Second Chance at Love (The MacKenna Born & Bred Trilogy) (2 page)

The warm water of the shower felt wonderful on her skin.
Water sluiced down her body as she rinsed the conditioner from her long mass of
hair. It helped to relax her muscles, which were a bit stiff despite her
workout, she realized. After thoroughly washing and rinsing herself, Brooke
turned off the water with one flick of her wrist and grabbed a towel from a
nearby basket, bundling her hair into it. Grabbing another, she began to pat
herself dry. When she was finished, she dropped the towel into a nearby hamper.
She lotioned herself and pulled on shorts and a tank top. Pulling her hair from
the towel that rested on top of her head, she patted it dry and tossed that one
into the hamper, as well. She combed out her long, dark mane as she padded
downstairs to the kitchen.

She was starving. She'd barely managed to choke down a salad
for lunch, and that had been at about 2:00. It was now 9:30, and she realized
that she was both tired and hungry. Usually, the former won that battle. She
grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before rechecking her locks and
turning off the lights. She headed back upstairs to her bedroom, deciding to
watch television in bed until she fell asleep. Tomorrow was Saturday, and she
had rounds in the morning. Saturdays were normally short days, maybe three or
four hours between rounds and her notes.

She crawled into her big, soft bed and snuggled deep beneath
the covers. Clicking on the television, she settled on an old episode of Friends.
She'd been a total Friends junkie when she was a teen. It was one of her
favorite episodes, and she laughed like it was the first time she'd seen it. It
was more like her tenth. Brooke yawned and settled into her pillows. She tried
to fight the exhaustion, telling herself she would only close her tired eyes
for a minute. In the end, sleep took over.

The unrelenting ring of her cell phone woke Brooke from a
sound sleep. She looked at the clock on her nightstand. It was 10:23. She could
only have slept for about half an hour.
One of my patients?
she
wondered, as she reached for the phone. When she looked down at the screen and
saw that it was her parents calling, she picked up right away. It was odd that
they would call so late. They were normally in bed for the night long before
now.

“Hello?” she said into the phone, and was greeted not by her
father's usual cheerful, booming voice, but by a voice that was tired and
weary. She knew instantly that something was wrong.

“Cancer?” Ashley repeated, the worry in her voice evident as
she stood across from Brooke in her enormous kitchen. Ashley thought of Raelyn,
Brooke's wonderfully amazing mother, and couldn't imagine something so horrible
happening to her. She hoped that everything would turn out alright.

“Ovarian,” Brooke said. “She's having a complete
hysterectomy.”

“Oh, honey, I'm so sorry.” Ashley wrapped her up in a fierce
hug and held on for a minute.

Ashley had that tough, don't-mess-with-me attitude that some
people, those who didn't really know her, might mistake for bitchiness. Which
was likely one of the reasons why she had more male friends than female. The
other being that women tended to be intimidated by Ashley, not only because of
her demeanor, but because of the fact that she was drop dead gorgeous. With her
long blonde hair, blue eyes, beautiful face and gorgeous body, Ashley exuded
sex appeal. She didn't have to work at it, it just sort of came naturally. And
she was well aware of it. She was comfortable in her own skin, and had no issue
with nudity or sex. If she was attracted to a man, then that was enough for
her. Love and sex didn't have to go hand-in-hand as far as Ashley was
concerned. It was ideal, of course, but rarely existed in her world. But Brooke
wasn't put off by it in the least. She knew that anyone would be lucky to have
Ash for a friend. She was honest, sincere and loyal, and would do anything for
you and anything to protect you.

“They're hoping the cancer is contained to just the ovaries.
She'll need surgery, and then time to recover, but she should be okay,” Brooke
continued, her voice hitching just a little. “The surgery is scheduled for
Tuesday, so I'm leaving this afternoon. Even with stopping overnight, I should
make it there by tomorrow evening.”

“When will you be back?” Ashley wanted to know.

Brooke looked at her best friend and chewed her bottom lip.
“At the end of August.”

“What?! But the end of August is three months away! Why on
earth would you go for so long?” Ashley complained, her full, pink lips forming
a pout. She eyed Brooke carefully.

“I don't know,” she replied. “All I know is that I feel like
it's what I need to do. I want to be with my family ~ my parents, my sister. I
need to spend some quality time with them, not just snatches of time stolen
here and there.” She felt strongly about that, especially now, considering her
mother's illness.

