Page 82 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

Avery took a few beats to think about it, then her shoulders relaxed, and her lips quirked up into a smile.

“Okay, fine. We can do it. I don’t have any pressing deadlines right now. I can take a couple nights away.”

“Great,” I said. “I’ll book a hotel. We can leave tonight.”

“Tonight it is.”

19

AVERY

Once we’d put the groceries away, Cole took Ashton to train with Trent. He’d missed a full day of training with both men, and I thought it would be good for him to get some time with those two.

“You go ahead. I’ll be fine here,” I said.

“Not by yourself,” Cole said. “Come along and watch the men at work.”

Ashton tensed. I remembered what it was like to be a teenager and having your parents—or grandparent, in my case—hovering over you while you were trying to do something. He’d be more at ease if I wasn’t there.

“I’ll go to Stormy’s,” I said. “I haven’t seen her in a couple days. That way, I won’t be alone. How’s that?”

Cole looked dubious but agreed. He insisted on following me to Stormy’s and sitting at the curb with Ashton until I was safely inside. Stormy was at the door, waving me in as Cole drove away.

“Nice bodyguard you got there,” she said as she locked the door.

Shiloh sat in a corner, babbling away to herself and banging a bright red block against a pile of other blocks. As I walked in, she looked up, smiled, and blew a big raspberry at me, drool running down her chin.

I laughed. “Same to you, little miss.”

“She’s in a mood today,” Stormy said as we settled on the couch.

“Where’s your mom?”

“Work.” She rolled her eyes. “She’s old enough to retire, but she loves working. I’m not going to tell her to stop.” She leaned forward. “Forget about my mom, how are you doing? I’ve been out of my mind with worry.”

“Everything is okay,” I lied.

“Girl, seriously? You can’t mean that.” She raised an eyebrow. “You’re getting back with the guy who ripped your heart out, and there’s some psycho who’s trying to ruin your life or maybe even hurt you? It’s like you jumped intoTheTwilight Zoneor something.”

She wasn’t wrong. Ever since the moment I walked in on Perry banging our neighbor, things had gone off the rails. It seemed like some new issue popped up every day.

“Things could be better,” I admitted. “But some stuff is good. I’m surprised how well things are going with Cole, for one. It kinda feels like we’re picking back up where we left off.”

Stormy looked at me as though trying to peer into my head to see if I was lying. In the years after Cole left me, she’d made hundreds of pronouncements about the awful things she would do to his genitals if she ever saw him again. Many of thosepromises had involved a chainsaw. It wasn’t easy for her to forget all those years of hatred, even if I was able to look past it.

“All I ask is that you’re careful,” she finally said. “I want you to be happy, and I think you need to try for that. Like I said the other day, second chances don’t come all the time. But I can’t survive seeing you hurt like that again. It would destroy me.” Stormy winced at the thought. “Are you positive that this is a good time to start rebuilding your relationship with Cole? With Ashton getting close to shifting and ending everything with Perry? There’s a lot going on, and it would suck if you jumped into something without thinking just because it felt nostalgic, right?”

“That is a very valid argument,” I said. “But it feels different. It’s not like he’s been pushing to get back into my life. He wants to be there, yeah, but I’ve had to lead him along sometimes. Cole’s respecting my boundaries. He’s really trying.”

“Good,” Stormy said, and then looked across the room at Shiloh, who was crawling across the floor to another pile of toys. “Just hold off on any forever promises. You never know what tomorrow will bring.”

The way she looked at Shiloh broke my heart. The little girl was the spitting image of her father, and it had to hurt Stormy to remember the love she’d lost. In a way, we’d swapped positions. For years, I’d been the one who’d lost the love of her life, and Stormy had tried to help me through that. Now our roles were reversed. Before she could say another word, I wrapped my arms around her.

Stormy stayed rigid for a moment, then melted into my embrace. She allowed one single sob, then pulled away and wiped at hereyes. “Shiloh will start crying if she sees me cry. For a baby, she’s really empathetic.”

Stormy had struggled in the weeks after her husband Marcus had been killed by a drunk driver, and she hadn’t allowed herself to grieve properly because she’d been caring for a small child. I hoped one day, my friend would find someone new who would love her and Shiloh the way they deserved because she was an amazing woman.

We spent several hours talking and playing with Shiloh, but it was getting late and I needed to head home. I gathered my purse and stood, but Stormy stopped me.

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