, he had obtained all the proper permits and approvals to start building. There was no way she could stop him from being her neighbor now. She could wish it, though.

  After only sleeping a few hours, she felt utterly exhausted and depleted. If Nana was looking down at her, she’d be so disappointed. More than that, Kayla was disappointed in herself. No man was worth sleepless nights. That was something her grandmother would say. She glanced at her clock on her night table. Six o’clock. Last night, she’d overheard Gabe ask her parents if it was okay if they started at six the first day, and from then on, he’d honor some noise ordinance rule of starting at eight. He’d been so charming; of course, they had agreed.

  With the loud noise outside, there was no use trying to go back to sleep. That was okay. She’d get to work early. She had given Sarah the day off since she had been working so hard. Plus, Kayla wanted to train Lauren alone. After taking a much-needed deep breath, she leaped out of bed and decided to change her attitude. And her attitude could only improve. If it was any lower, she’d be immobilized in bed. She needed to find the anger she’d felt when she’d woken up in the middle of the night.

  * * *

  When Kayla arrived at the store, she opened the door and screamed. Gabe was leaning against her cash register counter with his arms crossed.

  “What are you doing here? How did you get in?” Her heart thudded like crazy.

  “I was waiting for you, and I have a key. I’m your landlord, remember?”

  Unfortunately, she did remember. “It’s seven-thirty in the morning. If you’re here for a good-morning kiss, you can forget it.”

  Gabe chuckled. Kayla had always liked the sound, but today, it grated on her nerves. He looked way too wide awake and perfect for this early in the morning. In his jeans and a red button-down shirt, at least he didn’t look stuffy like he had the day he’d stormed into her store. And yeah, that’s how it had felt—like a storm had hit her.

  He continued staring at her with his arms crossed. “I couldn’t sleep.” His stare was intense, as if he were trying to penetrate her soul.

  “So you came here instead?” It gave her some satisfaction, knowing he’d had trouble sleeping, too. Must’ve been the kiss. Their lips hadn’t touched in two long years. No matter how bad he thought it was, that had to have affected him.

  “I was awake all night, waiting to talk to you.” Gabe paused and glanced at the front door. “Why don’t you close the door, so we can have an adult conversation?”

  She didn’t like his choice of words, but at the same time, the sight of him being there had surprised her so much, she’d forgotten to close the front door. Once she closed it, she regretted it. Now, she was trapped with Gabe and with the intense energy he was exuding. She shifted beneath his steady gaze. Needing to do something other than stand there waiting for him to tell her whatever it was that haunted him enough to disrupt his sleep, she walked through the store as if she had a purpose and pushed open her office door. Gabe followed and leaned against the doorframe in the same way he’d been leaning against her register when she’d first come in.

  “Shouldn’t you be at your property, overseeing the construction of your house?”

  Gabe clenched his jaw. “I should be, but I needed to get some things off my chest first.”

  Kayla swallowed and sat down. She couldn’t sit still with him being this angry at her. Being this close to him made her forget everything except how much she missed him when he wasn’t around.

  So she logged onto her computer and opened her desk drawer to take out her to-do list.

  “Kayla, stop.”

  Gabe’s stern tone caused her to freeze.

  Without looking at him, she spoke. “Just say it, Gabe. Say whatever it is you need to say to hurt me.”

  “I’m not planning on hurting you.”

  She did look at him then, her face heated up. “Aren’t you? Two years ago, I hurt you, and now it’s your turn. And you’re going to give it back to me tenfold.” Relief flooded her as the anger she’d felt last night came back full force.

  “That wouldn’t be possible.”

  Kayla sighed dramatically. “What happened to us not seeing each other? We planned on me mailing my rent check to Alice, remember? You would stay on your property and I’d stay on mine.”

  “That’s not possible either.”

  This time, Kayla clenched her jaw.

  “Gabe, say what’s on your mind.” She was so frustrated, she could barely draw a full breath. One minute, she wanted to scream and tell him to go back to California, and the next, she wanted to run to him and throw her arms around him and kiss him in the way he’d remember.

  He was about to speak when the sound of the door opening and closing came from the front of the store.

  “Hi, Kayla.”

  Kayla’s heart sank. Lauren had walked in and was on her way to the office.

