Second Chance Romance (21 page)

We moved to greet her in the lobby. She pointed her skeletal finger at me.

“You!” She yelled.

“Haven’t we done this before Carrie. It’s not a wand.”
I told her sternly.

She started screeching and what a horrid sound it was.

“Damn girl, are you a fire detector? ‘Cause you’re really fucking loud and annoying.” Jackson said. She moved to take a step towards me but Ellie stepped in.

“If karma doesn’t hit you
bitch, I fucking will.” Ellie was nose to nose with her. Carrie started to look unwell and I had a feeling the laxatives were about to make their presence known.

“Why?” Noah asked.

“I love you Noah, it was supposed to be us all along.”

“Carrie
, this is not what you do to someone that you love. If you really loved me you would have done what Jules did. She left. It killed her to do it, but she wanted me to what was right. She did it because she
loves
me. That is what love is really about. It’s about sacrifice and putting the ones you love before yourself. You know nothing about love Carrie.
Nothing
. I’m actually ashamed that I even entertained the thought of marrying you. After this is over I never want to see your face again.” He looked her square in the eyes. “I don’t believe in hate, I think it weighs you down but you’re my exception. I hate you! I hate what you’ve done to me, and more than that what you’ve done to the people that I love. You disgust me.” Just then she grabbed her stomach and shit herself. It was disgustingly epic.

Noah grabbed my hand and walked away from her. He never even looked back. Robert
apologized again and said that he would be in touch. I felt bad for Robert. He had a psycho bitch for a daughter and a spiteful, vindictive bitch for a wife.

We made plans to meet
the others at Jackson’s condo in a couple hours but we wanted a little time to ourselves first. Once we were back at the condo exhaustion hit me full force. Noah picked me up as if I didn’t weigh anything and carried me to the bedroom. I laughed when I noticed nothing had changed in here. All my things were exactly how I left them.

“She never came here and I didn’t sleep with her.
You belong here Jules, you’ve belonged here all along.” He read my mind.

“Nothing happened with Chase either
. Other than the kiss but you already knew about that.” He nodded and pulled me close.

“I just want to hold you for a little while.
Who am I kidding, I want to hold you like this forever.” He whispered as he pulled me snugly against him so we were face to face. We stayed like that for a long time. I was sleeping soundly until my stomach started rumbling. Noah helped me to my feet and we decided it was time to head to Jackson’s where there was food. He pulled into the parking garage. We headed up to where we were greeted by our friends who were happy to see our reign of misery come to an end. I was still exhausted but it was nice to see everyone. We laughed and joked around like old times. Everyone made plans to catch up again tomorrow night when we were better rested. We headed
home.
I jumped in the shower and changed into a pair of boy-short’s and tank top and climbed into bed.
Oh how I missed this bed.
Noah wrapped his arms around me and I was asleep instantly.

I woke up the next morning with Noah between my legs. He lifted his head.

“I couldn’t wait anymore. I feel like I’ve been in a desert since you left. I’m like a starving man at a buffet.” He resumed until I was gripping bed sheets. We made slow passionate love for most of the morning. We talked in between and we were both on the same page. It was as if this had brought us even closer together. It proved how strong our bond truly was. He asked if it was okay if we headed home next weekend to visit his parents, mostly his mom. She was extremely worried when he called to tell her to cancel her flight and that the wedding was going to be called off. Of course, I agreed. I always loved June. She was like my adopted mother.  

The next day we made arrangements to go to Atlanta at the end of the week. Robert had called Noah to let him know that he was planning on filing divorce from Abigail and that they were looking into the mysterious disappearance of her last husband Clark. Noah put in his resignation from the firm. Robert was sad to see him go but offered his services if Noah ever needed them. He hung up the phone and came to wrap me in his arms.

“I want to talk to you about something and I want your honest opinion.”

“That’s all I ever give you, silly.”

“I’m thinking of starting a new endeavor. I want to open my own firm. I know it’s going to be hard. I’m thinking about asking Joe to come with me.”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea.
I’m proud of you.” I cooed.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Unbreakable Heart

“Wake up, baby.” Noah nudged me. W
e were about to land.

“Sorry. I’m up.”
I smiled brightly.

“Never apologize, I
love watching you sleep.”

Since we had flown
first class we were the first ones to exit the plane. Noah gathered our luggage and we headed to pick up our rental car. We drove hand in hand to where our childhood homes were.

This week had been amazing. Joe accepted Noah’s offer and they were
already looking into possible office locations. He and Melissa also announced that they were pregnant. I was so ecstatic for the both of them, especially given their fertility struggles. Jackson was taking Ellie upstate for the week and she was excited to meet more of his family. It seemed like the Carrie episode was a thing of the past and I was glad to have it behind us. Chase had called to apologize again.

“Hey Jules.” He said when I grudgingly answered the phone.

“Chase.” I said tersely.

“Listen, I know you don’t want to talk to me but I want to apologize.”
“For what? Setting me up? Slashing my tires? Almost getting me kicked out of school? Lying to me? Leading me on? Pick one.”

“It was never my intention of hurting you. You know I love you. I just wanted us to have another chance. I honestly thought that we had a shot.” He went on to grovel for a few minutes and Noah said I should forgive him.

“Listen Chase, I forgive you alright. I just don’t want anything to do with you anymore.”

“I understand. I’m sorry.”

“Bye Chase.”

I looked out the window as Noah skillfully mastered his way through traffic. I couldn’t believe how built up it had become. After an hour and a half we pulled into the driveway. I looked at my childhood home and saw a little girl swinging on my swing. She looked at us and smiled. I walked over to her.
Noah came up behind me.

