Another Chance (Lake Placid Series Book 7)

by Natalie Ann

  “Yes, it would. You trust all those people in that room. Trust them more than you trust me. If they gave me a hard time. If they said I was a piece of shit and you needed to stop giving me another chance, you’d sit back and at least listen to them.”

  He was right. “That doesn’t mean I’d do what they said. Or that I’d believe what they said.”

  “Is that a shot against me for believing Randall?” he asked.

  “Yes. But you were young back then. We’re both adults now. What if Randall said those things to you now?”

  He snorted. “Please. There’s nothing he can say to me that would change my mind about anything. You know that now and you know why. What about you? What if your father told you to drop me? That you’re stupid and crazy and irresponsible to spend time with me.”

  She started to laugh. “He’d never say that to me. First off, he’s always let me make my own decisions in life and he’s always supported me with them too. Second of all, he knows darn well we are dating and he hasn’t said anything bad about it.”

  “Has he given his approval?” he asked.

  “The fact my father came and had words with you is approval enough. He’d have no problem telling either one of us if he thought we were making a mistake.”

  “That’s true. So I’ve got to ask, did I push you away saying I loved you just now? I’ve been dying to say it for weeks and honestly have been afraid to.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Because I’m terrified of making the wrong move. Of pushing you away. Of doing anything to make you say you’ve had enough.”

  “And tonight you decided to take that risk?” she asked him.

  “Yeah. Was it stupid of me? Was I wrong to do it?”

  “No. You weren’t wrong. And I’ll tell you back that I love you too.”

  He smiled, one that reached his eyes more than any other smile she’d seen from him since he’d been back in her life. Then he stood up and pulled her into his arms. “I can’t tell you how happy that makes me feel.”

  “I get that. Don’t be getting too excited just yet. I told you there is a fine line between love and hate. You could easily just cross right back over to the other side.”

  He laughed. “I hope you’re joking, but I’ll take that warning to heart.”

  She was only half joking. “It doesn’t solve anything though. I still have a life here and a career and you’re at a crossing of sorts. It doesn’t mean much more than we love each other. I’m not ready to start making plans on the future just yet.”

  “You said ‘just yet,’ not ‘not at all.’”

  “Don’t push your luck.”

  Shot in The Heart

  Monday afternoon, Matt got a call from Randall. He wanted to let it go to voicemail, but he’d been waiting on the verdict. They were still in court on Thursday and Friday and hoped to wrap up today with closing arguments.

  The party a few days ago on Saturday was a nice distraction. Or maybe work on Friday was a nice distraction from the party. Either way, it didn’t matter. What mattered was he was dying to know the results.

  “Tell me you’ve got good news,” Matt said when he answered.

  “Great news. They ruled in favor of Dr. Levin. There just wasn’t any evidence that he didn’t do exactly what was expected of him. On Friday he was on the stand being questioned on the procedure itself. It had gone off flawlessly. They’d even brought in another doctor for a second opinion on the procedure who agreed that there weren’t any complications whatsoever. That Abby was young, in good health and should have easily started to lose the weight if she just adhered to the recommendations and guidance given. Pretty much all those forms she signed.”

  “Well, score one for justice and the little guy winning in this case.”

  “I’m not sure many people would think the doctor is the little guy, but I get where you’re coming from. I’m sure Abby’s attorney is cursing and swearing. That was one hell of a cut she would have gotten had the verdict gone the other way.”

  It was always all about money with Randall. “But it didn’t. We got our fees and that is what we thought. There was no big payday for us on this.”

  “Not true,” Randall said. “There is a good possibility that a few of the major hospitals in the area are going to put us on retainer now.”

  Matt grinned. “That’s great. Huge actually.”

  “It is. They’ve all got their own counsel, but we know in cases like this they like to pull in outside sources. I knew you were the man for this one, Matt, and you didn’t let me down.”

  It was nice to hear, but a little too late in Matt’s eyes. “I’m glad it all worked out.”

  “Speaking of all working out,” Randall said, “when are you coming back? You looked great last week. Like you’re healing well. You weren’t limping at all. Did you get a chance to check in with your doctor while you were here?”

  He wanted to lie and say he had an appointment next month and not admit he pushed it up, but he didn’t.

  “I don’t know yet what I’m going to do. I did see my doctor and he said I’m doing well, and attributed it to the fact I’m not sitting at a desk or standing all day long. That I’m not working twelve-hour days, but breaking my time up.”

  “I can see that,” Randall said. “What about coming back part time to the office? Having the freedom to work from home like you are now and coming into the office and court as needed?”

  That would be nice, but Matt knew it’d never work out that way.

  “Really, Randall? You know as well as I do if I was there I’d be in the office or court nonstop. I was there three days and working until eight. I got pulled into late night meetings after court every day. There’s no part time.”

  Randall laughed. “So true. It was worth a shot. So I guess the question is, when do you think you’ll be back here full time?”

  “Do I need to give you a specific date?” he asked, not expecting that yet.

