Second Chance Baby

by Natasha L. Black

  Second Chance Baby

  Natasha L. Black

  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue

  Millionaire Hero (Sample)

  A Note from the Author

  Books by Natasha L. Black

  Connect with Natasha L. Black

  Introduction

  In walks my past, hotter than ever.

  I never could tell her no.

  If Ava thinks she can walk back into my life

  Thinks I’ll help her out when she’s desperate for a job,

  If she thinks I’m going to lay awake wanting her back…

  She’s right.

  My first love, my first heartbreak, and now she needs me.

  I’m not the kind of man who would walk away from her.

  Loyal to the core, running my family’s bar and working sixteen hour days.

  The next thing I know I’m working long nights with Ava

  Feels like old times, and an old flame that never stopped burning

  Is about to become an inferno.

  All that desire, all those years apart

  How could we make the same mistake again?

  The one that cost us everything all those years ago

  When we couldn’t get past what we’d lost.

  Can we survive it this time, older, wiser, more in love than ever?

  Or will it tear us apart just like it did back then?

  1

  Ava

  Traveling in a moving truck had officially lost its charm. When I first packed up all my belongings into the little box truck and headed out onto the highway, there was a certain romance about it. Hopping onto a plane to travel was easy. All it took was a few hours, some hassle to go through TSA, and there I was. But driving was real. It put me right there, me and the road, seeing the country as I went. It would be an adventure, a memory I would carry with me.

  And I did. Right up until I hit hour twenty-four and the discomfort of riding in a moving truck really settled in. “Comfort Cab” my ass. Unless their idea of comfort was constant bouncing and the lingering fear in the back of my neck that came from not being able to see anything through the rearview mirror because of the truck. In that case, they totally nailed it. If comfort meant anything else, they needed to work on their vocabulary skills.

  That mark hit about ten driving hours ago, and I was on an upswing. I picked up a few tricks of the road like putting a rolled-up towel behind my back to help keep me sitting up straight and support the muscles. Blaring my favorite music for the last hour of the stretch helped as well. And now, finally, the end was in sight. I recognized everything around me, and it made my heart feel warm.

  I was home.

  Astoria looked different than it did the last time I was there. That was at Christmas. There are few things in this world as beautiful as Oregon at Christmas. But now all the twinkling lights were gone, and there were no more wreaths hanging from the streetlights along the main street in town. The six months that had passed since my last visit warmed up the town, and it was alive with green under a gorgeous crystal-blue sky. Rolling through the mountains on the same road that wound its way to the sea made me happy. A smile came to my face, and the thousands of miles crossed between Michigan and here felt absolutely worth it.

  I checked the GPS on my phone and saw I was nearly at the small apartment I would be renting. Standing outside was something else I hadn’t seen since snow stung at my skin and the smell of cinnamon and pine drifted out of every building: my best friend, Stephanie. She glanced up from the book she was clutching and noticed the truck. Waving enthusiastically, she started toward me like she was ready to pounce when I finally got out.

  If I knew Stephanie as well as I thought I did, she had been standing out there for at least half an hour already. Not just out of excitement to see me. We were extremely tight, and we’d been looking forward to me getting home since I told her a couple of weeks ago I was coming. But we also kept up over video chats and spoke just about every day. It wasn’t like she was having total withdrawals. The truth was my best friend suffered from a devastating and life-altering case of FOMO. The girl couldn’t stand the idea of missing where a gnat landed when she batted it out of the sky.

  A combination of my updates from the road and her own projections for how long the trip should take me let her come up with an estimate for when I’d pull up to the apartment. And she wanted to make sure she was there to see it. After all, she was the reason I had this apartment. Snagging a place to live wasn’t easy on just a couple of weeks’ notice. Not even in Astoria, Oregon.

  Obviously, I couldn’t make the trip to apartment hunt while I was scrambling to scoop up my life from Michigan where I’d been for the last few years and relocate it all back home. In theory I could have rented the apartment sight unseen, but that didn’t appeal to me. Not that I thought I would show up to a rat-infested flop house someone had adorned with a front door wreath and some air fresheners and called it quaint. The area I chose was good, and I was familiar with the building, which was why I chose it in the first place. But I still wanted to see what I was getting myself into. Just in case.

