Ink's Second Chance - Carol Dawn Page 0,13

walk.”

“I remember, baby.”

“Stop calling me that,” she yells.

She grips her wheels and pulls away from me.

“What you think you want isn’t going to happen,” she says. “Just go home, Sammy. Forget about me again. Life was better that way.”

Rachel turns and heads for her living room. Her apartment is open to most rooms, so I watch as she moves her chair to the couch and slides over to sit in the corner. All I can see is her beautiful brown hair flowing over the arm of the sofa.

“What do you mean by ‘what I think I want?” I ask as she turns on the tv.

She doesn’t say anything at first but continues to search for something to watch. After an eternity, she finally flips off the tv and sighs.

“It’s no surprise that women fall at your feet, Sammy,” she says, softly. “All it takes is half a smile and you have women, and some men, under your control. And, of course, they say yes.”

Rachel moves around until she’s looking me in the eyes.

“Then you have me. Someone whose heart was taken years ago by a boy. A boy who broke it and never gave it back. And I tell you no. Something you don’t hear. A challenge. That’s what you want, Sam, the challenge. Not the person. Not me.”

Part of me wants to scream and yell that she’s wrong. And another part wants to jump for joy at what she’s admitted.

“Do you want your heart back, baby?” I whisper as I walk closer. “You’re wrong, you know. You told me to forget about you…again. That life was better that way.” I stop just a foot from the couch. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot these past few days. About why I’ve slept with so many women over the years.”

“God, Sam, I don’t want to hear this,” Rachel says, turning around.

I move to sit on the coffee table in front of where she’s sitting.

“Let me finish,” I demand. “I used to think it was because I never wanted to settle down. I wanted to be a free man for the rest of my life. But, as I went back to the clubhouse the past few nights, without you, I’ve realized it’s because there was a void missing that I was trying to fill.

I had felt something once that I was trying to get back. But I could never find it. Then you came into my shop looking for a tattoo and everything clicked into place. I fought the fuck out of it, babe. No way in hell was I going to be that guy.

But there’s no questioning it. You are the missing void. So, like I said, you’re wrong. I never forgot about you. You have always been part of me. I was just too fucked up to see the truth. So, I’ll ask you again, do you want your heart back?”

I sit back and watch as the emotions play across her face. I hope that what I said was the key to opening this woman’s heart to me. Because I will let her domesticate the hell out of me if she agrees to be mine.

White picket fence, here we come.

I hope.

Chapter Nine

Rachel

How do I even respond to that? I’m sure my mouth and eyes are both wide as my brain strains to find something to say.

You hate Sam. You hate Sam. You hate Sam.

No matter how many times I remind myself, it doesn’t stick. His words are what I’ve longed to hear from him for years. So, why the heck am I not telling him that?

He doesn’t say anything as I process the crazy amount of information firing through my brain.

Is he making fun of me? He never really answered my question about my legs, did he? Did he avoid it on purpose?

“I’ll never walk again,” I finally say, my voice strangely clear and strong despite my inner hurricane. “I’ll never have a normal relationship with someone because I require special things for my day-to-day life. Equipment that tends to get in the way. I’ll never be able to ride on your bike because I won’t be able to properly hold on. I won’t be able to stand up and dance at my wedding or run after my kids if they’re in danger.

Life with me is not easy. It’s a challenge. I’m a challenge, Sammy. And until I know for a fact that what you really want is me and not the challenge, then I can’t bring myself to