Second Chance (Chances #2)

by BJ Harvey

  I stand up straight and jog on the spot. “Sounds good,” I reply, following her lead.

  We start to run along the park’s five-mile trail.

  “No Bruno today?” Kenzie asks.

  “He’s still asleep. His flight got in late, and he needs all the rest he can get.”

  “I don’t know how you guys do it. If he’s not working, he’s with you, or he’s catching a six-hour flight to spend two days with Oakley. When does the guy get a break?”

  “He doesn’t,” I reply matter-of-factly. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you about something?”

  “And it had to be while I was hot and sweaty?”

  I giggle. “It’s the only time I know we can talk privately without anyone interrupting.”

  She smirks. “That’s actually true. If it’s at work, it’s usually Sadie needing to share her latest dating disaster. Or Mark, complaining about his teenage sister causing him to go gray with all her antics, and if it’s Millen . . . well, then you know not to come into the office at all.” She blushes—and it’s definitely not from running this time.

  “Exactly.” I take a long sip of water from my drink bottle and tuck it back into my backpack.

  “I think Bruno needs to move back to Indianapolis,” I announce, and Kenzie almost trips, slowing down to a steady walk to recover.

  “I’m sorry, did you just tell me you think your boyfriend should move away?” she says, her voice rising to a high-pitched screech at the end. “The man you love? The man you’ve stood by through all of this, and the one man you finally let past that fortress you erected around your heart? You think he should move halfway across the country to live in the same city as his ex-wife and daughter? That is your solution?”

  My eyes bug out of my head at her outburst. I thought my idea was logical. Bruno can visit me a lot less than he needs to visit his daughter. It’s Oakley who needs him more than me right now. It’s Oakley who Bruno needs more than me too.

  “Have you lost your mind?” she yells.

  I put my hands on my hips and glare at my best friend. “It’s the right thing for him to do. He needs time to build a relationship with his daughter. Him and I are in a good place, and living apart for a while won’t change the way we feel about each other. It just delays the inevitable.”

  “The inevitable being a long-distance relationship, which—by the way—rarely works out?”

  “I wouldn’t let that happen.”

  “And you think you’d have a say in that? I had ten days away from Millen, and that was the hardest week and a half of my life.”

  “But you thought he was gone forever.”

  “I sacrificed my happiness for that of a child. Sound familiar?” she says straight back, her raised brow and meaningful stare breaking through my ignorance.

  Well, shit.

  She reaches out and clasps my shoulder, giving me a gentle squeeze. “The only way I’d let you do this is if you’re suggesting you move with him. But something tells me you didn’t think of doing that, did you?”

  I gasp. I figured moving would happen eventually. Maybe in a year or so . . . but not now. I’m not ready to move now. Everything I know—everyone I know—is here in Davis. My parents, Kenzie, and Millen, all the guys and girls at work, my house . . . everything.

  My breaths come thick and fast as reality sinks in. I knew something would have to give—I just didn’t think I would be the one having to make such a monumental decision. It may not be the first time I’ve moved away for a guy, but then again, look how it turned out last time.

  Yes I have closure with Luke, and I now truly believe that everything that happened between us did so for a reason. It meant I could find myself. It meant I could stand on my own two feet, buy my own house, renovate it, find my ‘home’ back in Davis, and meet my bar family who I love and care for just as much as my own blood.

  Then there’s Kenzie. The lime to my Corona, the Wilma to my Betty, the Monica to my Rachel. I can’t imagine living so far away from her and missing out on all her milestones, like marriage and babies. She promised she’d give her first daughter my name. I can’t keep her to that if I’m not here. Can I?

  “Look at me, Gabs,” Kenzie says, resting both hands on my shoulders now and giving me a shake. I meet her narrowed eyes and will myself to calm down. The last thing I need to do is have a panic attack here in the park. “Come here.” She drops her hand into mine and drags me toward the nearest bench, taking a seat and pulling me down beside her.

  “I don’t know what to do,” I whisper, squeezing her hand.

  “Yes, you do. Your brother did it for James, and I would do it for Millen in a heartbeat, even if it meant leaving you.” My breath catches at her admission, but she doesn’t stop. “There are things called phones and Skype and vacations. Do not let me or anyone else be the reason you risk your relationship.”

  “I just can’t stand by and see him do this to himself. He’s wearing himself so thin, I’m scared he’s going to fall apart completely.”

  “And you think you telling him to move away and live without you—the woman he would move mountains, fight to the death, and stand in front of a bullet for—would help him? Because honey, if you think that, you really can’t see how much that man adores you. How much he loves you, and needs you to be the sun in his day and the moon in his night. You made sure I didn’t fuck it up with Millen. This is me repaying the favor.” She pauses as if to make sure she has my full attention. She needn’t worry; there is nothing more important to me than the truth she is hitting me with right now. “If you did this, you would lose him, and I know that you would not survive that. You are as much his as he is yours, and I didn’t spend the last four months watching that man make you the happiest I have ever seen you in your entire life to let you fuck it all up now. This is not me saying I want you to go—this is me telling you that life is too short to waste time on flying back and forward to see the person you love when you could be right there with them the whole damn time.”

