Second Chances (11 page)

"I'm not going to run after him," Karina stated firmly. "At least not yet," she added with a grin.

All of the women laughed.

Paul, who'd just joined them, added, "You might need some help if you do catch him. He's twice your size."

"That's it, no short jokes, please. Besides I am not that small." She emphasized her words by smacking her fist against the table.

With perfect timing, eight-year-old Michael came into the kitchen. "Mom, Sara's lying. Karina can't have a boyfriend. She isn't big enough yet, is she?"

The question sent the adults into gales of laughter, while Karina tried unsuccessfully to explain to the young boy that size had nothing to do with it.

Michael didn't look like he was buying any of her reasons. "Well, I'm too little for a girlfriend. Girls! Yuck." With that, he took off to find his cousins.

"Are you sure you want to live in our basement apartment?" Sandra asked. "My boys are going to drive you nuts."

"I'm going to love it," she replied honestly.

And she did. Every day she went home tired, but happy. Covered in paint or dust, always bruised and sore, but satisfied with her day's work. She texted every stage of the shop's evolution to Serena and Cat, loving that they wanted to be kept in the loop of what was happening.

She loved the brightly lit basement apartment that was part of Sandra's house. It was small, cozy and managed to get a lot of natural light. Best of all, it was within her budget. The twin boys were a built-in benefit. They adored the cats. She'd tried to warn them about cats being independent and snobbish, only to watch in amazement as the cats instantly adopted the boys. Go figure.

Misty and Mugs settled in with aplomb. After being stuck in an apartment all their lives, their first taste of freedom was mesmerizing. They'd tiptoed through the grass mystified by the new world around them.

Most days she visited with either Sandra or Susan. Always, she found herself surrounded by the kids. Sandra's twins in particular seemed to think she was theirs.

"She lives in our house, so she's ours," they'd yell at Michael and Sara.

"She is not. She came here to be with us. So she's ours."

Their mothers just laughed. Karina found it wonderful and disconcerting at the same time. The children had taken to her immediately, even with her lack of experience. She loved it, but found their unconditional acceptance a little daunting. She didn't want to let them down.

Mark was standing outside the store when she arrived the next morning. Dressed in jeans and an old t-shirt, he looked rough and masculine.

Karina fished out her keys. "Have you been waiting long?"

"Not really, just a few minutes."

"The real question is, are you ready to work? I'm going to put all those big muscles to good use today. We want to finish putting up the rest of the shelves and change some of the lighting fixtures."

"I'm yours for the day, ma'am." He bowed with an old-fashioned flourish.

"Charming, sir, just charming." She fluttered her eyelashes back at him. "Now get your butt in here."

"Wow, this is huge." Mark wandered into the half-finished chaos, pausing in wonder.

"I know and stock is already arriving. We're storing things at both Susan's and Sandra's until we get the interior finished."

"Let's get at it, then"

Susan arrived an hour later with coffee and fresh cinnamon buns.

"Boy, are we glad to see you." Karina said, grateful for the break.

"Karina, this looks so good."

"Do you think so? All I can see is how much more there is to go." Karina gratefully took a sip of her coffee while Susan gushed about the new products.

"You're going to love the huge teddy bears. I thought we could give one away on opening day. Maybe a draw or like the 100th person to walk through the door. Or something like that."

"That works." Karina smiled. "Maybe I should buy one for myself."

"Karina," Mark said with a grin, "you do that, and I'm going to tell Brian you sleep with a teddy bear because he's too slow to get his act together."

Mark easily dodged the wadded-up ball of napkins that flew his way, All the while guffawing with laughter.

"Don't get mouthy or I'll find lots more work for you," she threatened.

However, by the end of the day, having the extra pair of hands to help had made a tremendous dent in the workload. The chaos was beginning to look like a real store.

By noon the following day, Karina was putting the final touches on painting the nursery corner. Unicorns and teddy bears gamboled on a grassy hill beneath a brightly colored rainbow.

She was so engrossed in her work she barely heard the door open.

***

Brian stalled in the open doorway of Karina's new store, appreciating the view.

Karina probably wouldn't have been impressed, dressed as she was in shorts and a ratty old T-shirt, but he sure was. Her unconscious grace and wholesome beauty made for wonderful eye candy. As she leaned forward over the top of the ladder, the shorts rode up just a bit more, tantalizingly close to giving him a view of her gently rounded cheeks. The muscles in her bare legs worked to hold her at the strained angles she needed, sometimes on tiptoe, sometimes on one leg, but always perfect. The T-shirt had fallen forward, moving with her swaying body to hide then hint at a taut belly. The material covering one shoulder had slipped down, the top too large and old to properly keep its shape, showing another bit of smooth skin and just a hint of matching pink straps.

Brian unbuttoned the top of his shirt, feeling an intense rush of heat.

He'd waited to see her. Hoped his reaction would cool. Instead, time had kept the emotions simmering on a low burner, flaring into heat at first sight.

***

With an inner sixth sense suddenly off kilter, Karina realized she was no longer alone. She twisted around quickly, the ladder making an ominous creaking noise.
Brian
.

"Careful." Brian raced to her side. He held the ladder for her.

