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.
The town of Warren hadn’t changed much in fifteen years.
But Chase Cochran hadn’t much expected it to.
Honestly, he had hoped it wouldn’t. He’d returned here hoping to find…home.
And so far, that was just what he’d found.
He didn’t realize it, but he was smiling as he strolled through the town square.
He hadn’t thought he’d miss it.
When he left here right after graduation, all he had been able to think about was getting out, as fast as he could, as quick as he could, as far away as he could. Getting away from his dad, this town, all of it.
His dad.
Not because he didn’t love the old man. He had. His dad had been everything. Mom had decided she couldn’t be a mom, after all, a decision she came to right before Chase had turned a year old and she walked out on them both. Ever since then, it had just been Chase and his dad.
And then Chase had gone and done the same thing, walking away without much more than an, “It’s been fun”.
Chase couldn’t have stayed, though. He’d been strangling here—strangling, choking. Getting out had been paramount. At the time, it had been the right decision for him. The only decision for him.
Still, it had been a selfish one.
He didn’t doubt his dad would welcome him back. They’d kept in contact and Chase was still amazed that his dad didn’t have some leftover resentment for him. Walking away like he’d done—walking…hell, he’d run.
Sometimes, Chase wished he had more of his dad in him. But that was part of the reason he’d left…he could see himself spending his entire life in the same small town, doing the same job.
It had taken him fifteen years to realize that really wouldn’t have been such a bum deal.
Slowing to a stop, he studied the small town hall.
Dipping a hand in his pocket, he pulled out the gold necklace in there.
Zoe’s.
The stylized gold Z still gleamed.
Was she still here?
Dad would know.
After he’d left, it had taken him a year to call back home, but since that first call, he had kept in touch with his dad. Regular calls, letters—hell, they were closer now than they’d been when he was growing up, and they’d had a pretty good relationship then.
But Zoe had always been off limits in those conversations.
His dad wouldn’t discuss her. Period. But now that he was home…well, hell. His dad would have to discuss her.
Chase closed his eyes and blew out a breath. Shit. Rubbing a thumb over the smooth surface of the Z, he looked up at the town hall. He needed to prepare himself for the fact that he just might find out that Zoe wasn’t here.
That she was here…and married.
Considering how he had left, he really didn’t have any right to expect much of anything different.
He hadn’t warned her, hadn’t told her. Not until the day he left. He’d gone by there, told her he was going, kissed her… And that was it.
He had left her behind, even though he had loved her like crazy.
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