One More Chance: A Small Town Love Story Read online

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  Copyright

  Copyright 2019 by AJ Wynter - All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document by either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  Author's Notes:

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third party websites or their content.

  Editing: Teresa Banschbach

  Cover Design: Kari March Design

  Table of Contents

  Disclaimer

  Copyright Page

  ONE MORE CHANCE

  About This Book

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  Logan and Billie Jo’s Back Story

  Also By A.J. Wynter

  Connect with A.J.

  One More Chance

  Chance Rapids, Book 2

  A.J. WYNTER

  About This Book

  THIS SMALL TOWN ISN’T big enough for the two of us.

  I LEFT THAT HOCKEY player in my rear-view mirror fifteen years ago.

  If he thinks that I’m going to fall at his feet because he’s paid millions of dollars to chase a puck around some frozen water, he’s got another thing coming.

  No matter how hard he tries, there’s no way in hell I’m giving that grade A you-know-what, a second chance. I don’t care if he’s got the sexiest eight pack I’ve ever seen, or that his crystal blue eyes pierce directly into my soul.

  Sure, he may be a big shot superstar now, but I remember who he was, and people don’t change.

  Right?

  If I had my way, I would never set eyes on him again; but for now, I’m stuck walking down the aisle with the man who broke my heart.

  Chapter 1

  2004

  Billie Jo cracked open her eyelids and winced as they were assaulted by the blare of the early morning sunlight. She groaned, her sister, Lauren was an early riser and must have left the curtains open. She rolled over and saw the emerald green dress on the wooden chair in the corner. It looked deflated, its skirt crumpled onto the floor, a pool of green satin. She felt a lump in her throat as the events from the previous night flooded back to her. Questions swam through her brain as she tried to make sense of why her date for the prom hadn’t shown up. There was no apologetic phone call, no note with a lame excuse, there was just nothing. She wanted the day to go away and reached up to yank the curtains shut. Shrouded in the security of darkness, she curled up into a ball to try and escape back into the safety and emotionless sanctity of sleep.

  It didn’t come.

  Her anger and sadness wrestled with each other, neither of them letting her sleep, but anger eventually won. She ripped the covers back and shot out of bed. She then pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, ran her fingers through her brown hair and fastened it into a messy ponytail. She headed downstairs and saw Lauren sitting in the living room, reading.

  “You left the curtains open again,” she said and shoved her feet into a pair of old running shoes.

  “Oops, sorry,” Lauren replied without looking up. She always had her nose buried in a book.

  “Yeah, well. Thanks,” Billie Jo snapped.

  Billie Jo waited for the nasty retort she had coming to her, but Lauren’s narrowed eyes quickly softened. “Sorry about the curtains, Billie,” she said and raised her book back up.

  Pity. From her sister of all people; the nerd of all nerds pitied her for being stood up.

  She pulled on her jean jacket and as she set off running down the street, Lauren yelled, “Get some milk.”

  Her breathing was heavy as she sprinted across the tracks and into the nice part of town, determined to get an answer.

  Did she get one? No.

  Logan’s house was dark. She rapped on the door and peered through the window for any sign of life behind the lace eyelet curtains, but the Brush house was still. Could there have been some kind of emergency? Her anger subsided, replaced with a touch of worry.

  She headed downtown to pick up some milk at the general store where her mom was working the day shift. The store also included a gas station, convenience store, and even a diner, and was locally dubbed the G-Spot.

  She pulled opened the door to the store, “Hi, Mom,” she said as the bell chimed over her head.

  “Hi, Sweetie,” her mom replied. She was organizing the packages of cigarettes behind the counter.

  The smell of deep-fried pastries and cinnamon lingered heavily in the air from the adjoining diner. “We need milk,” she replied and headed to the back of the store. As she pulled a jug from the fridge, she heard giggling, or rather cackling, coming from the diner. She peered through the display of potato chips and saw the flick of a blonde ponytail. Stacy and her clique were hanging out in the diner. Billie Jo bent down and tried to slink away without being seen by any of the cheerleaders, but froze when she heard the name, Logan. She paused and held her breath, listening to the girls as they whispered stories about her.

  “I heard that the guys bet him that he wouldn’t take a loser to the prom and he didn’t want to show his face with her.”

  Billie Jo’s heart sank, when they first started hanging out, she had wondered if it was some cruel bet, but had grown to believe that Logan was truly into her.

  Stacy said, “No, I heard that she blew all the guys on the hockey team, and Logan was getting his BJ instead of going to the prom.”

  “No, I heard...” Billie Jo couldn’t take any more. The heat in her face burned the tears away to nothing before they could reach her chin. She slunk to the checkout and saw her mom’s face, it was white. “You go and set those girls straight,” she said. “Or I will.”

