Marry Me Again (The Second Chance Love Series, Book 1) (30 page)

"Well, we'd have to be careful, for Sammy. I don't want him to get hurt."

"He won't be. We'll make sure of it," he said, still in a daze. "We'll... sneak around behind our own kid's back, if you want. I don't want him to get his hopes up and then be hurt again. I don't want anything to ever hurt him. He's... amazing, Rebecca. I missed so much time. I threw it all away, and the way he's been so accepting of that, so ready to let me back into his life. To let me be his father. That's amazing and humbling. How does he do that?"

"Children are amazingly forgiving. He wants you in his life. He needs you. I guess wanting you and needing you the way he does is more important to him than anything else. Like being angry or not trusting you or... "

She went silent, staring at him as tears filled her eyes and a single one rolled down her cheek.

"I guess, that's where I am, too," she said, nodding. "I wanted to hate you. I wanted to stay angry. I wanted to keep reminding myself about what you did and what I saw, how horrible it felt when you gave up on us—"

"I know, Rebecca. I know." He tried to catch her tears as they fell faster, tried to wipe them all away. "I just threw it all away, and I'm so sorry."

"But as much as I tried to remember all of that, I just kept thinking of how much I missed you. How much I wanted you. Not just for Sammy, but for me. I'm still scared, but it doesn't seem to matter that much anymore. I just... I still feel like I belong to you, like we belong together."

"We do."

Tears kept falling down her cheek, and he wiped them away, thinking he never wanted to make this woman cry again.

"I've missed you, Tucker."

He groaned and settled her body intimately against his. "I thought I was going to die without you."

She pulled his mouth down to hers and kissed him the way she had that night when they'd spent all night loving each other.

When she pulled away, she said, "And you can't keep making decisions about what you think is best for me or Sammy on your own. If we're going to do this, if we're going to try to put our marriage back together, we make decisions together."

"You're right. I know that."

"If we're scared, we're scared together—"

"I'm too happy to be scared right now," he said, because he was, and she was entitled to honesty from him in all things. "Too hopeful. Too surprised. God, I didn't know if this day would ever come."

He kissed her again, deep and slow, savoring the taste of her, the feel of Rebecca in his arms.

"I was so wrong," he said. "So wrong about everything. I'm so sorry. I don't ever want to hurt you again. We'll be different this time. We're different people, and we know now what we lost for so long. We can be happy together. I know it. I just need the chance to prove it to you."

"Okay," she said.

He could hardly believe it. It had been so long. So many dark, lonely years. "Okay?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"I love you. I love you so much. We're going to be so happy together. I promise."

Epilogue

It was almost Christmas, and Sammy was excited.

He ran ahead of his mom and dad into the store to look at all the pretty lights on all the trees.

"Hey, look at that one! Look how big it is!"

Sammy looked way up at the tall tree, and when his parents didn't answer, he turned around to see what was going on.

They were kissing again, doing all that mushy stuff.

Sammy started to yell at them again, but didn't.

He just didn't understand. Jimmy Horton said kissing was gross.

But then, Jimmy didn't believe in birthday wishes coming true or in Santa Claus, either. Sammy wasn't worried about that, 'cause his dad said Jimmy Horton didn't know everything, 'cause he was only seven years old.

B'sides, Sammy knew birthday wishes came true, because he'd wished his dad back.

Sammy turned around again. He was tired of waiting.

"Come on, you guys. We have to find Santa."

They'd almost caught up with him when Sammy ran on ahead. He had to talk to Santa, 'cause he had an extra-special wish he had to make, and it was almost Christmas.

They finally found Santa in the store, 'n' they had to wait in a big, long line till it was Sammy's turn.

Sammy finally climbed up on Santa's lap, and he wasn't scared. Not a bit.

Santa made him laugh and let him pull his whiskers to show that they really were real, 'n' then he asked what Sammy wanted for Christmas.

Sammy tugged on the whiskers again until Santa leaned down so that Sammy could whisper it to him, 'cause everybody knew wishes had to be secrets if they were going to come true.

He told Santa that he wanted his dad to come home and live with him and his mom, forever and ever.

Santa looked down at the serious-minded little boy, then turned to look at his parents, standing close together, at ease that way, the handsome, smiling man with his arm around the pretty woman.

Santa always got a lot of Christmas wishes that he knew he couldn't make come true all on his own, and this was always the hardest one.

He didn't like to make promises he couldn't keep, but Santa believed in miracles, especially Christmas miracles. And he liked to make little children happy.

"Can you do it, Santa?" Sammy asked.

Santa looked at the man and the woman again, looked deep into their hearts—Santa could do that—and figured it was a pretty safe promise to make to a good little boy like Sammy.

Santa patted Sammy on the back and winked at him with a twinkle in his eye and gave him a big "Ho, ho, ho!"

"I think I can, Sammy."

The End

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HIS WEDDING DATE

Second Chance Love

Book Two

Excerpt from

His Wedding Date

Second Chance Love

Book Two

by

Teresa Hill

USA Today Bestselling Author

Special Author's Cut Edition

"So what are you doing this weekend?" Brian asked.

A perfectly casual question between two people who worked together, Shelly knew, and thought nothing of responding. "I don't know. What's the weather supposed to be like?"

"Rain, Saturday and Sunday."

She made a face.

Brian laughed. "Why don't you let me take you away from all this? Let's get out of town for the weekend."

Shelly stared at him, her mouth hanging open, until she finally remembered to close it. She had to be so careful around him, because she had trouble hiding her reaction to him. She wondered what it would take to drive him out of her heart forever and hoped marriage would do it—his marriage to someone else, that is.

Judging from the unread invitation she'd received in February, she couldn't have long to wait for that to happen. And she looked forward to that day, thinking it would prove to her that it was hopeless to go on loving him.