A Second Chance House

by Stacey Wilk

  “Blaise, let’s go,” Colton shouted.

  “I’ve got to go. Please, Grace. Say you’ll call me. I want to know you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine. Thanks.”

  “Blaise,” Colton yelled again.

  The car horn honked.

  He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Call me.” And he ran off.

  ****

  Grace stood in the doorway, watching the long black car drive away with Blaise inside. She stood there long after it turned the corner and was out of sight. Her fingers traced the spot where he kissed her good-bye.

  No sense standing around feeling sorry for herself. She had plans to make. She had started by calling Hoke yesterday and asking to stay a couple of extra days.

  “No harm, I guess,” he had said.

  The next call had been to Jenn to ask if she and Chloe could crash at her house until Grace could rent something. Larry gave her enough money each month. She should be able to rent a small condo with two bedrooms. She didn’t want to touch what she had made from selling her half of their house to him. That was her nest egg. She’d need a job in order to buy something of her own, but one step at a time. No more risks.

  “I don’t see why we can’t rent something in Heritage River.” Chloe came out of the kitchen holding a cup of tea. They still had to get water from the bathrooms. Someone would have a lot of work on their hands when they bought this house.

  “Do you really like it here? What about your friends?”

  Chloe looked into her mug. “Andrea is really the only one I want to keep in touch with. All the other girls are fake. They pretend to be your friend because you have something they want. I’m sick of their drama.”

  “I don’t know, Chloe. It’s embarrassing losing the house. Everyone in town will know. I want to start over fresh.”

  “Silverside isn’t fresh. And aren’t you always telling me not to care what other people think?”

  Nothing like having your own words thrown at you. “I just don’t know. Are you going to see Cash today?”

  “He says he’s got a bunch of things to take care of. Maybe later.”

  “Maybe we could all have dinner together.”

  “Maybe. I’m going to get dressed.”

  Grace spent the day packing up what little they had brought with them. Tomorrow she’d take the boxes to the post office and ship them to Jenn’s. Their personal items would travel back in the car with them. She’d spend two days on the road. She didn’t want to make the fourteen-hour drive back to Jersey in one day, even if Chloe could take part of the drive.

  The sun sank into the sky. Grace took her book and sat on the porch. She could stare freely at Blaise’s house knowing he wasn’t there. Had he landed yet? She didn’t even know where they were going.

  Her motives for dinner with Cash might have been slightly selfish. She could find out if Blaise had arrived safely and where the tour was beginning. Maybe even learn what cities he would be in. That information might be on the internet too. Safer to check there than to start asking questions.

  She would’ve liked to know who bought the house for her. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and swiped open the Facebook app. She had a direct message. Her heart fluttered. Maybe it was Blaise. It wasn’t.

  Blaise,

  It’s wonderful to hear from you. I’m so glad you found me on this silly social thing. It does come in handy. How is your family? Please tell everyone I said hello. How can I help you? Anything you need. I think you left a phone number, but the last numbers were cut off. And say thank you to your friend Grace for allowing you to use her account to find me. Thank you, Grace! I always adored the Savage family. So did my aunt and uncle. Ta-ta.

  Claire

  Grace stared at the message with her fingers hovering above the keyboard. How easy it would be to write this woman back and ask what she knew. She might know nothing. Or she might know who bought the house.

  She started to type but stopped. She hit the back arrow key and deleted what she started. Then she deleted the message all together. Blaise was right. It didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to be able to change her past by finding someone she might be related to. She wasn’t suddenly going to have Thanksgivings filled with family members around the table either. She’d have to learn to accept that.

  Her book about some unreliable protagonist couldn’t hold her interest. She slapped the cover shut and let the remainder of the day wash out around her until she was sitting on the dark porch watching the fireflies skitter around the yard. They made her think of Blaise. Everything was going to make her think of him for a while.

