When You Were Mine [Second Chances 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (22 page)

“So many secrets,” she said, shaking her head with a mock sigh.

“No,” he scoffed.

“You don’t know how badly I wanted to tell Taryn about the tattoo on your ass,” Cora said, as she pulled on to the freeway.

“I appreciate your restraint, Cora. I’d never hear the end of it, because she’d have to tell Evan.”

“She’d really have no choice. It’s pretty funny.”

Cora thought back to the first time she’d gotten a clear look at it. They’d been in bed and he leaned over to get a condom. She’d burst out laughing. He had known exactly what she was laughing at, too.

He took one look at her face, rolled on the condom, and slid inside her. It was difficult to keep up the laughter when he filled her up so abruptly. He’d quickly turned her laughter into moans of pleasure.

Even as she focused on the road, she could hear Jamie’s rich laughter fill the car. “You’re thinking about the night you laughed at my tattoo, aren’t you, dirty girl?”

Cora flushed and said, “Maybe.”

The tension in the car broke, and for the rest of the drive the conversation flowed between them. By the time they pulled into his parking lot, the tension she had been feeling was long forgotten. As Jamie slid out of the car, she popped the trunk and then followed.

“You coming upstairs?” he asked.

“I can’t,” Cora said regretfully. “If I don’t do laundry tonight I’m going to have to go to work naked tomorrow.”

She watched his eyes light up and said, “My patients are children, Jamie.”

“But lunch would be so much more entertaining, Cora. Just think about it,” he teased.

“Perv,” she said, laughter evident in her voice.

“You like it,” Jamie countered, as he pulled her into his arms.

“True,” she added, grinning up at him.

“Cora,” he said. “Thank you for an amazing weekend.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” she said.

“I loved it,” he said, framing her face with his hands. “I love you.”

She froze in his arms, almost paralyzed by fear.

It must have been written on her face because he said, “I’m not telling you with expectations that you have to return the feeling, Cora. I feel it and I just wanted you to know.”

Slowly, she nodded and said, “Okay.”

She could see the pain flash in his eyes, and that only made it worse. She needed to get the hell out of there. Now.

“I’m going to head home now,” she said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of her house. “I’ve got a lot to take care of before tomorrow.”

He reached into her open trunk and pulled out his bag. Then he nodded and said, “Let me know you got home safely.”

She nodded, closed the trunk of the car, and then opened the driver’s side door. She took a calming breath, buckled her seat belt and drove off. As she looked in the rearview mirror, he stood in the same spot, watching her drive away.

The drive home was quick. Her hands had almost stopped shaking by the time she pulled into her driveway. She unpacked her car, and moved inside.

She settled on her couch and immediately got out her cell phone. She texted Jamie and said, “I’m home. Look. I know that wasn’t a rational reaction to your statement. I’m sorry I freaked out. Can I just take a little time and get my head on straight?”

Setting down the cell phone, she moved her overnight bag into the laundry room. She dumped the entire thing directly into the washer. After she fished out the toiletry bag, she poured the soap into the washer and started it.

When she made back into the living room her phone was buzzing against the tabletop. She picked it up and read his response.

“Thanks for letting me know you made it home okay. Call me when you’re ready to talk.”

* * * *

It had been almost three days since Cora had spoken to Jamie. She pressed a hand against her burning stomach. She knew she needed to talk to him, but she still had no idea what to say. She let out a deep sigh.

When her phone buzzed next to her, her heart jumped into her throat for a moment until she saw it was Taryn. She picked up the phone and said, “Hello?”

“Hey, Cora. So, uh. I don’t mean to pry but Jamie was over here last night and he seemed really down. Are you guys okay?”

“Excellent job you’re doing with that whole not prying thing,” Cora said sarcastically.

“Stop deflecting. See what I did there? I used your psychology witchcraft against you.”

“Clever girl,” Cora said.

“Seriously, Cora. Are you guys fighting? What happened?”

She let out a deep sigh and said, “He told me he loved me and I freaked out.”

There was a lengthy silence on the line, followed by her sister saying, “Been there. Done that.”

Cora remembered the really nasty fight they had gotten into over that and said, “I seem to recall.”

“So I’m going to do you the same favor that you did me and tell you to get your shit together. Talk to him. Cora, he looked so sad. So lost,” Taryn said.

“I don’t know what to say at this point,” Cora said.

“Tell him you love him, you dummy.”

“I can’t.”

“So if you don’t love him, then tell him that. Stop screwing with his head. He obviously cares a great deal about you.”

“What the fuck, Taryn? You actually think I’m screwing with his head?” Cora exclaimed. “I love him but I’m fucking terrified to move forward.”

“You should be terrified. That’s how you know that someone really matters.”

“I just don’t know if I’m ready for this. After—”

Taryn interrupted her and said, “I swear to fucking god if you so much as utter Bryce’s name, I’m going to flip out. I get it. He was a shithead. That is undeniable. He was nowhere near breaking your heart, though. No one that you’ve dated over the years has gotten anywhere near your heart. No one since Jamie.”

Cora let out a watery sigh and started to speak.

Taryn cut her off and said, “Nope. Not quite done. So now you have a second chance with the only person that you’ve ever loved. He’s here and establishing a life. He wants to love you.”

“When we split up last time, I was a fucking mess, Taryn. I don’t know that I could deal with that again,” Cora said.

“The timing was wrong last time. You didn’t honestly think that a long-distance relationship would be sustainable, did you?”

“I guess not,” Cora said. “I had hoped, but deep down I knew telling him to go was the beginning of the end.”

