The Second Chance Supper Club

by Meier, Nicole

Shane hesitated. He seemed to be putting the pieces together. A hand reached up as he nervously ran his fingers through his hair. “Oh, right. Sorry. It’s been a crazy night around here. I’m Shane. Just a guest.” His gaze flicked briefly to Julia. “But you didn’t come to see me. I’ll leave you both to it. Good to meet you, man.”

  “Thanks.”

  Shane spun on his heel and strode back in the direction of the dining room. But not before Julia caught the confused look on his face.

  “Crazy night?” James asked. “What, are you gals having some kind of party or something?” The suspicious tone remained.

  Ginny emitted a nervous laugh. It was clear she didn’t know what to make of James’s arrival either. “Ha! Yeah, something like that.”

  “How did you find me here?” Julia cut Ginny off before she could continue her sarcasm. Her fingers gripped the edge of the door for stability. A swirl of shock and embarrassment threatened to tip her off-balance if she were to let go. Her nerves were still frayed from the upsetting episode with Angie. Now James had arrived, in Arizona. Two jolts in one night. It was unbelievable. James had traveled halfway across the country and was now standing there in Ginny’s entryway. She didn’t know if she should be happy or utterly pissed off. “I didn’t even know you were coming.”

  “Well, it appears my surprise tactic worked,” James said. He shifted and returned her gaze with a tight smile. He was likely thinking of all the missed calls she had yet to return. Julia needed a minute to recalibrate. How on earth had he found Ginny’s place, anyway?

  “I’m surprised, all right.”

  “I missed you. So here I am.”

  Ginny, clearly feeling like a third wheel, backed up. “Well, that sounds nice. Why don’t you come inside, James?”

  Julia felt a firm hand on her elbow, leading her away. Ginny graciously gestured for James to follow. Though her thoughts were still spinning, Julia felt a wave of gratitude toward her sister. Ginny was also in disbelief and was likely overcome with stress over her guests and the unattended dinner, but she’d put on a gracious-hostess hat for Julia’s sake. She’d have to remember to thank her later.

  But right now, Julia needed to understand what James was doing there in the first place.

  “Thank you,” James said, the muscles in his face relaxing. “You must be Julia’s sister, Virginia.”

  Ginny plastered on a smile. “Everyone calls me Ginny. Nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

  Thank god for Ginny, Julia thought. They both knew Julia hadn’t mentioned James much at all. Instead, she’d brushed aside all inquiries into her love life. But Ginny didn’t let on about any of that. Instead, she donned the old familiar role of covering for her younger sister. No questions asked. Julia’s well of appreciation deepened.

  “Sorry to show up unannounced like this, but I was worried.”

  “You don’t have to apologize to me.” Ginny shook her head. “Julia, why don’t you take him somewhere quiet where you two can enjoy some privacy? I’ve got to get back to our guests.” She sent a pointed look in Julia’s direction, telling her it would be best to keep everyone separate for the time being.

  “Sure, yeah. Let’s do that. Ginny’s busy cooking for some of her friends. She’s probably got things burning on the stove by now.” Julia placed a hand on James’s back, hoping to steer him away from the growing din of voices in the other room. “You can put your bag in my room.”

  Ginny excused herself, and James politely thanked her. Julia led him down the hallway toward the bedrooms. More trepidation bubbled up with each step. Hopefully Olive—who had likely remained in the dining room to keep the dinner guests happy—could take over and help her mom get the remainder of the meal back on track. She’d have to, considering the late hour and James’s overnight bag. They apparently had a lot to discuss.

  “That’s your sister?” James whispered, following close behind. “You two sure don’t look alike.”

  Julia shot him a weary glance over her shoulder. It felt like a loaded question. James returned her gaze with a raised eyebrow, as if to say, I’m only pointing out the obvious.

  “Yes.” She wondered what exactly he’d meant by it. Was it the discrepancy in their ages? Something in his voice caused her to bristle. It was as if he was judging Ginny before he even got to know her.

