My Twist of Fortune by Rayne, Piper (little red riding hood read aloud txt) 📗

I could’ve saved her, something I should’ve done differently.

“I’m sorry.”

I nod, lips pressed together. “Thanks.”

“I know my words don’t mean anything. I can’t imagine what it was like for you all.”

“Chevelle was so young. She still has nightmares occasionally, although they’ve gotten far less now. I worry as she gets older about the guilt she might feel, but she was five. She didn’t know any better. So many times I wondered, why wasn’t it me? Laurie could handle the kids so much better.”

“From what I’ve seen, you’ve done a great job.”

“Thanks.” I open my arms and she hugs me.

Her lips skate across my jaw. “Thank you for telling me.”

I nod and kiss the top of her head. “I’m glad you forced it out of me.”

She playfully hits me and we both chuckle, though it sounds a little sadder than normal.

A few minutes later, when we’re still holding each other, I say, “Marla?”

She looks at me. “Yeah?”

“I like what you said. About being friends and trusting one another. Having a true partner. That’s a relationship I’d like to be in.”

She smiles and kisses my jaw, laying her head back on my chest.

I loved Laurie. We had a good solid marriage. When someone dies, you tend to remember only the good times and the good qualities of that person. Sure, I remember us fighting, but we had five kids. That’s a given. But we had a good life together until it was ripped away.

Spending this time with Marla makes me remember how much I love being someone’s other half. I want to share that with someone again. But it’s way too soon for me to tell that to Marla.

A week after our night at Glacier Point, we’re walking hand in hand across the Sunrise Bay high school football field. After the night we shared together, it was like the flick of a light switch and we turned from budding relationship into a couple.

Although people have seen us around together, we mostly keep to one another’s houses for the kids. The snow is falling, and I wanted to go somewhere we could see the entire sky. Of course, Hank suggested the football field with some joke about having sex on the fifty-yard line. I might’ve been game if I didn’t fear my ass getting stuck to the icy field.

“Want to go make out under the bleachers?” he asks, eyebrows waggling.

“Can we talk?” I ask nervously.

“Sure.” He stops and tugs my hand, leading me over to the bleachers.

We sit next to one another, our thighs touching.

God, this going to sound like I’m giving him some ultimatum, but I don’t have a lot of choice. Our situation is complicated. “I don’t really know how to bring this up—”

He puts his hand over mine on my thigh. “Just to be clear, if you’re breaking up with me right now, I’m not cool being friends.”

I laugh. Does he really have no idea I’m falling in love with him? “No. That’s not it. I don’t have the luxury of time at my age and circumstance, otherwise I probably wouldn’t even be having this conversation with you right now. Not that I’m asking for some major commitment. But the kids all go to the same school and it’s hard enough for them already, having had to start new. Especially since Jed is in his senior year. Kids can be cruel, and I just can’t…” I stop. What am I doing? I sound as though I’m asking him for a marriage proposal after only dating for a couple of months.

“Go on,” he says.

“Okay, I’m going to own this and if you don’t feel the same, so be it, but I’m done taking the back seat when it comes to my life and what I want.”

A wicked smile crosses his lips. “Do you want to have sex in the concession stand? I have a spare key.” He starts to rise off the bleachers.

“Hank!” I shout, although the smile on my face says I get the joke.

“Sorry. Go ahead.” He eases back down and urges me with his hand squeezing mine.

“I like you a lot, and although it hasn’t been long, I see this working out between us, as crazy as that sounds.” My stomach pitches at the thought that he may not feel the same. “I guess I’m telling you this because I need to know where you stand. If this relationship is a way to get back at your cousin—which I don’t think it is, but I have to ask because for some reason, my head doesn’t always hear my gut. But if we do this and it crashes and burns, my kids will feel the brunt of the fall and I can’t have that and know I didn’t directly ask. That I allowed it to just play out. I can’t gamble with my kids’ lives.”

He stares out into the darkness of the field, only illuminated by the full moon above.

God, say something. Anything. Say I’m crazy.

“I don’t gamble with my kids either. There are things that scare me with you.” He pauses, and I hold my breath. “I’m terrified of this being harder than either of us imagine. Cade is beyond furious about us dating. Jed never looks too happy either. Posey made me promise when I showed up for our first date that I wouldn’t hurt you.”

Oh, my sweet girl.

“When we come out, this town is going to have a field day with the gossip.” He looks at me. “If Jeff comes and asks for you back, what will you say?”

I shake my head. “That’s over. One hundred percent. What if I don’t live up to what you had with Laurie?”

His hand moves from covering mine to cupping my chin. “Don’t ever think that. I’m not comparing what I had with Laurie to what we have, and neither should you. I guess what I’m saying is, there’s a lot on the line. More than when we were in high school. But you’ve always been in