When You Were Mine (Second Chances 2)

She felt his chin lift, and then the unmistakable brush of his lips across the crown of her head. Then he whispered, “I’ve really missed you, Cora. I don’t think I realized how much until right now.”

“I’ve missed you too. I’ve missed this,” she murmured, immediately regretting the words.

Her eyes fluttered closed as he continued to hold her. As his hand stroked over her hair, then tangled in her blonde waves, she felt a wave of desire rush through her. She felt his lips brush against the top of her head again, and this time it set off a wave of alarm bells in her brain.

She needed to put some space between them. Fast. There was no way that she was equipped to go down this path. Not again. Not now. And in this moment, with every fiber of her being, she really wanted to.

She cleared her throat and then pulled away. She said, “I need to get going. I’ve got a patient tomorrow, early.”

Jamie must have seen the shift in mood because he just nodded and said, “I’m still unpacking. There were vague plans to finish that since Evan, Donnie, Mike, and Bruce are coming over for poker.”

“Yeah,” she said. “You should probably do that.”

/> He gave her a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes and said, “See you around, Dr. Blanchard.”

“See ya,” she said as she scooped her purse off the hood.

He stood at the curb and watched her as she got into her car. She gave him a wave as she started her car and drove away.

It had been a little cowardly to just run, but she would have done something stupid, had she stayed any longer. From the moment she’d laid eyes on him seven years ago, she’d known he was going to be something special.

Right now, she didn’t want special. She didn’t want anything at all, and Jamie had always had a way of making her want entirely too much.

Chapter Two

Jamie ran a hand through his hair as he watched her taillights round the corner. That hadn’t been at all what he expected. The evening had gone both better and worse than he had hoped. He had been expecting maybe a few minutes of awkward conversation at the most. The feeling of her wrapped in his arms again had been incredible. Seven years passed, and nothing had changed for him. Not a goddamned thing.

He’d had a sense of complete peace that he hadn’t felt since they’d been together all those years ago. Seeing the fear in her eyes after they separated had been like a knife to the chest, though. He knew that he was the source of at least some of it and that left a giant pit in his stomach.

As he walked over to his car, he let his mind drift to the past. Before he’d left, things between them were pretty hot and heavy. He’d been hopelessly and ridiculously in love with her. When his company had transferred him to New York, he was incredibly torn about taking the job. It had been the opportunity for advancement that he was looking for, but it had meant leaving her behind.

By that point, she’d been getting ready for grad school. She’d been tied to her schooling but urged him to go. She wanted for him to have the job that he deserved. He’d been making little money as a junior executive at the ad agency that he worked for. The new account executive role boasted a much higher salary and more opportunity for advancement.

When she’d all but told him to stop being stupid and to take the job, he took the opportunity. They tried their hardest to make things work, but with her huge course load and him working ninety-hour weeks, it hadn’t taken long for things to fall apart between them.

He could still hear her shaky voice over the phone when they’d finally addressed what had been happening between them. Even though she had admitted that she needed more too, he’d still felt like a giant piece of shit. Their breakup had been mutual, but honestly, he didn’t think either of them actually wanted to say good-bye.

There had been a few late-night phone calls and some rehashing, but none of that had really offered any closure. It had been seven years now, and he still felt that sharp pang in his chest. She had been everything to him and he had hated himself for not being able to make it work.

As he pulled into the sub-garage of his apartment complex, her reaction continued to nag at him. It had only been a hug but she’d been clearly freaked out when she pulled back. Should he apologize?

He pulled into his assigned slot and grabbed the jacket off the front seat. On his walk to his front door, he debated as to whether he should say anything. They had always had this surprising level of honesty between them. They had talked about everything. He hoped, even though so much time had passed, that this hadn’t changed.

Jamie dug into his pocket and quickly pulled up his text messages. He grinned at the picture of Sophie, Taryn, and Evan for a moment and then quickly typed, “If I had anything to do with putting that look on your face that you had when you left, then I apologize. I don’t know what it was about but I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”

Before he could chicken out, he hit send. He moved to the kitchen counter where he had hooked up his radio, and plugged his cell phone into it. He put his music on shuffle and trudged into the dining room to start unpacking.

After checking the label on the side, he dragged it into the living room and opened it. As he haphazardly loaded DVDs onto the shelf, he thought vaguely about organizing them in some way. Ultimately he dismissed it in favor of getting the boxes out of his sight, though. He had been living out of boxes for almost two weeks now and he was completely over it.

He heard a brief pause in the music and wandered over to the radio to see that Cora had texted him back. He detached the phone from the base and read.

“I may be off base but that felt like a moment.”

“No. You’re not off base. That felt like something,” he quickly typed back.

His heart sank a little when he read her reply. “I don’t think I’m equipped for anything right now other than friendship.”

“Then I’d very much like to be your friend,” he responded.