  He’d only been here close to two months. When he started this journey he said he needed at least four months’ time and Randall had agreed. He was barely to the halfway mark.

  “No. You’ve got time yet from our original agreement. I just thought since you looked so good that I could push a bit more. You know how I am. You’re an asset to the team and I wanted you back earlier rather than later.”

  He was only an asset when Randall wanted something or needed something.

  “Yeah well, glad I could help. Send me whatever else you need,” Matt said, knowing that would pacify Randall for now.

  “I’ve got a few cases on my desk I’ll be pushing along for research. But I fully expect more medical ones to come our way very fast now. By the end of this week I might be sending you more than you can handle.”

  That laugh again that Randall always had. The one that was part joking and not really joking at all.

  “I’ll do what I can,” Matt said. He was no longer going to bend over backward for his stepbrother with a carrot dangling in front of him. He wasn’t that horse that was starving anymore.

  He wasn’t someone to be played and led along.

  “Speaking of doing what you can…what have you been doing there other than work and rehab? You’d always bitched about it as a kid and how bad it was in the winter. I’ve got to imagine you’re pulling your hair out in boredom.”

  “Hardly,” he said and realized at that moment how true that statement was. He really wasn’t bored at all.

  Work was keeping him busy. So was rehab. But the thing keeping him on his toes more than anything was his situation with Dena.

  The thrill of the chase. The excitement of the catch.

  The elation of knowing that she loved him the same as he loved her.

  No, she wasn’t making promises just yet and he didn’t expect her to. But it was a start and he had no intention of jeopardizing anything at this stage.

  Not for work. Not when he was making plans along those lines and was just waiting for
a few more dominoes to fall into place.

  “Catching up with any old friends?” Randall asked him.

  It wasn’t the first time Randall had brought it up. A fishing expedition is what it was and Matt decided to share his catch.

  “I was out Saturday night with a bunch of old friends. It was a good time. Met a bunch of new people too. It’s not as bad as I thought it was through the eyes of a kid.”

  “What about Diane? Have you seen her again?”

  Randall had always gotten her name wrong. “Dena. And yes, we’ve been spending time together again.”

  “Hmm. Is she willing to leave now?”

  “No,” Matt said. “She’s got a great job and career here. Her family and friends are here. I don’t know that she’d leave them for anything.”

  “Then you’re just getting a piece of ass like you had when you were younger. Nothing wrong with that. Tell me, what’s it like going back to your first? Better than before? Worse? The things in our minds from when we were kids are so much different than adults,” he said, laughing.

  “I’m not talking about my relationship with Dena to you,” Matt said, grinding his teeth. “If you’ve got nothing else to say about work, then I’ll just get back to it.”

  “Don’t be so testy, Matt,” Randall said. “You always got so defensive when I brought her up, yet you listened to me about making the break before school started.”

  He had. He shouldn’t have, but the one thing Randall was right about was that Dena would have thought he’d found someone else if he’d broken things off after college started.

  The question was, would he have wanted to end things anyway being so far apart from her?

  He didn’t want to admit that there was part of him that was afraid Dena was going to find someone else better when she was at school and break things off with him.

  That he was insecure about the fact no one wanted him and he didn’t want to find out Dena fell into that category. That maybe he listened to what Randall said back then because it was better to call the shots than be the one shot in the heart.

  Too bad he was so wrong back then and wasted so much of his and Dena’s lives.

  A Test

  “Matt did well Saturday,” Amber said Monday. They’d been working for a few hours with no conversation about Saturday’s party at all. No one even texted her on Sunday to find out how things were going or giving their opinion. She’d kind of expected it by now and was shocked that it was coming out of left field while they had a break in patients.

  “I didn’t know he was being graded,” Dena said.

  “Please, Dena,” Amber said, laughing. “You know it was a test. You’ve never brought any guy to one of our group functions before. We’ve barely met half the men you’ve dated and if we know about them it’s just in casual passing.”

  “True,” Dena said.

  “This was a test, wasn’t it?” Amber asked.

  “Not really.”

  “Yes, really,” Amber said, poking at her arm. “Everyone loved him. He talked quite a bit with Zach and even Caleb. And you know darn well hardly anyone talks with Caleb.”

  Celeste’s husband was a recluse, but he was a good guy too. No one knew a ton about him other than he was extremely wealthy and worked for Nick now and again on a contracted basis. The joke about Caleb not working for Nick wasn’t a joke but rather the truth.

  “I think he and Caleb have a bit in common. They are both the outsiders.”

  “They aren’t the only outsiders in the group and you know it,” Amber argued.

  “You know what I mean. Everyone else still had some kind of tie, but Caleb was a complete stranger.”

  “And Matt is hardly a stranger. He went to school with you. He knew half the people at that party from years ago. You’re reaching and you know it. Why?”

  “He told me he loved me Saturday night.”

  Amber grinned. “And you didn’t text me on Sunday? Why? Best friends do those things, you know. You don’t come into work and wait hours to tell me. Did you say it back?”

