Another Chance at Love (Another Series Book 1)

by Suzanne Sweeney

  My calls to Brie and Declan go equally well. They ask what they can do to help. So, I tell them the truth, “I honestly don’t know.”

  With all my calls complete and my mind set, I decide to take Cole’s advice and get some writing done. The chapter I’ve been working on is easy to download from the cloud. And once I open it up, my fingers begin to fly across the keyboard. The timing is perfect.

  Suzi is distraught. She doesn’t know what to do. It’s time for her to end her vacation and her fling with Henry so she can go back to her life with Liam and try to put the pieces of her broken relationship back together.

  Maybe, just maybe, Suzi doesn’t do the safe thing. She could follow her heart, wherever that may lead. Everyone expects her to go back to Liam. She’s going to get a lot of people angry with her if she doesn’t.

  I think it might be good for Suzi to explore her free will. Take a chance and live life to the fullest.

  I barely get a page written when Cole comes bursting through my door. He’s standing at the door in his practice uniform carrying a tray full of food. “Whatcha got there, Stretch?”

  He places the tray down on the desk and walks over to me. I smile as he steps closer, his cleats clacking like stilettos on the tile floor. “I brought you dinner,” he proudly explains. “Clubhouse food is much better than the stuff they put out for the guests.”

  I’m momentarily dumbstruck. He towers over me, somehow seeming larger than life in his uniform. His hair is slightly damp with sweat and he smells so manly. I never knew the smell of sweat could be so freaking hot.

  “Kensington Harper, are you trying to get me fired?”

  “What?”

  “If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to strip you naked and make you scream my name over and over again right here and right now. They’ll have to call in security to get me off you.”

  He pulls me up off the chair and into his arms. “Is Adam taking good care of you?”

  “Cole, sweetheart, I’ve been here for one hour. I’m not an infant.”

  He glares down at me with a twinkle in his beautiful blue eyes. “Yes, I know.”

  I look over at the tray and there’s only enough food for one. “Aren’t you staying to eat with me?”

  “Sorry, baby, but I’ve got to run back down, shower, and change into my game uniform.”

  Oh, I get it. “You’re here to make sure I didn’t run.”

  “I won’t lie, it did cross my mind a time or two.”

  “Please don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. I love you and you’re stuck with me.”

  He squeezes my ass. “Well, you are a handful, but I’m pretty sure I can handle it.”

  “Glad to hear it.”

  “I brought you a fresh turkey sandwich, some pasta salad, and Jersey Fresh corn on the cob. Eat. You’ll need your energy for later.” He slaps my ass and walks straight out of the office.

  My eyes follow him as he walks away. Wow.

  The image of that glorious man in his tight pants permeates my every thought. I have no choice but to somehow write it into Suzi’s story. Musicians wear tight pants. It could work.

  Margie knocks and interrupts my rhythm. “I’m sorry, Kensington, but I thought you’d like to know that the game has started. Would you like me to put it on for you so you can watch?” She slides open two panels on the desk hutch and there’s a flat screen hiding inside.

  “Yes, thank you! That would be great.”

  I put the television on mute and open Pandora. I find a new station, Women in Pop, and I crank it up. Demi Lovato, Elle King, Meghan Trainor, and Beyonce sing songs of encouragement and empowerment.

  Katy Perry comes on and I stop to listen to a song I’ve heard a thousand times before. “Roar” celebrates the glorious transformation of a wimpy woman who is afraid to proclaim her opinion into an eye-of-the-tiger true fighting spirit. Her new self knows precisely what she wants and isn't afraid to strike back. Her words make me feel like a champion who’s ready to dance through fire and roar like a lion. This is my power anthem!

  I finish my chapter just as the game comes to an end. The Red Hawks defeat the Tigers with a score of eight to five. Time to claim my man.

  CHAPTER 36

  IT’S NINE THIRTY IN THE MORNING. We’ve showered. Had sex. Showered again. And eaten breakfast. Cole’s got a one o’clock game which means he has to report to the field no later than eleven. He walks around my house, checking every lock on every door and window. “Are you sure he’s coming?”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” I tell him. “Philip is on his way. I just talked to him ten minutes ago. He’s coming right over.”

