Page 59 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

“They had an internal contest to design a new concept car,” I told Haley. “Everyone at the company was allowed to enter.”

“And you won?” she asked excitedly.

I shook my head. “I lost to two mechanical engineers. But I got third place, and enough attention to snag an assistant job in the design department. I did that for the next two years before Nissan dangled an offer in front of me that I couldn’t refuse. I accepted the job and moved back.”

That last part wasn’t the truth. I’d been the one to search for a job back home, and got lucky that Nissan had an opening. But I couldn’t tell Haley that.

Haley was actually frowning down at her sandwich, deep in thought. “Is something wrong?” I asked.

She sighed, and pushed her plate away. “Yeah.” She dragged her eyes up until she met my gaze. “I have to confess something to you.”

I swallowed. What was she going to say?

“Last week,” she said slowly, “when you had to cancel lunch at the last minute. I didn’t believe you.”

“You didn’t?”

“The only reason I showed up at Nissan was I was trying to catch you in a lie,” she admitted.

I blinked. “Why would I lie?”

“Because as a teenager… you kind of… sometimes…”

“I was an asshole who nobody could trust,” I finished for her.

She winced. “Yeah. You had a bad habit of bailing on plans at the last minute, and you always lied about it.”

I chuckled. “Wow. I spent the whole weekend thinking about how nice it was for you to bring me lunch while I was stuck at the office.”

“I know!” she whined. “You have no idea how guilty I’ve felt about it. I’m really sorry, Lucas.”

“Don’t be. I can understand why your first instinct was to doubt whatever I said.” I sipped my water. “But I’m definitely not that asshole anymore.”

Haley’s eyes filled with warmth. “I can tell! Your career path is inspiring. I’m really proud of you, Lucas.”

It felt like someone was squeezing a vice around my heart. I didn’t realize how deeply satisfying it would feel to have her say those words. For her to finally get a glimpse of the man I had become, rather than the fuck-up she had known back then.

“You’ve grown up a lot, too,” I said to cover my own embarrassment.

She tilted her head. “Oh?”

I shrugged. “The way you carry yourself is different than I remember. More confident, more sure of yourself. Like you always know exactly where you’re going.” I smiled at her. “But everything else about you is the same. You still half-smirk whenever someone gives you a compliment—like you’re doing right now. You have the same intensity in your eyes while carrying on a conversation, like you really care about what you’re hearing and want the other person to know it. And you tap your feet when you’re happy.”

Her foot abruptly stopped tapping. “I didn’t realize you remembered so much about me.”

“Are you kidding?” I said. “You were such a great girlfriend back in high school, Hales. I was the fuck-up. I’ve always kind of thought of you as the one who got away.”

I hadn’t intended to say that to Haley today, but something pushed me to say the words. To make the admission.

She blushed again, and gazed down at the unfinished half of her sandwich. “That’s really sweet of you to say.”

There was a vacuum hanging in the air left by my admission. Had she felt the same way? If so, now was the time to say so.

She gave me a caring smile, and reached across the table to squeeze my hand, but didn’t say anything else.

We chatted about our jobs for the rest of lunch, then left. We lingered on the curb outside, her car being in one direction and my office in the other.

“I had a really good time catching up today,” she said. “Actuallycatching up, I mean…”

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