  I lift my hands to my eyes and scrub my face, wiping away the tears that started falling around the time she said I’m Bruno’s sun and moon. I remember saying something eerily similar to her about Millen when they were going through their bullshit too. “I don’t want to lose myself again.”

  She reaches out and tucks a loose hair behind my ear. “Honey, if you think Bruno would ever let you do that, you really haven’t been paying attention.”

  “What about my house? My job? My—”

  “We’ll rent out your house so it’s still here if you ever need it—not that you will. Your job? Well, since I know your boss and I’m sleeping with the owner, I think I can take care of that minor detail. We’ve got Dalyn, and we can always see if Mark wants to move to the door and then just bring one of the girls on full-time. And your family? They just want to see you happy, and despite the little detail of the ex-wife and unknown child, they too know that Bruno is the one who does that.”

  “What if I’m not ready?”

  “I’ll slap you around until you realize you are?” she says with a shit-eating grin on her face. “You need to pick up those big-girl panties of yours, snap the elastic, and just do it.”

  I tilt my head and smirk. “Nike? Really?”

  “What?” she replies. “It’s the best I could do at short notice.”

  Rolling my eyes, I grab her hands in mine and bite my lip, just the idea of not being able to see her every day making my chest ache. “Is it too early to start drinking?” I ask. “You know, calm my nerves before I actually start to make this happen?”

  “As your best friend? Never. As your boss . . .” She grimaces. “I have to encourage you not to drink before your shift. But you know what is just as good as tequila?”

  “What?” I ask, fighting back a smile.

  “Running back home, jumping into bed with your man, and rocking his world before you actually rock his world.”

  “
I suppose it still counts as a workout, doesn’t it? I mean, it gets the heart rate up.” I stand and hold my hand out, pulling her up from the bench. We turn back towards the entrance to the park, plans for five miles now well forgotten.

  “It makes you get hot,” she replies, stopping at the same pole near the old dudes and giving them a cheeky bonus stretch.

  “It can definitely be rigorous.” I turn around, and give them my best Lycra-clad pose, bending at the waist to touch my toes briefly before straightening and giving them a wave. “See you at the bar, boys.”

  After they wave back at the two of us, Kenzie and I walk to the sidewalk and stop to face each other.

  “So we’re both going home to jump our men?” she asks, her cheeks flushed.

  “Yep,” I say with a nod. “And I bet it’ll be the fastest run home ever.”

  We both giggle before Kenzie sobers. “Besides, Millen probably needs a distraction after last night’s phone call with Drew.”

  My head jerks back. As far as I knew, the last time Drew and Millen saw each other was at the wedding. “Um, what’s going on there?”

  “He called me drunk last night asking where Millen was. I was working, and thankfully, Millen was on the roof with me at the time so I left them talking and went back to work. Turns out things aren’t so cut and dried where Lana is concerned.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know. All Millen said was that something was going on between Drew and Lana, and he might need to go to San Francisco this week to help sort it out.”

  “Well, that sounds juicy.”

  “If Lana is involved, it’s bound to be a clusterfuck that she herself has orchestrated. Anyway, if it’s a distraction my fiancé needs, that’s exactly what he’s going to get.”

  Then I remember something and suddenly, my plan seems to be set in stone. “Hey, isn’t Millen’s sister, Ashley, looking for work? You could give her my job, and she could rent my house. That’s like a win-win in my book.”

  Kenzie’s eyes brighten and she nods. “She is,” she says excitedly. “Not that I want you to go but last time we talked to her, I really got the impression that Ashley wanted a change of scene and a change of pace. She’s had some guy issues and was actually thinking of going back overseas. Millen tried to talk her into coming to stay with us for a while but she didn’t want to cramp our style. But maybe this kills two birds with one stone.”

  I nod, and it hits me that this is actually going to happen—as long as Bruno agrees, of course.

  “You’re really gonna do this, aren’t you?” Kenzie asks.

  I bite my lip to stop it from trembling, but she’s not wrong. “Yeah. I think I am.”

  “Maybe jump Bruno before you drop this bomb on him.”

  Now I frown. What happened to her telling me this was a good idea? “Why?”

  She grins and reminds me of what I’m gonna be leaving behind if I can actually make this happen. “Cause then you’re guaranteed to get round two, and we both know from experience that our men always like to make it count.”

  Chapter 25

  Ten minutes later I’m walking through our front door, emptying my pockets onto the kitchen counter and moving toward the bedroom.

  My heart is racing, my brain going a million miles an hour as I try to anticipate what Bruno’s reaction is going to be.

  This is not the same as when I followed Luke to college, then to Sacramento where we bought a house and planned our life together, all based around his career, his needs, and his dreams. This isn’t Bruno expecting me to uproot my entire life to fit in with his.

  This time, I am the one choosing to do it. I want to be with Bruno, and I don’t want him wasting his life away working, sleeping, and flying back and forth between the two most important people in his life. I want to be the one making him happy, and I’m hoping he understands why we need to do this.

  Pushing my hand against the door, I ease it open to be met by sleepy green eyes. It’s as if he was waiting for me.

