My First Second Chance

by KB Winters

  We finally found a spot in the back, and then walked together, arm in arm, to the front of the building, letting the snowflakes dust our hair. When we were inside, Dan greeted us. Dan, his marketing director, whom he’d managed to snag from E-Ventures as it was going down. Dan helped me take off my coat and said, “Glad you guys made it. They’re just about to make the big announcement. Come on.”

  He led us to the biggest of the rooms, where people gathered around tables in the cool blue light. A man at a podium spoke about the cutting edge of the industry. Applause rang out when he described the bright future ahead for the audience. Dan made a beeline for the empty seats at the very front table. Unfortunately, I was not that swift, but people were gracious. When I slid into my seat beside Gabe, he smiled back at me.

  “Made it,” he whispered to me, as I took a sip from the goblet of water.

  “I have never quite seen an app like The Clincher,” the man at the podium said, and seemed to be looking right at Gabe. “This remarkable application, as most of you are well aware, revolutionizes the way we shop. Its groundbreaking concept and branding have made it as recognizable a brand as Amazon, Google, and Apple. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for it. We expect it will expand to reach all markets worldwide.”

  I put a hand on Gabe’s shoulder, rubbing it proudly. It’d been a few tough weeks after leaving E-Ventures, but it was the right move. When he left, he started working out of the apartment, with me acting as his administrative assistant. He worked like a dog to finish The Clincher, and once it was done, he tapped on Dan’s door to help him market it.

  Turned out, early that fall, Dan had lost his job. Heller came out with LuvMakr, as promised to his investors, but the program ended up being so glitchy that the app never worked correctly, and the app failed. The investors lost everything, as did Heller. E-Ventures folded shortly afterward, laying off all of its employees. Later, Heller tried to leave the country to avoid getting caught for tax evasion, but he was apprehended at Newark Airport. He was now in prison, awaiting sentencing. Hopefully, I’d never see him again.

  After that, in a whirlwind, we’d hired back most of E-Ventures old staff and rented out a run down, long vacant suite of offices known as VERSIA INDUSTRIAL SOLUTIONS. When we found out the location of our make up sex to end all make up sex was still available, we jumped on it. We didn’t know it at the time but the building, specifically its parking lot, was a good omen for us. So how could we pass up the honoring of the place where we had cemented our forever commitment to each other by making it the home of Gabe’s new business?

  It was still very much a work-in-progress, with bare walls and lots of dust as we made it the headquarters for the new company, Code. Still, I knew it would be different, because Gabe was at the head, handling everything. It would have heart, and a lot of it, just like he did.

  Even though The Clincher had only been out for a few months, it was already the talk of the town. I’d never seen anything like it. It caught on like wildfire, and most people had downloaded it to their phone, making it the top essential app of the year. Now, people didn’t just buy things. They “Clinched” them. It had wormed its way into the American vocabulary faster than Googling had.

  “We are fortunate enough to have the developer of this revolutionary new app here with us tonight,” the man said, beaming at Gabe. “This man is brilliant, I tell you. Once in a great while you may meet a person who is on his way to greatness. I can tell you with certainty that when I met Gabe Cranford, I knew I was in the presence of someone special. In the midst of someone who would go down in history, whose name would become a household word.”

  Gabe froze. He pulled on his collar, and blushed red. Even though all of it was true, he seemed to shrink down in his seat, as if each positive word was a weight he couldn’t quite bear.

  I leaned over and reminded him, “You deserve this.”

  He gave me a look and grabbed my hand and squeezed it. His hands? Slick with sweat. Poor Gabe, he just needed to relax.

  “Without further ado, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the man behind The Clincher, so that we may bestow upon him our highest award in application development. Ladies and gentlemen, The Clincher developer, and our Developer of the Year, Gabe Cranford.”

  Wild applause. I clapped like my life depended on it. He stood, bowing humbly to the crowd and waving, as his co-workers and friends clapped him on the back. Then he leaned over, gave me a kiss, squeezed my hand one last time, and climbed the stairs to the podium. The presenter gave him a glass award, in the shape of a tower, and he shook the man’s hand. For a minute, he stood and just marveled over the award that had been placed in his hands, as if wondering how it had gotten there.

  “Thank you,” he said, once the applause had died down. He looked at the award again and sighed, overcome. “It’s a huge honor to be up here, addressing you all as your developer of the year. When I create an app, I often do it selfishly, thinking of the ways I can help myself do things a little better, faster, easier. So to be able to have others benefit from the things I do for myself is really the best job on earth. Could it be any easier?”

  The crowd laughed politely.

  “Anyway, I’d like to thank my development team, my marketing team, and everyone I’ve worked with on bringing The Clincher to life. It may have been a bit of a bumpy road at first, but it’s getting smoother as we go along and develop more ways to utilize the app. I’m really so fortunate to be surrounded by some of the best professionals in the business.”

  More clapping. I smiled at Dan and all of Gabe’s other co-workers, surrounding us in nearby tables. They were all hanging on his every word and gazing at him with admiration, some with tears moistening their eyes.

  “But most of all, I’d like to thank my girlfriend, Meg,” he said, looking down at me. “She was my high-school sweetheart. I was crazy about her then, but I love her more than ever now. If it weren’t for this beautiful woman in the front table, I doubt I’d have been able to move forward and find who I was truly meant to be.”

  Tears pricked my eyes when he said, “So thank you, Meg, for standing by me and not running away, even when I’m at my worst. I love you, baby.”

  The tears started to fall as I mouthed, I love you, too.

