Page 81 of Second Chance Fate

Taylor had no problem using her illness as the excuse not to go over to Caleb’s parents’ house. Even if it didn’t make the best impression on them, her first priority was and always would be Owen.

“It’s not them.” Owen looked down at his hands. “I was just thinking they might say to call them Grandma and Grandpa or whatever, but I just…I don’t know what I should call Caleb now.”

“Oh...” Taylor hadn’t even thought of that. They hadn’t spoken about that when they talked last night.

Caleb texted when he was leaving his parents to see if the talk went well and if she and Owen wanted pizza; the answer to both had been a resounding yes. When he got home, they ate, and he told Owen how lucky he felt to be his dad and how excited his parents were. The talk then turned to some drama going on with a lady at the church. He asked Owen if he’d heard anything when he was downtown; he hadn’t.

After that, they’d all watched the movieDog Gonestarring Rob Lowe so Owen could get content for the TikTok account he’d created for Minnie, which focused on her love of the ’80s heartthrob, with both Caleb and Taylor’s permission, of course. When he first asked if he could start it, she’d been worried it would somehow tip Martin off to where they were, but since Owen’s image and voice are never in any of the videos and neither was Casper, she felt it was okay. Also, both Caleb and she had access to the account, and Owen had to get approval before he posted anything.

He’d started it a week ago, and it already had almost fifty thousand followers.

Part of the reason she’d allowed him to have it, even though it did make her nervous, was because she did feel a little guilty that most of his friends had social media, and she couldn’t allow him to have one for fear of leaving a digital footprint that Martin could use to find them.

“There’s no right or wrong in this situation. Just call him whatever you want to call him. If that’s Caleb, call him Caleb until you feel comfortable calling him something else.”

“Okay.” He nodded.

“And I definitely think you’re right about your grandparents. Mrs. Harrison was already referring to Casper as her grandpuppy even before she knew aboutyou, so I’m guessing her vote will be that you call her grandma.”

He grinned as he looked down and patted Casper’s head.

The timing of the conversation ending could not be more perfect. Taylor heard the doors unlock, and then Caleb hopped into the car and set the bag of groceries down by Taylor’s feet. She was wearing a pair of cutoff jean shorts, and as he pulled his hand back, his knuckles brushed the bare skin of her outer thigh, and then his hand settled on her knee, sending tingles spreading through her.

She wasn’t used to being so responsive. It seemed everything Caleb did turned her on. Just hours before, she’d seen him in the bathroom, standing at the sink, shirtless, gray sweats with a white drawstring riding low on his hips, brushing his teeth, and her hormones reacted like she was at a bachelorette party in the front row of a Magic Mike performance. She was internally catcalling and ready to put dollar bills in his waistband or ‘make it rain’ or whatever people did at those shows.

It wasn’t just his personal hygiene routine that turned her on; when he fed the dogs, it was basically handing her a one-way ticket to Tingle Town. Her body exploded with bliss as he bent over, set the bowls on the floor, straightened, and silently commanded both dogs’ attention, keeping them in stay position until he released them to eat. Watching him be so alpha was just…well, hot. She even caught herself drooling, literally, watching him take out the trash. Her mouth watered as he tied off the bag; the sight of his muscles rippling caused a tiny bit of saliva to collect at the corners of her lips.

One of the perks of being a married couple was that she and Caleb slept in the same bed, and last night she discovered he did something she was this-many-days-old-when-she-learned was avery bigturn-on to her… he read before he went to sleep. Just thinking about it now made her want to turn the vents towards her face. She felt flushed. Caleb lying in bed, his chiseled upper body on display shirtless with reading glasses holding a book…holy hot tamales! On the outside, she played it cool; inside, she was the wolf from cartoons, with its eyes popping out of its head, saying,'Awooga.' Even now, as her eyes cut to the left and she watched his large hands flex on the wheel as he drove, her ovaries ached.

The sound of a text popped the lust bubble that was clouding her brain. She grabbed her phone, wondering if it was Eric messaging her. He was Caleb’s friend and the chief of police.He’d stopped by the house earlier that morning because Caleb felt it was best if local law enforcement was aware of her situation with Martin. She explained everything, and she had to admit she did feel a little less anxious knowing that there were badges keeping an eye out for her and Owen. Eric promised he’d message her after he spoke to the parole officer in charge of Martin’s custody, just to put her mind at ease that he was still in Chicago and no conditions of his bail had been broken, so she hoped it was him getting back to her, but it wasn’t. She didn’t have any messages.

She looked over her shoulder and saw that it was Owen; he was staring down at his phone in his hand.

“Mom, or um, guys, can I stay at Jonah’s house tonight?”

It was strange for her that spending the night at a friend’s house was now something that Owen did. Her emotional knee-jerk reaction was to say no, but that was purely out of fear. She had absolutely no valid reason for him not to go. It was technically a school night, but he’d stayed over on a school night several times when she’d been in the hospital. She didn’t see any reason to revoke that privilege just because she was home now.

“Sure, if you’re feeling up to it.”

“Can I tell him, you know, about everything?”

Taylor looked over at Caleb. She had no idea how he felt about Owen telling people. They hadn’t discussed it. She’d had all these years to prepare for this, and yet this situation had too many variables that she could not have predicted. He glanced over at her, and they shared a silent agreement. He then looked into the rearview mirror, where she could see that his gaze met Owen’s.

“That’s up to you and whatyoufeel comfortable with. If it were up to me, I’d put it on a billboard, hand out flyers, and tell everyone I see. You guys are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I don’t know how I got this lucky.”

Hearing Caleb say that sent a rush of something Taylor didn’t feel comfortable identifying just yet. It was too deep, too real, too raw. She placed her hand on her stomach and took a deep, cleansing breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

“Mom?”

She heard Owen’s voice and glanced over her shoulder. When she did, she saw that he was waiting for her answer.

“Oh yeah, of course you can.” She didn’t see any reason why he should keep anything a secret anymore.

A wide smile spread on Owen’s face, and she watched him text his friend back as they pulled up to Caleb’s parents’ house.

They slowed and then came to a stop. He stared straight ahead. “Okay, I just want to give a preemptive apology to you both. George and Annie are going to be a lot, but I promise their hearts are in the right place.” Caleb looked at Owen in the rearview mirror, his expression somber. “Just brace yourselves. You are about to be the sole recipient of a decade of pent-up, repressed grandparenting.”

“Okay.” Owen smiled, his eyes twinkling with humor.

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