One Final Chance: a friends to lovers, stand-alone novel

by LK Collins

We hang up, and I check that all the photos hanging to dry aren’t touching one another before I go into the living room.

  Fallon is no longer asleep. She’s lying awake on the couch surfing on her cell phone.

  “Your mom call you?” I ask her.

  “No, why?” I take a seat next to her and fill her in on the conversation I just had with my mom. Then she says to me, “Oh, that’ll be fun.”

  Anxiously, I run my fingers through my hair, not wanting to beat a dead horse but needing to talk to her about how I’m feeling.

  “What if we don’t tell our dads at the party?”

  “Why not?”

  “Aren’t you stressed about lying?”

  “Sure, but deep down I remind myself it’s the right thing to do. This baby is yours, plain and simple.”

  “I know you say that, but—”

  “But nothing.” She takes my hand and holds it tightly between both of hers. “What we are doing is for the safety of this baby. You hear me, Parks?”

  I nod, and she brings my hand to her lips.

  Motherfucker!

  Her ability to distract me knows no bounds and has my cock growing and my mind on a one-way track. I let her suck my index finger between her perfect lips, but it reminds me too much of her lips around my cock, and I snap. I pull my hand away and reach for the hem of her shirt, but she’s already there, pulling the fabric over her head and tossing it to the floor.

  I slip my other hand into her shorts and cup her sex. The attention I’m giving her makes her moan and the simple sounds wash all my worries away. She rests back on her arms and lets me finger her as she rocks her hips against my hand.

  Jesus, touching her like this has me so hard.

  “Yes, Parks,” she cries loudly, and I add in a second finger, stretching her wider.

  My eyes roam all over her, and as she tenses close to coming, I notice for the first time a small bump on her stomach. She is beginning to show, and I imagine the baby inside her—our baby, and in this moment, I make a promise to never question our decision again. This woman is my life and the life growing inside her is mine.

  Twenty-Four

  Fallon

  It’s a good thing we are telling everyone about the baby tonight because I’m definitely showing. I’m wearing a simple maxi dress that hugs my every curve. There really is no hiding the small baby bump on my stomach, regardless of what I wear.

  Taking the ultrasound pictures off the bed, I place them into my small purse along with my phone and lip gloss before heading out to the living room. Parks is on the couch, and his mouth drops open as he stares up at me.

  “You . . . you look amazing.”

  “Stop it. You’ve seen me wear this dress before,” I tell him as he comes over to me and cups my stomach. “It’s not the dress . . . it’s you.” Then he kneels and tenderly kisses my tummy, mumbling something I can’t make out, all though I wish I could.

  “You look very handsome yourself.” And it’s the truth. He’s wearing a dark gray dress shirt and a pair of jeans.

  “Thank you.” He stands and links our fingers together. “Well, shall we?” he asks as he gestures me out ahead of him before grabbing the gift boxes for our fathers with his free hand.

  “When are you planning on telling them?” His question is one I’ve been pondering most of the day.

  “When they open their gifts.”

  “Don’t you think that’ll be when they’re home?”

  “Maybe. I guess we’re just gonna have to wing it and do it when the time is right.”

  “Okay.” He twists his hands against the steering wheel, and I sense something is bothering him.

  “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”

  “No way, this is just a really big deal. We’re about to tell our parents and everyone they know that we’re having a baby.”

  “Yeah, we are,” I agree, finding comfort in the idea that both our parents will be elated—more like through the roof.

  My phone rings and I look to see who it is. “It’s my mom,” I tell Parks and answer it.

  “Where are you two?” she says a bit frantically before I even say hello.

  “Mom, we are almost there. What’s wrong?”

  “Louis just texted me, and they’re pulling up. You two need to hurry.”

  “Shit, okay. We’ll be right there.” I hang up and turn to Parks. “We gotta rush, they’re almost there.” He puts the pedal down, making the final few turns and as he pulls into the lot, our dads are already walking into the hotel. I point in their direction, and Parks shakes his head frustrated.

