A Second Chance by Bernadette Marie Read Free Book Online Page B

thought should have saddened her,
but it didn’t. As soon as they were gone, she could take charge of
her life again.
    Eduardo said he wanted to come home
and help her, and of course that meant his brother and sister too.
Madeline was seriously considering it. She’d convinced him to wait
out the first week while her parents were there. The truth was, she
wanted to see how the chemo would affect her. She didn’t want to be
sick in front of her kids.
    As she lay alone in the dark,
breathing in and out slowly, she thought about her fight with Matt.
Who could have blamed him for what he’d done? They never did love
each other the way she’d loved Carlos. They hadn’t had sex in
almost six months. She didn’t even care. Her marriage to Matt had
been over long before he left. It should have hurt, but hearing
that Carlos and Kathy were engaged hurt even worse. She deserved
that. Had she been totally honest about what was going on, maybe
she wouldn’t have turned away every man in her life.
    She crossed her arms over her flat
chest and tried to dull the pain. She didn’t know if it was her
stitches that hurt or her broken heart.
     
    Carlos lay in bed, Kathy wrapped in
his arms, watching her sleep. She was beautiful from the inside
out. He knew he was a lucky man.
    Even having her so close, he couldn’t
ease his mind. He wasn’t thinking about the woman who had already
started planning their wedding. He was thinking about
Madeline.
    Eduardo had scolded him for not
telling her about marrying Kathy. Truth was, he hadn’t expected to
propose to her. He’d expected… he didn’t know what he’d expected.
From the moment Curtis had called him about Madeline’s surgery, the
life that he’d thought made sense no longer did. He’d finally been
content to move on and love another woman. He realized he’d love
Madeline until the day he died, but somewhere in their bliss,
they’d forgotten what really mattered. They’d both walked away from
their marriage. It wasn’t as if she’d chosen Matt over him, though
he’d accused her doing so. It was simply that she’d accepted their
fate faster than he had.
    They’d remained best friends over the
years. His family still thought of her as family. Regan still took
her shopping. Arianna would pay her a visit every time she was in
town. His own mother made sure she had an invitation to dinner
every Sunday night even if she didn’t accept.
    Now he was the one moving on
and getting married, and she was divorced, alone, lonely,
and… dying. He
unwrapped his arms from Kathy and rolled out of bed.
    He didn’t want to fight with Madeline.
Lord knew she didn’t need anything to upset her. But he had to talk
to her. He couldn’t go through life knowing she was resentful to
him for trying to take care of her.
    He turned on the bathroom light and
started the shower. He needed to feel the warm water pounding down
on him.
    Stripping out of his pajama bottoms,
he looked in the mirror. There were dark circles under his eyes.
His hair needed trimming, and he already needed to shave
again.
    He stepped into the shower and let the
hot water burn away the pain wrenching inside of him.
    What would have happened had they
thought things through five years ago? Everyone had hard times.
That’s what life was about. He’d been a college student for almost
ten years straight. During that time, his young wife had given
birth to three children and worked two jobs to pay off his student
loans. Once he graduated, he had a hard time finding a school to
hire him. Hadn’t the plan been to get his master’s degree and get
the better job so he could support his growing family and Madeline
could stay home? That was the plan. But it had all fallen
apart.
    The first of the big fights had
happened on her birthday. Then the next a week later. He couldn’t
even remember who decided he should move out. All he knew was he
was sleeping on a friend’s couch. Then he’d moved in with his
parents. After Arianna