Defending Hayden: A Second Chances Novel

by L. P. Dover

  I looked at her and smiled. “That’s not it at all. I feel in more control of myself than I’ve ever felt. I just don’t need it to have fun.”

  She unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over to kiss me. I held her to me and deepened it, not caring if any of the guys saw. “You’ve come a long way, Derek. I’m so proud of you.”

  Chris knocked on Hayden’s window and opened her door. “Stop kissing on my date, McLaughlin. For the next two hours, she’s mine.”

  “Keep it up, Waters.” I chuckled. “You’ll be finding your balls shoved down your throat if you don’t watch it.”

  Chris helped Hayden out and flipped me off. “You don’t scare me.” Then he turned to Hayden, wrapping her arm around his. “All right, darling, let’s go for a walk. You’ll love the gardens.”

  Giggling, she held on to him. “Lead the way.” She glanced back at me and winked. “See ya in a bit.” Once she and Chris were gone, I joined the guys. It was just Evan, Cooper, and Evan’s best friend, Luke Collins. The last time I’d really talked to Luke had been that night at the bar before the accident that took Brianna’s life. She had talked to him privately there, and to this day, I didn’t know what she’d said to him. I never got the chance to ask her.

  Cooper slapped my shoulder and gave me a hug, and so did Evan. “It’s the big day,” I said to Evan. “You nervous?”

  “Not at all, brother. I’ve been ready for this for a long time now. I see you and Hayden are doing well.”

  I nodded. “We are. She’s an amazing woman.”

  Cooper chuckled. “Well, I know the guys on the team are happy you found someone. Most of them were terrified of you ripping their heads off.”

  “It’s good for them to be scared,” I said with a laugh.

  Luke caught my eye and held out his hand. “What’s up, D?”

  “Nothing much, man. What’s up with you?”

  We shook hands and then he finished off his beer. “Just getting ready to watch my best friend tie the knot. Although I probably need twenty more of these,” he said, setting the beer bottle down.

  “Why is that?”

  Evan snickered. “He’s walking with Lara down the aisle. Everyone knows she hates him.”

  Eyes wide, I turned to him. “You haven’t gotten her back yet? It’s been months.”

  Luke’s jaw tensed. “She’s with someone else now. No matter what I do, I can’t get her to listen to me.”

  “Maybe you’re not trying hard enough.”

  He snorted. “What am I supposed to do, apologize on TV, like you did with your girl?”

  I shrugged. “It’s a start. Humiliation is part of the step. I did something stupid to Hayden, and I paid the price for it. I had to show her I was willing to do anything to get her back.”

  “What did you do to her?” he asked.

  The guys averted their gazes and I cleared my throat. “Let’s just say it was almost as bad as what you did to Lara. I’m just lucky enough to have a valid reason for why I did it.”

  Evan nudged Luke with an elbow. “I kept trying to tell you not to give up. Now it’s harder on me because she’s dating a guy who could actually be considered my brother-in-law.”

  Cooper and I both whistled. “That’s not good at all,” I said.

  Luke rolled his eyes and huffed. “Now do you see what kind of shit I’m in?” Cars started to pull into the parking lot, so we walked inside the manor while the guests signed in and picked their seats. It was almost time for the ceremony, but I grabbed Luke’s shoulder and pulled him to the side. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

  His brows furrowed. “Go for it.”

  “The night of the accident, Brianna talked to you about how to get Lara back. I know you were kind of drunk, but do you remember what she said?”

  The last thing I remembered coming out of her mouth were screams. I wanted to hear what she’d said before she was taken from me. Luke licked his lips and averted his gaze, smiling as if he could see it all playing in his mind.

  “I never got to tell you how sorry I was for your loss. She was a sweet girl,” he said solemnly.

  I nodded. “I know.”