  I don’t waste any time in putting a knee on the bed beside his hip and swinging my other leg over his hip to straddle him. He rests his hands on my waist, an adorable look of confusion and amusement on his face.

  “Good morning,” I say cheerfully, bouncing a little and earning a groan.

  “You better stop doing that if you don’t want another kind of workout,” he rumbles.

  I lean forward, putting my hands on either side of his head and dipping my forehead to touch his. “Hold that very delicious thought. I have a proposition to make.”

  His brows quirk, and he lifts his hips up to grind against mine. “I thought this was your proposition,” he says, his eyes growing hooded as they roam down my front and back up again.

  “Let’s call that a promise for later. We need to talk first.”

  His fingers flex against my skin before he puts one arm underneath his head. “Okay. The sooner we finish talking, the sooner we can get back to this proposition of yours.”

  He’s all laidback and carefree in this moment but looking closer, I can see the bags under his eyes and the frown lines that have deepened during the past three months. He’s a man with the weight of his world on his shoulders, one who is putting everyone ahead of himself and forgetting about his own needs.

  Something that I’m about to rectify, because everyone deserves to be put first by someone in their life, and Bruno is the most deserving man I’ve ever had the pleasure of loving.

  “How are you feeling?” I ask, dipping down to kiss him. He lets me take the lead, opening his mouth, his tongue meeting mine stroke for stroke as I languidly explore his mouth before pulling back.

  “Better now.” He smiles against my lips. I love this playful Bruno. He’s always been there, but under the weight of our baggage—and his big secret—he rarely let this side of himself come out. These past three months, we’ve both been living in the moment, especially since moments we get to spend alone are few and far between.

  “I . . .” I have a moment of doubt, a flash of insecurity that this may not be a good idea. But we’re more solid now than we have ever been. He’s the love of my life, and there’s no other man I want to spend forever with. He’s it for me, and I want him to know it.

  It’s not only about me saying we need to do this—for him, for me, and most importantly, for his daughter—it’s about showing him that wherever he is, I want to be. Forever and always.

  “Baby, rip the Band-Aid off. Whatever’s wrong, we can fix this. I know it’s hard right now with me working so much and flying back and forth every two weeks, but it will get better. I promise,” he says.

  I’m shot through the heart. Even exhausted, he’s still willing to break his back for me.

  Not this time.

  I press my weight into him, moving my hands to cup his jaw, making sure I have his complete attention. “I don’t want it to get better. I want it to be easier—on you.” His eyes gentle and he opens his mouth to say something, but I power on. “I love you—I hope you know that.”

  “I do.”

  “But I can’t stand around and watch you be the only one working so hard towards our future.”

  His hand glides from my waist up my back, his fingers going around the back of my neck and holding me in place, his expression growing serious. “Gaby, being here for you, working hard for us, and spending time in Indiana with my daughter is not hard work. It’s tiring, but nothing easy is worth having, is it?”

  “Life shouldn’t be this hard when it’s this good. I need you to let me help make this better for us. Oakley needs a daddy she can see more often. You deserve a life not just spent sleeping, working, and flying. Let me do this for you.”

  His head jerks back, and his eyes narrow on me. “What are you saying? Cause if you’re about to break up with me, I’m afraid the answer is no.”

  I crush my mouth to his and this time, the kiss is anything but soft. It’s ha
rd and deep, leaving no room for doubt when it comes to the way I feel about this man, and the way I know he feels about me.

  We pull apart, and I lay it all on the line. “I want to move to Indianapolis. With you. I want to get a house with a white picket fence and a backyard, where we can get a small dog. I definitely want a cat too. I’ve never had a pet before, and I’ve always wanted one. I think I could really nail being a cat mom. It could be training for being a stepmom and then maybe . . .” My eyes drift to the side, my heart thumping hard and fast.

  “Keep going . . .” Bruno growls. His grip firms on my neck, his eyes stormy with need, yet the hope shining back at me is so blinding it’s threatening to overwhelm me. He wants this.

  “I want to meet Oakley. I want to build a relationship with your daughter so that when we have kids of our own—one day—she’ll be part of that too. I want you. I want everything that comes along with you. I want to be the one taking care of you while you are running yourself into the ground taking care of everyone else.”

  “You do.”

  “I want to do that in Indianapolis.”

  Without warning, he jerks us up so he’s sitting and I’m straddling him, his hands sliding into my hair, his fingers tightening to hold me in place.

  “Are you sure?” he rasps, his voice like rough sandpaper, setting my body alight.

  “I’ve never wanted anything more in my life. You were made for me. The universe may have put us both through hell to get here but without going through all of it, we would’ve never met, and I can’t imagine my life without you in it,” I reply.

  “You’re never going to have to.” He tugs my head to the side and slams his mouth against mine. This time, he’s the one taking the lead. He gives, and he takes, and he pours everything into it. The pain, the hurt, the hope, the joy, and ultimately—the love.

  When we finally come up for air, the tightness in his face is gone. He looks ten years younger. It’s as if the weight has been lifted.

  “But what about work, your family, your house . . .?” he asks, looking around the room.