Another Chance With Love (Chance Series Book 2) Read online

  ANOTHER CHANCE WITH LOVE

  Chance Series: Book Two

  Blake Allwood

  Trigger Warnings:

  Abuse

  Child Abuse

  Violence

  Death or Dying

  Kidnapping and Abduction

  Murder

  Another Chance With Love. Copyright © 2020 by Blake Allwood. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Cover designed by Cate Ashwood

  cateashwooddesigns.com

  Text designed using graphic resources from Shutterstock.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Blake Allwood

  Visit my website at www.blakeallwood.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing: July 2020

  Join Blake’s email list to get advance notice of new books and receive his occasional newsletter:

  www.blakeallwood.com

  Titles by Blake Allwood:

  Aiden Inspired

  Suzie Empowered

  Bobby Transformed

  Romantic Renovations

  By Chance Series

  |

  Love By Chance (Book 1)

  Another Chance (Book 2)

  Coming in 2020:

  (Titles may change before publishing)

  An Apothecary Romance

  Taking A Chance (Book 3)

  Big Bend Series

  Thank you to the following people for their assistance:

  Jo Bird - Editor

  Kristopher Miller – Editor

  Aryl Shanti - Editor

  Julia Firlotte – Proof Reader

  Enid Broom – Alpha Reader

  Dani Grey – Alpha Reader

  Lisa Klein – Alpha Reader

  Ana Nimity – Alpha Reader

  A special thank you goes to all my friends and family who supported me, I couldn’t have done it without you.

  And finally, an extra special thanks to my Husband who continues to tolerate me no matter how many of these rabbit holes I keep going down (and I seem to keep going down them).

  A note from the author:

  As I was finishing the final edit for this book, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that it was no longer legal to fire someone just because they are LGBTQ+. I debated removing the parts of the story where Peter lost his job because his conservative boss saw him kissing his boyfriend.

  Ultimately, I decided to leave it in, mostly because for all my life, and for the lives of many LGBTQ+ folks before me, losing a job because of your orientation was always a real possibility. This book honors our struggle. Although we won this battle, many people suffered as we fought to secure our rights to be free from discrimination. Those brave LGBTQ+ people should be honored and remembered.

  In future versions of the book, I may remove this part. But for now, let’s all be thankful that the world has finally changed, and our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters no longer have to fear losing their livelihood to hateful and bigoted employers.

  Trevor

  “Lisa, how the hell am I supposed to raise a baby?” I asked with as much incredulity as I could muster.

  “How the hell should I know?” she replied. “At least you have money. I have nothing. My parents even kicked me out when they heard I was pregnant.”

  That made my heart hurt. Lisa and I were friends long before we hooked up. “Damn, Lisa, have you spoken to them?”

  “No, they cut me off completely, that’s why I didn’t come back to school this year.”

  The anger hit me like a ton of bricks. “You mean you were pregnant with our baby, your parents kicked you out, and you still wouldn’t return my calls?”

  Lisa stared down at her hands. “I was going to get an abortion, Trevor. I didn’t want you to know.”

  “But you didn’t!” I replied, still fuming that she’d chosen to go through all that on her own.

  “I tried, but I couldn’t go through with it,” she continued staring at her hands. “I pulled up to the clinic and saw three people I went to church with protesting and I… I just couldn’t.”

  I sighed, some of the anger leaking out of me. “You should’ve told me at least. I would’ve helped. Shit, at least I can help now.”

  The baby began to fuss in the carrier. Lisa reached down and patted his stomach as the tears rolled down her cheek.

  “When I couldn’t go through with the abortion, I decided to give him up for adoption. But I chickened out when they told me you’d have to sign the paperwork. So, I was stuck, and I knew how I’d left you and…”

  Her tears continued to flow.

  I leaned back in my chair and ran my hands through my hair. This had all hit me out of the blue. Lisa and I had gotten drunk one night at the end of the spring term, and being idiots, we’d ended up having sex. She left the next day, stopped texting, stopped taking my calls, wouldn’t return my emails… it sucked, and I missed her.

  “We can do this together, you know,” I said, even though my hands were still over my eyes.

  Lisa was staring at the baby when I finally looked at her.

  “No,” she replied in a small voice. “I can’t raise him. My parents would never forgive me for embarrassing them with a child out of wedlock. You know how religious they are.”

  I hmphed. “They don’t deserve you, Lisa. In some ways, they’re worse than my parents.”

  A small but tentative smile crossed her lips as we began the same argument we’d been having since high school. Lisa’s parents were strict Catholics, and mine were insane Baptists.

  “What do you want me to do, Lisa?” I asked when she reached down and picked the infant up. This was the first time I’d seen him properly, and I lost track of the conversation immediately. He was so small, his little face was scrunched up with an expression of discomfort. I could tell he was about to start wailing.

