Page 33 of One More Chance
“I’m already starting to feel no pain,” Charlotte said and took another sip. “Logan, does it feel weird for you to be back in town? Sometimes, it feels like I was here just yesterday, but in other ways, it doesn’t even feel like ‘that’ life ever happened to me.”
Logan knew exactly what she was talking about. He had returned to town as a celebrity, a small-town hero; but at the same time, being home in Chance Rapids let him feel like a normal person again.
“Never mind, I’m rambling. And I think I’m drunk now.” Charlotte held up the empty coffee mug.
“Congratulations,” he grinned and raised his mug in the air to take another sip. “I know what you mean. I’m happy to be back in town, but I’m so thankful I got out when I did...” he hesitated, but then continued, “Do you ever wonder what life would’ve been like if you’d stayed here?” He didn’t wait for her response. “I do. I think I would’ve had a simple life, but a happy one.” Since his return home, Logan had found himself wondering if he would’ve been happier in Chance Rapids, working a construction job, marrying his high school sweetheart, and schlepping their kids off to the hockey rink, instead of living the glamorous but transient life of a hockey player.
“Maybe for you,” Charlotte replied. “But you weren’t the blow job queen of Chance Rapids. I’m pretty sure that one would’ve stuck with me.”
Logan sighed. It was time to address the white elephant. There was a reason they hadn’t gotten married. That Billie Jo Bunkman wasn’t his small-town wife, the mom of their freckled, scrappy, hockey kids, and like it or not, it was the time that the truth came out.
Chapter 15
THE CINNAMON AND FRYERgrease smell wafting through the diner transported Charlotte back to a time when she was Billie Jo, and her mom, Sharon worked the till at the gas station. She looked at the empty stool behind the counter and sighed. The smell of the G-Spot always hung heavily on her mom’s clothes, and Charlotte half expected to turn around and see Sharon’s grin, complete with missing eye tooth, as she cast a knowing smile at her and Logan.
“You okay?” Logan asked.
“Yeah,” Charlotte inhaled deeply, the vision of her mom disappearing as the empty stool behind the checkout counter came back into focus. “I was actually just thinking about my mom.”
“Sharon,” Logan replied.
Charlotte pulled her chin back and tilted her head at Logan, “I’m surprised that you remember.”
“Of course, I remember,” Logan smiled. “She was a really nice lady and we were going to name our coffee shop after her, remember?”
Charlotte cringed as she thought back to the embarrassment she felt the night that Logan met her gap-toothed gas station attendant mother, but Logan had been sweet and kind. Her mom had loved him instantly. “I remember,” she said softly. The business plan for the coffee shop they created together had stayed with her over the years.
“You know, Charlotte. I saw you the day the Sugar Peaks Café opened.”
“You did?” Charlotte thought that she had gotten away undetected.
“Mmhmm,” Logan said and took a sip of his maple whiskey. He coughed. “Wow. It doesn’t get any smoother as you keep going,” he grinned.
Charlotte took a sip of hers, the burning alcohol a welcome distraction from the emotions that were swirling around inside her.
Logan continued, “When I heard that there was a new coffee shop in town, I thought for sure that it was you. That it was yours, I mean. I thought that you had come back and executed our terrible twelfth-grade business plan.”