  Sharon’s nametag was slightly crooked, her hair was pulled back into a bun, the gray from her tough life had overtaken the dark brown. Thankfully, her missing bottom tooth only showed when she smiled, which wasn’t all that often.

  “No, Mom. It’s okay,” she said. “It will only make it worse. You know the truth.”

  She smiled weakly at her mom, and Sharon mirrored the same smile back. There it was, the missing tooth.

  “It will be okay, honey,” Sharon said and handed her the change for the milk.

  It wa
sn’t going to be okay. Rumors about Billie’s Jo’s mom, unfounded rumors, ran rampant in the small town, and it looked like the slut torch had just been passed on to Billie Jo.

  “See you at home,” she said and pocketed the change. Billie Jo cried the entire walk home until the tears wouldn’t come anymore. Her face was puffy and red and all she wanted to do was crawl into bed. She had to get out of this town.

  Chapter 2

  2019

  Charlotte strode out of her sleek office building, her heels tapping on the pavement as she jogged across the street in the misty rain to the bustling coffee shop.

  She heard her phone ringing from the depths of her Prada handbag. She handed the barista a ten-dollar bill and plunged her hand into her bag, knocking around lipstick tubes, notebooks, and pens; her fingers snapping wildly. By the time her claw had located the phone, it had stopped ringing.

  “Thanks.” She smiled at the barista, taking her change and her latte.

  She charged back out to the street and headed back to her office. She glanced at the time and took a breath, she still had time to make it across the city before gridlock tripled the cross-city travel time. She headed into the building and heard the phone ringing again, she smiled and tapped the screen to accept the call,

  “Who is this?” she said.

  “You know exactly who it is. My picture shows up on your fancy screen.” Her best friend Megan was on the other end of the line.

  “Hmmm. The voice sounds familiar, but I just can’t quite place it...”

  Ever since Megan had moved in with her boyfriend, Josh, their weekly catch-up calls had turned into a bi-weekly call, and now, monthly. They texted here and there, and Charlotte missed their gossip sessions. She was happy that Megan had found love, but was a little jealous that she had to share her best friend with Josh.

  “Ha. Ha. Very funny.” Megan’s voice rang out through the tiny speaker. “The phone works two ways you know.”

  It was true. Since coming back from Chance Rapids last December, Charlotte had thrown herself into work and a Caribbean vacation. Her tan had since faded, but the memory of seeing that asshole Logan Brush at the café still made her blood boil. She was thankful that he didn’t recognize her and that she was able to duck out the back, but as much as she hated to admit it, it hurt her that there was no glimmer of recognition in his eyes.

  Yes, it had been fifteen years, and she supposed that she looked different. Her hair was darker, she had some crinkles beside her eyes, and her clothes were worth more than the beat-up car her mom had driven when she was in high school. But he looked the same and dammit if he didn’t look better than he did in 2004.

  “I guess we both got busy there.” Charlotte nodded to her assistant as she juggled her coffee to slide open the glass door to her office. “But, let’s not let that happen again. I miss you, Meg.”

  “I miss you too.”

  “Are you two still fucking like rabbits, or has the honeymoon phase worn off?”

  “Charlotte!” Megan gasped theatrically. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

  “That’s where it likes to live these days,” she smirked. “Speaking of gutter dwellers, has the hero of Chance Rapids come back to town to bask in his glory?” There was a deep intake of breath and then dead silence on the other end of the phone. “What? What is it?” Charlotte knew when Megan was keeping something from her.

  “You haven’t heard?”

  “Heard what? You know I try to stay as far away from that town and its gossip as I can.”

  “Logan Brush has moved back to Chance Rapids.”

  Charlotte felt her face flush. “He did what? When? Why?” she went into rapid-fire question mode.

  “He retired and now he’s coaching the hockey team in town here.”

  “Coaching local hockey? Seriously? The Chance Rapids Bobcats? Are they still a thing?”

  “Oh, my god, are they ever. The town closes up shop when they have a game. I swear everybody in town goes.”

  “And how would you know?”

  “What is this, an interrogation?”

  “Sorry, Meg.” Charlotte sighed. “You know how much I hate that guy.”

  “Yeah, I do. But you still haven’t told me why. I mean, he seems like such a good guy.”

  Charlotte practically spit her latte all over her desk. “Good guy? Hey, listen, Meg. I really want to catch up, but I have to prepare for this meeting.”

  She had just met a potential buyer for her eight-million-dollar listing and wanted to follow up with him as quickly as possible. The news from Chance Rapids had caught her off guard and she could feel her hands starting to shake. She needed to calm herself down and she’d be damned if the memory of Logan Brush was going to cost her a deal.

