A Second Chance in the Show Me State - Jessie Gussman Page 0,12

was crazy for trusting his ten-year-old, and maybe he was even crazier for considering their naughty scheme, but maybe he was just a little boy at heart.

...Or maybe he was just a man who was still in love with his wife.

He wanted her here too.

Someone coming out of a bathroom stall jostled him, and he looked around. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll call her when we’re in the parking lot. As long as you boys promise that you’re going to be honest and aboveboard with me from now on and no disappearing on me, okay?”

“That’s an easy promise, Dad. We’ve been honest with you the whole time. And we don’t have any intentions on disappearing.” Houston looked him right in the eye, with Dallas nodding alongside of him. His boys had never lied to him, as far back as he could remember, even as youngsters.

“Okay. Let’s go. You’re not leaving on a flight today anyway.”

With the fuel shortage, it could be a week before he got another flight. He’d just lucked into the last seat on this airplane.

The boys shook their heads and followed him out of the bathroom. He kept a close eye on them as they walked out of the airport, believing them when they said that their whole goal had been to get their mother here. But dreading having to tell her that he’d not gotten his son on the flight.

Once they exited the building, Reid pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed the contact that hadn’t changed in eight years.

Chapter 4

Emerson rolled over, groggy but awake enough to know that there was some kind of noise that needed to be stopped.

Her hand came out of the covers, and she felt around. Her alarm?

She hadn’t opened her eyes yet, but she was beginning to wake up a little more, and she was cognizant that no, that wasn’t her alarm.

It wasn’t the oven beeping. Wasn’t a fire alarm.

Whatever it was had disturbed her recurring dream. One of her and Reid on their honeymoon.

They hadn’t actually taken a honeymoon, because they’d been too poor to afford one, but it was a dream she had constantly.

They’d been in the ocean together, and they were laughing and happy, and she hadn’t even gotten to the part where she saw the shark, which was where she always woke up.

But there was this noise she couldn’t figure out...

Her eyes popped open. It was her phone. Suddenly she was wide awake and reaching for it. Calls in the middle of the night were never good news. It could be her dad. Maybe something had happened with the factory.

She’d turned in the reports like she’d said, and Sherman was to be going over them.

Had there been a problem?

She grabbed her phone and swiped as she cleared her throat, trying to sound like she’d been up for three hours instead of three seconds.

“Hello?” Yeah. She sounded very businesslike, like she was standing in a boardroom instead of lying in her bed, still shaking off the aftereffects of the honeymoon dream.

“Hello? Emerson, it’s Reid.”

Her mouth fell open, and her heart shifted. Her breathing stopped. Her hand went to her chest, and sharp needles of pain shot out both shoulders.

That voice.

He didn’t need to tell her it was Reid. She knew. As soon as he said hello.

It was the voice from her dream. The voice from her past. The voice from every good memory she had.

She tried to kick her lungs into gear and force her hand away from her heart and back down on the bed. Taking a deep breath, she hoped she could speak in a rational tone.

It had been eight years.

“Emerson?”

The voice again. Not quite as shocking this time. How many times over the years had she dreamed about hearing it? How many times had she begged him in her mind to call? Just call? He didn’t even have to come. If he’d just call.

Her breathing was almost under control. It was fast, but she swallowed and tried to dredge up the businesswoman persona that she wore like body armor every day.

“Are you still there?” There was just a hint of irritation in his voice, like he suspected she might have heard that it was him and hung up.

She looked at her phone, though his name would have come up. She hadn’t changed the contact. There would be a heart beside it, too. And his picture. The one they’d taken at their wedding. It had been small, just her dad, his parents,