“And now you’ve got a second chance, honey. You’re both grown now and you’ve got something to bring to the table. When you guys are together, you practically light up the goddamned room. You’re telling me that because some shitty guy you didn’t even love was an asshole, you’re too scared to take what you want?”

“I’m scared. I may not have loved him, but I trusted him.”

“So did I. I thought he was a decent guy. He turned out to be a pathological liar. That’s the thing about those types. Since they believe their own lies, it’s kind of hard to tell,” Taryn said. “All that shit aside, do you really picture Jamie deciding to randomly fuck other people? Do you really think he’d be capable of that?”

“No. No! Of course I don’t,” Cora said.

“So, you love him...and you trust him. I rest my case.”

Cora shook her head as it all came together in her mind. Once again, she had been complicating something that was incredibly simple. “I gotta go, Taryn. I need to talk to Jamie,” she said.

“Atta girl,” Taryn said. “Call me tomorrow and let me know how it went.”

“Thank you,” Cora said quietly.

“You’re welcome. Love you.”

“Love you, too. Bye.”

Cora hung up her cellphone and hurried down the hallway to Jamie’s office door. She knocked, got no response, and then moved back into her office. If he wasn’t here, he was likely at home or at the gym. She needed to go see him. Taryn had been completely right.

Jamie had become her rock. Her north star. He had woven himself into the fabric of her life. They went to bed together, woke up together. He had shown her in a million different ways what a beautiful person he was. He knew her hopes, her fears, and every single one of her neuroses. Still, he loved her. How on earth could she have ever considered walking away from that?

She thought back and realized that he had been involved in every single thing that had ever mattered. He had held her when she was sick. He had quizzed her when she had been freaking out over the GRE. He had given her everything. His name was written across her heart with indelible ink.

Hands shaking, she picked up her desk phone and dialed the security desk. It rang six times and then dropped into voicemail. “Thomas. It’s Cora. I’ve got a little bit of an emergency and I need to leave. I...if you’re not down there, I’m just going to chance it and walk out by myself.”

She hung up the phone and said, “Dammit.” She gathered her purse and briefcase, and then locked up her office and headed for the elevator. She hoped that Thomas would be out front.

Unfortunately, when she got downstairs, he was nowhere to be found. She waited another minute or two in the lobby, then decided to leave. She dug her keys out of her purse and walked out the front door. She made her way into the parking lot, her finger on the panic button just in case.

She was tense as she walked out to her car. She jumped at every little sound. She froze when she heard a rustle in the bushes. When a squirrel skittered out in front of her, she let out a deep breath and said, “Jesus Christ. Get it together, Cora.”

When she rounded the side of the building she heard a loud crack, then felt a white-hot pain throughout her entire body. She tried to scream but nothing came out.

Cora looked down and saw the bloom of red on her silk blouse. Realizing she was in danger, she turned around and tried to make her way back to the building. She came face to face with Warren Aimes.

He raised the gun and fired two more times. Her body was wracked with even more pain as she fell to the ground. She fumbled for the panic button on her key chain. Right after she heard it go off, everything went blissfully dark.

When Jamie took his cell phone out of his gym bag and started to get dressed after his shower he was utterly exhausted. He lit the screen and was startled to see that he had fifteen missed calls. All of them were from Evan. His heart leaped into his throat. He hoped that Taryn and the baby were okay.

He dialed him back, and asked, “Is everything okay?”

“No. You need to get your ass to Saint Bartholomew. Cora was shot tonight. She’s in surgery right now.”

“Oh Christ,” he said, his heart in his throat. “I’ll be right there. Is...is she going to be okay? Did they say?”

“I don’t know, bro. Just get here.”

Jamie moved like a zombie, drying off and getting back into his normal clothes. He drove to the hospital at speeds way higher than were allowed. When he got out of the car, he had absolutely no memory of the drive.

He ran into the emergency room and saw a huge swarm of people. Evan, Taryn, and Donnie were closest to the door. When Taryn looked up at him, she started sobbing uncontrollably.

Jamie felt a sharp stab in his gut until Evan said, “Calm down, Jamie. It’s crazy pregnancy hormones. We don’t know anything yet.”

“Tell me what you do know,” Jamie said, his voice shaking.

Taryn mopped her face and said, “The hospital called Theo and said that she’d come in with multiple gunshot wounds. That she had a collapsed lung, a nasty concussion, and quite a bit of blood loss.”

Shaken, Jamie pulled Taryn into his arms and said, “She’s gonna be okay. She’s gotta be okay.”

She cried against him for a few more minutes and then said, “Sorry. I totally got snot on your shirt,” as she tried to mop the tears off of her face.

Jamie rolled his eyes and said, “What’s a little snot between family?”

He moved away to pace. The last couple of days had been torture. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if...Fuck. She had to pull through.

Sitting in the corner of the ER, he saw a very shaken Thomas sitting there with a pregnant woman. He was covered in blood. He felt a chill go down his spine as he realized it was probably Cora’s blood.

He looked up from his chair and said, “I am so sorry, Jamie. She called me but I was following up on a call from another tenant about vandalism. She set off her panic button on her car, but by the time I made it back to the front of the building, the shooter had taken off. If I had been with her, then—”

“If you had been with her, then it’s likely you both would have been shot and you never would have found her in time to get her to the hospital. Not your fault unless you shot her, buddy.”

Seeing how shaken the security guard was, Jamie made it his mission to calm the guy down, so he asked, “Who’s this?”

The woman stuck out her hand and said, “Jene Thomas. I’m his wife.”

Jamie shook it and then squinted his eyes at Thomas. “Wait. I thought your first name was Thomas.”

His lips quirked and he said, “Thomas Thomas. At your service. My parents had a shitty sense of humor.”