  So I sent Stephanie as my proxy. Armed with her phone camera and a list of what I was looking for in my new place, she went to the viewing appointment. She took pictures, made a video, and asked every question I had. As well as a few of her own. I was pretty sure those were only so she could keep talking to the attractive young real estate agent. In the end, this was the place I settled on, and I was finally here, ready to move in.

  My muscles ached when I climbed out of the door to the truck and dropped down to my feet. Stephanie ran forward and gathered me up in a huge hug.

  “I’m so glad you’re finally here! I’ve been waiting for you all afternoon,” she said.

  “I figured you would be,” I said, giving her a tight squeeze.

  Stephanie grinned as she stepped back from me and looked me up and down. “You look great.”

  Glancing down at my black stretch pants and lightweight long-sleeve shirt, I looked up at her with an incredulous lift of one eyebrow.

  “How was your trip?” she asked.

  “There’s a distinct possibility some of my muscles and joints are permanently molded into the shape of the seat,” I said. “But other than that, it was decent. There were a few hours in there when it was even fun.”

  “And a few hours when it wasn’t?” Stephanie asked with a short laugh.

  “Something like that.”

  “How’s your dad doing?” she asked.

  Some of the humor and frivolity drained out of me at the mention of my father. He was the entire reason I was back here in Astoria after spending the l
ast few years in Michigan. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my hometown. But after going to graduate school in Michigan, I realized I’d settled in there and was doing well. My friends there convinced me to take a very good job offered to me by a headhunter before I even graduated, and I settled into a new life. It wasn’t easy being away from home and the people I loved the most, but I enjoyed it there. I never thought I’d be brought back so suddenly.

  “The breaks are pretty bad,” I said. “Both legs sustained multiple fractures. He has a long recovery ahead of him. It will be a long time before he’s able to even start physical therapy, and until then, he’s essentially bedbound.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Stephanie said. “I can’t imagine how scary that is.”

  I shook my head as I started around to the back of the truck. “He shouldn’t have been up on that roof. He’s not the young man who started the contracting company, and he can’t just do everything he used to.”

  “But you know there’s no telling him that. He’s never going to admit he can’t put everything on his own shoulders and do it with ease.”

  “Well, he’s going to have to now. At the moment, he can’t put anything on his shoulders but a T-shirt. And even that is a bit of a challenge.”

  Stephanie laughed. “We’ll see how long it takes before he starts trying to come up with creative ways to not follow doctor’s orders.”

  “Probably tomorrow.” I looked at the handle to the door and sighed. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

  The sound of the metal door sliding against the metal frame, then slamming into place was like a drumroll leading up to the reveal of my stuff shoved into the back. Stephanie stared at it for a few seconds, blinking. “Wow. That’s… a lot.”

  “I did have to pick up my entire life and come back here with almost no notice. It was so chaotic I didn’t have it in me to try to sort through things and decide what to bring and what to leave in storage. Besides, I don’t know how long I’m going to be here,” I said.

  Stephanie looked over at me. “You don’t?”

  Emotion tightening my throat, I glanced over at her. She was looking at me with sadness in her eyes.

  “I built a life there, Steph. You know that. You’ve visited me in Michigan and seen my apartment, met my friends, gone to my office. I had to convince my bosses to give me personal leave so I could come here and help take care of Dad. But eventually, I’m going to have to go back. They aren’t going to just hold on to it forever.”

  “I guess you’re right,” she said.

  Not wanting to ruin the fun and happiness of us being back together, I gave her a grin. “You never know. Maybe something will show up and make me stay.”

  We looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting into laughter. She shook her head and reached into the truck for the first box. “Come on. Let’s get this emptied out. My parents want me to bring you over to see them for dinner tonight.”

  It took the next couple of hours to unload everything, but eventually the little apartment was stuffed to the gills, and I was again contemplating a storage unit. I hadn’t realized how much I’d accumulated during my time in Michigan. Maybe this would be a good opportunity to do some downsizing. Of course, if I did that, I wouldn’t have it when I went back and found a new apartment. Again.

  When we were finally finished, Stephanie and I headed over to her parents’ house. They lived in the same place they did when we were little girls and played together in the tree house in the backyard. Both rushed out to hug me as soon as I got out of the car. They were like a second set of parents to me, and I was happy to get a chance to see them.

  “I’m so glad you got here safely,” Melanie said.

  “Do you need any help unloading?” George asked.

  I smiled and shook my head. “No, thank you. Stephanie and I managed to get the truck unloaded before we came over here. I haven’t unpacked anything, yet. But just having everything in the apartment feels like a victory.”

