SECOND CHANCES: A ROMANCE WRITERS OF AMERICA® COLLECTION

by ROMANCE WRITERS OF AMERICA®

  “You thought about the offer?” Kipp asked, dragging him out of his thoughts. “I know I said I wouldn’t bug you until we got back from the honeymoon, but Lolly says it doesn’t hurt to ask and ya gotta listen to your wife-to-be, right?”

  The offer. One look at Victoria and all thoughts of business had flown. But he was supposed to be using this weekend to make up his mind about Kipp’s offer to join his expanding company as chief legal officer.

  He’d been fence sitting, uncertain about returning to California even though his life in Manhattan was all work and no life. He didn’t date—except when he needed someone on his arm for a work function. His sole focus for the past decade had been building something solid and real, as far from his father’s sleight-of-hand brand of success as possible. But now …

  The little girl with skinny brown arms and his own whiskey eyes flashed in his mind. “I’ll take it.”

  Kipp’s jaw dropped. “Wait? Are you serious?”

  “Yeah. It’s time I moved back.” A lightness filled his chest at the thought—not just of seeing his daughter and Tori again—but at the idea of leaving New York. Coming home again.

  “Dude. I can’t believe it.” Kipp teared up, slapping him roughly on the back. “You don’t know what this means to me. Best freaking wedding present ever.”

  “It’s not a gift.” Nick caught a flash of a midnight updo at the opposite end of the room. “You’re great at what you do,” he said, and it wasn’t a lie. Kipp might be a loveable teddy bear, but he was a teddy bear with a Midas touch who had turned his gaming hobby into a cutting-edge game design company. “I’m honored you want me to be part of expanding GottaPlay. And I need a change.” The teal dress tugged at his attention. “But right now I see someone I need to talk to. Congrats on the wedding, buddy.”

  “Thanks, man.” Kipp grinned. “I gotta tell Lolly.”

  He galloped off, bouncing with enthusiasm to tell his bride. Nick wasn’t sure he’d ever been that excited to share his life with another person. Even before that awful first year of law school, when he’d constructed granite walls around himself to keep out the whispers and stares, he’d never let another person that close to him. Even Tori. She’d been an amazing girlfriend, but she’d been a part of his life, not his whole world. And he’d cut that part out when it felt like an anchor dragging him back to a past it felt like weakness to remember.

  He owed the mother of his child the mother of all apologies.

  Nick threaded through the crowd, stalking that curvy figure in the teal dress.

  She was being hunted.

  Tori was hyperaware of Nick, so she knew the very second he rose from his chair and began weaving toward her. She’d dropped off Lorelei at her mom’s place and rushed to the restaurant only to find everything was going perfectly. Venue? Lovely. Food? Delicious. In another half hour the party would start breaking up, and she’d be able to escape.

  She’d hoped to avoid talking to Nick tonight, but as he prowled in her wake, that hope died. At least she could control where they spoke. Her personal affairs would not be aired in the middle of a client’s rehearsal dinner.

  Victoria stepped off the private patio reserved for the rehearsal dinner and along the gravel path around the building. It was a pleasant night, but a chill breeze caught her as she rounded the corner of the building. She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself and wishing she hadn’t left her blazer in her car. There was salt on the air, carried on the breeze from the beach to the hilltop restaurant. Victoria inhaled, taking comfort in the familiar scent, even as the crunch of footsteps on the gravel path behind her made every muscle in her body tense.

  “Tori—”

  She turned, cutting him off. “Are you going to try to take my daughter away?”

  “What?” He stopped moving so fast his feet might have taken root. “How could you think that of me?”

  “I don’t know you anymore.” She wrapped her arms tighter around her middle. “Lorelei doesn’t know you at all.”

  He moved closer, shoes crunching the gravel. “Lorelei? You named our daughter after your favorite television character?”

  She glared at him. “Forgive me if it seemed appropriate to name my baby after the Gilmore Girls. I was hormonal. You’re lucky I didn’t name her after the vodka we were drinking the night she was conceived.”