  “And you’re going to do what when he leaves?”

  I run through the checklist we’ve agreed upon. “Stay home. Keep the house locked tightly and don’t open the door for anyone except you and Philip.”

  “Exactly.”

  I walk him to his truck. Gusty winds swirl around us. The sun shines brightly, but the leaves dance wildly, breaking away and landing on the ground all around us. The salty air whips my hair across my face. A storm is approaching.

  How appropriate.

  Cole swaddles me in a tight embrace and kisses me, tucking the wayward tendrils behind my ear. I wrap my hands around his waist and kiss him more deeply. He pushes away slightly and looks deep into my eyes, carefully plucking a leaf out of my hair and tossing it to the ground. “You could cancel and come with me, you know.”

  “I can’t do that, Cole. He’s my brother. I owe him an explanation. We need him on our side.”

  He nods. “I know. I just had to ask one last time. Please be careful.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  One last kiss and I take a few steps closer to the house. I pause for a moment to watch the trees. They are hypnotically beautiful as their branches dance chaotically in the fierce wind. I am tempted to throw my head back and spin around in circles like a little girl again, arms out wide and fingers spread. Instead, I throw my hands in my pockets and inhale deeply, the wind carrying the fragrance of the salty sea air.

  Cole rolls down the window and smiles. “Please get that beautiful ass of yours back into the house so I can get to practice on time today.”

  He waits until I close the door and lock myself inside safely and securely. I hear the engine roar to life, signaling his pending departure. Pressing my back against the door, I wait to hear him pull away.

  Life is good again.

  I don’t have long before Philip arrives, so I decide to start a load of laundry. I love my house, but sometimes it feels too big and too quiet.

  Being alone with my thoughts sucks. All kinds of crazy fantasies flash through my mind like a lightning storm. Cait and Brie will be here – unprotected. Suppose Paul decides to use them as pawns to get to me?

  Although after enduring one hour alone with Cait, and Paul will be begging to be thrown back into jail just to get away from her. She doesn’t take shit from anyone.

  Another horrifying thought flashes: an image of Megan and Connor. If he knows about Cole, then he probably knows about them, too. They will be vulnerable, an easy target. Even easier than the girls.

  I try to reason my way around it. He’s never gone after anyone else to get to me before. The first time he got near me, he tried to sweet talk me into quietly going with him. Then, when he attacked me, he waited until I was alone in a public bathroom. He clearly has an M.O. and I just have to make sure that I don’t put myself into a situation where he could get me alone.

  I feel like I’m going to jump out of my skin. There’s no way I can stay here locked in this prison all day waiting for someone to come home. I pick up the phone and call Adam. If he’s still at Cole’s place, maybe I could meet them down there after Philip leaves. They can show me the new gadgets and teach me how to use the security system. It would be a great distraction from my mind wandering.

  “Hey, Houdini. How goes it?”

  “I’m starting to go a little stir
crazy here. I can’t go to work. I can’t go shopping. Hell, I can’t even go out for a lousy cup of latte. So that leaves you – are you still at the townhouse with the installation team?”

  “You bet. We’ll be here all day. There’s a lot to do. You thinking about driving over?”

  “I am – would I be in the way?”

  “Nope. You’re going to have to come down at some point so we can go through everything with you anyway. Why not?”

  Perfect! Just the answer I was hoping for. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

  “Did Cole give you the code to the private parking garage? You can’t just park on the street right now.”

  “He did. 011089. His birthday.”

  “Ha! I didn’t know that. We’ll have to change that, too. Any idiot with Internet access could figure that out. Start thinking about a new code that you won’t forget. We’ll change it as soon as you get here. Call before you head down, though. They’re working on the garage door right now and I can’t have you parking out in the open.”

  “Sounds like a plan, Stan. See you a little later.”

