Second Chances (39 page)

“I know how much you want to be independent.  I know how much it means that you are able to take care of your kids.  The foundation would give you that opportunity.”  He was quiet.

“Yes, but while I might earn enough money, I wouldn’t have enough time for the girls.  You know how it is.”  Hannah had thought this through.

“That kind of power, that lifestyle can be hard to give up…”

“You did,” Hannah said.  “You ran the family business and just walked away.”

“Can this be enough for you, Hannah?  Can you be happy here, with me?”  He had to be sure.

Hannah rolled her eyes.  “I don’t know.  There would be so many demands of me…”

Gavin sat up.  “How do you figure?”

Hannah sat and faced him.  “You’re helpless.  You couldn’t do this without me.  Hell, you have a history of failure, even.”  She crossed her arms over her chest.

No one had ever suggested he might be a failure before.  “How do you figure?”  He was practically spluttering as he struggled to control his anger.

“Look.  You couldn’t even complete your revenge plot against a helpless woman.  I’m taking a huge risk sticking around.”  She smirked at him.

And for the first time the entire conversation, Gavin realized she was teasing him.  He started to laugh but decided instead to keep playing along.  “Well, you have a bit of a history of running off and falling off the grid.  How do I know I can count on you?”

“I guess that’s just the risk you’ll have to take,” Hannah said with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t know.  I think I’d feel better if we had some kind of agreement.”  He watched her roll her eyes so hard that her entire head bobbed.  “I mean…I want strings, lots of them.  Or maybe in our case, it would be more fitting to have rope.”  And with that, he held open his hand.

Hannah leaned over and clapped a hand over her mouth.  “What is this?”  She asked as she picked up the ring. 

It was custom made, that was for sure.  The platinum ring was designed to look like a Flemish knot.  And where the ropes crossed, there was a diamond.  A big, serious, sparkling diamond. 

Gavin looked at her seriously.  “Hannah, you remember what I told you about the Flemish knot?  The beauty of it is that it can be used again and again.  It doesn’t have to be cut out.  You don’t have to start over.  You can simply fix the positioning, fix the location.  And it holds, Hannah.  Man, do these knots hold.” 

He took the ring from her and slid it onto her finger.  It fit perfectly.  It looked stunning.  And Hannah’s eyes were tearing up. 

“Will you say it, Hannah?”  He looked at her, full of hope and love.

“You only have to ask.”  She stared at him, then the ring, then him.

“Please marry me?”  He kissed her hand.

“Okay, but only because you asked so nicely.”   They embraced once more.

It was nearly dawn, but neither one of them were sleepy.  They would be paying for this later, but for now, they were running on adrenaline.  Gavin passed Hannah one of his shirts and pulled on some shorts.  “Let’s go watch the sunrise.”

They went topside and snuggled together.  “Oh, I almost forgot.”  He had a bottle of wine.  The moment Hannah saw it, she laughed.

“Well, I guess I don’t need to ask the occasion.” She leaned her head against his shoulder.  “You went with a bubbly, I see.” 

It was a beautiful sunrise.  And then, just after 7am, her phone rang.  “Oh, look,” she said.  “It’s
Rick.”

“I’ve got this,” Gavin said smoothly.  He took her phone and answered.  “Rick…she can’t come work for you.  She’s going to marry her sugar daddy.”  And without waiting for a response, he hung up.  “There.”

“Nope,” Hannah sighed.  “Here.  Living in the moment, together, forever.”

To my second chance,

my
husband, my love, the man who made me believe in

happily
ever afte
r
.

Thank you for making all my

dreamscome tru
e
.

Jack Parker had been her second proposal.  Isabella’s first proposal happened her last year of high school from her first
real
boyfriend.  In her heart she had hoped they might be together forever, but the moment his quarter carat solitaire rolled around on her tiny finger, she knew they were doomed.

“Don’t worry, baby,” he had said affectionately.  “We’ll make it fit.”

So the ring had been sent back to the jeweler and returned to her two weeks later, sized to perfection.  Unfortunately, there was no relationship store, nowhere to send a relationship that didn’t fit.  In less than a month the couple had parted ways.

A mere two years later, she had been proposed to again.  Isabella could cite any number of reasons why she had accepted this time.  She was desperate to escape her mother.  She wanted a change.  She had hopes and dreams of a fairy tale ending.  And probably to be most honest, Isabella was eager to create the loving family that had always eluded her.  In the end, the reasons mattered little.  None of the signs swayed her from her course.  When Jack slipped the half carat diamond ring surrounded by another dozen channel set diamonds on her offered finger and it rolled to expose its 14 carat gold setting, she simply bit her lip and sailed onward. 