  Wordlessly, she continued down the hallway and ushered him into the den before shutting the door.

  “You can set your bag down anywhere.” She waved a hand, hoping he could look beyond the unmade bed and modest furnishings. “And then maybe you can tell me what you’re doing here.”

  “Wow. It’s nice to see you, too, honey.” His mouth hung open as he paused, casting a curious gaze about the room. Julia watched him take in the southwestern decor, the traditional leather-and-twig chair, the brightly colored bedding, and the small window in the plastered wall that peeked out into the inky darkness of the desert night. It had become home to her over the past two weeks, providing a sanctuary where she could curl up and rest.

  She wondered, however, whether James saw it that way. James liked things with straight edges and clean lines. His own taste in home furnishings was minimalistic, bordering on sparse. Ginny’s home, on the other hand, was all rounded edges and a multitude of textures—exposed brick, natural-edged wood, and earthy clay. Every surface was adorned with Mexican art. It wasn’t cluttered, per se. But seeing her surroundings through James’s discerning eye, Julia had to admit that her sister’s taste was the opposite of simple.

  “So this is where you’d rather be than back home with me?”

  “No. That’s not fair.” Julia shook her head and then dropped onto the daybed. The springs gave a little wheeze as she did so.

  “No?” James raised a brow.

  She gestured for James to take a seat in the only other chair in the room. “James, it isn’t that I’m not glad to see you. I am. Truly. It’s just that you showed up here like you were ready to storm the castle. I mean, why didn’t you even call? Send a text? Anything.”

  He exhaled and tossed his bag to the side, creating a heavy thump on the rug. Julia noticed his jaw set as he opted to remain standing. “I did call. Several times. Do you not check your phone these days? I’ve been trying to reach you to no avail. I finally got fed up and hopped on a flight. A very full and expensive flight, I might add. This was no easy task, Julia. It’s not like I could just grab an Uber to zip into the next town over. I came all the way out here, to Timbuktu, to find you. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

  Julia swallowed. He’d come here to make her feel guilty. He was doing a good job of it. Her eyes watered.

  “Babe.” His voice softened. “Talk to me.”

  “I’m really sorry. I’ve been busy helping Ginny. I guess I haven’t checked my phone as often as I normally do.”

  The softness faded. “In other words, you haven’t been too interested in communicating with me.”

  Julia met his eye. “That’s not true.” She suddenly felt exhausted.

  “Isn’t it?” His words were edged in fresh bitterness. “Or maybe other things besides your sister have been occupying your time. Maybe that Shane guy out there has something to do with it?”

  Julia scoffed. “Oh, come on. Really? Just because another man is in my sister’s house, you assume something? Do you really think so little of me? That’s one of Ginny’s friends. I only just met him.” The lie rolled off her tongue in a quick, defensive reflex. One she believed, at least partially. Shane hadn’t distracted her that much, had he?

  “Whatever you say.”

  “James.” Julia peered at him. “Why are you here?”

  “To see you.”

  She stood up from the bed and came to face him. It dawned on her now just how long they’d been apart. Standing there, close like that, she could inhale the pleasing, familiar scent of his laundry detergent mixed with his woodsy aftershave. But she was able to see that his eyes were rimmed with a thinly veiled sadness
.

  Her actions had affected them both.

  “I’m glad.” A layer of frost thawed. She had missed him. It was just that she’d pushed him aside temporarily to make room in her heart for Ginny and Olive. In the process, she’d let the details of their lives gradually envelop hers. It had been a welcome break from her own tangled, self-induced worries, that was all. But it had hurt James in the process.

  “I’m glad you wanted to see me. I really am. I just don’t understand why the dramatic entrance, that’s all.” She reached for his arm and gently wrapped her fingers around him. His muscles relaxed. In this instant, Julia could sense herself being drawn back to him, back to the life they’d created.

