The Billionaire's Second Chance (62 page)

BOOK: The Billionaire's Second Chance

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Nick nodded,
remembering
this odd fact of information he’d picked up back then. It made
sense
of course but as a guy was hardly something he’d really considered.

“Finding myself traveling back to the states a month after you left was a fluke. One of the ambassador’s daughters needed a multi-lingual chaperone to get her home safely when an urgent medical procedure was needed and I got the nod. The trip from where we were in Africa to Washington, D.C. was grueling and I was not in the best of shape after the long journey.”

“You were by yourself.” he mused out loud, lost in his memories of that time.

“Yes. After we’d ….. parted,” she said diplomatically, “I went back to Boston and tried to put my life in order. That’s really how I came to be staying with Ted. I still had another semester in school and no place to live until the term started so necessity forced me to crash there. It was only supposed to be for a week or two while I lined up some
where
else but one day …………”

Shannon stopped altogether and tried to control the rush of emotion flooding her chest. This was the part of that dreadful time that she tried so hard to avoid. Her own personal redaction of an event she wanted to ignore the existence of.

Coughing to clear her thickening throat she continued but in a much quieter voice.

“One day I was driving when a sudden searing pain exploded in my abdomen. I must have blacked out because the next thing I knew I was in hospital with an intern telling me I was lucky to have only banged into a tree at a relatively low speed. Concussion and a bump on the head. I thought that was it until the doctor arrived and filled in the blanks. Shortened version; cyst erupted. Lost consciousness. Sorry but they couldn’t save the pregnancy.”

“You hadn’t known.” Nick muttered letting the pieces fall into place.

“No Nick. I hadn’t any idea. What he was saying didn’t make sense. The whole,
you’ve had a miscarriage thing
, didn’t seem real. How could you lose something you hadn’t known existed?”

“Was it the anxiety Shannon? Had that caused …..”

“Oh my god Nick, no!” she cried. The doctor assured me over and over it was nothing like that. Even if I had known there would have been no way to predict the ruptured cyst. All I remember is an agonizing pain and then nothing. Apparently there was internal bleeding, shock. I was only about el
even weeks along and well ………. t
here wasn’t anything to be done.”

She let a few moments of silence hang between them before continuing.

“It took me a while after that to pull myself together. Everything
that had happened and all that
I’d felt and experienced
kept piling
up until it was just too much. Remember what you told me about losing yourself for a while, drinking too much? Well, it was like that only without the drinking.”

“No wonder you were so angry and bitter at first. Why didn’t you tell me this right away Shannon?”

“I couldn’t. How do you say, ‘H
ey I was pregnant only I didn’t know I was
pregnant
and by the way I had a
miscarriage?
Pass the mashed potatoes please?
’
I didn’t think anyone knew. It
was one of those deep, dark secrets we keep buried in our hearts Nick. Maybe it would have been different had I known
,
but to be told a baby I hadn’t known about wasn’t going to be was beyond what I could handle.”

They sat in silence for a bit, Shannon replaying over and over in her mind the series of events that had nearly destroyed her
with
Nick desperately trying to come to grips with all that he’d learned in the last half hour.

He looked at the woman by his side. The woman he loved and adored beyond measure. Knowing now what he didn’t know then, Nick was astounded that she’d let him
back
in at all. He’d always loved her and at a time when he should have been protecting her and taking care of her he had cast her away. Even
the bullshit
he’d fed himself all these years about having
sacrificed
his happiness to protect her didn’t assuage his guilt.

“I don’t understand why you
’
re still here Shannon. Maybe it would have been better for you to run screaming from me. I let you down. Horribly. In the worst way a man can let down
the woman he loves
. How can you forgive what I’ve done?” he asked in anguish.
“All this time, wasted. And f
or what? So you could be left alone to grieve something I single-handedly destroyed?”

He lifted her hands to his mouth
pressing
desperate kisses to her trembling fingers. “I am sorry
,
Shannon. More sorry than you could ever imagine.”

She loved him so much. That he so easily shared his emotions with her was a balm for her soul. He was crushed and she knew it would be some time before he recovered from the shock of what he’d been told but there was no way he was getting away from her now. Not ever again.

“I’m here you silly, because I love you.”

He raised tear filled eyes to hers. Was that hope she saw mixed in with his fear and pain?

“Unless you can tell me you don’t want me anymore, I am sticking by your side forever and always Nicholas Barrett. You know everything now. There isn’t anything left in the shadows to prevent us from leaving the past in the past.”

It was impossible to know who made the first move but seconds later she was crushed in his arms as they kissed with a tenderness that filled her heart to bursting. She put a hand at his
nape
and opened her mouth to give him access while he swiped his tongue around hers in a kiss that meant more than any other ever had.

A long time later with Shannon nestled securely in his arms, a position he decided was exactly where she should be, Nick whispered softly in her ear, “Are we alright
,
little one?”

“Yes my love, we are more than alright and as soon as you can wave that magic Barrett wand and hopefully speed
up
the red tape, I intend to make an honest man of you. Will you marry me Nick? Can we get started right away on the white picket fence and the mini-van loaded with car seats?”

Eight years of loneliness melted away along with a whole host of ghosts and regrets leaving them both looking forward instead of running from the past.

“We get a second chance, Shannon.” was all he needed to say.

Before they headed back inside to mend whatever fences needed repairing with her parents
,
Shannon’s cowboy pirate beamed a quiet smile
showing
a
flash of her favorite dimples,
kissed her on the forehead and laughed while asking, “How many car seats you planning on?”

And then, a
s one of her favorite rose colored glasses saying goes …..
they
all lived happily ever after.

EPILOGUE

A
beautiful
wedding
,
planned and executed by Jules and Rory at a private estate in upstate
New York
,
set the stage
for a winter wonderland extravaganza
that
saw
Shannon strolling down the aisle on the arm of her dear father wearing what could only be described as a perfect sugar plum fair
y dress covered in sparkling cry
stals and beads
that gave her a magical, ethereal look in the flickering light of their candlelit ceremony.

The day was sac
red and precious to them both,
made all the more so by the fact that
only Nick and Shannon
were
aware of the tiny secret they were preciously guarding. In a little over seven months she and her gorgeous, sexy husband would be welcoming a new life that would finally erase all the dark shadows from the past.
A happy ending indeed.

About The Author

Thanks for reading
The Billionaire’s Second Chance

and
for taking a chance with a self-published author
.

I hope you enjoyed Nick and Shannon’s love story.

If you like this book, please leave a review on Amazon and
Goodreads

Connect with Peyton online:

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http://peytonreeser.blogspot.com/

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@
PeytonReeser

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a little bit of
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