  Her stomach announced it would like some food. She pushed herself up and sent Chloe a text. She would eat alone and see Chloe later. One last dinner at Jake’s wouldn’t hurt anything. And then a quick walk to Cream and Sugar for a cookies-and-cream double scoop on a waffle cone. Calories didn’t count when you’re licking wounds, right? She really was a walking cliché.

  Grace had locked the front door when a beam of white light splashed across the house. She turned to see a truck pull into her driveway and block her car. Her heart sank. She recognized that old, beat-up truck and didn’t want to see its owner. She just wanted to eat a salad at Jake’s and read her stupid book, and not be interrupted by this guy.

  She clasped her hands together and waited for Beau Carroll to lumber over to her porch. “Evening.”

  “Hello, Beau. Did you forget something?” An unexplainable feeling of betrayal settled into her stomach. She was the one who had done wrong, but she couldn’t shake it. Did she foolishly want him to defend her to Hoke? He had said he liked Chloe very much. How was he comfortable letting Chloe lose her home, or perhaps Beau didn’t view things that way?

  “I came by to see how you were doing.”

  He was worried about that now? Why didn’t he worry about how she would be doing when he packed up his tools? “I’m fine.”

  He eased down onto the step and patted the place next to him. She stood frozen in her spot. He patted the step again. “Please, Miss Grace. Oblige an old man one last time, yeh?”

  She dropped her purse and keys and marched down the steps to face him, her arms across her chest. “I prefer to stand. Thank you.”

  He shook his head. Even in the yellow glow of the porch lights, she could tell the whites of his eyes had red lines running through them.

  “I’m sorry about packing up without waiting for you to come back. That’s not how I do business, but Hoke had his orders.” His voice carried the weight of exhaustion on its back.

  “You did what you felt you had to.” She wasn’t going to make this easy, no matter how much she wanted to go eat dinner and be done with this conversation. She shifted the weight from one leg to the other.

  He lifted the cap off his head, ran a hand over his almost smooth scalp, and shoved the hat back on. “You ever do something you regret with all your heart?”

  Marrying Larry was a mistake, but she had Chloe, so she couldn’t quite make that statement. Letting Blaise go without feeling him alongside her was climbing the ladder of regret, though. A woman like her, a planner, rarely did something of that magnitude. Fear was always sitting on her shoulder and talking her out of leaping without looking.

  “No, I can’t say I have,” she said. “Why?”

  “Well, you’re lucky. I have.” He looked away, looked back. “I swore I wouldn’t come here, but I kept thinking about those kids and their faces when I packed up. I let everyone down, and that wasn’t my intention in any way.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “I know who bought this house for you. I’ve known all along, and I fought with myself to tell you the truth, but I didn’t. I let Hoke talk me into keeping it a secret. Said you wouldn’t understand if I told everything. Said let sleeping dogs lie.”

  Her heart jumped into her throat. “You knew? All along? Hoke had you and Dixie in on it, right? He knew he could trust you to keep the secret, but why tell yo
u at all?”

  He lifted that filthy cap and rubbed his scalp again. “I remember when you were born.”

  Grace leaned closer. “What did you say?”

  He ignored her. “It was a cold January that year. There was even some snow on the ground. I drove all night to get to the hospital. Couldn’t believe it was happening and so fast.”

  Her knees buckled, and she dropped onto the step near Beau, careful to keep some distance between them. She had been born six weeks early. A preemie. It wasn’t something she talked about. What was the point? She remained in the hospital until she weighed enough to come home. She had developed like a normal baby. Even Chloe didn’t know her story. “How do you know this?”

  Beau looked at her again, and the rims of his eyes were red now. He shook his head. “I’m sorry, is all. I can’t keep the secret anymore. It’s eating me up like a cancer. I don’t care that I promised.”

  “How do you know about me?” Her voice rose and trembled. She had to clasp her hands to keep them from shaking, or choking him. She didn’t know which.

  “Your daddy, Grace. Your daddy was my brother.”

