Page 12 of Second Chance Christmas

Steel strong enough to withstand the weight of a skyscraper replaced the wet noodle holding her resolve together.

He smelledsogood! Felt good too. Had he always had those calluses? In the small space, Aspen’s masculine scent seeped into her senses. Tempted to lean closer she roped her wayward thoughts back from the edge of dangerous territory and eased back to her side. “You’re not cold?”

“Nah. Kind of used to it, really. Missed it while I was in Cali.”

The muscles in her face tightened into a smile.

A few minutes went by and when she didn’t say anything, he cleared his throat and acted as if nothing happened. “After you do the upgrades and repairs on the B&B is it back to Seattle? Think you’ll have enough time before Christmas to finish?”

“With Gran’s help, we’ll be able to do the few touch-ups quickly, so I hope. I can’t stay here long. Honestly, if all goes well, I should be on a plane to New York City Christmas night.”

He whistled long and low. “That fast. They need you to start so soon?”

“It’s what they said in the interview. Of course, I agreed. Getting this job is the most important thing right now.” She scrunched her nose. “I don’t mean to sound rude. Sorry. It’s just that.” She fiddled with the ends of her scarf and bit her lip. “There’s a lot going on now. Helping with the B&B, the guests, the new job interview.” All her squashed plans, her house and the end of her engagement, but she didn’t want to add any negativity to the moment. Or break down in tears at the crushing pain in her chest at everything she had lost recently.

“I understand. It’s how things go. I hope you get it.” Did she hear a hint of disappointment in his voice?

Ivy couldn’t stay here any longer than she needed. The insurance checked out and she should receive the payout any day now. She hoped. It would go a long way in helping her rebuild the ruins of her life. She spent all her time doing for others, making sure everyone else’s life was tip top and pretty while hers fell apart and was literally in ashes.

Aspen leaned her way, eyes on the road. “It’s good to see you again, Ivy Sunday. I’m glad you’re here.” He took her hand in his and squeezed. His voice raked over her in a husky tone. She also noted a pang of nostalgia with a chaser of sincerity. As though he really missed her.

It had been a while since she’d heard the latter. Her fiancé thought telling the truth resulted in hives. Who knew slimy pigs wore such expensive suits and polished manners? In the last two months she found out more about him through newspapers and the evening news than she ever did living with him. She didn’t know how she missed what he did behind her back.

On the other hand, maybe she did. Long hours of single-handedly building her business into something that could support her had come with a hefty price. Dealing with a constant rotating door of clients in a large city was good for the portfolio, but not for her private life.

Ivy turned her attention away from the passing pines and bare, craggy oak trees to look at Aspen. Really look at him. Handsome down to the strong line of his jaw and the shape of his mouth. She and her sisters liked to call such perfect lines Superman perfection.

While she was no Lois Lane. She barely had enough time to brush her teeth and pass a comb through her hair this morning. Forget lip gloss and her favorite mascara. The best she could manage was a sloppy ponytail that pulled too far to the right before her Gran rushed her out the door.

She looked at Aspen. Yep. If GQ offered a fireman edition, he’d be on the front cover. The man looked as if he rolled out of bed wearing sexy while she could be the poster woman for hownotto land a man. She feared all those cat memes she laughed at online would one day resemble her life.

She shrugged that thought away. Crazy cat lady territory was still a ways off.

Eight years and it didn’t look as if five of those years even touched him. No, she took that back. It only made him a finer version of his younger self. Fine lines creased the soft skin around his deep brown eyes. Probably created by the stress of his job, but it didn’t take away from the handsome set of their welcoming warmth.

A dark shadow of stubble brushed the length of his jaw that made him impossibly more handsome. And severed as proof he didn’t take the time to shave that morning before heading out to protect those that couldn’t fight back the cold. He took care of his people. Always had. She’d liked that about him back in high school too. At one time, she thought they would be one of those couples that married right after graduation and be sweethearts forever.

Then fear set in. What if she didn’t want the same thing at twenty or twenty-five that she did at eighteen. He’d asked her on the eve of graduation and of course, she fool-heartedly said yes before thinking.

Then she broke both their hearts.

Reality never turned out the way one planned, she surmised. A hard lesson to learn when you have big dreams and a soft heart.

Ivy pictured her younger self and the way he used to look at her, the depths of his eyes filled with unbound energy. Now there was a harder edge to his features that she accounted to life’s less-than-gentle experiences.

She imagined she didn’t look the same either. She sure didn’t feel like the optimistic and energetic teenager about to conquer the world. “It’s different. Being back. I wasn’t expecting to...” She paused to think about what exactly she did expect.

“See me?” Aspen jumped in, lending words to her thoughts, no hesitation at all where she would have obviously tripped over every syllable.

A million times yes. “No.” She nearly rolled her eyes. Instead, she worked the ends of her scarf and bit her lip to keep her mouth out of trouble. If her gran and momma heard her now they would be shaking their collective heads at her. One trait all three shared was that they preferred the truth, even when it made you cringe. Well, she just blew that all to hell.

Ivy steered the conversation back to more neutral territory.

“Gran mentioned you moved to California with your brother after I left for college. She never mentioned you guys returned.” Not that she didn’t try and pry for every piece of information she could bribe, con or coax out of her Gran. Tired of filling her in on every single detail of Aspen’s life, she messaged Aspen’s Facebook profile link to Ivy one morning and in bold letters wrote:

NO MORE. DO YOUR OWN STALKING.

Pshhh. Yeah right. Looking backward meant you couldn’t move forward and Aspen Kennedy and his sexy dimples had no business in her present, and surely fate didn’t mean for them to be in her future. But there were times when curiosity took over.

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