Page 103 of A Second Chance

He nods enthusiastically and runs out of the kitchen and down the hall.

“Where are you going?” I call out, laughing.

“I’m getting my bib!”

“You mean apron!”

“That’s what I said,” he says with a giggle.

Shaun and I started the tradition of baking fall theme cookies for Thanksgiving, and Christmas cookies in December. He’s always been my little helper. He helps me take the dishes out of the dishwasher, clothes from the dryer, dusts furniture, and his favorite—cooking and baking.

“I’m ready!” Shaun lifts his arms in the air with a big toothy grin.

Yep, definitely a mama’s boy.

And I love every minute of it.

* * *

Maverick

The house is filled with family we rarely ever see. This year, Mom’s brother, wife, and three kids under the age of ten are spending the holidays with us.

Sitting on the couch watching the football game with Dad and my uncle Jake, I decide to call the person I’ve been dodging.

I wonder what Scar is doing?

“Maverick,” Sam says in a terse tone. “You better be calling to tell me you’re on a plane heading back to LA.”

Despite promising Sam that I would return to LA after a few weeks, I made the decision to stay with my parents for the holidays. There is no way in hell I am going back right now. And I don’t have the heart to leave Scar behind...again. Since our last make-out session that left my poor dick hard as steel, we haven’t spoken to each other. I get the feeling she’s avoiding me.

Does she regret it?

I don’t.

Did I take it too far?

Maybe, but I can’t get enough of her. I meant it when I told her I wasn't going to fuck her against a dirty wall in an alley.

Scar deserves better, including a better man than me. But I’m selfish and I am not going to let her go.

Not again.

I always had some sort of feelings for when she turned sixteen, but I never acted on it or made it out to be anything but friendship. It was so wrong to fall for a teenager when I was six years older than her. I felt ashamed thinking of her as more than a friend.

“Maverick!”

Sam’s shrill voice brings me back to the present.

I clear my throat. “That’s why I was calling. I—”

“No.” She cuts me off as I make my way out of the living room and into my room “You need to get your ass back to LA and back to work. I can’t keep holding your spot. They’re already threatening to replace you with Ben Keasley.”

Ben Keasley.

J. Crew prick.

The guy is an arrogant ass and so full of himself. There’s no way he’s getting my part. I worked too hard to get my own TV series only to have it given to someone like him

---