Second Rate Chances by Holly Stephens Read Free Book Online Page A

him.
                                “A couple of days and we'll take you home,” Paul said to his son. “I promise you. We'll set your room back up just like it used to be.”
                                “You don't understand, Dad. I don't want to go to your home. I want to go to my home.”
                                “Well, that ought to make Chloe happy. You've got that big fancy condo downtown.”
                                “Downtown? Since when did they put in condos downtown? Wouldn't the historical society have a fit about that?”
                                “Dad,” Joshua cut in. “He doesn't know. He doesn't know that he's turned his back on The Village. That he's a preppy do good'er living the high life.” Joshua laughed while shaking his head. The reaction from his brother only fueled the anger welling up inside Sam.
                                “You're right! I don't know! I don't know anything. Why are you being such an asshole? What have I done to you?” Sam demanded.
                                “Nothing. That's what you've done to me. Nothing. It's all you've done to any of us.”
                                “Stop it, both of you!” Paul shouted. “Josh, lay off your brother. He has enough going on that he doesn’t need you telling him how he’s changed.” Sam watched as his brother stormed out of the room.
                                Sam looked at his dad, his voice dropping to that of a whisper. “What have I become? My girlfriend can't look at me. My own brother can't be in the same room with me. Dad, have I hurt everybody?”
                                After several beats of silence Paul finally said, “You've changed Sam. Let's just leave it at that.”
                                Sam could tell he wasn't going to get anything else from his dad so he decided to drop the subject, for now. “So the doctor says in a couple of days I can leave. Where am I going to go? Does Lil even still own the cottage?”
                                Paul took a seat on the edge of the twin hospital bed. “The last I heard, yeah, she still owns it. As for where you're going to go, you have options. You can go to your condo or you can come home with me. You'll always have a home there.”
                                Sam closed his eyes and prayed for sleep to take him. He wanted to wake up from this horrible nightmare. Preferably the part where he lived in a high-rise downtown and he was engaged to his boss' daughter.
    ~~~~
    Lil could barely see through the tears in her eyes as she drove away from the hospital. She tried to regain some sort of composure because there was no way she could go to work with a tear-stained face. Pulling off to the side of the road, just before the welcome sign to The Village greeted her, she took a few moments to dry her eyes and calm down.
                                Seeing Sam had done a real number on her. He truly believed that they were together. That nothing had ever happened to tear them apart. It was all too much. She felt like the air was being sucked out of the hospital room. She was losing focus. Her breathing became labored. She had to leave. It was a chicken move, but had she not acted fast, she would have ended up alongside him in a bed of her own. Panic attacks were something she had learned to work through. There was no working through a panic attack of that magnitude.
                                Lil picked up her cell phone and dialed the office. She had to catch Ellie before she left for lunch. When the familiar sound of her best friend’s voice filtered