Second Chance at Love (The MacKenna Born & Bred Trilogy) Read Free

of it. She was comfortable in her own skin, and had no issue
with nudity or sex. If she was attracted to a man, then that was enough for
her. Love and sex didn't have to go hand-in-hand as far as Ashley was
concerned. It was ideal, of course, but rarely existed in her world. But Brooke
wasn't put off by it in the least. She knew that anyone would be lucky to have
Ash for a friend. She was honest, sincere and loyal, and would do anything for
you and anything to protect you.
    “They're hoping the cancer is contained to just the ovaries.
She'll need surgery, and then time to recover, but she should be okay,” Brooke
continued, her voice hitching just a little. “The surgery is scheduled for
Tuesday, so I'm leaving this afternoon. Even with stopping overnight, I should
make it there by tomorrow evening.”
    “When will you be back?” Ashley wanted to know.
    Brooke looked at her best friend and chewed her bottom lip.
“At the end of August.”
    “What?! But the end of August is three months away! Why on
earth would you go for so long?” Ashley complained, her full, pink lips forming
a pout. She eyed Brooke carefully.
    “I don't know,” she replied. “All I know is that I feel like
it's what I need to do. I want to be with my family ~ my parents, my sister. I
need to spend some quality time with them, not just snatches of time stolen
here and there.” She felt strongly about that, especially now, considering her
mother's illness.
    Ashley could certainly understand that. She hadn't spent as
much time with her family as she would have liked, either. But something else
lurked in the back of her mind.
    Her eyes met Brooke's as she questioned, “Does this, in some
small part even, have anything to do with Logan MacKenna?”
    “Of course not. Why would it?”
    Her answer was a little too quick, Ashley thought, and maybe
just a little defensive.
    “I don't know, Brooke. You tell me,” Ashley said softly. She
knew Logan was a sensitive topic for Brooke.
    “That's ridiculous. Logan and I have been over forever. I
haven't seen him or spoken to him in nearly eight years, Ash.”
    “That may be, but that doesn't mean you don't have feelings
for him still.”
    Brooke sniffed. “Whatever feelings I had for Logan died a
long time ago.” She really couldn't care less about Logan MacKenna.
    “It's okay to have feelings for him, honey. He was a
significant part of your life for so many years, and you share a long history.
Even though things ended badly, that doesn't mean you can't have him tucked
away in a special place in your heart.”
    “How can you think that way, especially after what
happened?”
    Ashley held up her hands. “All I'm saying is that no one
would blame you if you still have feelings for him. That's all. But at the same
time, I don't want to see you get hurt again.”
    “Well, I don't, and I won't, so let's just forget about him,
okay?”
    Ashley wasn't convinced.  She just hoped that whatever
Brooke's reasons for returning to Angel Ridge for so long, her friend was
making the right decision. She worried about this long after Brooke had given
her the spare key to her house to check on things periodically, and they said
their goodbyes.

    Brooke had gone to the hospital after leaving Ashley's
apartment. She'd completed her rounds and her notes in less than three hours,
and had spoken to her Chief of Staff regarding time off. With some finagling,
it would work. She'd been granted a temporary leave of absence, and would be
expected to return back to work on the first of September. There was a mountain
of paperwork that required her signature, which she'd made arrangements to have
faxed to her on Monday. 
    Brooke was relieved about getting the time off, but it felt
strange to her at the same time. She lived and breathed for her work, her
patients, her hospital. She hadn't been away from it all in years. At least not
for more than a few days here and there. But she didn't have time to think about
any of that at