  “How are they here before us?”

  “You got me.”

  “Well, shit.” His response makes us both chuckle. This is not the way we wanted to start tonight. Parks grabs the presents, and we both hurry toward the front door, following in right behind our dads.

  Our eyes are on their backs as they enter the ballroom, which erupts into a unanimous “Surprise!” Parks and I jog in behind them, and when our dads turn to hug us, we pretend we’ve been here the whole time. They are both too stunned to notice anyway. My mother is beaming from ear to ear as my dad holds me so tightly it causes my heart to skip a beat. It’s clear that neither of them had any idea this was going on.

  “Did you do this?” he asks me, but I shake my head, pointing to my mom, and he hugs her, too.

  “Did you know? Frank?” he asks Parks’ dad, who is just as elated and he shakes his head. My dad kisses me and then my mom on our foreheads, and Parks passes me one of the gifts.

  “Now?” I mouth to him, and he shrugs, leaving it up to me. I shake my head back to him. This is their time, and I don’t want to cloud that in any way.

  Plus, my dad has already been swept away into a barrage of hugs and happy congratulations.

  “It didn’t feel right,” I tell him.

  “That’s okay.” Parks agrees and sets both the gifts down on an empty table, knowing we don’t want them to get lost in the slew of gifts in the back of the room.

  “Should we eat?” Parks asks me.

  “Yeah, I’m really craving chocolate.”

  He points across the ballroom to the dessert table, which has a huge chocolate fountain on it, and it’s like the second my eyes see it, I can smell the yumminess.

  “You start with desserts. I’m going to head over to the appetizers.” I nod, already lost in all the things I can drench in chocolate. After filling my plate with entirely too much food, we meet back at the table to sit and indulge.

  “Are you really gonna eat all that?” He’s eyeing my plate with a mixture of concern and amusement.

  “Heck yes, I am!”

  He rolls his eyes at me, and I begin to enjoy my food. We are interrupted by my mom when she walks up to us and tries to take the presents away.

  “Can you leave them?” I ask her around a mouth full of chocolate cheesecake. She laughs and moves to set them back down, but my dad is faster.

  “Hey, what are you doing with my presents,” my dad jokingly says, snatching them from her grasp.

  “One’s for Frank,” I tell him as he peeks around the tissue paper, trying to get a glimpse at his present. He might be sixty years old but presents still make him as giddy as a child. “Frank!” he hollers for Parks’ dad, and I swallow my food, knowing now is the time.

  “Get over here, you old geezer! I wanna see what these kids got us.”

  Frank takes the gift that has his name on it, not that it matters considering they are identical, and they both tear into them. My stomach churns as I realize there is no turning back.

  Parks holds on to me tightly, probably feeling the same way even though he’s not showing it.

  My dad is close to exposing the first signs of the framed photograph when Frank removes the silver paper, my heart thudding chaotically.

  Thankfully, they both hold their gifts in their hands at the same time. Parks’ mom is now at Frank’s side, waiting to see the gift as well and
Parks whispers into my ear, “I love you.”

  But before I can respond, my dad holds the picture high in the air and shouts to the entire room of people. “I’m gonna be a grandfather!”

  The look on his face as he stares at Parks and me is . . . priceless. That simple sentence holds so much power, and it sends us into a bombardment of congratulations.

  Twenty-Five

  Parks

  “How ya doing, baby?” I ask Fallon as we finally take a seat.

  “I’m exhausted.”

  “Me, too.” The night has been a crazy tornado of congratulations and blessings. Everyone is through the roof for us.

  “And I need to pee,” Fallon says.

  “Okay,” I tell her, and she kisses my cheek before she walks off. My eyes stay on her the entire time.

  “Can I sit here?” My dad appears to my left, clearly drunk and enjoying his party, as he pulls me out of my Fallon gaze-fest.

  “Of course. It’s your party.”