  Okay, with the rest of my day planned out, I better get a move on. I bound up the stairs and start packing a few things that I’ll need for a short while. Moving in with Cole is a big step. I hope it’s the right one.

  I quickly set about to pack two bags. One bag is filled with odds and ends like shampoo, deodorant, cleanser, moisturizer, make-up and other miscellany. As soon as I add my blow dryer and hair straightener, I have my first bag filled to the brim.

  My second bag is for shoes and clothes. It’s hard to know what to pack since I have no way of knowing what to expect. The only thing I know for sure is that I can’t go back to work right away. Other than that, it’s a mystery. Which leaves me no choice but to pack for all sorts of occasions – casual, comfortable, and even something formal. Because as my father would so often say, “You never know.”

  And once I add all the necessary shoe options, not to mention my “unmentionables”, the rather large suitcase is now rather full. And considerably heavy. The wheels will help me move it along solid ground, but how will I ever get this monstrosity down the stairs?

  A deep masculine voice breaks the silence, tearing me from my daydreaming and causing my heart to move up my chest and stop me from getting air. “Need a hand with that?”

  I leap in the air as if a firecracker had just gone off. I turn around, wild-eyed, ready to defend myself if necessary.

  “Whoa, easy there Killer.” Philip holds his hands up at me defensively as if I were a wild horse. “It’s just me.”

  “God dammit, Philip! You scared the friggin’ bejesus out of me.”

  He grins at me and shakes his head. “I have no idea what that means, but it doesn’t sound good. You okay? A little jumpy today?”

  I sit down on the bed placing my hands on my knees, trying to recover from my heart attack. “What the hell did you expect? You sneak into my house – my locked house – and just wander right into my bedroom.”

  “I’m sorry, Kensington. Really, I am. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m not exactly light on my feet. I thought you’d hear me coming up those old creaky stairs of yours.”

  “Yeah well, I didn’t hear you. But now that you’re here, wanna grab that bag and carry it back down for me?”

  He walks over to the suitcase, grabs the handle, and tests the weight. “Jeez, Kenny – what the hell do you have in here? Bricks?” He places it on the floor and I hear the thud as the wheels hit the wood.

  “Ha, ha – very funny. It’s just a few things that I’ll need for the next week or so.”

  “Sis, I don’t know if this is a very good time to go on vacation.” He sits on the bed next to me. “It’s really not safe.”

  I nod my head. He is absolutely right. “There is no safe place for me. Not anymore.”

  His face is stern, even a little melancholy. “So that doesn’t mean that you should run off somewhere and put your head in the sand pretending that he’s not out there. He will find you.”

  I stand up and walk towards the door. “Come on, grab my bag. Let’s go sit downstairs and talk.”

  Philip follows me down the stairs, places my bags near the front door and joins me in the kitchen. I pour both of us a cup of coffee. It’s my third cup. Philip has probably had just as much, if not more. But I’ve never seen him turn down a cup of fresh, hot coffee.

  He takes the hot cup into his hands and holds it up to his nose before taking an exploratory sip. “Mmm, very good. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re here. We have a lot to talk about.”

  “Yes, we do. So where do you think you’re going? And do you have refundable tickets?”

  Typical. “I don’t have tickets. The truth is, I don’t plan on going very far.”

  He sits back in his chair, obviously relieved to hear me say that. “Good. Now that we have that out of the way, I have some bad news.”

  “I already know he’s out,” I remind Philip.

  “Yeah, about that – how did you know? It seems like you knew before I did.”

  I can’t believe it was only just the day before yesterday that everything began to unravel. So much has happened over the last forty-eight hours. I don’t even know where to begin. “I got a visitor the other day at TitleWave,” I tell him.

  “A what?” He leaps up out of his chair, almost spilling his coffee.

  “No, no! Not . . . him,” I practically shout. “It was that photographer; she came back. Only this time she wanted to talk. And she had quite a bit to say.” I slide her business card across the table towards him. “She gave this to me.”

