Page 7 of Final Chance At Love (Chance At Love Duet 2)

I locked eyes with him and mumbled, “You know I’d be lying if I said I don’t want you.”

“Please don’t leave,” he spoke softly. “Let me fix this.”

“That was shitty,” I tried to sound strong, but I felt vulnerable, more than ever.

“I’m sorry,” his voice was soft. “I’ll be careful not to hurt you again.”

I wanted all of him. “Don’t do it again.”

He got up and kneeled in front of me wrapping his strong arms around me tightly, as if he was scared I’d change my mind. I leaned my body into him and laid my head on his shoulder. It scared me how much that felt right. It scared me to death that his words hurt me so much.

This time he sat next to me. He pulled me close to him, his arms around me, and that’s how we remained for the next hour.

A little voice was telling me we needed to talk more, talk it over. He needed to understand what he did to me, and I needed to understand what drove him to behave as he did. But I convinced myself later would be better timing. I just wanted to sit with him in silence, no ghosts of our pasts, no hurt, no broken soul. Even though I knew what they said about ignorance.

What’s that saying?

When you ignore your problems, they come back tenfold.

Chapter Three

Iprepared us breakfast and we ate on the back porch. Although I didn’t have an appetite, Kristoff certainly did.

“I thought you said you didn’t like cooking,” he teased, referring to my first interview with him. “This is delicious.”

“I don’t like to cook,” I answered, putting another portion on his plate, and went back to sit down on the sofa, tucking my legs underneath. “I wouldn’t call fixing scrambled eggs cooking,” I told him, smiling, stifling my yawn.

“Tired?” he asked, frowning.

“No,” I answered defensively. He gave me a small glare, so I added. “Ok, maybe a little. I think my iron levels are getting really low; it comes and goes but makes me extremely tired and nauseated,” I said matter of fact.

“You are anemic then?”

“Yes,” I answered and then added. “It is quite common.”

Rick’s voice interrupted from the inside of the house. “Gemma.”

“Out back, Rick,” I shouted.

Rick came out and stopped dead in his tracks, the shock on his face was almost priceless.

“Hey there,” I greeted him. “Want some breakfast?”

“Ah… no,” he answered hesitantly. “Is everything ok? Do you know that your window in the front is broken?”

“Yes,” I quickly answered. “Just a small accident. I’ll have someone come and fix it today.”

“I already called,” Kristoff jumped in. “Handyman will be here to fix it by noon.”

I smiled, grateful to Kristoff; although, I wished he told me that earlier. But then he did say he’d take care of it. He sure followed through.

Rick looked confused.

“Hello Kristoff,” Rick greeted him and then turned back to me. “You left your cell phone in my car, so I just swung by you to give it to you.”

“Darn,” I exclaimed. “I searched everywhere for it. Thank you so much, Rick!”

He sat next to me, and I took my phone noting the battery was almost dead. I quickly checked messages and saw Kristoff indeed called yesterday, many times. I quickly looked up and his gaze was on me. I gave him a smile, unsure what was going through his mind. I went back to the phone and checked text messages, and saw my mother-in-law and girls landed in Florida just a few minutes ago.

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