  “Lorelei is a beautiful name,” he said, and it got harder to stay mad. “I want to know her, Tori. I’m moving back to California.”

  Her stomach plummeted. She’d been thinking he was only here for the weekend, believing if she could make it through to Monday, everything would be fine. Normal. Or as close to normal as a situation like this could be. But if he would be living here …

  She could handle her feelings for him when he was the absentee father, but if he was there, living down the street, helping out with the carpool … she didn’t know if she could do it.

  And if he vanished on Lorelei like he had vanished on her …

  “I’m not going to forbid you getting to know your daughter, but she’s my world, Nick. She doesn’t know much about you, but if you come into her life you have to stick. You can’t make her care about you and then abandon her like you did me. I will hunt you down and gut you if you ever make her feel unwanted, do you understand me? You don’t get to hurt her. Ever.” Tori knew all too well what it felt like to have a father who walked away. She never wanted that for Lore.

  “I won’t. You know me better than to think I would.”

  “I thought I did, but then you ran away to Manhattan and stopped taking my calls. I don’t know what kind of person you are these days.”

  His jaw worked as he nodded. “I deserve that. I’m sorry. I was barely keeping it together, and I thought you would talk me into moving back here—”

  “I wanted to be with you. I didn’t care where.”

  “You made it pretty damn clear you weren’t leaving Eden.”

  “Because you never asked me to go with you!”

  “Because you kept talking about how you could never live in New York!”

  His voice echoed over the hill. Tori cast a nervous look toward the party. Very professional. The wedding planner causing a scene with the best man at the rehearsal dinner. “I can’t talk about this here.”

  Pulling her arms tighter around her, she strode toward the parking lot.

  “Victoria …”

  It wasn’t supposed to hurt like this, eleven years later. Time was supposed to dull everything, but where he was concerned, her feelings were as sharp as ever.

  His feet crunched on the gravel, trailing her.

  “Tori. Stop.” His voice was close, just over her shoulder. A hand closed on her arm, pulling her around, his other hand cupping her opposite shoulder to hold her in front of him. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then his gaze dropped to her lips.

  His eyes darkened. His grip on her arms firmed. And she was fifteen again. About to be kissed by Nick Taylor for the first time.

  The world simply fell away.

  He lowered his head slowly, and by the time his lips brushed hers, so hesitant and sweet, she had forgotten everything she’d ever known except the taste and feel of him. He murmured something, too soft for her to hear, and deepened the kiss, angling, pressing, coaxing for more—and she gave him more.

  She gave him the piece of her heart that had always had his name carved on it—the part she thought she’d excised years ago but that had been lying dormant, waiting for him to reappear to start beating again.

  Suddenly she was too warm, the chill completely banished. This. This was what she had tried to forget. No one had ever kissed her like Nick. All that focused intensity. All that single-minded devotion. The attention that went into every stroke and touch.

  He’d always been hell on her equilibrium. No wonder she’d wound up pregnant—
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br />   Tori jerked away.

  Lorelei.

  It wasn’t just her anymore. She couldn’t fall into his arms because she had always felt at home there. This wasn’t just Nick, the boy she’d loved. This was Nick, the father of her child. And he wanted a relationship with Lorelei. For Victoria to get involved with him ... No. It was too complicated. Too many things could go wrong.

  “I can’t,” she whispered and fled, thanking God he let her go, because she wasn’t sure she would have been able to push him away a second time.

  “VICTORIA! I HAVE A mission for you. I need you to help me set up my maid of honor with the best man.”

  Tori froze with her hands wrist deep in lace. She kept her back to Lolly, pretending to be absorbed in rearranging the veil until she controlled her expression. “Taylor?”

  Lolly, oblivious to her inner turmoil, pivoted in front of the mirror to study her fluffy princess dress from every angle. “He’s such a catch, and now that he’s moving back to California, it’s perfect! Tammy needs to date someone good for a change. She has wretched taste in men. But that’s all about to change. And you get to help me play matchmaker.”