  When the applause started up again and he came back to me, I stood, and he closed my face up in his hands and kissed me hard, in front of everyone. The applause grew wilder as we stared into each other’s eyes, and I grew so lost in him that I almost couldn’t hear them. This man was everything to me. I didn’t need an award, or a fancy dinner, or even The Clincher. I just needed him. Now. For always.

  The dinner was lavish and long, but we had fun, chatting with his coworkers and celebrating our overnight success. It was loud, and crowded, and I supposed I’d become more like Gabe, because toward the end, though before I used to thrive in crowded, noisy clubs, now, I longed for peace and quiet. Just me and him alone in his living room, with a movie and a bowl of popcorn.

  After the dinner ended, we wandered outside to the patio. Clumps of snow from the earlier snowfall sat under the trees like giant marshmallows, dusted now by another shower of lightly falling snow. As we walked, the outdoor lights cast an icy wet sheen on the marble tiles. In the biting cold, we were the only people outside, and yet the pregnancy had done something to my internal thermometer, because I was perfectly warm, with Gabe’s arm wrapped around me.

  “So,” he said after a moment of watching the delicate snow fall from the sky. “What do you think?”

  “I think I have a brilliant boyfriend,” I said.

  “I wasn’t talking about that,” he said, motioning to the potted topiary beyond which we’d had our first encounter, all those months ago. The swan topiary was now covered in snow. However, it wasn’t like anyone was outside, anyway. A shiver shot through me as I thought about it, and Gabe said, “Do you think you can squeeze back there?”

  I grinned at him. “Do you have some
thing naughty in mind, Mr. Cranford?”

  “You’ll just have to see,” he said.

  Another mystery. I could tell Gabe relished them by the way his eyebrows danced suggestively.

  He held my hand, so I wouldn’t slide on the ice and I easily skirted around the potted plant and into the recess where we’d first made love.

  “Memories,” I said as I leaned against the wall. My breath hitched at the thought of him, between my legs, as he lowered his mouth onto mine, kissing me and taking my breath away.

  “Meg,” he whispered into my skin. “Oh, Meg.”

  My body was responding with arousal, and though the snow had begun to fall harder, I was on the verge of overheating. He ran his hands down the contours of my body.

  Then, he said, “I didn’t bring you out here to reenact our last encounter here.”

  I blinked, surprised. Then I pouted, sticking out my lower lip. “Shame.”

  “But we could,” he said quickly. “I’m definitely not ruling it out.”

  “Okay,” I said. He wasn’t making any sense. “Then what?”

  He reached into his pocket, and it was only when he retrieved a tiny black box that understanding began to dawn on me. My eyes widened as I saw him lift the lid and hold it between us. “I came here to ask you to be my wife,” he said softly. “We don’t have to do it now, if you want to have a fancy ceremony with a big dress and —”

  “No!” I shouted in glee, pushing on his chest.

  He looked horrified. “No?”

  “No! Wait.” I bit back my words. I took a deep breath, trying to assemble my thoughts, but it didn’t help. All my words tumbled out in a rush. “That’s not what I meant, of course. No, I mean, I don’t need a big dress or a fancy ceremony. I don’t give a shit about any of that. Let’s do it right away!”

  He let out a breath of relief. “You think? Right away? Like, city hall or something?”

  I nodded. “As soon as we can get the license. You know I never gave a shit about ceremonies and fancy stuff.”

  He blinked. “Okay. All right. Then right away. Let’s do it.”

  I nodded excitedly and hugged him. And then I covered my mouth and I felt tears pricking my eyes. “Oh, my gosh. We’re going to be married.”

  He leaned down and kissed me again. “Yes, we are.”

  I pointed at the ring. He looked at it as if he’d forgotten. Then he took it out and poised it at my fingertip. I was worried it wouldn’t fit, but it slid on easily. It was gorgeous, a simple heart-shaped solitaire in a platinum setting. Who knew Gabe had such amazing taste in jewelry? I wiggled my finger in the light as snowflakes fell on my hand. “I love it. I love you, too. So much.”

  “I love you, Meg,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. He gave me another kiss, and then whispered, very seriously, into my ear, “Now about that reenactment . . .”

  He’d already begun to lift the hem of my dress. I let him do it, and let my head fall back, tilting toward the snow-full sky. I stood there, just enjoying his mouth on me, and dreaming of the future we’d have together.

  Before, I hadn’t thought I’d have much of a future at all, but now? I couldn’t wait for our forever.

  * * * *

  ~ T H E ~ E N D ~

  I hope you loved this amazing story nearly as much as we loved writing it.

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  Acknowledgements

  Thank you so much for making our books a success! We appreciate our readers! Come chat with us in our FB Group, Bitches, Babes and Bad Decisions! We’d love to hear from you!

  Thanks to all of our beta readers, street team, ARC readers and Facebook fans. You folks are the best!

  And a huge very special thanks to Jessie! Without you, we’d all be a hot mess! (like we aren’t already!!) Thank you! *kisses*

  Copyright © 2018 BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC

  About The Authors

  KB Winters is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author of steamy hot books about Bikers, Billionaires, Bad Boys and Badass Military Men. Just the way you like them. She has an addiction to caffeine, tattoos and hard-bodied alpha males. The men in her books are very sexy, protective and sometimes bossy, her ladies are...well...bossier!

  Living in sunny Southern California, with her five kids and three fur babies, this embarrassingly hopeless romantic writes every chance she gets!

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  kbwintersauthor@gmail.com

  Thank you for reading my book! I really appreciate the fact that you took time out of your life for a little bit of Evie.

  A BIG fat thanks to Jessie. Couldn’t do it without her! Love you baby girl!

  Copyright © 2018 Evie Monroe and BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC

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