Last Chance: A Second Chances Novel (19 page)

Summer gave me the diagrams of the restaurant, so I could learn the table numbers. It did little to hold my attention, but then the only thing that did was Luke. I hadn’t told her yet that he’d hired me to be his PR manager. It excited me to know I was going to branch out and do what I’d set out to do five years ago.

“You okay, sis?” she asked, sitting down beside me. “You don’t have to learn all the table numbers today. We have plenty of people on staff who can handle it. I just thought you’d want to get back in the swing of things.”

Gathering up the diagrams, I handed them back to her. “Actually, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” Taking a deep breath, I was about to explain, but then Grayson walked in.

“Hey,” he called out, smiling devilishly.

I smiled back and waved. “Good morning.”

He walked passed the bar and hurried off to the back. Summer moved closer, nudging me with her elbow. “So . . . how did it go the other night with Grayson?”

I shrugged and lowered my voice so he couldn’t hear. “It was okay, I guess. All he talked about was how horrible Luke was to me.”

Her brows furrowed. “Really? He didn’t talk about old memories of you and him together?”

I shook my head. “Nope. All I know is, we were engaged and worked together here. I have no clue what our relationship was like. If he’s trying to get me back, he’s not doing a good job.”

Summer sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know what to say. I didn’t think he’d be like that.”

Grayson emerged from the back and joined us, but his focus was on me. “I’m sorry about the other night. It wasn’t exactly how I wanted our first encounter to be, so I want to make it up to you. Want to go out tonight? We can do something fun.” I glanced over at Summer, who nodded excitedly.

“Okay,” I agreed, turning my attention back to Grayson. “What do you have in mind?”

He winked. “Don’t worry about that. Just be ready to go around six.”

The front door opened and I jumped when a grizzly sounding voice hollered my name. I jerked around to see Evan strolling in the door with a line of giants behind him. Summer burst out laughing and patted me on the back. “It’s okay. It’s just some of our friends from the Cougars.”

Many years ago, I never would’ve thought I’d have any famous friends. Now my sister was married to one of the best wide receivers in the NFL and I was involved with a famous dirt bike racer. Being with someone like him wasn’t going to be easy, if I chose him.

The shaved head behemoth who called my name marched over with his arms wide open. “Come here and give me some sugar, sexy mama.” He didn’t wait on me to go to him. Scooping me into his arms, he crushed me to where I could barely breathe. Everyone laughed, including Grayson.

“Chris, let her down. She can’t breathe,” Summer giggled.

He let me down and I gasped for air. “Thank you. You almost killed me.”

Putting his arm around me, he led me back to my bar stool. “I just wanted to give you some love. We’ve missed you around here.”

Another one of the guys sat beside me and grinned. He had auburn hair like Grayson, but his eyes were a bright blue, not green. “How ya feeling?” he asked.

“Much better. I’m glad to be alive.”

Grayson walked over and nodded at the guy with the shaved head. “Lara, this is Chris Waters. He and the rest of the team usually come here on a regular basis. And this,” he said, nodding to the guy on my other side, “is Derek McLaughlin. They’re both Evan’s buddies. You usually joke around with them when they’re here.”

I glanced at both guys. “I’m sorry I don’t remember you.”

Chris squeezed my shoulders. “No worries, baby. Give me a few hours and I’ll remind you of all those long nights we had while your boy here was working.”

“Oh yeah?” I laughed.

Grayson snorted. “Keep it up, Waters. You may be bigger than me, but my brother taught me a thing or two.”

Chris squeezed me again and let go. “Fine, I’ll stop. It was worth a shot though. You’re not wearing your ring, so I figured you were fair game.”

I looked down at my hand and then to Grayson. He avoided my stare, but I could tell Chris’ words bothered him. Why didn’t I have my engagement ring? It wasn’t at my house, nor was it returned to me in the hospital. Wherever it was, I was going to find out.

I waited for Grayson by his car. It was six o’clock and he was finishing up inside the tavern. It’d been fun talking to Chris and Derek; I wished I could remember them. I hated having to get to know everyone again. There were a lot of important people who’d entered my life in the last five years.

I looked over at my car and there was a piece of paper on the windshield. When I slid it out from behind the windshield wipers, I could see the handwriting inside.

Lara,

Just wanted you to know I was thinking about you.

~Luke

My heart skipped a beat. Pulling out my phone, I called him. I needed to tell him about my date with Grayson before he found out from someone else.

“Did you get my note?” he asked.

“Yes, I did. It was really sweet.”

“So what are you doing tonight? I thought maybe I could see you again.”