  “That’s impossible. My mother told me he was an only child. And your last name is different than his was.” Her mother had kept her married name so it would be the same as Grace’s and save all the explaining. Before she was Grace Starr, she was Grace Somerall. Grace Rosalyn Somerall.

  “Your momma lied, sweetheart. About his being an only child. Your dad and me have the same mother, different daddies.”

  His term of endearment almost stopped her heart. “I don’t believe you.” Because believing him meant her mother had lied and that might be too much for Grace to handle. She had tried to accept her mother for who she was, but to find out she had lied too. It was just too much.

  Once more he removed the cap, but this time he twisted it in his hands. “There’s no easy way to do this, so I’m just going to spill it all out. Don’t stop me till I’m done, all right? At the end you can ask questions if you want.”

  She waved her hands to stop him, but stopped herself instead. Her whole life she’d wanted to know more about her father and why he left them, but her mother would never tell her. A piece of her was always missing. She thought knowledge would fill the hole, but now faced with the prospect of finding something out, she was too afraid to hear it. Afraid. No more. She took a deep breath. “Okay, tell me the whole story.”

  “My brother had pancreatic cancer. That devil had its hooks in him so bad by the time he found out there was no saving him. He decided against the treatment. There was no guarantee it would fix him, and he thought he didn’t have much to live for anyhow. I tried to talk him into it, but he was stubborn.”

  Questions raced through her mind. Where had he been all this time? Was Beau close to him? What was he like? But she promised to keep quiet, so she chewed on the inside of her cheek instead and wished he’d get on with it.

  “He was sorry for losing touch with you. That was his biggest regret. There were a lot of good qualities inside Dustin, but he was a coward too. After your momma told him to stay away from you, he was afraid to show his face. Figured you deserved a better father than he was.”

  “What?” She put a hand on his arm. “Wait. My mother told him to stay away? No, he left and never came back.” The words swam around in her head, and she tried to grasp them, but they slipped.

  Beau stared at her. “Dusty did some stupid things in his life, and he went and got himself arrested when you were little. Too little to remember, I guess. When he got out and came home, your momma told him to git. He thought she was right about that one. He was wrong. You needed your daddy around. I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen. Too ashamed.”

  “Where was he all this time?” She couldn’t help herself.

  “He came back down here and lived a few towns over. He kept an eye on you, though. Hired a private investigator to keep tabs. He found out you were married and had a baby. He knew what your husband was up to, and that was when he decided to buy the house.” Beau hooked his thumb over his shoulder.

  “He wanted you to have a second chance, and he wanted to make up for all the years he wasn’t around, but he knew you’d need to live down here and let Heritage River seep into your bones. He knew you’d love it because you were his girl and he loved it here. You’d realize this was the place to call home.”

  “But why the secret? Why not find me and tell me if he was dying anyway?”

  “Who knows? People don’t always do things that make sense. You live with your demons long enough they start to look like you. Right till the end he thought you’d turn him away. How could he face you after so many years of hiding? The mistakes kept piling up, and the years kept going by. He believed you were better off without him.”

  The heat of anger rose from her belly. “You’re right, Beau. He was a coward. He let me believe all these years I didn’t have a father who cared one bit about me while he was a plane ride away. I don’t want his house. I’m sorry I ever came down here.” She pushed herself up, but he grabbed her by the wrist.

  “Don’t go yet. I understand you’re mad, and you have every right to be. Dusty made mistakes, but the one thing he did right was buy you this house. He didn’t want you to find out it was him ’cause he knew you wouldn’t want it then. Don’t make that mistake, Grace. Keep the house.”

  “How can I do that if Hoke pulled the plug?” Anger heated up more. “And Hoke went along with it all. He held up my father’s wishes, knowing that man had lied to me my whole life. What kind of a human being does that? How could you keep it up too?”

  He twisted his hat again. “That’s my regret. I’ve got to live with that, but I’m trying to make it right. That’s why I’m spilling. You need to know the truth. I can’t let you go back without knowing why.”

  “Okay, I know. Now you can go with a clear conscience.” She waved toward the truck.

