Page 41 of Second Chance Fate

Caleb wasn’t sure what to say to him. He wanted to tell him that everything would be okay. That he would make sure they were both okay, but he didn’t want to come off sounding creepy.

He pulled out one of his cards. “Here, my number is on here. If you guys ever need anything. Day or night, I don’t care; call me.”

Owen took the card. “Okay.”

“I’m serious.Anything.”

Owen nodded.

Caleb hesitated. He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay and make sure that Taylor was okay. That she got a good night’s sleep, but that was inappropriate. He hated walking out that door knowing Owen was so worried.

“I’m sure she just needs a good night’s sleep.” Caleb knew it was a platitude, but it was the best he had at the moment.

“I wish she’d let me sleep on the couch.”

“What do you mean?”

“She sleeps on the couch so I can have my own room.”

“Oh.” Of course she does. That shouldn’t surprise Caleb. Everything Taylor did was for Owen. “She’s a good mom.”

“She’s the best,” he agreed. “I just wish she had someone who took care of her like she takes care of me and…well, and everyone really.”

Caleb wanted to be that person. He wanted to be the one to take care of her. He wished he could tell him that. He wished he could tell him a lot of things. But no matter how close he felt to him after spending one evening with him, no matter how much DNA they shared, it wasn’t his place.

Caleb lightly patted his thigh, and Minnie lifted her head. Her eyes blinked at him, and he could see that he wasn’t the only one who wished they could stay. When he tapped his leg again, she begrudgingly rose from her cuddle-fest.

“Thanks for letting me hang out. Anything,” he reiterated as he pointed to the card in Owen’s hand.

Owen nodded.

He walked to the door, and Minnie stretched before joining him. “Make sure to lock this behind me.”

“Okay,” Owen agreed.

When Caleb and Minnie walked out onto the porch, he waited to hear the click of the deadbolt before heading to his Jeep. Part of him wanted to stay in his Jeep all night standingguard, at least until he knew Taylor’s ex was in jail for good. But that would definitely cause people to ask questions Taylor wouldn’t want to answer.

Last week at this time, ‘Rebecca’ had been nothing more than a memory, and he hadn’t even known Owen existed. Now, in the span of three hours, Taylor and Owen had become the most important, precious people in his life. He couldn’t imagine his life without them in it. They were the missing puzzle pieces that clicked perfectly into place, completing the picture.

Right now, that picture felt fragile, like he was trying to balance the completed puzzle in the palm of his hands, keeping all the pieces in place. But soon, he hoped it would be on a secure surface.

12

I feellike I’m in the Twilight Zone, Taylor thought to herself.If I had told my twelve-year-old self this, she would have never believed it.

Fifteen minutes earlier, a robotic navigation voice came through the car speakers and snapped Taylor out of her foggy state of mind. “You have arrived at your destination.”

She pulled over to the side of the road, parked, and shut off the engine, feeling more than a little disoriented. The drive had taken under ten minutes, but somehow in that short time, she’d completely zoned out. That was concerning enough; what made it even more concerning was that she didn’t have a clue what she’d been thinking about. When her mind wandered, it always had a specific destination. As she sat trying to retrace her mental steps, she was drawing a complete blank.

An uneasiness unfurled in her stomach, but she chose to ignore it for now. It was something she’d deal with later. After taking a deep, cleansing breath, she double-checked the address in her text to make sure she had the right place.

9743 Lakeview Lane

She glanced up at the house and saw the numbers illuminated on its façade, confirming she was in the right place. The house was a gorgeous mid-century modern with a stunning display of large, rectangular windows that stretched from the ground to the roof. Its flat roof and exterior accents of wood and stone gave it a natural yet contemporary feel, which blended in seamlessly with its surroundings.

A wave of exhaustion crashed over her, pulling her out into a sea of fatigue as she grabbed her purse from the console. Taylor closed her eyes and leaned her head back to rest, just for a second, to rally and wait for her second wind. The problem arose when she realized her second wind wasn’t coming. She’d been stood up.

When she opened her eyes and saw how much time had passed, she closed them once again. Her guesstimate was in the under-five-minute range, but she discovered that it was three times that amount. She’d been resting her eyes for fifteen minutes, which was how she ended up in one of the most surreal dilemmas of her life. A predicament preteen Taylor would never have believed she’d be in. She was sitting outside Oscar winner Kyle Austen Reed’s house, contemplating whether or not she was going to go inside or if she was going to go home to bed, a conundrum she never in a million years thought she would have.

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