  Victoria swallowed around the lump in her throat. “Are you sure he’s … dependable?”

  “Taylor?” Lolly said. “You heard about his family, I guess?” She practiced smiling in the mirror, batting her eyes. “That was sketchy, but trust me, Taylor’s a keeper. He’s like a brother to Kipp and if he’s anything, he’s a man of his word. He might not fall madly in love with Tammy, but he’ll never lie to her and jerk her heart around, which is exactly what she needs. A good guy.”

  The bridesmaids rushed in from the connecting dressing room in a lavender swarm, saving Tori from having to reply. They plucked the veil from Victoria’s hands and clustered around the bride in a giggling mass, cellphones waving for selfies with the bride.

  Everything was running right on schedule. The chapel was filling, and in exactly seventeen minutes Lolita Carmen Gaines would walk down the aisle. The blushing bride was calm as a cucumber, hamming it up with her friends.

  It was Tori who was quietly losing her mind.

  She’d never been so nervous at a wedding before, and it had nothing to do with the event.

  Was Nick really a good guy? She’d cast him as the villain who had abandoned her, but he’d never lied. He’d never promised her forever. Just the opposite. He’d been very clear that he was going away at the end of the summer.

  Yes, she’d hoped he would come rushing back when he found out she was pregnant, but she’d never actually talked to him directly after she saw that little blue line. She’d played a part in the farce, too. She could have gone to New York to tell him in person, but she’d chickened out. Hurt by his silence, she’d chosen to believe the worst of him. It had been easy. After all, hadn’t her father walked out on her? Why wouldn’t the man she loved the most vanish on her, too?

  She’d thought she had absolute faith in Nick, but it had been easy to shatter.

  A scratch came at the door, setting off a chorus of squeals from the knot of bridesmaids. Victoria checked her watch. “We still have eight minutes. Just relax. I’ll take care of whatever this is.”

  The bridesmaids resumed fluttering over Lolly and Victoria crossed to the door, grateful for the distraction.

  But when she opened the door, it was Nick standing in the hallway outside the bride’s dressing room.

  “What are you doing here?” She ushered him away before he could enter the bride’s inner sanctum, slipping through the door and closing it behind her. “You’re supposed to be with Kipp.”

  Nick held up an envelope. “He wanted to send Lolly this.”

  Tori plucked it from his fingertips. “I’ll see that she gets it. Now go back and keep the groom calm.” She frowned at the envelope. “He can’t be calling it off.”

  “Are you kidding? Kipp would walk through fire to marry Lolly. He said it was an inside joke, but my money is on a sappy love note.”

  “Good. Now go.”

  He didn’t budge, standing there looking entirely too good for her equilibrium in a charcoal tuxedo and lavender silk tie. Her heart thudded heavily as his amber eyes took in every inch of her from the collar of her modest peach sheath to her most comfortable peep-toe heels.

  “You look beautiful.”

  A flush hit her cheeks. “I have to blend with the guests.”

  “Is Lorelei here?”

  The butterflies in her stomach turned to lead. “She’s with my mom. She gets her grandma fix when I have a wedding.”

  Nick nodded. A strained silence fell.

  “We’ll have to, ah, talk about how you two should meet. When you’ve moved back.”

  He stepped closer. “Tori, about last night—”

  Oh God no. They were not talking about The Kiss of Doom. “We’ll need to be careful moving forward,” she said hurriedly, speaking over him. “You can meet Lorelei, but you need to stop trying to kiss me.” She hadn’t realized she was going to say that until the words were out, but now there were more coming and she couldn’t stop them. “I have to be looking out for Lorelei’s interests, and I can’t be as effective guarding her heart if I’m worrying about my own where you’re concerned.”

  Disappointment flickered in his eyes. “You were never guarded with me before.”