  James’s expression mirrored her own. Tenderly, he wrapped his hands around her waist and drew her in so that their hip bones touched. The top of her forehead rested against his broad chin as she leaned in and exhaled. It had been a while since she’d been held like that. She felt a little weakening behind her knees as she closed her eyes.

  “Julia.” James’s breath was soft in her hair. “I understand you had a rough go of it at work and you wanted to get away for a bit. I really do. But I need to know you’re not going to run away whenever there’s trouble. You just up and disappeared without even telling me. And then every time I tried to talk to you about it over the phone, it went badly.” He held up a hand and placed it to his chest. “I’m not saying I didn’t play a part in that. I’m just as guilty of being defensive, but it got to the point where I felt the only way we could talk was if I flew out here and knocked on your door. Well, your sister’s door. I found her address online. It wasn’t that difficult. So here I am, heart on my sleeve and everything.”

  Her face turned upward. A new welling of guilt rose up inside her. What had she been so upset about? Here was a man who loved her, had traveled a great distance just to tell her this, and was willing to work through whatever disagreements they’d had just to be with her. New warmth blossomed in her heart as she folded herself tighter into James’s open arms. This was where she belonged. There shouldn’t have been any doubt. Should there? Her career might be on shaky ground, but her relationship with James didn’t have to be.

  Pushing onto the tips of her toes, she angled her face and kissed him.

  “There’s one more thing,” James said after kissing her back. A gleam played in his eyes.

  “What’s that?” she asked dreamily.

  “You’re going to want to sit down for this.”

  Her brows knit together. “Why is that?”

  His hands slid to her elbows, as if bracing her for what he was about to say. “I think I’ve found a way for you to turn this Rossetti thing around. You may not be losing your job after all.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  JULIA

  Julia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She found herself waving James off. He had unspooled his story so quickly that her brain buzzed. It was clear he expected his buoyant energy to be contagious, lifting Julia up out of her stupor and giving her the final shove back to New York, where he thought she belonged.

  “I think you’re going to have to tell me again,” she said. “And this time, go slower.”

  She found she had to sit up straighter in an effort just to take it all in. A slight jittery sensation ran down the length of her spine. The evening had been a series of unexpected jolts.

  “You have a way out,” he repeated. “There’s legitimacy to this thing after all. And you could be the one to expose it.”

  She mulled the notion over in her head, saying nothing at first.

  James took her hand and laced his fingers gently between hers.

  Outside her door, the distant voices of Ginny’s dinner guests rose to a final crescendo, Shane’s among them. The sound of thank-yous and goodbyes being exchanged was followed by the click of the front door. The knot of anxious tension that resided in her lower back shifted and melted away. From the sound of it, everyone had left a happy customer.

  James claimed he’d miraculously—and accidentally—found a way to prove she’d been right about illegal activity in Rossetti’s office. Well, half-right. Julia was skeptical. The damage had already been done. She’d humiliated the mayor and been suspended from her duties at GBN. But the reporter in her hadn’t been snuffed out altogether.

  Information had come across James’s desk recently that had piqued his interest.

  “One of my buddies in the office came over to ask my advice on something, and long story short, we wound up talking about the details of his workload. He showed me a spreadsheet that had Rossetti’s chief of staff listed as one of his clients. I recognized the name right away. I mean, how could I not after all that’s happened, right?” He shifted eagerly and waited for a reaction.

  “Go on.”

  “Well”—he hesitated—“this is all privileged information, and I could lose my job for telling you this, but maybe it will give you the lead you need. This guy, Evan Falsetto, Rossetti’s right-hand guy, had my buddy make a million-dollar investment for him not too long ago. A million dollars! Do you know how much he makes working for Rossetti? I looked it up. Not enough to bankroll that kind of money. I did a little digging, and it seems he’s got a side business—a consulting company—only my guess is he’s been underreporting earnings and got into trouble. The timing is too coincidental. I think it’s the mayor’s chief of staff who’s going to be indicted. I say it looks highly suspicious. Don’t you agree?”

  “Unbelievable.”