  “Sure. But, call me after. There’s something we have to talk about.”

  Goosebumps sprang up on Charlotte’s arm, Megan’s voice sounded serious. “Are you okay, Meg? Is the baby okay?”

  “Yes, everything is fine here. I just need to talk to you about something.”

  “I’ll call you as soon as I’m home.” That’s not the way to leave a conversation, she thought but pushed the odd conversation with Megan to the back of her mind. She prided herself on her ability to compartmentalize, to be able to put aside her personal life when she needed to get down to business.

  Charlotte had gotten to be the city’s number one realtor for a lot of different reasons. She worked her ass off, she knew the business inside and out, but what she felt was most important... she trusted her gut when it came to clients and reading people. It’s what gave her the edge in negotiations. Like a skilled poker player, she could read her opponents and she always got what she wanted – even if it meant letting others ‘think’ they had the upper hand.

  Her assistant, Kate slid open the glass door, “How did the Maplewood showing go?”

  “Weird. That’s how it went.”

  “Another wacko?”

  “I don’t think so, but I’m about to follow up with him and find out if he just wasted three hours of my time.”

  “Ugh,” Kate commiserated. “Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

  “I just got one.” Charlotte held up her paper cup and wiggled her mouse to bring her computer screen to life. Other than following up with the Maplewood buyer, she didn’t have any pressing work to do, but her office felt more like home to her than her actual home. She glanced to the photo on her desk, it was the last photo she had taken with her mom. She and her sister, Lauren had sandwiched her mom, Sharon, and well before days of selfies, had somehow managed to get all three of them in the frame of the Polaroid without cutting their heads off.

  “You got it.” Kate started to close the door, “Oh, before I forget, your sister called, like a billion times.”

  “My sister Lauren?”

  “Do you have another one I don’t know about?” Kate asked. It was a genuine question; Charlotte kept her personal life very close to her chest.

  Charlotte and Lauren had drifted apart after their mom’s death. They called each other on Christmas and birthdays, and Charlotte always made sure to send her niece, Tabitha a gift every year. Charlotte regretted not being closer to Tabitha; she knew that she could play the role of ‘cool aunt’ if given the opportunity. And the closer Charlotte got to her mid-thirties, she realized the likelihood of her having children was growing smaller by the day. And she was okay with that.

  “Just the one,” Charlotte replied. “Thanks, Kate.”

  CHARLOTTE HUNG UP THE phone after talking to her sister and immediately called Megan.

  “Guess who came out of the woodwork today...”

  “Ya got me.”

  “Lauren.”

  “The sister that doesn’t exist Lauren?” Megan replied. Megan had never met Lauren and Charlotte didn’t really have much of a reason to discuss her younger sister.

  “That’s the one. And guess what? She’s taken on a job in Chance Rapids.”

  “Seriously? D
oing what?”

  “Lauren is a lawyer. She’s been hired by the Nature Conservancy to oppose the expansion of the ski resort.”

  “That’ll go over like a lead balloon. There are a lot of people here counting on those jobs.”

  “Something about grizzly habitat. Truthfully, I wasn’t really listening.”

  “That doesn’t sound like you,” Megan laughed. Charlotte was often distracted by demanding clients, her eyes glued to one of her two phones as she periodically murmured mm-hmm during conversations.

  “Guilty.” Charlotte knew that she needed to be a better listener. “I’m working on that. And guess what? You’re not the only one who gets to play mom.”

  “What?” Megan squealed. Megan was four months’ pregnant and as far as she knew, the only men in Charlotte’s life were her clients.

  “Don’t get too excited. Lauren is going to live at the Sugar Peaks House, and I’m going to look after Tabitha over spring break.”

  “You’re going to look after a child? You know that they require food and water, right?”

  “I’m going to be the coolest aunt around. You wait and see.”

  “But spring break, that’s next week.”

  “I know. I’ll be in your neck of the woods soon and we can catch up. Wait! I’ve been rambling. What was the big important news that you had for me?”

  “You know what? I think I’d rather wait and tell you in person.”

  “Meg! You can’t do that!”

  “What’s that?” Megan called to a silent background. “I’ll be right there, Josh.”

  “Josh isn’t there.” Charlotte quipped.

  “Coming,” Megan yelled again to the silence. “I’ve gotta go, Char. I can’t wait to see you. Bye.”

  “Don’t you dare—” Charlotte heard the dial tone. “Hang up on me.” She held her phone out and looked at it as if the brick of technology could provide her with some answers. What could be so important that Megan had to tell her in person? Then it dawned on her. Of course, she leaned back in her chair and smiled, there was going to be a wedding in Chance Rapids. She would bet money on it.