  “You never broke my heart before.” She swallowed, forcing herself to go on. “I know I played a part in the miscommunication, but the truth is when your life got hard, you cut me out of it. That isn’t what you do to people you love. And I won’t risk being hurt like that again. Goodbye, Nick.” She lifted the envelope. “I’ll see Lolly gets this.”

  HE’D BROKEN HER HEART.

  Nick smiled through the ceremony and the photos, saying all the right things and projecting happiness for all he was worth, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Victoria and the simple words that had jarred him to his marrow.

  He didn’t know how to mend a broken heart.

  But he wanted to. Not just because she was the mother of his child and he wanted to know his daughter with an ache in his soul he never would have suspected he could feel, but also because she was Tori. The one woman who made him feel like he was enough just by smiling at him. The one that got away.

  But she hadn’t gotten away. He’d thrown her away.

  He’d never wanted to be like his parents—he’d struggled for most of his adult life to separate himself from their legacy and be seen as his own man—but he was more like them than he wanted to admit. Like his mother, he’d run away when things got tough. He’d hated her for it, and then he’d gone and done exactly the same thing.

  He’d told himself it was better for Tori if she didn’t have to deal with the circus his life had become, but was he trying to protect her? Or protect himself from the vulnerability that came from caring for someone?

  Glasses clinked around the ballroom and the murmur of voices quieted as a microphone landed with a thunk in front of him on the table.

  Kipp clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re up, best man.”

  The toast. Shit.

  Nick lurched to his feet. He’d had a speech prepared. Even now, he could feel the paper crinkling in his vest pocket. He’d planned to talk about his long friendship with Kipp and Kipp’s unswerving loyalty, but now those words—though true—seemed somehow inadequate.

  Victoria stood at the back of the room. In constant motion since the reception began, she now paused near a spray of flowers and watched him, waiting for him to speak—along with the rest of the silent room.

  Nick cleared his throat, his grip on the microphone and his champagne glass suddenly sweat slicked.

  “Kipp is my oldest friend, and we all know he’s always good for a laugh. But he’s also the bravest person I’ve ever met.” He smiled at his friend and his bride.
“It takes courage to give your heart completely to another person and even more to make the promise to always be there for them. Being trusted with someone’s heart is a big responsibility. It takes a lot to love someone with all you have. I admire you, man.”

  Lolly smiled tearily, and Kipp sniffled—the big softie.

  “Lolly, you couldn’t have entrusted your heart to a more deserving guy. I know he’ll be brave enough to keep it safe and never break it. He’s a helluva lot braver than I am, but maybe it’s not too late for me to learn.” His gaze locked on the woman in the peach dress at the rear of the room as he lifted his glass. “To loving with your whole heart. To Kipp and Lolly.”

  Their names echoed through the room, chairs scraping as guests rose to their feet for the toast. Nick accepted Kipp’s back-slapping hug and Lolly’s teary embrace before sinking into his chair.

  As the guests settled themselves and the father of the bride stood to say a few words, Nick’s gaze boomeranged to the back of the room, but Victoria was gone.

  Her heels thunked against the wooden planks of the small gazebo thrust out over the water on a floating dock. It was nearing dusk, and the yacht club was quiet except for the activity in the ballroom inside.

  She should be part of that activity, but she needed a second to pull herself together. After Nick’s speech, she didn’t know what to feel.

  She rested her hands on the white painted railing, lifting her face to the salty breeze.

  “Tori?”

  Of course, he’d come. She didn’t take her eyes off the sunset, but she felt him behind her. He slipped off his jacket and tucked it around her shoulders, the familiar scent nearly buckling her knees.

  “You always were good at pleading your case,” she said, still facing the horizon.

  “I never stopped loving you.”

  Her heart lurched and Victoria turned her face toward him. The setting sun gilded his familiar features.

  “Even when I was an idiot,” he went on, “I loved you. I told myself you’d moved on, were better off without me, but this weekend … seeing you again like this, doesn’t it feel like fate giving us a chance to fix what we screwed up? I want to prove I’m not gonna run this time. I’d marry you this second if you’d have me.”