  “My God, he’s beautiful,” I remarked, and Lisa looked at me in a strange way. “We made that?” I said in shock.

  “If I remember right, I did all the hard work,” she said, and we were back to our snippy friendship like we hadn’t been apart for nine and a half months.

  I chuckled. “I’d have helped if I’d known. Can I hold him?” I asked, feeling a strange stirring in my chest.

  Lisa hesitated like she was afraid to let me, but then she handed him over. I’m lucky I didn’t lose my shit right there. I nuzzled him, lost in all that this meant and all it would mean from this point on. He settled down in my arms, and I smiled. I could see some of my grandpa in his face. The second I spotted the resemblance, my own tears threatened to fall. My gregarious, left-wing nut of a grandpa would have loved this baby, and he’d have known exactly what to do. But we’d lost him just last year.

  When I turned toward Lisa to tell her how much I thought he took after grandpa, she was gone. I looked at the door just in time to catch sight of her back as she left the restaurant. I turned my attention to the infant and wondered for the millionth time if I’d finally lost my best friend. The anxiety of losing her and my grandpa, all within a year of each other, began to take over, but when I stared at the baby, something loosened inside me. I had no idea how I was going to manage
an infant, but having him, even though I’d just found out about him, seemed to fill the holes that had been left in my heart.

  I sat staring at him for what had to have been thirty minutes. Finally, a server came over and put her hand on my shoulder. “I accidentally heard some of your conversation. Do you need some help with him?”

  I burst out laughing, which caused the sleeping baby to jerk and me to immediately tense. “I have no idea what I’m doing,” I said, and the lady chuckled.

  “If it helps any, none of us really do.”

  I glanced up at her, willing my tears not to flow. “But at least you had some prior warning.”

  The lady sighed. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll go through the stuff your lady friend left here, and we’ll make sure you have everything you need. I’ve had three myself, the youngest is three, so I know the drill.”

  Without looking up from the little one, I asked, “Won’t you get in trouble?”

  “I doubt it. I’m Catherine, I own the place, and it’s unlikely my staff will have the nerve to challenge me.”

  She smiled when I met her gaze, and walked over, starting to go through Lisa’s things. “Looks like you’ve got what you need. Do you have anyone you can call?”

  I immediately thought of my mom. Over Christmas, I’d come out to my parents as bisexual with a preference for men, and it had gone spectacularly bad. My grandpa had known but, he’d never told them. Unfortunately, I assumed he had. Well, you can imagine what the pastor of a mega Southern Baptist church’s reactions were.

  My grandpa got custody of me when I was a preteen. My dad hit me so hard once, he broke my arm. I still don’t remember what stupid infraction I’d committed. I just remember being picked up from the Emergency Room by my grandpa, and after that, I never lived with my parents again.

  On Christmas night, my dad’s expression when I made a comment about dating a guy looked a whole lot like the one I remembered the night he broke my arm. He was bigger than I was, even though I’d just turned nineteen. I stood up and walked out of my parent’s house. Luckily, he didn’t strike me that time, but he hadn’t spoken to me since.

  “My aunt will probably help. I just need to call her. Can you hold him for a moment?” I asked.

  The lady’s face beamed. Not for the first time, I wondered what it was about babies and puppies that inspired such a response from the female of the species.

  The woman took him from me, and gently rocked him in her arms. The experience of child-rearing struck me as I watched her with him. For what must have been the hundredth time since Lisa told me I was a dad, I felt completely out of my element. What the hell was I going to do?

  The spell broke when she looked up at me, so I pulled my phone out of my pocket and immediately called my Aunt Doris. She was the closest thing to a mom I had. She’d moved in with Grandpa and me after her divorce. Just after I’d moved in with him.

  “Aunt Doris,” I said.

  “Oh, hi, honey,” she replied immediately. “This is unexpected.”

  “Yeah,” I said, trying to find the words to explain to her what was happening. “Um, are you home?”

  She hesitated. “Baby, what’s wrong?” she asked. Luckily all the maternal instincts my own mom never had, Aunt Doris, her sister, seemed to have in spades. Too bad she didn’t have any kids of her own to share those instincts.

  “Well, um…” I glanced at the baby and then at the server as I tried to figure out how I was going to explain things.

  “Trevor, spit it out, sweetie. You’re scaring me.”

  “I have a baby,” I finally blurted out. “Lisa and I had a baby.”

  Aunt Doris was our family’s carefree, happy, eccentric member who honestly believed love cured all. As I should’ve expected, she squealed at the news. “I’m a great aunt!” she exclaimed loud enough that the server still standing next to me smiled.

  “Yeah,” I said. The tears I’d managed to hold in until that point slipping down my face. “But Lisa left. She said she can’t take care of him.”