  He blew out a sigh and leaned against the wall. “Let’s see. First she told me I was an idiot for leaving Lara after our night together. I already knew that, but of course, it was too late. Then she told me not to ever give up, that if I truly loved Lara, I would do everything in my power to get her back, even if I had to sell my soul.” He swallowed hard and looked down at his hands. “But then the very last thing she said reminds me of what you did for Hayden at the game. She said that no amount of humiliation could ease the pain of a lost love. Those were her exact words. I guess that goes with the part of selling my soul.”

  Closing my eyes, I could still see Brianna’s smiling face. She’d said the same thing to me once. It was the same advice I’d taken when I wanted to get Hayden back. “Take her advice, Luke. I know you have your pride, but if you want Lara back, you have to be willing to sacrifice it all. Is that something you can do?”

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, but then his gaze caught something on the staircase. It was Lara and Kate, Summer’s bridesmaids, coming down the stairs.

  “I can do it,” he promised, keeping his focus on Lara. “I won’t let her get away again, no matter the cost.”

  Chris and Hayden walked inside, and she waved at me before taking a seat. I wasn’t going to let her get away again, either.

  —

  The ceremony went by quickly, and I couldn’t have been happier to watch my best friend say the vows to the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Chris tested my patience during it by putting his arm around Hayden and pulling her in close. The pain on his face during those times, along with the pure joy on Hayden’s, had me chuckling on the inside.

  “So what exactly were you doing to make Chris look like he’d just shit himself?” I asked Hayden quietly.

  She spooned a piece of cake into her mouth and snickered. “I was pinching the inside of his thigh. He’s going to have marks all over.”

  Chris turned our way, and I burst out laughing. He flipped me off and I smiled even wider. “That’s fucking classic. I guess I don’t need to kick his ass, then.”

  “Nope, I did it myself.”

  The next song was the first slow one of the evening. “Want to dance?”

  Nodding quickly, she finished her cake and took my hand. I pulled her to me and kissed her lips, sucking on the bottom one. Her eyes darkened and she bit her lip. “You had frosting on your lip. I had to get it off,” I explained.

  “I bet. Maybe I should put frosting on other parts of my body as well.”

  The thought of licking anything off her body made my dick twitch. I held her tighter so she could feel what she did to me. “You might not want to say things like that in public.” She giggled and tried to pull away, but I wouldn’t let her. “Not so fast, love. You’re stuck with me until my cock goes down.”

  I tried my best to get the dirty thoughts out of my head, but it was hard with her so close to me. However, when I saw Evan walking toward us with his baby daughter in his arms, I froze. I hadn’t wanted to be around their daughter because if Brianna had lived, our child would be around the same age. Surprisingly, seeing the little girl in Evan’s arms didn’t bother me like I’d thought it would. She had the same golden-blond hair as her mother.

  Hayden sensed my distraction and looked up at me. “Derek, you okay?”

  I nodded behind her. “We have company.” She turned around and stood beside me as Evan and Summer approached.

  Summer opened her arms and I hugged her. “You make a beautiful bride. Evan’s a lucky man.”

  She winked at me. “And I’m a lucky woman.” Then she turned her attention to Hayden. “This must be Hayden. It’s nice to meet you.”

  They shook hands. “Same to you,” Hayden replied. Her eyes lit up when they landed on the beaming baby. “Your daughter is so ado
rably cute.”

  Summer agreed with a nod. “Do you want to hold her?”

  “Of course! I’d love to.” Hayden held out her arms and Evan placed his daughter gently in her grasp. Hayden looked like a natural. In that moment, I could see myself having a family with her.

  “D, you okay?” Evan asked me.

  Sighing, I averted my gaze to him. “I am now. Do you mind if we step aside for a minute while the ladies talk?”

  “Sure,” he said, looking curious.

  For the longest time, I’d kept my true feelings from my best friend. I loved Evan like a brother, but I had to get everything off my chest.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” I said. When I had his full attention, I took a deep breath. “I don’t know if you realized or not, but after the accident, I hated you.”

  He held up his hand and placed it on my shoulder. “I already know, D. You don’t have to explain it to me.”

  “You already know what?”