  “I’m sorry,” she mouthed to Gabe. What she really wanted to tell him was that their second kiss would have to wait.

  Gabe looked as if he was ready to explode. He turned and leaned out into the hall. “Hey, Lauren, can you give Kayla and me a minute? We’re talking about the building. Would you mind getting us the same delicious iced coffee you got me the other day?”

  He spoke before Lauren had a chance to reach the office, so Kayla couldn’t see her sister’s expression. No doubt, Lauren must be shocked to see Gabe here so early. Gabe took some cash out of his pocket and handed it to Lauren. Kayla heard her sister thank him, and then Lauren left the store again.

  When Gabe returned, he appeared even angrier if that was possible.

  “Let me get this off my chest before your sister comes back,” he said, running his hands through his hair again. “I hate that your parents don’t know about us. You were wrong to lie to them when we were in school, and you’re wrong for lying to them now.”

  “You’re right,” she admitted.

  Gabe’s eyes grew wide. “Are you thinking of changing that?”

  Kayla looked down at her hands gripping her desk. She hadn’t even realized she’d been doing that.

  She nodded. “I’ll come clean. I’m not sure when, but I promise I will. You deserve that. We both deserve that.”

  He glared at her for a moment. “Tell them soon, Kayla. Because by you not telling them, I feel like I’m lying, too.”

  He walked out of her store as Lauren came back in. That was fast. There must not have been a long line. Kayla heard Lauren offer him the iced coffee. He must have said something charming to her because she laughed. Then Kayla heard the front door close. She had to figure out a way to put her happy face back on. She didn’t feel like breaking down in front of her sister. That would raise all sorts of questions she wasn’t ready to answer. He’d never even mentioned their kiss. It may not have meant anything to him, but it meant everything to her.

  Lauren’s heels click-clacked down the small hallway that led to the office. “Hey, beautiful.” Lauren stood in the doorway, looking lovely in a black cotton sundress with white flowers on the bottom. But it wasn’t the outfit that made her look pretty; the smile on her face made her glow.

  When was the last time Kayla had seen a genuine smile on her sister’s face? She had made the right decision by hiring Lauren.

  Kayla smiled back as Lauren handed over the iced coffee. Immediately, Kayla took a large sip, which made her feel a whole lot better.

  “Thank you. I feel ready to attack the day now.”

  Lauren laughed. “How come Gabe was here so early? It seemed odd, don’t you think?”

  “The construc
tion on his house started today. He stopped here before going to check it out.”

  “Oh, I know; they were so loud. I guess we’ll have to get used to the noise for a while.”

  “If it gets too bad, we can always sleep here.” Kayla laughed, but inside, nothing felt funny.

  “Hey, Kayla?” Lauren asked softly. “Are you okay with Gabe being back in your life? I mean, I know he’s not your boyfriend anymore, but he seems to be around you a lot.”

  Kayla exhaled. “It feels weird. I have these moments when I forget he’s not my boyfriend, but then I see how he looks at me. All detached and standoffish. And my first instinct is to throw my arms around him. To cling to him. Anything to get that look off his face. But he’s not open toward me anymore. The best thing I can do for myself is to keep busy and to throw myself into the store. So come on…let me show you a few things.”

  Lauren gave Kayla a compassionate look before following her out of the office.

  They spent the remainder of the morning learning how to use the computer at the register. Melody had bought an intricate system, top of the line but not always easy to work out. Sarah had learned the basics, but Kayla wanted to show Lauren a little more detail. She’d been smiling and laughing all morning. Tomorrow, they would bring over the castle they used to play with growing up and make paper snowflakes to hang. Lauren asked if she could go through the catalogs and check out some toys she thought they should buy. Lauren was trying. For her, that was a huge step in the right direction.

  After lunch, customers came in and out. When there was a lull, Lauren played with a ball, throwing it in the air and catching it, until a customer came in.

  Lauren became quiet, so Kayla looked up to see what or who had caused the change in her sister’s mood. A gorgeous man with dark blond hair and blue eyes had walked into the store and was looking around.

  Kayla nudged Lauren. “Go and help him,” she whispered.

  If he happened to be single and they hit it off, Kayla would do a happy dance and not care who saw her do it.