Sighing, I leaned against my car. “That’s why I called. Grayson asked me out tonight.” The line went silent and it hurt my heart to know he was angry. “You know I have to do this.”

He huffed. “I know, but it doesn’t make it any easier. The thought of him touching you pisses me off.”

“Just because I’m going on a date with him doesn’t mean anything. I need to talk to him, Luke. He was a big part of my life. I’ll call you when I get back home.”

“Okay,” he replied, sounding less angry. “I’ll be at my house.”

We said our goodbyes as the back door of the tavern opened. Grayson strolled out, wearing a pair of jeans and a snug T-shirt that hugged his muscles. He must’ve changed when he was inside.

“You ready?” he called out.

I slipped my phone and Luke’s note into my back pocket and smiled. “Let’s go.” We got in his little sports car and headed out. “Where are we going?”

Smiling wide, he winked at me. “I thought we could do something adventurous.”

“Sounds like fun. What all did we do when we were dating?”

“Lots of things. When we weren’t at the tavern we were always out and about. You loved being spontaneous. We used to go hiking and white water rafting.”

“Looks like we were really active.” I loved going to the mountains and hiking. In college, I had friends at Appalachian State, and I’d always meet them to go hiking around the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Grayson clasped his hand with mine. My body didn’t tingle like it did when Luke touched me. “We were and still are. Do you want to see about getting away for the weekend? We could go to the mountains.”

He looked so hopeful with his big, green eyes and I was about to ruin it. “I can’t.”

His brows furrowed. “Why not?” As soon as he asked it, his smile faded. He knew.

“I told Luke I’d go with him to a party at Chance Harris’ house.”

He stiffened and blew out a slow, angry breath. “I see. I guess it shouldn’t come as a shock.”

“I’m going to tell you the exact same thing I told him . . . spending time with both of you is something I have to do. I know it sucks, but it’s the way it has to be.”

“I know,” he sighed.

“And you might want to spend this time actually talking about
us
instead of bad-mouthing Luke. I’m trying to get my memories back, not listen to testosterone-induced rants.”

Eyes wide, he opened his mouth to speak, then shut it. We pulled into the parking lot of a laser tag facility and I smiled. I’d always wanted to play, but never gotten the chance; or at least I couldn’t remember if I had.

Grayson shut off his car and faced me. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. It’s just hard to do when one day I had you, and the next, I’m in competition with another man.”

I squeezed his hand and let go. “All you have to do is show me who you really are. Right now, I have no clue.”

He nodded, his eyes blazing with determination. “Tonight, that changes. Ready to get your ass kicked?”

Grinning from ear to ear, I opened the door. “Prepare to lose.”

W
e played three rounds of laser tag. I lost two and won one. Grayson and I had talked about numerous things, but he’d yet to tell me about our relationship. Every time I asked a question, he’d distract me by pulling me away to an arcade game. I had fun, but something was missing. I wanted stories from our past, about what we did together. At this point, there was nothing.

“What do you want to do now?” Grayson asked. “We could go bowling?”

“What about getting some ice cream and taking a walk in the park?” I suggested.

He shrugged. “We can do that.”

Stowe Park was just a few blocks away and there was an ice cream shop close by. I’d seen it the other day while riding around, getting used to my new SUV. My MINI Cooper had been destroyed in the accident, and I swore I’d never get a small car ever again. I was surprised I’d even lived through getting hit as hard as I did.

Grayson parked his car at the park and we walked over to the ice cream shop. I couldn’t decide what I wanted so I ordered three scoops: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

“That’s a first.” He laughed.

I scooped up a bite of chocolate and stuck it in my mouth. “What is?”

He pointed at my cup. “I didn’t know you liked strawberry. I’ve never seen you eat it.”

I shrugged. “I couldn’t decide what I wanted. So, how did you propose to me?” I thought it’d be one of the first things we talked about, but he never brought it up.

He cleared his throat. “It was at the tavern. I thought it would be cool to have all your friends there when I did it, so Summer and I turned it into a surprise party. I climbed up on the bar and asked you to join me.” He chuckled at the memory. “It was the happiest night of my life.”

I glanced down at my bare hand. “Where’s my ring? I figured since we were engaged, I would’ve been wearing it the night of the crash.” I stared at him, hoping to get some kind of reaction.

“You forgot it at my house, after you took a shower.” His gaze met mine and he smiled. “You didn’t want soap to build up in the grooves.”

I was never one to wear rings, so I guess it could be true. Maybe it’d been an excuse so I wouldn’t have to wear it. My only problem was, I couldn’t tell if he was telling me the truth or not. We walked a little further down the path until we finished our ice cream, then we headed back to the tavern.