  His gaze turned sad. “That you hated me for saving you. I knew you would, but I also hoped you’d forgive me, too. I didn’t want to lose you.” He blinked back the tears, and I could feel my own eyes burning.

  “I’m glad you didn’t.” My focus drifted to Hayden holding Emma Grace in her arms. “If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met her. Do you forgive me for being a jackass?”

  Evan chuckled and hugged me tight. “There’s nothing to forgive. Now come and meet Emma Grace. She’s going to want her uncle D to hold her.”

  Chapter 25

  Hayden

  Michael: You can always move back home and work with me? :D

  Rolling my eyes, I texted him back a NO. All week, he and my parents had tried getting me to move back home. As much as I wanted to be with the people I loved, I didn’t want to leave my life here; I didn’t want to leave Derek. He’d done everything he could to keep my mind off of work. But it still plagued me. It was strange not going to work. For the past week, I’d done nothing but watch Derek practice with the guys, read, and read some more. It was the longest break I’d ever had. If Derek hadn’t had a game this weekend, I would’ve loved to take a vacation to the beach. Sitting in the stands with the sun beaming down on me, I sure felt like I was at the beach, minus the ocean to cool me off.

  My phone rang. I thought it would be Michael trying to bribe me back home, but it wasn’t; it was Jeremiah. I didn’t want to answer the phone, afraid of what I’d hear, but I had no choice.

  “Hey, Jeremiah,” I answered.

  “Hayden, how are you?”

  That was a loaded question. “Okay, I guess. You?”

  He sighed heavily, and the sound weighed on my chest; I didn’t like it. “Not too good, actually. I called to tell you that another one of the dogs didn’t make it. He died this morning from complications.”

  My throat tightened. “Fuck.” Dropping the phone, I covered my face with my hands and cried.

  “Hayden, you there?” I could hear Jeremiah’s voice through the phone, but I couldn’t speak yet. “Hayden?”

  Wiping the tears away, I cleared my throat and picked up the phone. “I’m here. I just wasn’t expecting to hear that kind of news.”

  “I know, but I thought I should tell you before you found out from someone else. I’m so sorry, Hayden. I tried to do everything I could.”

  “And I appreciate it. Other than that, is everything else okay?”

  “Yeah, for the most part. I’m still trying to figure out what happened so we can get you back. Right now I’m not having any luck.”

  “I’ll be fine, Jeremiah. If all else fails, I’ll get a job somewhere else.” If that was even possible. No one was going to hire me if they were led to believe I’d contaminated healthy dogs.

  “You could, but it’d be nice to have you back. Maybe you could meet me for lunch one day next week,” he suggested.

  “Thanks, but I’ll probably be with Derek. I’ve been going to practice with him every day.” I didn’t want to throw it in his face that I was with Derek, but if I ever got back to the office, the lunch dates would have to stop.

  The line went silent for a second and I thought I’d lost him until he spoke up. “I see. So I guess things are going well between you two?”

  “Yes,” I replied softly. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt his feelings. “I know you don’t want to hear that, but if I do come back, we can’t be going out to lunch together like we used to. I don’t want Derek thinking there’s something between us when there isn’t.”

  “I understand, Hayden. I just wish things could be different.” We said our goodbyes and I felt worse. Derek waved at me from the field and I waved back, glad he couldn’t really see my face from so far away. If he could, he’d ask what was wrong, and I wasn’t ready to tell him yet. Turning off my phone, I hid it in my bag and pulled out my favorite novel. If anything was going to cheer me up, it’d be Mr. Darcy. Since it was hot outside, I doused myself with the icy water in my spray bottle and got to reading.

  “Okay, what gives?” Kate called out.

  I was so engrossed in my book that I didn’t notice her climbing the stadium steps toward me. “I have no clue what you’re talking about,” I told her.

  She sat down beside me and eyed me skeptically. “I’ve seen you here for four days now. Don’t you have a job? I know you’re not on vacation, because if you were, you wouldn’t be spending it here.”