  She’d wanted to tell Amber and Rene about it, but decided not to. She knew they’d have a ton of questions that she just didn’t have the answers to.

  “I didn’t at first. We talked some more and then I finally said it.”

  “Why did you wait?”

  “I wanted to know why he was saying it at that point. Why he hadn’t said it before. He’d told me he never stopped loving me, but to say those three words...well, it hadn’t come up even though I kind of expected it by now.”

  “What was his answer?”

  “The party. Lots of things. He reminded me that he’d never lied to me. Which he hadn’t. Then he told me the reason he broke things off and how it was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do.”

  Amber snorted. “Really? Then he shouldn’t have done it. What was his reason?”

  “It doesn’t matter. His stepbrother, who happens to be his boss now, had a lot of influence in his life back then. I knew that and hated the guy. Matt would come home from visits all the time talking about Randall and I felt if I ever saw the prick I’d kick him in the balls.”

  “I didn’t think Matt would be the kind of person to fall to pressure like that.”

  “I didn’t either. But I knew that he felt no one wanted him. He never showed that to the outside world. He never wanted to move here, but his father didn’t offer to let him stay. His mother moved to be with Bob, and Matt felt lost in the shuffle. He said I was the only one that wanted him. I believe that. I believe he thought it back then and still believes it today.”

  “Which makes no sense since he threw it away,” Amber said, crossing her arms.

  “True. But to his defense, he felt that because I was so adamant about not moving and being with him, that I really didn’t want him enough.”

  “That’s absurd,” Amber said.

  “Not really,” Dena said, her shoulders dropping. “My father said something similar to me a while ago. That maybe I didn’t love him enough.”

  “And you believe that?” Amber asked. “I’m shocked.”

  “I did love him. I thought I loved him enough. I know looking back that maybe I didn’t listen to what he wanted enough. That maybe I brushed it off.”

  “Then he can be guilty of that too. You didn’t want to leave your friends and family as much as he wanted to go back to his.”

  “True. We were young and stupid, and as his mother told me, maybe we had too many things planned out rather than just letting them fall into place.”

  “That’s very true. I can tell you, life doesn’t fall into place the way we want it to just because we wish it so. I made a lot of mistakes in my life and I’d like to say they all led me to being where I am now and being happily in love with Zach. You know as well as I do, I left Zach without a word after we met and I knew it was a mistake. Thankfully he hunted me back down and never gave up.”

  Dena knew all about Amber and Zach’s situation. She’d never realized until this moment how much they were alike. Sort of.

  “Matt has given no indication of giving up. Especially since I did say I loved him back.”

  “What was his reaction?”

  “He was thrilled. It feels different this time. Maybe more mature. But I told him there is a fine line between love and hate and that I could cross back over easily.”

  Amber burst out laughing. “That is soooo something I would have said.”

  “He just laughed and said he understood. I did tell him that loving him didn’t mean I was making plans or promises. It just meant another step in the right direction.”

  “A good direction,” Amber said. “You two will work it out. Just stay open minded. I’d hate for you to leave here, and so would Max. But you’ve got to follow your heart if it’s telling you to go.”

  “Whoa,” Dena said. “I’m not going anywhere. I told him that. He knows. I love it here. Not just the fact I’d never leave my father, but my friends and family.
My job and my career. There is no way in hell I’d leave without a solid reason or opportunity and one hasn’t come forward. Nor would I ever pick up and move my life without being married to someone.”

  Amber stood up and wrapped her arm around Dena’s shoulder. “I’m so glad to hear you say that. Now the question is, if he would be willing to stay.”

  “He would be. The real question is if he’d be happy.”

  ***

  At the end of the day, Dena drove to her father’s house rather than home. She was glad to see his truck in the driveway, so she let herself in the front door.

  “Hey, Dad,” she said, seeing him in the living room. “Do you have time to talk?”

  “I’ve always got time for you, sweetie. What’s wrong? Did Matt upset you? I told him he’d have to answer to me if he did it again.”

  She laughed. “He mentioned you two talked. He didn’t tell me specifics and I didn’t ask. I guess that’s between you two.”

  “It was. It is. So he brought it up I was there?”

  “No. I ended up saying that I knew you’d probably reach out to him at some point and he admitted that you had and came to terms.”

  “Smart boy. He said he wouldn’t lie to you if you asked.”

  “He’s never lied to me that I can remember. I might not have known everything going on in his mind, but thinking back, I’m not sure I can remember a time that I realized he’d lied to me about anything.”

  “That’s important, Dena. You have to be able to trust your partner.”

  She sat down on the couch across from him in his recliner. “I’m not sure I’d say trust. I still don’t trust that something might not change his mind and send him packing, but I believe he wouldn’t lie about the reason for it if it happened.”

  “I’m not so sure that will happen, but that’s not what you’re here to talk about. What do you want to talk about?”

  “How come you never dated again after Mom left?”

  “You know, I expected you to ask me this a long time ago, and when you never did, I just pushed it aside. But let’s be honest. How many women are interested in an old overweight plumber?”