Second Chance with Love Read Free

inherited his mother's fine bone structure and had adopted his father's athletic build of broad shoulders and tallness. No one could deny the perfect symmetry of his face, and the movie star looks. Nathan never let how he looked and how people treated him because of his good looks define him; he tried to project his personality through his actions, which were always kind and helpful.
    The other side to Nathan's character was his desire to get ahead in life. His father worked mall security for most of his life and always had money worries or stress from the management. When his dad found a security job he was comfortable with, he got laid off. Eventually his dad settled for whatever he could get. After seeing his father feel inadequate about being unable to provide for his family, Nathan vowed to never end up like him.
    This meant he never had time for relationships, and barely made it to church on Sundays.
    And here he was in a place where he was supposed meet a girl. Nathan sat by the window in a room of fellow Christians, and yet he felt alone. But this feeling only camouflaged a deeper need. The need to connect to someone. He felt it now more than ever. His eyes traveled the room. A jangle of voices. The particular bar served non-alcoholic beverages. Men and women who looked jovial, some in mixed groups as if double dating, some sitting as couples, some secluded in corners alone on their cells. Laughing, back slapping, and chatter permeated the air, bar staff sauntered around causally or wiped counters, wiped tables, and cleared tables.
    Then he saw her.
    Nathan gasped.
     
     
     
    Opening her book to the folded letter inside, Hilda felt it necessary to go into self-preservation mode: eyes on the letter, the words were almost poetic. One look around the room spiked her nerves. She spotted two, maybe three guys looking in her direction. It irritated her to no end because she had so little experience in talking to guys. She regretted that she couldn't be as confident as Melanie. Melanie wasn't the most confident of girls, but she had no problems speaking with guys. Hilda’s insides became a bundle of nerves whenever she had to speak with a guy who had his eye on her. All she could do to alleviate her nerves was to open her book and read the letter. When she was a child, her mother said she was too dependent on the letter, that she lived most of her life on the page.
    Hilda decided that once Melanie returned, she’d let her friend know that she wanted to leave. As for right now, the most important thing was to pretend not to notice the looks.
    Even though she settled into nonchalance, the wrenching feeling of eyes watching her was enough to distract her from the letter.
    Hilda mentally swiped away the tingling sensation of eyes on her. She went back to reading the letter:
    You don't fall in love, you rise in love.
    Hilda agreed wholeheartedly with the statement written by her father. She felt it must be ridiculous to fall in love, since a fall represents losing yourself.
    Eventually, curiosity got the better of her. Hilda looked up. A guy caught her attention. It was the man by the window. He was watching her.
    Their eyes locked.
    In that instant she knew – she had fallen.
    Unable to avert her gaze, each breath stuttered, ebbed, and labored to achieve the rise and fall of her chest. Hilda had never felt this way before.
    "Hey, do you mind if I have a seat?" The voice sent a jolt through Hilda, shifting her attention. A tall slim man stood next to her table.
    Hilda fiddled with the dog-eared pages of her book for a moment before assenting with a nod.
    She wanted to see if the guy by the window was still watching her. Who is he ? she wondered. However, not wanting to be rude to the gentleman at her table, she dared not look at the man by the window any longer. Smiling at the man now across from her, she hoped he hadn't noticed her lapse in attention.
    The guy spoke in-between nervous mumbles. Hilda felt he was very sweet,