Compass (Second Chances 1)

“I like it here.” A beat passes as he takes a sip of coffee. “It’s starting to feel more and more like home to me.”

That says a lot. Gage loved Los Angeles. When we met, he was the quintessential California guy with a surfboard under one arm and glowing bronzed skin.

He studied like mad but always made time to be on the water.

The ocean lured him to its shores. That’s why he loved taking me sailing on Sunday afternoons.

It was a place where we could be alone without the pressures of parents who had plotted out our lives for us.

“Do you like it here, Katie?”

I don’t hesitate before I answer, “I love it here.”

We never spoke about New York City when we were together. The plan was to settle down in California and build a life for two. It’s ironic that we’re sitting across from each other in a coffee shop in the east coast city we both now live in.

“We were both destined to come here.” He sits up straighter.

“This isn’t fate, Gage. It’s a coincidence.”

A cocky smile curls his lips. “Call it what you will, but we’re in the same place now and I believe there’s a reason for that.”

Chapter 25

Gage

She doesn’t give me an inch. That’s the Katie that I’ve always known. She’s the woman I’ve always loved.

She eyes me up, taking in every word I just said.

Blind belief in the concept of fate isn’t a foundation to build your dreams on, but I’ve held to it to get me through some of the darkest days of my life.

I knew that eventually I’d see her beautiful face again.

“Are you going to tell me that you know what that reason is?” she asks the question with a smirk.

What I’d give to kiss that off her lips.

“There’s a lot left unsaid between us.” I start there because it’s safe and it opens the door for her to give me the hell I deserve.

“What’s left to say?” She holds my gaze.

I’m tempted to jump in with both feet and tell her that I’m still in love with her, but those words are better kept to myself at the moment.

“I was an asshole to you.”

“Agreed,” she snaps back with a slight smile.

“You deserved better,” I continue my list of confessions.

“So much better,” she chimes in, tapping her manicured fingernail on the rim of the coffee cup in front of her.

“I should have told you about Kristin.”

“Why didn’t you?”

I won’t push the blame for that decision back on her. She made it clear months before I proposed to her that she didn’t want to be a mom. That made it easy to walk away with my secret intact the day I ended our engagement.

“Shock,” I admit. “I needed time to process it.”