  He sits, and his hand is unsteady as he raises his glass to his lips. “So you really gonna lie to me? Out of all people, you can’t be honest with your old man?” he asks after taking a sloppy drink.

  “What are you talking about, Dad?” The accusation catches me completely out of left field.

  “That baby is not yours, Parks.”

  “Why would you think that?” I ask him, frantically trying to figure out how he could possibly know that.

  “You think I was born yesterday? I’m sixty years old. The dates don’t add up. Just two months ago, you were in my kitchen complaining about loving Fallon and not being able to tell her. And now what is she, three-four months? I saw the date in the ultrasound pictures, and she is clearly showing.”

  “I wanted to tell you, Dad, I’m sorry I didn’t,” I confess, and he gives me the same disappointed look he did when Meg passed, and I couldn’t save her—a look I hate.

  “You should’ve told me, son.”

  “I was gonna, in time.”

  “Well, it takes a real man to do what you’re doing. That ex of hers belongs some place worse than jail for what he did to that girl. I’m proud of you, but please don’t lie to me ever, Parks,” he says and finishes his drink.

  I feel terrible for lying to him. I mean, out of all people, I should’ve been honest with him. He knows everything about me and has never judged me. Hell, he’s proud of me for what I’m doing.

  “I don’t get how he knew,” she repeats, trying to process what I’m telling her.

  “The timeline doesn’t add up. I always confided in my dad about my feelings for you, and he knows that you were still with Leo until a few weeks ago,” I tell her, holding her body tightly against mine.

  “Then tell him we got drunk and hooked up one night.”

  “He’ll know it’s a lie. Plus, he understands, Fallon, and he isn’t gonna tell a soul.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t want my parents or your mom to find out we lied.”

  “I’ll talk to him more about it in the morning, then we can decide. For now, please don’t stress.” I drop a kiss on her bare shoulder, trying to comfort her.

  “I just want to do what’s right for the baby.”

  “I know you do, and you’re doing a great job.”

  “I don’t feel like it,” she says, and I hate to hear her be so negative and beat herself up. It’s a good thing I’ve learned how to distract her when she gets like this.

  Sliding my hand down her throat and over her breast, I pause to feel her heart pounding beneath my fingertips. I push her back onto the mattress, and she falls gracefully under my hold, letting me drop kisses along her collarbone, neck, and chin.

  She stretches her arms high above her naked body, she smells sweet, like a summer's rain. I continue kissing her, and each time I do, she whimpers. My cock is hard as fuck like it always is when I’m around her, and I grind it against her leg. She reaches down, taking ahold of it, and I groan, loving her touch more than I can explain.

  Moving my hand farther down her body, I urge her thighs apart, and she willingly spreads open wide so I can relish in the wetness of her pussy. As I rub back and forth, we both get lost in the connection that we share, in what and who we are. Together, our worries have no control over us, and that’s how I plan to keep things going forward.

  Twenty-Six

  Parks

  “Morning,” I tell Fallon as I pack a suitcase for our surprise trip that I booked last minute. We need this. From the time we began dating, it’s been stressful.

  “What time is it?” she asks me as she rolls over to watch me. “What are you doing?

  “It’s ten thirty, and I’m packing.”

  “Packing.Why?”

  “Cause, I booked us a trip.”

  “You did?”

  “Hell yeah.” I try to stifle the smirk on my lips, but it’s useless. “You need to get up and pack yourself.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “It’s a surprise,” I tell her, watching a small smile curve on her lips as she imagines what we are about to embark on.

  “Well, if you won’t tell me, at least give me a hint about what I should pack.”

  “Beachwear, sexy,” I tell her and zip my suitcase closed.

  “What gave you this idea to go?”

  “I had breakfast with my dad.”

  “Sounds like it must have been some breakfast. What did he say?”

