Their Second Chance Read Free Page A

She’d moan into his neck and tell him how much she loved him. Her warmth would envelope him in a wonderful feeling of perfection. That was a long time ago.
    A thick, tense silence bounced back and forth between them. She averted her eyes. Her hair fell forward when she rummaged through her bag and pulled out her cell phone.
    “No service!” A squeak of desperation sounded in her voice.
    He felt even guiltier now. An unexpected meeting popped up on his calendar, and he’d been forced to move the lawyer’s visit to the end of the day. At least that’s what he told himself. The truth— if he were honest —was that he tried to put off signing those papers for as long as he could. It was no use. Ignoring what was clearly wrong in front of them wouldn’t stop the divorce. It wouldn’t stop Ari from leaving him fully. It wouldn’t heal the wounds in his heart over their break up.
    “I imagine there’s tons of emergencies from this.” He made a pathetic attempt at pacifying her. He unclipped his heavy keychain from the loop on his jeans, handed her one of two small flash light key chains and kept the second for himself. “Here, in case the emergency lights go out.”
    She shook her head, slipped a dark lock behind her ear and smiled. It was a small lift of her lips. Almost as if she didn’t realize she’d done it. “You and your million and one tools.”
    “A man should be prepared for anything.” He rubbed his hands on his knees. What he really wanted to do was reach out and touch her. Having her this close was pure torture. His hands itched with the need to slide over her arms and hold her tight.
    She glanced up at him. The dull ache in his chest intensified when he saw glassiness in her eyes. Tears. Those were the worst. He knew Ari hated crying. He remembered the time she fell down some stairs in college and broke her ankle. She’d bitten her lip until she bled, trying to hold back the tears, but they’d slid down her cheeks without her knowledge.
    “I can’t do this,” she whispered, slammed her bag on the floor, and crawled from under the table. 
    He followed behind her. It was killing him to know his presence distressed her that much. Would he ever be able to figure her out? For the better part of their last months together, he’d been unable to help her. To fix things. He’d watched, like a visitor in his own home, how it all crumbled before him, not knowing what to do to change it.
    “What’s wrong?” His throat constricted around the words. Not for the first time, he wished he could find a way to ease her pain.
    “What’s wrong?” She whipped around, tears streaming down her cheeks. “How can you ask me that?” The anger and despair in her voice froze the blood in his veins. She gripped the sides of her dress in her fists.
    The grief in his heart increased. “I don’t understand you, Ariana.” Nothing he did ever met her approval. Would he have ever gotten it right? “What do you want from me? You asked me for a divorce.”
    “You could’ve said no!” Her voice broke on a sob. Her lips trembled, and her shoulders shook. It tore him apart to see her that way.
    “Why would I, when you stopped talking to me after…” He choked at the instant knot in his throat.
    More tears fell from her eyes, each one of them a new punch to his gut. It had nearly killed him to see her cry before, and even though they’ve been apart for six months, it still hurt to see her look so desolate. She hugged her stomach and curled into herself.
    “Go ahead, say it. After I miscarried.” She dropped her head forward, her shoulders shaking harder while she sobbed.
    He stepped forward and stopped in front of her. The insecurity he’d always felt when she was upset made its appearance again. After all those years, he didn’t know how to make her feel better. How to ease her pain.
    “ Ariana, you wanted a divorce. You said we had nothing left.” It was hell to repeat the words she’d thrown at him on