  “Anyway, this is the proof you need!” he said. “All you have to do is follow up, make some inquiries, let Peter know there really was a grain of truth to your story after all. Surely, with this kind of scoop, you’ll get your job back. Goodbye suspension, hello promotion! Then we can get back to normal.” His eyes lit up as he looked at her expectantly.

  “Hmm.” Julia rolled the idea around in her head. She envisioned what it would be like to march into Peter’s office with fresh confidence and reclaim what was rightfully hers. To eject that Hannah O’Brian girl from her seat at the desk and stun a smug-faced Miller, putting him in his place once and for all. If what James was telling her was true, and if she could get her hands on concrete proof, then GBN would have to put her back on the air and agree to let her break the story. Wouldn’t they?

  Getting her job back and getting back into Peter’s good graces was what she’d wanted. But still . . . A nagging dread lingered at the back of her mind. Something within her that, over the course of the past couple of weeks, had altered. Julia wasn’t about to share this feeling with James just yet. She needed time to think.

  “It’s tempting, I’ll give you that,” she mused. Her brain started to turn over the list of possibilities. She ran over the various angles she could take, the headlines that might be born from breaking a story of this magnitude. She considered the gratification that would come along with it—a kind of satisfying redemption that comes with uprooting the truth after everyone thought it wouldn’t be possible.

  She could do it. Maybe. If the stars were aligned just so. She’d need corroborating evidence, a solid source, someone credible who would go on record and admit to all of this. Who was going to do that? James’s coworker? Someone in the AG’s office? Not likely. Julia understood that would be the most difficult hurdle to cross, finding someone to come forward.

  As eager as James was for his fiancée to redeem herself, Julia knew this kind of story would prove tricky no matter the conditions. Politicians didn’t like to show their cards. Ever. And neither did their chiefs of staff.

  Julia tapped her upper lip with her index finger, mentally sorting through the narrative. This was big, but getting it packaged up and airtight enough to go on the air wouldn’t be easy. At the moment, she had little street cred left. If any.

  James scoffed. “Tempting? How about a sure thing? An ace in the hole? This is what you’ve wanted, right? To redeem yourself with the network and prove you didn’t make up a false accusat
ion? To shed your image of ‘fake news’ and reaffirm your reputation?”

  Julia sighed. She could tell he was becoming incredulous. “Yes.” She nodded. “Of course.”

  “Then why are you even debating this?” he asked. “If I were you, I’d be shoving my clothes into a bag as we speak and then catching the next flight out of here. Pronto.” His breath came out in short bursts, a kind of frenetic energy radiating off his now-taut frame.

  Julia could tell he’d wanted nothing more than for her to leap to her feet, throw her arms around his neck in gratitude, and begin packing up her suitcase so they could both flee back to the city. James didn’t like how she’d derailed both of their lives with her reckless actions. That kind of behavior wasn’t what he expected from her. It was time they got back to the business of being a couple.

  Back to normal, as he’d so succinctly put it.

  But Julia didn’t budge. She had the distinct feeling she was being pressed into a corner. Only she wasn’t sure how to wriggle out.

  “Julia?” he asked. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

  “James.” She inhaled, drawing courage into her lungs. If she were to utter anything other than full agreement with his plan, it would once again create a fissure between them. Yet something stronger, almost visceral, began to churn inside her gut. She knew she wouldn’t be able to explain it, not yet anyway, but something kept her rooted to the ground.

  She wasn’t ready to make her next step.

  “You are amazing,” she began. “I can’t thank you enough for bringing this information all the way here, and for trying to save my career. It’s overwhelmingly generous.”

  “I’m glad.” His breathing slowed and he narrowed his eyes, as if he was trying to make a careful calculation. She’d seen this look on him many times before. As when gauging an unpredictable stock or tricky investment, James was trying to predict the outcome. “So? Why aren’t you as enthused as I am right now? I thought you’d be leaping out of your skin when I told you.”

  She shifted. “And I would be.”