  “He gave me the idea that we should get away—just the two of us. But once we’re back, he wants us to tell my mom. He doesn’t want to keep it from her in case she ever does find out and then finds out that he knew and she didn’t. He also thinks we should tell your parents. Until then, he won’t say a word to either of them.”

  “What do you think we should do?” she asks me, shifting in bed so the sheet falls a bit. I abandon my suitcase on the floor and crawl up the bed toward her. I can’t resist dropping kisses over her exposed skin until I reach her lips. After a long, slow kiss, I press my forehead to hers.

  “I think we have to tell my mom. I also think it would be better if we were honest with your parents, too. Don’t you think?”

  “I guess.”

  “Good, then we’ll handle it all when we get back. Right now, I’m excited to get away and focus on us. Everything has been so crazy since we started dating, I don’t want us to look back and have regrets.”

  “I’ll never have any regrets being with you.” Her hands come up to cup my jaw, and I can see in her eyes how much she means that.

  “I didn’t mean it like that, baby. I mean just stressing out too much and not enjoying this time before the baby is here.”

  And I hope she gets what I’m saying. I don’t want her to stress the entire time she is pregnant. Before we know it, the two of us will be three, and it’ll put a whole different spin on things. A new dynamic to the way we live our life.

  “For this long of a flight, we could’ve gone to Mexico,” Fallon gripes as the airplane makes its final descent into Hawaii.

  “Are you really complaining?”

  “I’m not complaining.”

  I roll my eyes and hold securely to her hand, hating the moment the wheels touch the ground. I don’t know why, but every time I imagine the plane exploding into a ball of flames. Other than landing, I don’t mind flying.

  “You know I’m just joking. I’m so excited to be here,” she says.

  The wheels touch the ground, and I flinch, holding my breath. No explosion follows—thank God—and I finally find the air to answer her. “Me, too.”

  “I still don’t know how you did all this,” she says as the warm Hawaiian air hits us the moment we step off the plane.

  “I told you, I went online and booked everything after breakfast with my dad.”

  With her body close to mine, we follow the large crowd toward the luggage carrousels. On the flight here, we made an agreement not to stress about anything. All we are going to do is enjoy this time together.

>   After we pick up the luggage, we hop in a cab to the hotel, and as it drives through the tree-lined entryway of the Four Season, I watch Fallon’s eyes as she skips from one beautiful view to the next. She has a grin on her face, and my plan is to keep it there not only while we are here but also long after we leave Hawaii.

  “Are you sure this is the right hotel?” I smirk at her. What? Did she think I would book us into a dive?

  “You didn’t think I’d book anything except for the best for my sexy, did you?”

  The driver stops the car, and I slide my fingers into the back of her hair, pulling her lips to mine and kissing her passionately. I’m so excited to embark on this amazing journey with her. I’m practically pulsating with energy as we leave the cab and check in at the front desk.

  “We hope you enjoy your stay, Mr. and Mrs. Avalon,” the woman says referring to Fallon as my wife. As we follow the bellhop up to our room, I decide that I really, really like the sound of it.

  With the hotel key in my hand, we head toward the room. The ocean in the distance is so relaxing as we weave through the courtyard.

  “Here you are,” he says, and we enter our room. He brings our bags in and leaves them by the door. I pass him a tip, and as the door to the room closes, my eyes are on Fallon. Every filthy thought I’ve ever had is so vivid, and I imagine doing them all to her on this trip.

  “The room is amazing.” Not as amazing as she is. “Thank you for all of this,” she tells me, giving me that look, the one she gives me when she’s begging to be fucked.

  Then she drops to her knees, her soft cotton dress pooling around her as she jerks my cock out. She wraps her warm lips around me working my full length. “Oh fuck.” Watching the way she slowly swallows me almost undoes me.

  It’s a push and pull match of pleasure, but having her on her knees like this makes me want more. Reaching down and into her dress, I pinch one of her soft nipples. The gesture causes her to moan, and I spread my hand, taking her entire breast into my hold. My balls tighten with need, and all I want to do is sink inside her.