Ashley could certainly understand that. She hadn't spent as
much time with her family as she would have liked, either. But something else
lurked in the back of her mind.

Her eyes met Brooke's as she questioned, “Does this, in some
small part even, have anything to do with Logan MacKenna?”

“Of course not. Why would it?”

Her answer was a little too quick, Ashley thought, and maybe
just a little defensive.

“I don't know, Brooke. You tell me,” Ashley said softly. She
knew Logan was a sensitive topic for Brooke.

“That's ridiculous. Logan and I have been over forever. I
haven't seen him or spoken to him in nearly eight years, Ash.”

“That may be, but that doesn't mean you don't have feelings
for him still.”

Brooke sniffed. “Whatever feelings I had for Logan died a
long time ago.” She really couldn't care less about Logan MacKenna.

“It's okay to have feelings for him, honey. He was a
significant part of your life for so many years, and you share a long history.
Even though things ended badly, that doesn't mean you can't have him tucked
away in a special place in your heart.”

“How can you think that way, especially after what
happened?”

Ashley held up her hands. “All I'm saying is that no one
would blame you if you still have feelings for him. That's all. But at the same
time, I don't want to see you get hurt again.”

“Well, I don't, and I won't, so let's just forget about him,
okay?”

Ashley wasn't convinced.  She just hoped that whatever
Brooke's reasons for returning to Angel Ridge for so long, her friend was
making the right decision. She worried about this long after Brooke had given
her the spare key to her house to check on things periodically, and they said
their goodbyes.

Brooke had gone to the hospital after leaving Ashley's
apartment. She'd completed her rounds and her notes in less than three hours,
and had spoken to her Chief of Staff regarding time off. With some finagling,
it would work. She'd been granted a temporary leave of absence, and would be
expected to return back to work on the first of September. There was a mountain
of paperwork that required her signature, which she'd made arrangements to have
faxed to her on Monday. 

Brooke was relieved about getting the time off, but it felt
strange to her at the same time. She lived and breathed for her work, her
patients, her hospital. She hadn't been away from it all in years. At least not
for more than a few days here and there. But she didn't have time to think about
any of that at the moment. She had too many other things to worry about.

After she'd hung up with her parents the night before, she
couldn't sleep. She'd begun making her plans, and had even packed, knowing in
her heart that she would be going home to Montana with or without a leave of
absence. Now, at just about 2:00, she had her entire car loaded up and was
locking her front door when she heard the roar of an engine.

 
Oh, God, not now,
she thought as she watched the
sleek red convertible come to a sudden stop behind her car in the circular
drive. When she reached the end of the walkway, he was already standing there
waiting, a lazy grin on his face. He hadn't said a word yet and had already
managed to annoy the hell out of her. Some people were just gifted like that,
she supposed.

“Hey there, gorgeous,” he said, flashing her his
irresistible smile.

He looked picture-perfect, as usual, wearing Armani and an
air of authority.

She wanted to knock his perfect white teeth down his throat.
The thought surprised her. She had no idea where the aggression she suddenly
felt had come from.

“What do you want, Jason?” she snapped, stepping past him.

“Hold on a second,” he said. “What, you can't spare me even
a minute?”

She looked down at her wrist watch. “Starts now,” she said,
eyeing him disinterestedly.

He didn't know whether or not she thought she was funny, but
he was far from amused.

“What's going on with you?” he demanded. “You don't answer
my calls, you only give me scraps of your precious time.” He looked genuinely
insulted. At one time she may have cared. This wasn't that time. “Did you get
the flowers I sent?” he asked.

“Yes, I did, as a matter of fact,” she replied. “Thank you.”
And the staff at UCLA Medical Center thanked him, too. The beautiful behemoth
flower arrangement he'd sent currently decorated a table in the main lobby.
“Look at that,” she said, tapping a finger to her wrist watch. “Time's up.” She
stepped around him and made it nearly all the way to her car before she was
whirled around to face him.

“Don't you dare walk away from me,” he spat out, his hand
gripping her arm firmly. She felt a sudden stab of pain from where his fingers
dug into her skin. The anger in his voice was hot and biting. She managed to
yank her arm from his grasp and, opening the door of her car, she slipped
inside. When he saw her belongings packed neatly into the back seat, because
the trunk was already full, he narrowed his eyes. “What in the hell is this?
Where are you going, Brooke?”