Page 12 of A Second Chance At Forever

I made the walk up to the bar and took my usual seat, the same booth Lennox and I always sat in.

Dane rushed to the table. “Mason, what the fuck have you been doing? I’ve called you three times this morning.” He sat down in the booth and slouched back.

“I’ve had a busy morning, what’s up?” I flagged down Wendy and motioned for a beer.

“It’s funny, you know?” Dane had a shit-eating grin on his face and his dark eyes lit up.

“What’s funny?” I asked, in no mood to put up with his bullshit.

“That you finally move on and get a girlfriend months before she comes back to town.” He leaned forward in the booth, resting his elbows on the table.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Dane?”

Wendy brought over my beer and I took a long drink while waiting for him to reply.

“You would never guess who showed up in here last night asking about you, or maybe you could guess.” His smile was still in place as his eyebrows rose.

“Do you actually have something to say or do you want to waste time and give me riddles?” I was beginning to lose my patience until I started catching on to his game. Is he trying to tell me that Lennox is back in town?

“Lennox Madison came in here last night.” He leaned in watching the emotions change on my face.

“Lennox was here?” I asked, tapping my finger on the table.

“Yep.” He nodded his head with a big ass smile, clearly enjoying the moment.

I wiped the expression off my face and sat back. “What was she doing here?” I was trying to play it cool, even though I was anything but.

Dane shrugged. “I don’t know. She came in, had a few drinks, and talked to Wendy.”

“Did she say something about me?” He could tell I was excited by the tone of my voice.

“She asked if you were around and how you had been doing, but that’s it.”

I sat back in the booth and ran my hands through my hair.

Lennox is here, and she’s asking about me. Is she here to stay or is she just visiting her dad?

She had come to town before to see her dad during holidays, but she was always careful and never came to see me. I knew why, but I wondered why she was asking about me after all the years she went avoiding me?

“Well, this shit isn’t nearly as fun as I thought it would be.” Dane stood from his seat and walked back to his office looking disappointed that I didn’t give him the entertainment he was looking for.

Nicole walked in about that time and took the seat that Dane had just evacuated. “What’s going on, babe? You look like you’ve had a rough day.”

I brought my attention back and offered her a small smile. “Nothing, sorry. I was just thinking about some work I need to get done. Are you ready to order?” I asked, hoping she didn’t ask anything more.

She shrugged it off and flipped through the menu.

While eating lunch, Nicole and I talked about her schedule. She was a nurse at the local hospital and it was her turn to work the graveyard shift. That meant I was on my own all weekend. She went on to talk about something else, I tried to listen, but my thoughts kept drifting back to Lennox and the fact that she was in town.

“Mason, did you hear what I said?” Nicole asked, waving her hand in front of my face.

I rubbed my eyes, hoping to rub away any thoughts of Lennox.

I can’t let her come back and turn my life upside down. I finally got some normalcy after all these years.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” I took her hands in mine and offered up an apologetic smile for not paying attention to her.

“I said, my parents asked if we would like to go to dinner on Sunday. Can we do that?” Her eyebrows rose and her eyes were hopeful.

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