Descending carefully, she tried to corral her thoughts. "Brian. What are you doing here?" She mentally kicked herself for sounding flustered instead of cool and in control. Even more agitated, she put her paintbrush down on the step and tried to clean her hands on the paint rag. She ended up smeared from elbow to fingertip.

"Here." Brian handed her another cleaning rag from the floor.

She smiled her thanks and tried to improve the job. Frustrated at her ineptitude, she excused herself to wash up. She groaned at the image she presented in the mirror and got to work.

Much cleaner, Karina walked back toward Brian, feeling a little better. "What are you doing here? Not that I'm not delighted to see you, of course." This time she got her voice right, cool and casually friendly.

"Mark told me he'd helped out yesterday. I thought I'd come by and see for myself and invite you out for lunch. If you're done painting, that is?" He surveyed the bright interior with approval. "This is quite the store you two have put together."

"Yes. We're really happy here. I know you weren't so onboard with the idea…"

Brian looked at her in surprise. "No, no. I never meant to dissuade you. I just wanted you to be sure about taking such a major step. A startup business isn't easy."

"I know. We just look at things differently." She returned to his invitation. "I'd be delighted to have lunch with you."

She took him to meet Sandra on the way to the restaurant.

"So you're renting a basement suite from her?" he asked.

"Yes. So far it's working really well. The whole family is great, and they've all been treating me so kindly."

Karina kept the lunch conversation light and friendly. She told him about the opening day plans and the new computer system they were trying to get up and running. Brian shared that he'd be leaving town in a few days for another weekend seminar. His last for a while, as he was getting ready to sit down and write again.

"I'm going to be starting a weekly lecture series on Thursday nights. It'll run for six weeks, and then I'm taking a break."

"That sounds great. Maybe I can get Sandra and Susan to come along, too." Karina pulled out her day planner, a major necessity now and wrote down the dates. If nothing else, it would give her an excuse to see Brian again.

"With the grand opening coming up, my schedule is crazy. Stop by when you get back if you can. The store will be up and running by then."

They walked out into the bright sunshine.

"I'll do that. By the way—how are the nightmares?"

She stopped walking and looked up at him, a little disconcerted at the caring probe. A warm light in those chocolate eyes eased the question. Because of course, the nightmares were still bad.

A masculine, gentle hand covered hers. "That bad, huh?"

Karina sighed. "I'm dealing with them. Hopefully, they'll go away soon." She brightened. "At least there are no prank calls here."

He nodded. "Good. We haven't heard any more from Ian, so I imagine he's calmed down by now. Give it a little time. Your life has changed so much in the last few weeks that it's bound to carry into your dream state." He nodded toward the store front. "Go back to your painting. I'll see you when I get back next week."

Uncertainly, Karina turned to go back inside the store. "Thanks for lunch."

Her mind was a whirl, anticipation and letdown roiling into one emotion, confusion. That was it, no kiss, no invitation for another get together; just a casual friendly, 'I'll see you next week.' Well, what did she expect?

Then he did it.

"Oh by the way…" He turned back, tugged gently on her arm and wrapped her in his embrace.

His lips stroked and caressed, coaxing her own to open then dipped inside, igniting her passion. It was just like last time. Only this time her body knew what to expect. Her lips trembled under the onslaught, answering his heat with intense flames of her own. Her body melted fully against him, yielding to his strength, surrendering to her passion. Liquid heat flowed through her, pooling, swelling and tormenting.

Karina barely heard the whistles or the catcalls from the onlookers. The world existed for just the two of them.

Just as fast as the passion burned, Karina was left standing frozen as Brian left.

"Damn it. Quit doing that," she yelled at his retreating back.

His laughing voice called back, "Quit doing what?"

"Scrambling my brains, then leaving!"

"Hold that thought until I get back." He glanced at her, the dark depths of his eyes piercing her heart, the hinted promise stealing her breath.

That louse, he knew she wouldn't be able to think of anything else now. She tried to come up with the perfect response.

Too late. He was gone. Again.

***

In the murky darkness of a deep Victoria night, anger and pain and hate filled Ian's mind.

Life had gone from bad to worse. Not only had his wife decided that their separation was a good idea, but she'd gone one step further and had asked for a divorce.

Ian was going to lose it all.

He'd tried talking to her. He'd told her how much he needed her. Nothing had worked. Nothing had made a difference.

Then he tried threatening her. She'd hung up on him. Breaking his heart. Him. After all this time. Now she'd disappeared again. And he had no idea where. And damn he'd tried. He'd checked out every spot he could think of. She'd disappeared. How she could afford time off work he didn't know. She didn't have any money of her own. He'd made sure of that.

She'd never have done this before and she couldn't have done this on her own. Someone had to be helping her.

She'd changed.

And he knew who was to blame.

In the dead stillness of the night, he started making concrete plans to head in the only direction left open to him. Thank God Karina had moved here. Just in time and just for him.

He knew where she lived now. And he'd seen the rapport she had with the kids.

Now he had multiple targets.

And multiple ways to inflict maximum pain on the two people who'd fucked up his life.

O
pening day was chaos. Fun. Exciting.

And absolutely nuts.

Karina had never seen that many people in one place before. And never for something she'd worked so hard on. Paul had taken on the challenge of their advertising and made it shine. Balloons walked out with children attached. Mothers and fathers walked out carrying multiple bags, equally full of happiness as their giddy children.