  He takes it and examines it carefully. He takes a picture of it with his phone and messages a copy of it to someone, I assume his partner Guardino. Sliding the card back to me, Philip tells me to put it away in a safe place.

  “She scared me, Philip.”

  He nods his head as he continues typing on his phone. “Uh-huh.”

  “Paul knows everything. Cole. TitleWave. My house. His condo. All of it.”

  Without looking up, he answers, “Okay.” He jerks his head up. “Wait – what?”

  “You heard me correctly. He threatened and assaulted her – the private investigator he hired to find me. He’s on his way. She was certain of it.”

  “If that’s true – ”

  “ – it is.”

  “Then you can’t stay here. But don’t worry, I have a plan. Or, at least the start of one.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yeah, really. So let’s not waste any more time. Do you remember Charlie?”

  I search the depths of my brain, and the only Charlie I can find in the recesses of my memory is Philip’s roommate from college. “Charlie MacDonald?” I ask.

  His eyes light up, “That’s the one! He’s a Colorado State Trooper living in Boulder right now. He’s got a wife and two-year-old twins.”

  “That’s great, but I don’t see what that has to do with me,” I tell him.

  “I called him. He’s got a spare room and a state-of-the-art security system set up in his house. It will only be for a short time – just until I can come up with a better plan. At least I know you’ll be safe.”

  “I’m not going.”

  “Kenny, please don’t make this any more difficult than it already is.”

  “It’s not difficult at all. It’s actually quite simple. I’m staying here. I’m done running Philip, and there’s nothing you can say that will change my mind.”

  “You’re letting your emotions cloud your judgment. If Paul gets anywhere near you, he won’t stop this time until he’s got you. And if that happens, if he gets his hands on you, you will be gone. Or worse.”

  “Worse?” I stare at him wide-eyed.

  “Oh, believe me – there are worse things he could do than just take you, Kensington. You’re not an idiot. Use your imagination.”

  The thoughts come flooding
into my mind like a tsunami, practically knocking the breath right out of me. “If you’re trying to frighten me Philip, then you’ve succeeded. Thank you, by the way, for that. But I’m not changing my mind.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “I am. What do you think it would take to keep me safe right here, in Point Pleasant?”

  “Okay, I’ll play along. First of all, you’d need to beef up the security around here.” He takes a sweeping glance around the house, focusing on the windows and doors. And I can see him mentally counting the ones he can’t see. “Motion detectors, window and door alarms to name a few.” He gets up and walks over and jiggles the front door. “You’d have to replace all the door locks. These wouldn’t keep a determined teenager from getting in here. All of that takes time.”

  “And money. Anything else?”

  “Tons. Security cameras, tracking devices, and some self-defense weapons.”

  “Weapons?” Is he kidding? Me carrying a weapon? That actually puts more people in danger than it protects.

  He sees the look of panic on my face. “Don’t worry, I’m not talking about giving you a handgun. Just a stun gun or Taser.”

  Philip walks over to the living room and looks at something out the side window. “And we’d have to cut down most of these trees and bushes. Too many places to hide. He could be out there waiting for you and you’d never know it.”

  I follow him. “Okay – enough. You’ve proven your point. I won’t stay here.”

  “Good, then it’s settled.”

  “No, let me finish. I won’t stay here, in this house. I’ve decided to move in with Cole.”

  “Absolutely not. He’s never there. You’d be alone most of the time. At least here, you’d have Caitlin and Brielle to look after you. I need you to listen to reason. Take some time, head out to Boulder and let me get things started. I have a friend in the home security business. He can come do a sweep of this place and help me work out a plan.”

  “Philip, stop talking. I need you to listen. I have a plan and it doesn’t involve cutting down trees or moving to Boulder.”

  He stops and glares at me, tilting his head as he considers my words. Staring becomes our only form of communication. His face is impassive but tilted a little so he's literally looking down on me. “I’ll listen to you, Kensington, but I’m not changing my mind.” He sits down on the couch and motions for me to have a seat in the chair across from him. He has to be in control.