Their Second Chance Read Free

anything. Oh God. Terror made her knees weak. She leaned on the wall to stay upright. They were going to die. “Nick?”
    He continued to stare at the doorway. Almost as if he’d gone off to another place. She gripped his shirt. He turned to stare at her with a blank look. Her blood ran cold through her veins. Anxiety had slowed her ability to remain calm.  She threw frantic glances all around, trying to figure out what to do. It was useless. Her focus returned to Nick.
    “Nick!” She snapped, tugging on his shirt.
    He blinked.
    “Are you okay?” She asked, worried that something was wrong with him. She was yanked back to their plight by the plaster that knocked down a painting.
    The walls shook hard. Hard enough she’d swear they were made of paper. Cold fear rooted her to the spot. Christ. What if they were buried alive?
    He glanced down at her with glassy eyes. “I’m sorry.”
    She nodded repeatedly. Nerves shook her to the core.
    “Hello? Can anybody hear me out there?” He yelled, putting his ear to the slab of ceiling blocking their path.
    “Kevin! Kevin!” She screamed and turned to Nick, her heart beating so hard it was hard to make sense of anything. “Do you think he and the others are okay?”
    “I don’t know. I hope so.” He pushed at the plaster and sheet rock, grunting when it didn’t move. “Fucking hell!”
    Another rumble and the lights flickered. She swayed with the movement of the ground. Plaster continued to rain down on them. Anxiety pulled her muscles tighter. She swallowed back the acid rushing up and down her throat. Her hands shook. She wanted to cry and throw up. Screeching noises came from all over, and she could hear alarms going off inside the building. Outside the car alarms were also creating all kinds of noises.
    “We need to stay safe until we can get out of here,” he said and rushed away from the blocked door.
    Shocked at the severity of what was happening, she stood there and stared. The ground shaking slowed until it stopped completely. She watched him start to haul the heavy conference table to the corner. It took her a moment to mentally slap herself out of her trance. She should be helping. Grabbing the other end, she pushed. Damn table weighed a ton. He continued to pull until they had the table at an angle in the corner of the room.
    “Come on.” He tugged her hand and motioned for her to sit under the table.
    Eyeing the space with skepticism, she said the first thing that came to mind. “Are you serious?”
    “Yes, now get under the table.” His voice dripped with authority. It was something she’d never seen in him before. And it made her scoot her ass under the table much faster than she normally would have. Her heart still beating wildly, she clutched her bag in her grasp and sat on the gray, carpeted floor.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Nick crawled under the table and took a seat across from Ari, folding his legs to mimic her. The low light illuminated her features with a soft glow. Their gazes met and grief clenched around his heart with the force of a vise grip. Looking at her eyes hurt. Within them, he saw the constant reminder that love was not enough. He’d seen the pain before she’d turned away from him earlier.
    “Are you okay?” Her soft question stopped him short, and a spark of something lit inside him. Something like pleasure. She sounded genuinely concerned and that shocked him. Her voice had that hint of fear whenever she was worried about something. When was the last time she’d actually shown any kind interest in him? Not since their marriage hit the rocks. Way before their separation.
    “I’m fine. You?”
    She gulped, nodded and glanced down at her bag. Her long dark curls fell forward covering most of her face in shadow. The spaghetti straps of her pale yellow sundress caught his attention. They slid down her arms slowly, caressing her caramel-golden skin on its way. He remembered how he loved tracing her arms after making love.