  Beau hoisted himself up by holding onto the railing. “I’m sorry. If you want to stay, I’ll go to Hoke, tell him to call the whole thing off and let you keep the house, or I’ll buy the house myself and sign it straight away to you. You belong here in Heritage River. This should be your home and Chloe’s home.” He lumbered back to his truck, eased himself inside it, and drove away.

  Grace swiped at the tears streaming down her face.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Grace sent Chloe a text. I’ll be out late. Then turned off her phone. Problem was, she didn’t know where to go. Main Street was closing up, and she didn’t have the stomach for food any longer. Not with the truth choking her. There wasn’t a soul she wanted to call—well, there was one, but she wouldn’t call him. She needed to vent or to process or something, but she was at a dead end.

  A numbness settled over her. She just drove, turning right and left without even thinking. The car steered over the streets of Heritage River. Her father had been alive and keeping an eye on her. Coward. Why not risk coming to her? What kind of a parent stays away from his child? Her father never loved her, and buying her a house and attaching crazy stipulations to it proved he didn’t care at all. Who does that?

  And her mother. That woman had lied to Grace. Allowed her to believe her father didn’t want her, when she was the reason he went away. She pounded the steering wheel.

  She didn’t want the house anymore. How could her father think a house would make up for not having a dad growing up? He thought the house was her second chance. What did he know about second chances when he didn’t try for one with her?

  The open road stretched out before her. She searched the dial for some soothing music and stopped when she heard the melody of the song she danced to with Blaise. She wanted to know what he thought about this whole mess. What would he tell her to do?

  Stay. That’s what he would say, but he hadn’t stayed for her. He picked the tour and his brother’s shadow. No matter what she felt for him, she couldn’t compete with Colton. It wasn’t even worth tryin
g.

  She drove in circles for a while before she recognized the turn off for the lake and took it. The car bumped and rocked as she navigated the dirt road. The grass grew tall before it gave way to the clearing. Her headlights drenched the water in front of her. She got out and sat on the sand, letting the warm breeze wash over her. The air smelled sweet, and the quiet diffused her racing thoughts. She let her shoulders drop. “If I had a choice, I’d build a house right on the lake so I could sit on the porch and watch the sun rise over the fog with a big cup of tea clasped between my chilled fingers.” She pictured the chair she would sit in with her legs tucked under her. And she pictured Blaise sitting beside her, playing a song for her.

  Grace hung her head. She never thought the right love at the wrong time was actually a thing. She should go back and start packing. She should call Chloe and tell her to come home and help. She needed as much space between her and this town as possible so she could begin to forget about everything. She curled up on her side and watched the water lap against the shore.

  Five more minutes.

  ****

  Blaise dropped his duffel on the hotel bed. The plane ride had been long and turbulent. He actually prayed a few times. The room smelled as if someone had used bleach to cover up something worse. He tried the windows, but they weren’t meant to open. His stomach complained about being neglected. He hadn’t eaten anything since they left. He’d slept through the meal on the plane.

  His neck creaked and groaned. A shower might ease the knots and then a good meal. He had a few hours before the show. Colton had texted. The other guys were grabbing a bite down in the hotel restaurant, but he passed. He wanted to be alone.

  He stripped off his clothes in a long line to the bathroom and waited while the water heated up and steam filled the room before he stepped in and let the hot water work on his neck. Too bad it wasn’t Grace’s slender fingers working out his knots. He shook his head. No more thoughts of Grace. She was wrecking his head, and then he’d likely wreck his playing.

  But he couldn’t stop thinking about the words she threw at him. Telling him he was Colton’s follower. He wasn’t brave enough to take a stand. She was right, but he didn’t see how he had a choice. He couldn’t turn the money down, especially not with Cash living with him now. He hadn’t been able to sell his Porsche. Eventually, he wouldn’t be able to keep the lights on. He wouldn’t be able to make the mortgage payment soon, and he shouldn’t even have one of those.