Page 43 of Second Chance Fate

When the women started discussing the book, Taylor got a text and grabbed her phone from her purse. It was from Caleb. He’d taken a short video of Owen playing basketball with Jonah and a few other teens. She ‘loved’ the message and put her phone away and settled back into the chair.

Watching Owen and Caleb together the past ten days was a masterclass on nature vs. nurture. They had so many more similarities beyond the dimples and Owen looking like Caleb’s clone when he was his age. They had the same laugh, sense of humor, and even the same cadence when they talked. They were both right-handed but always ate with their left hand. When they concentrated, they both tilted their heads back and looked up at the ceiling. And they both cracked their middle finger knuckle with their thumbs. It was a habit she’d tried and failed to break Owen from doing multiple times. There were at least a dozen more tiny, seemingly insignificant idiosyncrasies that you’d miss if you weren’t looking for them.

They’d bonded so quickly. Owen was already attached to Caleb. He talked about him nonstop. She couldn’t imagine a world where he would be upset that Caleb was his dad. So why was she nervous to tell him?

Taylor was only half listening as the book discussion segued into a more personal discussion. First on the agenda seemed to be celebrity gossip, which she had to admit was much hotter tea than what was on the covers of tabloids or on entertainment sites, thanks to Oscar and Emmy winner Shane Fox and Grammy winner Karina Black being in attendance. They had some hot and juicy inside scoops. Inevitably, though, the convo shifted to more local targets, specifically who was dating whom. That was when Taylor wished she actually had Owen’s cloak of invisibility.

“Gabe mentioned Caleb has been hanging out with you and Owen a lot.” Nikki Maguire-Gowan cupped the base of her wine glass as she swirled the merlot.

Taylor met Nikki at the coffee shop on her first day. She was her second customer. Over the past week and a half, she’d gotten to know her a little bit because she came in every day. She ran a nonprofit with her husband, Mike, who used to be a senator. She also happened to be Gabe Maguire’s cousin.

That was the thing about small towns; it seemed everyone had a connection to someone. Unlike Kevin Bacon, who needed six degrees of separation, Hope Falls residents could do it in half that amount.

Taylor responded with a casual nod as she took a sip of water. Nikki hadn’t asked her a question, so there was no reason for her to answer verbally.

“Most women fall all over themselves around him; I’ve noticed you don’t do that,” five-time Grammy Award winner Karina Black pointed out as she joined the conversation about Taylor.

Karina Black noticed something aboutTaylor?!

The situation felt totally surreal. She felt like she was looking at it from above, like she was detached and floating away from her body.

“Oh, um…” Once again, she had no clue how to respond.

“I see you.” Karina raised her glass in a toast with a Cheshire cat smile on her face. “Well played, Taylor. Well played.”

Taylor felt her cheeks and chest heat. Which meant that she’d probably get hives. She actually felt a little clammy as well. Her neck felt hot, too. "Oh no, it’s not. He’s just…I mean, I’m not…He’s a good guy." She stumbled over her words, and as she tried to put sentences together in her brain, they didn’t sound right. "We’re friends. Just friends."

“Gotcha.” Karina winked as a half dozen or so women within earshot all exchanged knowing looks.

Taylor could see that none of the women believed her, but she didn’t care, as long as the conversation moved away from her, which, thankfully, it did. Her heart was racing from embarrassment. She was shy and didn’t like attention, and she broke out in hives when she got overwhelmed, but she’d never felt her heartbeat get this erratic.

As the women around her talked and laughed, Taylor felt her head start spinning. She tried to stand, thinking she needed some fresh air. When she did, she heard someone ask if she was okay, but it sounded muffled, like they were in another room and she was listening with her ear against the wall. Then everything began to close in on her.

The chatter around Taylor faded into a distant, echoey hum, like a radio tuned to the wrong station in another room. She managed a weak smile as she focused on the colorful cover of the book, which was on the coffee table. Taylor’s vision tunneled to black in the center, with strobing flashes of white light in her periphery.

“Tay? Can you hear me?”

She recognized Viv’s voice, but it was weirdly flat, the words stretching out and folding in on each other as if Taylor wereunderwater and the whole world was pressing down, squeezing her chest.

Her first instinct was to excuse herself. Just a quick breath of fresh air, she thought, and she’d be fine. She pushed herself up from the armchair, but her legs felt like gelatin, wobbly and insufficient for the job. A hand reached for her elbow—maybe Aurora’s, maybe Karina’s, maybe Viv’s; it was hard to tell—and she felt fingers tighten on her arm.

Someone called for water, and another voice shouted to open a window. All of it was distant, and blurry, and her head felt like it was floating away.

Taylor tried to say she’d be okay, but her tongue wouldn’t work. The next thing she was aware of was her knees buckling. There was a brief, weightless second, like the drop on a roller coaster, before the darkness closed in and she didn’t feel anything at all.

13

Beads of sweatdripped down the back of Caleb’s neck as he stood behind the free-throw line. The ball bounced off the floor, hit the palm of his hand, then bounced again as he dribbled it. He lined up, bent his knees, lifted the ball in the air, kept his elbow tucked beneath it, cocked his wrist back, and then shot it with a smooth, fluid wrist snap. His arms fell down at his sides as the ball went through the hoop. He cracked both knuckles on his middle fingers with his thumbs, a habit he’d had since childhood, and the game continued.

Caleb couldn’t count the number of pickup games he’d played. Once a week, the guys met at the community center and played half-court. The group evolved over the years as people moved to town and others left, but there was a core group of six that had been meeting since they graduated high school. The other half of the court was usually teens and preteens, and Caleb rarely paid any attention to them. But tonight, he couldn’t stop looking that way.

Owen was playing with Jonah, who was his age and size. But he was also playing with Noah and Drew, who were a few years older than him. He knew both boys, and they were great kids,but he was scared Owen would push himself trying to keep up with them.

Caleb kept watching to see if Owen was getting out of breath or looked pale. He had his fast-acting inhaler, so he wasn’t as worried about that, but he was concerned about him overdoing it and his insulin levels going haywire or it triggering a seizure.

He was watching for signs when he felt a thud slam into his chest. He turned around just in time to see Jake Maguire, who was on the opposite team, dribbling the ball and taking it to the hole. Seconds later, he scored with a textbook layup and tied the game.

“Hey, Professor, wanna join the game?!” Josh used the nickname Caleb received from their little league coach when he used to zone out in the outfield. It was in reference toThe Absent-Minded Professor.

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