“Hi, I’m Jules. What’s your name?”
I said crouching down to her height.

“Chloe.” She said in her sweet little voice
, she was adorable. She had brown hair and freckles and couldn’t have been more than five.

“Chloe, did you know I used to live in that house.” I pointed to her house. “And I used to swing on this swing when I was your age.”

“You did?” She said with a huge grin.

“Yep.”

“Do you want to swing on it?” She said climbing off and I couldn’t resist. I sat on it and thought back to almost twenty years ago when I first met Noah Sinclair at this very spot. Chloe stood next to Noah.

“Want a push?” He asked. This time I nodded yes and he gave me a little push. We stayed and chatted for a couple more minutes. I thanked her for letting me use her swing and she said I could use it whenever I wanted. Noah and I walked hand in hand and knocked on the door. June answered the door with a huge smile and pulled me into a bear hug. For being so small, she sure was strong. I hugged her back when Noah’s dad John came into the foyer and stole me from June.

“Baby girl. Look at you.” He pulled away for a minute so he could get a good look at me and then crushed me into another hug. “We’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you guys too.”

June ordered us into the kitchen and served us pie like she used to do when we were little. Noah recapped what had happened. June had a few choice words for Carrie. They were both over the moon that we were back together. I excused myself for a couple minutes to freshen up when I knew that Noah was going to get into details about why I couldn’t have children. I was in the powder room when June tapped on the door.

“Jules. Can I come in?”

“Sure.” I said, opening the door. She had tears rolling down her cheeks and I was trying to hold mine at bay.

“I had no idea honey. I’m so sorry you had to suffer through something like that. You were nothing more than a child yourself. I didn’t know that you used to sleep here because you were scared to be home if I knew I would have done something.” I could tell she was beating herself up.

“There was nothing you could have done June. It’s okay, it doesn’t define me. If anything it made me a better person.”

“Still I wish I would have known. I really am happy for you both.”

“Thank you. I love him more than I ever thought I could love anyone. I’m not going anywhere.”
She hugged me and we went to join the men in the kitchen. John offered to take us out to dinner but Noah declined and said that we had other plans and that we would actually be gone for the night. I looked at him with a shocked expression but he played coy. That’s when I noticed that he never brought our luggage in. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the car. He pulled something out of his suit pocket. It was a blindfold. He gently put it on and told me I was in for a lot of surprises tonight.

Noah

It felt nice to get everything out into the open with my parents. I thought my mom was going to have a heart attack when I told her that Jules spend five years sleeping at our house because she was scared to be home. She was even more shocked to find out that we didn’t have sex until the night before she left. When I told her about Jules losing the baby she was heartbroken but when I told them how she lost it she was furious she couldn’t understand how someone could do something like that. My dad looked like he was going to kill something, he actually punched a hole in the wall. I looked and saw he was crying. My dad was a big guy and he always had a soft spot for Jules. I hugged them both and told them it was only going to be positive things from here on out.

I pulled up to the Four Seasons in Atlanta
. I managed to get the same room that we had the last time we stayed here ten years ago. As soon as we were at the valet I told Jules she could take the blindfold off. She gasped when she saw where we were. I knew she was surprised.

“I want to recreate what happened here the last time, but I want the ending to be different.” I smiled brightly at her. Her eyes watered over and I knew I was on the right track. I helped her out of the rental and headed to check in. Once we were settled in our room I told her to shower and get changed. I had more arrangements to finish. When she appeared from the bedroom she looked breathtaking. She was in a knee length white dress that Ellie had helped her pick out for the trip. It showed just the right amount of skin
. I couldn’t wait to take it off of her later, but I needed to get myself back to the task at hand.

“You look simply stunning.” I took her hand and made her do a little twirl.

“Thanks so do you.” I had changed into a black suit, white shirt and black tie. It was almost the exact outfit as the last time. I looped her arm through mine as we headed down to Park 75 for dinner. We ordered the same dinners we did ten years ago. When the peanut butter lava cake came out I felt my palms start to get sweaty.

I stood up and dropped to one knee. All eyes were on me.

“Julia Kline, you’ve spent your whole life running and all you’ve done is run farther away from the love that’s been waiting for you all along. The first time you smiled at me with your two missing teeth you had my undivided attention. When you laugh, I want to laugh with you. When you cry, I want to be the one to hold you. When you said you loved me, you highjacked my heart forever. They say that love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. Your happiness is what I will spend the rest of my life striving to give you. I love you so much. Will you do the honor of marrying me?” I produced the ring from my pocket as she placed her hand in mine.

I may have gone a little overboard but as far as she was concerned my wallet seemed to know no bounds. I had it custom made by a friend of Randall’s that dealt in custom pieces.
The band was platinum and the center held a five-carat cushion cut diamond surround by bead-set diamonds. I loved it and it screamed Jules, except she probably would have preferred something from a vending machine.
I will string Jackson up by his balls if he ever tells her how much I spent on it. 

“Yes!” She beamed and the room erupted in to applause.

The server brought over a bottle of pink champagne and poured two glasses.

“To the first day of the rest of our lives.” We clinked glasses and enjoyed our dessert before returning to our room. I had the room filled with pink peonies and tea-lights while we were at dinner. She gasped when she walked into the room.
‘Lucky’ by Jason Mraz was playing softly in the background. I stood behind her and reminded her how lucky I was to have her, my best friend and future wife.