  “Oh, baby,” my aunt said. “You bring him over here, and we’ll figure this out. And don’t you worry about a thing cause I’m going to be the best great aunt that’s ever been born.”

  Her optimism struck me squarely in the chest, and I couldn’t resist letting out a sob of relief. I knew she was right. Aunt Doris had my back.

  Peter

  Devastation. That’s what I felt.

  Losing Martin because of my own stupidity was something that would always hurt. Knowing my mother was the culprit behind all the shit, well, that was more than I could handle. Moving was the only thing that made sense. I couldn’t trust my mother ever again. At least not with the men in my life.

  I know her hostility toward Martin was caused by the tumor, but still, it was more than I’d ever be able to forgive her for.

  I’d tried dating again since Martin, but unfortunately, no one seemed to fit me. I already knew I was screwed up because I tended to compare every man I dated to him.

  I know! If I’d listened to him, believed him, and confronted my mom like the mature man I was supposed to be, I’d be married to him right now.

  Luckily, I’d been recruited by and accepted a job at Mr. Howard’s construction company. That was where I met his son Joshua, otherwise, I wouldn’t have a single friend in Atlanta. Joshua and I tried to date, but when his dad caught us behind their pool house, he fired me. Despite that, Joshua and I remained friends.

  “What are you getting?” Josh asked me as we sat by the window.

  “I’m not really that hungry,” I replied. “Wanna split a Rueben?”

  “Sure.”

  I searched the area to see what was keeping the server. Something on the other side of the restaurant seemed to be holding her attention. I almost got up to get her when I saw a young woman walk out, leaving her infant in the arms of a small, but handsome young man.

  I assumed he must be the dad, but the poor guy’s facial expression looked like he’d just been hit by a truck.

  Our server stood next to him, apparently trying to console him.

  Eventually, she took the baby, and he picked up his phone. By then, Josh and I, as well as most of the other patrons in the place, were glued to the events unfolding before us.

  Within moments, the young man hung up his phone, took the baby back, put him in the baby carrier, and disappeared out the door. Josh and I watched as he left in what must have been an Uber or Lyft. I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of trouble the driver would get into if they got pulled over, and the baby wasn’t properly strapped in.

  Drama over, the server came to our table.

  “That looked interesting,” Josh said.

  The woman shook her head with a sad expression on her face. “Poor guy has no idea what he’s in for. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be single, footloose, young, and free one minute, then saddled with a little one the next.”

  “Wow, that’s what happened?” I asked.

  The woman continued to look sad, she closed her eyes for a moment before gathering herself together. She didn’t answer my question. Instead, she asked, “What can I do for you, boys?”

  The rest of the meal went off as normal. Josh complained about his dad but loved the work he was doing.

  “When are you going to leave and get a job with someone who appreciates you?” I asked for the hundredth time.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, Peter. I don’t really wanna go for my MBA, and he does pay me the same as I’d make almost anywhere else. Besides, I like construction. Would you recommend I go to work for his competition?”

  We both laughed at that. “Your father would literally murder you!”

  “Uh-huh, so for now, I’m stuck with him.”

  “So, I have some good news, I’m getting a new project. Our firm has a new contract with a big international company building contemporary buildings in a steampunk style.”

  “Cool, and weird. Why Atlanta?” he asked.


  “Just where he wants to try his new brand, and I think he liked some of my designs from when I worked in Texas. You should come to work for us,” I said, and he just shook his head.

  “You know that would be another easy way for me to find myself at the bottom of some river wearing concrete shoes.”

  I chuckled, but I was never entirely sure whether Josh was joking or not.

  Trevor

  Had it not been for Aunt Doris, I don’t know how the little man and I would’ve gotten by. I realized after we got in the Lyft that I hadn’t even asked Lisa the baby’s name. How does someone forget to ask that?

  I tried to reach Lisa again, but no surprise, she didn’t answer. I sent her a text instead.

  What’s his name?

  She texted back moments later.

  It’s on his birth certificate in the baby bag. I named him Luka after your grandpa, Luka Kovachich.

  I had to wipe away the tears again after learning his name. Lisa might have abandoned us, but she still knew how to be nurturing even when she was hurting.

  I texted back.

  You need to come back and help us out. We can figure it out.

  But I got no response.

  When little Luka and I arrived at my family home, Aunt Doris was sitting on the porch, apparently waiting for us. She came out to the car, and the moment I got out, she pulled me into a hug. “Baby, we will get through this, don’t you fret, okay?”

  Of course, the tears streamed down my face again. “Aunt Doris, what am I going to do?”

  She patted my head like I was ten years old again. “What every parent has ever done. Stay up late, get up early, change poopy diapers, and fall in love with this little man.”

  I smiled, in spite of myself, and turned around, pulling the baby carrier out of the car while she grabbed the baby bag.