  “Well, come on in and help me finish dinner. You look like you could use a good meal and some relaxation.”

  “I’m not going to argue that,” I said.

  Stephanie and I spent the evening with her parents eating dinner and reminiscing over old times. I would have stayed longer, but the walls of boxes filling up the rooms of my apartment loomed over me. I needed to at least get the basics unpacked so I could settle in. Like I told Stephanie, I didn’t know how long I was going to be in Astoria. I came back to help my mother take care of my father while he recovered, and none of us knew how long that might be. It would be best if I was settled in as soon as possible so I could really focus on what needed to be done here.

  As soon as we got back to the apartment, Stephanie surprised me by pulling an overnight bag out of the trunk along with a small cooler.

  “Up for an old-fashioned sleepover?” she asked.

  “Absolutely. What’s in the cooler?”

  We got inside, and she propped the cooler on the one corner of the dining area table that was visible. Popping the lid, she revealed a bottle of wine, cheese, and chocolate.

  “Maybe not so old-fashioned,” she said.

  I laughed and directed her to the kitchen boxes so she could find the wine opener and glasses. We drank and laughed as we unpacked. It was much easier going through the overwhelming process of organizing and settling in with my best friend there to do it with me. We were having a blast until Stephanie dropped the question I’d been waiting and dreading to hear.

  “Does Mason know you’re back?”

  My heart gave a hard pound in my chest, and I shook my head. My lips pressed hard together, I focused on organizing my books in the shelf in front of me.

  “I don’t really want to talk about him,” I said.

  Thankfully, Stephanie took the hint and dropped it.

  2

  Mason

  It was a pretty bad look for the bar when my brothers and I nearly outnumbered the actual customers. The only other people there were a couple of old guys sitting on the stools and scattered at the few tables. They were the town drunks, known for coming in and nursing drinks from opening until close. These were the type of people who woke up still a little bit alcohol soaked from the night before and immediately got going again. When their families tired of them drinking at home, or the lack of having a family at home got to them enough, they made their way here to the bar.

  The Hollow was like another home for them. But maybe not in the heartwarming way that sounded. More like they just wandered in already three sheets to the wind and draped themselves over whatever seat they made it to. A beer or two filled up the hours from the time the door opened until I locked it behind them in the wee hours of the morning. It wasn’t unheard of for one of us to have to call in the police to give a regular customer a nudge out of the bar if they didn’t sober up over the course of the evening. Sometimes they got a ride to a cozy barred room for the night.

  Too bad the cops weren’t allowed to drink while they were on the job. We could use the extra customers.

  It had been a long time since we had a busy weekend. Hell, it had been a while since we’d had a truly busy night. The bar used to be a favorite place in Astoria. Every night people packed into the space and stayed until we shut it down. Drinks, food, a theme night every now and then. It was hopping and fulfilled the dream my brothers and I had from the time we were kids and started talking about having our own bar. Then something changed.

  During the good times, the bar seemed like it really would be our saving grace. We’d talked about having a bar when we were young, but none of us ever took the steps to make that happen. We just kind of drifted around in life finding other things, looking for our own paths. Jordan left to serve in the military. Tom went to San Francisco and started up a tech company. It was like the family shattered.

  But then our world really did come down around us.

  Our father’s diagnosis with cancer right before Tom moved away was a hard blow. It
came out of nowhere, but he wouldn’t let us stop our lives because of it. He practically threw Tom onto the train that transported him to San Francisco. The oldest of the brothers, Tom, tried to change his mind about leaving and said it was his responsibility to be there to take care of our father. But Dad wouldn’t hear anything of it. That wasn’t his job. Tom’s job was to go find his own life and do what made him happy. According to Dad, our parents had given of themselves and everything they had to raise their brood of boys. Giving it all up would put all that to waste.

  It was enough to convince Tom to leave. He did exactly what our father told him to do and built the company he’d envisioned for years. None of us had any idea how important that company would be in just a matter of months. When our mother was diagnosed with cancer while our father was still fighting, it felt like everything was falling apart. They couldn’t work and needed so much care. It was overwhelming and frightening in a way I had never experienced.

  That’s when The Hollow came into our lives. We didn’t have the luxury of just being upset, worried, and afraid. That wasn’t an option. We needed to stop thinking about ourselves, step up, and take care of our parents. Tom gave us the ability to do that when he bought us the bar.