  I pointed at Derek, who was on the field about to make a tackle. “It’s his doing. He wants me here. A vacation would be nice, though.” It was fun watching Derek play and interact with the other guys. There were times when I saw him with Jax, laughing and conversing. He really wanted the others to accept Jax, but he hadn’t succeeded yet. I’d learned a lot about football this past week.

  “What about your job?”

  Sighing, I turned to face her. “I guess it won’t stay a secret much longer.”

  She perked up. “Are you pregnant?”

  I gasped. “Oh my God, no! That’s not it at all.” We both laughed, but then I grew serious. “Something happened at my clinic and I was blamed for it. The owner thought it best that I not return for a while.”

  “Holy shit, that’s horrible. What happened?”

  “I had a dog come in with parvo, and it ended up spreading to other animals in the clinic. The thing is, I don’t see how it could have. I’m a stickler about keeping things clean, and I had the dog isolated the entire time. I called my assistant the other day, and she doesn’t understand it, either.”

  “So it was just an accident, right?” Kate asked.

  I shrugged. “I assume so, but it’s something that should not have happened. The only people who would’ve been around the dog are Jessica, Charity, and Amanda, but obviously, none of them are taking the blame for it. In the end, it lands on my shoulders. What makes it worse is that one of the dogs who contracted it died a couple days ago. And I just found out a few minutes ago that another one died today.”

  She clasped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, no.”

  “Exactly. Now do you see why they don’t want me back?”

  “That’s ridiculous and you know it. You need to figure out who the incompetent one is. What if it happens again?”

  I never would’ve thought one of our nurses would be so careless as to let that disease spread through the clinic. Plus, it was just to my patients. Even if I had to take the blame, I didn’t want to see any other innocent animals suffer because of it.

  “Kate, you’re right. What if it does happen again? The only thing is that I don’t know where to start. Wilford isn’t going to listen to me. As far as he’s concerned, it’s all my fault.”

  “Surely there’s someone who can help you,” she suggested.

  “No one I really want to put my trust in. If my friend Michael were still there, I’d get him to do it, but…” Then it dawned on me. “Kellie Spence,” I said. “She’s the owner’s granddaughter, but she’s a good friend. I’m going to see
what she can do.”

  Kate sat back triumphantly. “Glad I could help. It sounds to me like someone wanted you out of the clinic. If it was genuinely an accident, one of your nurses would’ve confessed. At least that would’ve been the moral thing to do.”

  I couldn’t argue with her there. If the tables were turned, I would have admitted my guilt if I’d known I was responsible. I’d never had any issues with Amanda or Charity, but if it was Jessica, it wouldn’t surprise me. From the moment I’d started working at the clinic, I could see it on her face she didn’t want me there. The looks got worse when Jeremiah started showing interest in me. Then it all clicked into place.

  “I think it was Jessica,” I stated adamantly. “I didn’t realize it until now, but all along, she’s never really liked me.”

  “And why is that?” Kate asked with furrowed brows.

  “She’s interested in another doctor at the clinic, but he’s expressed his feelings for me. If I were gone, she’d have me out of the way to pursue him.”

  Kate blew out a breath. “That’s a pretty messed-up way to get a man’s attention. I’d be careful with that one, Hayden. You never know what a person’s capable of. If this girl is fine with killing animals, who’s to say she won’t hurt a human?”

  She had a point, but I wasn’t afraid of Jessica. If she really did fuck me over on purpose, she was going to pay for it. All I had to do was figure out how to find the truth.

  —

  “You bored yet, coming to my practices?” Derek asked with a laugh.

  We were on our way back to his house, which was basically where I’d stayed all week. The only time I’d gone to my place was to grab more clothes. Patch loved staying at Derek’s because he had Bear to keep him company; the two were inseparable.

  “Not at all,” I replied truthfully. “I just know that I can’t watch you play football every day for the rest of my life.”

  He winked. “And why not?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You know why. I have a career I love, and I want to get back to it.”

  Clasping my hand, he kissed it. “You will, baby. I have no doubt you’ll find another job. There are plenty of places in Charlotte.”