ebook release April 2011

You can always come home.

Second chances come a little harder.

Chase and Zoe were the high school golden couple. Football captain, cheerleader, prom royalty.

After graduation, though, Chase couldn’t resist the urge to experience life outside their small town. He didn’t exactly expect Zoe to wait twelve years for him, but now that he’s back, he finds some small part of him hoping she did.

It’s no big surprise she’s married. The kick in the face is she married his best friend.

Zoe was devastated when Chase left, but she’s filed those bittersweet memories under “Moved On”. She loves her life, and loves her husband. She has all she needs. And Chase keeps an honorable distance.

One cold, wet, miserable day, tragedy turns Zoe’s world upside down. Chase never expected her to simply fall into his arms, but a man can dream. Except his dream doesn’t include the fact that this time, she’s the one hitting the road…and he’s the one left behind.

“Dad.”

James Cochran lowered his eyes to the picture and sighed. Reaching out, he took the picture and studied it. Then he looked up at Chase and shook his head. “What do you want me to say, son? You were gone.”

“You could have told me,” Chase said, his voice harsh, flat. “You could have told me I’d spent the past fifteen years of my life thinking about a girl who is pretty much out of my reach now.”

“If she meant that much to you, you shouldn’t have waited so long to come back. Or maybe you should have given her a little bit more thought before you decided to disappear from her life,” James said quietly. Then he took the picture and put it back on the shelf. “And I wasn’t going to tell you, because there were…issues.”

“Issues.”

Chase studied Zoe’s lovely face. She wasn’t smiling, but she looked so lovely, so delicate, ethereal, even. They looked like a matching set, her and Roger.

“When did they get married?”

There was no answer. Lifting his head, he looked back at his dad. Quietly, he said again, “When?”

“That August.”

That August.

Shit, he could imagine the issues.

Roger had been the issue. Roger had always had a thing for Zoe. He hadn’t ever made a move on her but still…

“They’re happy?” Envy, disbelief—pain—warred inside. She was gone. Out of reach. Turning, he looked at his dad and asked again, “Are they happy? Is she happy?”

“Yes.” James tucked his hands in his pockets and nodded. “They’re very happy.”

“Okay. Yeah. Okay.” It wasn’t okay, though. Carefully, Chase set the picture down and then he turned away. Just as carefully, he tucked the necklace back inside his pocket. If he was smart, he’d throw it away.

But he wasn’t smart.

He’d never been smart.

If he was smart, he would have taken her with him when he left.

Or he would have written.

Would have tried to call back and talk to her.

If he was smart, he wouldn’t still let her have a hold on him after all this time.

“Chase?”

Looking at his dad, he asked, “Yeah?”

“You okay?”

He gave the old man a smile.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

But as he turned away, he could have sworn he heard his heart shattering inside his chest.

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