Sure, there was momentary pause, an instant where those closest to her heaved a collective sigh of relief, believed her to have come to her senses, to have regained something of the spirit that was Isabella.  She canceled the wedding for all of a month, but since she hadn’t the sense to sever all ties, she had been too easily cajoled into going ahead with the ceremony by Mr. Parker, a former drill sergeant.

It was too late now anyway.  The wedding was less than a day away.  Her meager pile of belongings was quickly being loaded into the bed of her almost father-in-law’s truck for transport to the apartment that would be their first place.  Activity abounded around her, but Isabella took a moment to study Jack.  With all of the changes taking place in her life as of late, it had been a while since she had paid much attention to him.  He was just... Jack.  Now, however, she studied him in a different manner.  After all, starting tomorrow night they would be married and living together.  She knew that he was tall with a slight build, muscular, lacking even a spare ounce of fat.  And of course there was the way he deftly handled each of her boxes, making them appear light though Isabella knew otherwise.  Jack’s wavy brown hair had been cut since she last saw him in honor of the auspicious occasion at hand, which was good since the back was becoming frighteningly close to a mullet.  What she noticed was…obvious and ordinary.

She felt compelled to examine him, peel back the layers, delve deeper.  How well did she really know him?  Would he even make a good husband?
  Hmm
, she pondered,
I wonder if he can cook?
  Just then, Jack wheeled around as though he was aware of being watched.  He winked one of his hazel green eyes at her and focused on tying down her mattress.  She sighed.  Nothing.  She had watched so many females all but swoon when he did that.  Here she was, about to become his wife, and she didn’t experience so much as a flutter. 

Soon, her younger sister attracted her attention.  Angelica was leaning seductively against the truck, flipping her long sandy blond hair over her shoulder, and contorting her sixteen year old body into any position that might emphasize her best feature: her chest.  Isabella shook her head.  Angelica always wanted what Isabella had.  She hugged herself.  The apartment would be a nice change.

Sadly, Isabella returned abruptly to her task at hand: the mental checklist of what needed to be done before she left.  The house had been dusted, vacuumed, and straightened.  She had spent days in the kitchen preparing a week’s worth of meals which were in the fridge and freezer with detailed cooking instructions taped to the lids of each container.  Was there anything she may have forgotten?  No, even the bathroom had been scrubbed to her mother’s exacting standards.  Isabella was almost free!   

She grabbed her leather jacket and felt around the bottom of her purse for her car keys.  Confident that everything was settled and it was safe to head to the church for some last minute preparations, Isabella headed out the door and down the driveway with a light smile on her face, only to encounter her mother who was standing next to Isabella’s car wearing a sour expression.  Her smile quickly faded.  Isabella opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted before she even began.

“Can’t wait to get out of here, huh?” Her mother began maliciously.  “First you drop out of college, then you move out on us.”  She waited, but Isabella didn’t flinch.  “So who will take care of things now?  I have to work, you know.”  Hands on hips, foot tapping, her mother waited for an answer.

Isabella inhaled deeply, trying to remain calm and speak in as even a tone as she could manage.  “Angelica is perfectly capable of taking over for me,” she responded.

“Angelica is just a child,” her mother spat.

That did it.  Isabella squared her shoulders, preparing for the fight.  “Angelica is four years older than I was when I began doing all of this,” she stated through gritted teeth, her arm sweeping the house and yard.  “She’s bigger than I am, almost always has been.  So now what’s your excuse for letting her get away without contributing around here?”  She leaned forward, slightly, daring her mother to respond, feeling the courage that came from knowing she had one foot out the door.

With her eyes narrowed angrily, her mother turned on her heels and marched back toward the house.  Isabella studied her as she walked away.  What her mother lacked in size, she made up for in stature.  She could hold herself amazingly erect, especially to glare a person down.  Her dark eyes would then seem a frightening shade of black, making the pupil almost indistinguishable from the iris.  Her black hair was slowly becoming streaked with gray, an effect that should soften a person’s appearance, possibly even to the point of making the individual seeming fragile.  Her mother, on the contrary, was fast taking on the appearance of many villainous movie stepmothers.

It was then that her mother paused, catching Isabella off guard, lost in thought and turned to face her daughter once more.  “You will regret this decision, Isabella.  Mark my words.  You are happy now.  You think this new life is going to be so much better than your life here?”

Yes
, Isabella’s mind screamed. 
Yes, it has to be
.

In that brief moment her mother’s mood changed completely.  She laughed, a sound closely resembling a cackle.  “It may seem that way now.”  She moved closer to Isabella with every word, until at last they were virtually nose to nose.  Then she hissed, “You will experience pain and hardship unlike anything you could ever imagine.”  She nodded her knowing head slowly.  “You’ll see,” she continued to warn as she walked away.  And lower still, “you’ll see...”