Page 12 of Captivating Mr. Second Chance

The idea of buying a fish clung to her as she showered and changed, but as she crawled into bed, the heavy loneliness she’d become friendly with lately snuggled in next to her. The self-doubt and insecurity had been paralyzing at times, but she’d been good at keeping herself secluded from everyone and everything so they couldn’t witness her struggling with it. She’d even shut her parents out as much as possible, turning down her father’s offer to work in his office and blatantly ignoring her mom’s texts and voice mails about dinner or getting a pedicure together.

It felt impossible to face people sometimes, to put on a brave face and gather enough pieces of herself to not be a scattered puzzle. And now, on top of everything, Ethan—the one person who’d always seemed to know what to say to put her back together—would be around. It was hard enough to work through everything going on in her life; she didn’t know how to do it under the shadow of their past.

5

Laney loved her brother, but she hated his bathroom. Especially that it was only half finished.

Dean Hargrove was a particular guy. He didn’t like strangers in his house, so he refused to call anyone for help, which meant that when he’d bought this run-down townhouse last year, he’d decided he was going to completely renovate it himself. When he and Laney had talked about it, he’d said, “It can’t be any harder than the bar exam.”

According to him, working on the house was a way to de-stress from his job at the law firm. Every night, he’d come home and hammer some stuff, which was cool, if only he could hammer a little faster.

She’d been applying her makeup and completing her multistep hair care routine in a shell of a shower and with a tiny mirror. Her hair products were in Tupperware containers on the floor under the sink, and her makeup sat on the back of the toilet. One compact had already been lost to the sewer system—her favorite cream eye shadow—and she said a prayer over the watery grave every time she picked up her case.

Just as she finished her hair, the doorbell rang, and two distinctly feminine voices carried upstairs. Dean had become a player in recent years, ever since his friend had died a few years ago. He struggled with his grief and seemed to substitute his real emotions with a steady rotation of women. His latest conquest was a nurse…or medical assistant…or maybe a vet tech.

Laney couldn’t remember, except for the fact that she wore scrubs. Laney only knew that because she found them in the hallway one morning.

“Hey.”

Laney’s hand jerked and broke the black line she’d been drawing with liquid eyeliner. “Damn.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Ethan said.

Her heart pounded like it was attempting to get out of her chest. “You can’t give me a warning or something?” she said as her eyes took on a mind of their own to survey him up and down in dark jeans and a thin pullover on top of a button-down. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to know you still stick the tip of your tongue out when you concentrate.”

If there had been anything other than sweet familiarity in his voice, she might’ve been embarrassed. She’d never been able to break that habit.

“Did I mess you up?” he asked, tipping his chin toward the eyeliner wand in her hand, and she closed her eyes so he could view the damage. “Looks like a tiny inkblot test.”

She opened her eyes again to his slanted smile. “You’re a tiny inkblot test.”

“Oh yeah?” He crossed his arms and tilted his head. “What do you see?”

What did she see?

Lots of things.

She saw her old friend. She saw traces of a young man’s smirk grown into a man’s smile. She saw years of memories faded yet alive in front of her. Mostly, she saw a ghost of what could have been.

“That’s a loaded question,” she said after a few seconds, and he bent his head toward her in acquiescence. “Do you need to get in here?”

“Finish up. I’ll wait.”

“Sure?” When he nodded, she rounded back to the mirror and wiped her eyelid clean, starting all over again. “What’re you doing here?”

Although he stayed in the hall, she knew he was watching her. “Dean’s girlfriend has someone for me to meet.”

With a sudden flashback to high school, Laney recalled Dean and Ethan going out with Kayla and Madison, who were best friends and on the dance team together, and something that felt an awful lot like jealousy bit into her. But that was stupid. There was nothing going on between her and Ethan. She didn’t even know him anymore.

He could and should go out with whomever he wanted to.

“Where are you headed tonight?” he asked.

She cut him a glance. “I’m meeting one of my best friends for dinner. She lives in Allentown but is coming down for a few hours.”

He skimmed his hand over his jaw, a few days’ worth of stubble on it, and she couldn’t believe that the loping puppy dog of a boy she used to know had grown up into this gorgeous man.

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