Time After Time (Sweetbriar Cove #14) - Melody Grace Page 0,88

first sign of trouble. No wonder she’d been wary to open up and let him into her life. He’d been living with one foot out of the door ever since he arrived, half-waiting for the reason to get his life back on track again. But what was that track: more steak dinners and million-dollar deals? More living for his work, to avoid the uncomfortable truth there was nothing else much in it?

How could he have been so blind?

“I think I really made a mess of this one,” he told his mom hopelessly.

“Don’t count yourself out just yet. How many tries did it take you to get that birdhouse right?”

He gave her a look. “Mom…”

“I know, I know.” She smiled. “I guess you just have to ask yourself, is she worth the try?”

Of course she was. Stella was worth anything he would ever do – and more.

“What if she doesn’t want to try again?” he asked.

His mother paused. “What if she does?”

And that was it, right there. The risk of making a fool of himself, or the possibility of making his life everything he hadn’t even hoped it could be.

A life with Stella.

Aidan got to his feet. He had to go to her. He had to find a way to win a second chance. Then he remembered his visitor. “I’m sorry, you came all this way, and I—”

“You need to be somewhere,” his mom finished for him, with a knowing smile. “Don’t let me keep you.”

Aidan grabbed his keys, and the bag that he’d left by the door.

“One more thing,” his mom called after him. “Does this mean that bottle of wine needs a home?

Aidan drove the five hours to Cape Cod with determination building in his veins. He didn’t have a plan, or a script of words he planned to say, he just knew without a doubt with every passing mile, he was headed in the right direction.

He was going to win her back.

It was after nine by the time he reached Sweetbriar Cove, and the town square was dark; streetlights shining through the drizzle of rain. Aidan reached a stoplight and paused, wondering what to do next. It was late, and there’s no way Stella would be expecting visitors at this hour. He couldn’t go rushing over there and show up on her doorstep.

Could he?

But as he deliberated, he caught sight of a familiar red knit cap, just across the square. It was Stella, emerging from the pub.

With somebody beside her.

Aidan watched, his heart dropping. It was a guy with sandy hair and an easy smile, chivalrously holding an umbrella over Stella’s head against the late-night rain. He said something that made Stella laugh, and Aidan felt her smile like a punch to the gut.

Who was this guy?

Whoever he was, they were on friendly terms. He walked Stella to her truck, and lingered there, talking for a while--

BEEP!

The car behind Aidan sounded its horn, and he realized, the light had turned green an age ago. He dragged his gaze away and reluctantly drove on, but he couldn’t shake the image of Stella smiling up at this guy, the way she’d smiled at him.

Was he already too late?

He didn’t want to head back to an empty house after that, so he found himself heading to Earl’s place instead.

“Well, you took your time,” his grandpa said cheerfully when he answered the door. “I had ten bucks on you turning around before you reached state lines. Chase!” He turned, hollering into the house. “You win!”

When Aidan followed him inside, he found his siblings eating takeout in the kitchen, sprawled on every available surface with a stack of pizza boxes in the middle of the table.

“Beer?” Jackson asked casually, like he wasn’t at all surprised to see Aidan back only a day after he’d left, bedraggled from the long drive.

“Sure, why not?” Aidan sank into a free chair, and gladly took the can. “You really had a bet going?”

“Yup, and I won.” Chase looked smug. “Luke figured you’d last a week, and Cassie thought you’d be stupid enough to stay away until Christmas.”

“I thought the holidays would make you lonely,” Cassie explained helpfully. “You know, a whole ‘Ghost of Christmas Future’ thing.”

“But I knew they were underestimating you.” Chase said happily, as Earl and Luke handed over his winnings. “When the Kinsella men fall, we fall hard.”

There was no denying it, so Aidan took a drink instead. “Well, celebrate all you want, I’m too late,” he said with a sigh. “She’s already moved