VERSUS (Second Chances 2)

I trail my fingers over the back of Dylan’s neck, loving the feeling of his hands on my waist.

I look up into his light blue eyes. They haven’t changed at all since the first time I ever saw them. If anything, they’ve become more vibrant and intense.

“What are you thinking?” Dylan asks quietly.

We move slowly in sync, keeping in perfect rhythm to the song. “That you saved someone’s marriage.”

A grin ghosts his mouth. “That shocks you.”

I tilt my head to take in the expression on his face. It’s hard to read. “It does shock me a little.”

“Why?” He smirks.

“I’m a divorce attorney too.” I let him lead me closer to the band. “At the end of the day, broken marriages pay our bills.”

“They weigh on us too.” He spins me around.

He’s right. I’ve had people come into my office in Buffalo after an argument with their spouse about something as insignificant as a wet towel left on the bathroom floor. I always give those potential clients the same advice. I tell them to go home and take some time to sort out what they’re feeling.

When I reach out a couple of weeks later, most have no need for my services anymore because they’ve kissed and made up with their partner.

In those cases, I didn’t save a marriage. I avoided a lot of paperwork that I’d never end up filing because the client would have called off the proceedings a day or two after the initial argument with their spouse.

“How did you end you being an attorney?” Dylan slows his pace.

I don’t want to talk about how my goal to be a professional dancer on Broadway fell victim to the car crash. Once I realized that I’d never take to a stage on the Great White Way, I fell back to the dream my mom gave up when she found out she was pregnant with me.

“My mom always wanted to be a lawyer.”

I smile when I think about her light brown hair and blue eyes. She was breathtakingly beautiful even when cancer caught her in its clutches.

She shaved her head the day before my tenth birthday, so I did the same.

I got in trouble for it, but that lasted less than a minute. My sacrifice meant everything to her.

She gave up law school and a career to spend her days raising me. Becoming an attorney was the greatest gift I could give to her.

“She’d be proud of you.” Dylan brushes his lips over my forehead. “Coach would be too.”

I rest my head on his chest as we dance through the end of the song and into the beginning of the next.

I haven’t had a night like this in a very long time. I never want it to end.

Chapter 26

Dylan

Guilt gnaws at me as I unlock the door to my apartment.

Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I held firm to the notion that at some point, in this lifetime, I’d be able to apologize to Coach Conrad face-to-face and man-to-man.

When he didn’t return my calls after the accident, it felt like I’d been banished to my own personal hell.

I let him down when he needed me.

I was supposed to drive Eden home. Instead, I took off in the opposite direction to the airport and left her in the incompetent hands of her boyfriend.

I never blamed Coach for cutting off all contact with me. I deserved his silence.