Page 140 of Your Second Chance
Charlie stepped away, moving to the other side of the counter. She picked up a towel, pretending to wipe down the already spotless surface, clearly as uneasy as I was.
She paused for a moment, hesitating as though choosing her words carefully. Then, swallowing hard, she spoke. “I can’t speak for my husband, but I know Austin really values the relationship you have with Scarlette. He won’t take that away from you. He doesn’t want to.”
Her words caught me off guard. They were exactly what I needed to hear, though they didn’t erase the knot in my chest.
“And I appreciate that, but it’s hard. It’s hard to see the woman I love, the one I took care of for years, come here and now have to share our time. To see the woman who spentso many nights crying over a man who wasn’t there, over a pregnancy that wasn’t planned, and a newborn she was terrified to raise alone. The one who would spend hours, days, crying in the bathroom at work. The woman who pushed me away, over and over, because she was terrified of what might happen because of her past. It’s... hard to be here and see him.”
It wasn’t hard—it was agonizing. Seeing him looking put together, standing in a space that felt too close to my own, made my skin crawl.
I let out a soft, disbelieving chuckle, shaking my head. “I shouldn’t be telling you this,” I muttered, the words spilling out like a confession I hadn’t planned to make.
Even as I said it, the vulnerability gnawed at me, but I couldn’t take it back. This was my reality, and for better or worse, it was out there.
“No, but you should tell me.”
I turned sharply, and there was Austin, leaning casually in the doorway. I hadn’t even heard him come in.
He gestured toward the stairs, a small smirk tugging at his lips. “Luna’s got them up there counting thread counts or some shit.”
A chuckle escaped me though my body remained tense as I stood and brushed off my pants.
Austin stepped into the room, his posture relaxed, but there was a weight in his gaze. He stopped a few feet in front of me, his voice quiet when he finally spoke. “I, uh, I don’t know what to say to you.”
I froze, my mind racing as the room seemed to narrow around us. His words were vulnerable and honest in a way I hadn’t expected. For all the tension and frustration I’d felt leading up to this moment, it caught me off guard to hear something so... human from him.
I kept my expression neutral, waiting to see what he’d say next. The silence stretched between us. There was a lot he could say, and probably a lot I needed to hear. I had to be the one to talk next. I just wasn’t sure what to say aside from the truth.
“I don’t mean to come off as a dick,” I said, struggling to keep my emotions in check. “I—watching Nova go through everything she did, watching her cry over you and Scarlette when she was a baby, and now feeling like I’m losing her... my baby girl. I feel?—”
I swallowed hard, the crack in my voice betraying the ache in my chest. Before I could finish, Austin stepped forward.
I froze as he wrapped his arms around me, firm and unyielding. For a split second, I didn’t know what to do, the unexpected gesture leaving me off-balance.
I’d been holding it all in for so long, keeping it together for Nova, for Scarlette, for myself, but with him standing here, it all threatened to spill over.
Scarlette wasn’t justhers.She wasn’t justhis.She wasours.Mine. I’d been there for every sleepless night, every scraped knee, every silly bedtime story. Seeing him step in, hearing her call him “Dad,” it felt like the ground beneath me was shifting, like I might lose the only family I’d ever truly built for myself.
“Thank you,” Austin rasped. “I can’t thank you enough. I will never take your family from you... ever.”
I stood there stiffly at first, unsure how to react, before slowly letting myself relax enough to feel the weight of what he was saying. The man who had been a ghost for so long was here now, flesh and blood, trying to claim a role in Scarlette’s life without diminishing mine.
When Austin stepped back, his hand lingered on my shoulder, and I met his gaze, searching for any trace of insincerity. There was none—just a man trying to fix the pieces of a life he’d broken.
I let out a shaky breath, my voice quieter when I finally spoke. “Thank you.”
“No,” Austin said, shaking his head slightly. “Thank you. For everything. You have every right to hate my guts. I was a horrible person to Nova. To everyone. I can’t change the past, but I’ve spent years working on myself. Trying to fix what I could.”
He glanced over at Charlie, his expression softening as he spoke. “It wasn’t until I met Charlie that I realized I had actually changed. She made me see that forgiving myself was the final piece of moving forward.” He turned back to me. “I hope I can show you that I’m different now. I’m not asking for custody or to take Scarlette away. I don’t want to break apart your family. I hope... if you have it in you, both of you, to make room for me—” He paused, flicking his eyes back to Charlie. “And my wife. All we’re asking for is a seat at the table. That’s it.”
It wasn’t hard to see the weight he bore. There was no denial in his expression, no attempt to rewrite the past. He owned it, carried it, and was standing here asking to be part of something he knew he didn’t deserve.
I couldn’t ignore that.
He was human. He’d made mistakes—big ones—but he was trying. Every word he said, every action he took seemed deliberate, like he was balancing on the edge of hope and fear, terrified of breaking what little trust might exist.
As much as it stung to admit, I couldn’t hate him for that. It was the same thing I’d done for Nova. I’d fought like hell to earn her trust, to be the man she could lean on when her world was falling apart. I’d made my share of mistakes, too, but she’d given me a chance.
And maybe that’s where the difference lay. Nova and I were meant to find each other, to build something out of the broken pieces we’d both carried. Austin and Nova? They weren’t meantto be. Their paths might cross, their stories might intertwine, but they couldn’t hold each other up when the storms hit.
