A Second Chance (27 page)

He sipped from the glass again. “Nice
enough guy. I’m not sure I like the thought that he slept with my
wife.”

“
He what?” Confusion would
be an understatement for what Madeline was feeling now. “Carlos,
what are you doing here and where is Corbin?”

The thin line of a smile on his lips
let her know he had something brewing in his head, but then his
lips turned downward and he sat up on the lounge.

“
Maddie, tell me you don’t
love the man. Tell me that Corbin was a fling and that you didn’t
run off to Mexico to be with him.”

“
Carlos, have you lost your
mind?”

“
Yes.” He let out a breath.
“I can’t stand the thought of another man touching you.”

The man she really loved was sitting
across from her accusing her of having some lustful affair. He had
indeed lost his mind. What did he think of her? She let her
shoulders drop. Why would it matter? She’d contemplated sleeping
with Corbin, hadn’t she?

“
Is that why you’re here?
You think I’d belittle myself to sleeping around with men I don’t
know? You think that’s what this was all about?”

Carlos shrugged.

“
You don’t know me as well
as you think you do, Carlos Keller.”

“
Oh, I know you pretty
well.”

He did too, and that was killing her
at the moment. “Then tell me. Did I run down here and sleep with
the first man I met?”

Carlos lifted his sunglasses to the
top of his head. His dark eyes scanned her face and the smile
slowly returned to his lips. In that moment she knew he had his
answer. He did know her that well. He relaxed back on the lounge
and sipped from his drink again.

Madeline felt the urge to shake the
man. Was he trying to torture her because she hadn’t gone to his
wedding? Why was he here? Why was he ruining her vacation? He
should be in Hawaii right now, on his honeymoon, not sipping
daiquiris next to her in Mexico. And why was he drinking daiquiris
next to her? She swept her eyes over the beach. “Where is your
wife?”

“
Sitting next to
me.”

“
What?” This time she came
off the lounge and he stood to meet her.

He raised his hand to her cheek. “You
heard me.” She pulled his hand from her face and looked at it. His
ring finger was bare. “Where is your ring? Where is your wife?
Damnit, why are you here?”

He moved into her and brushed a kiss
across her lips. She was paralyzed. Why could she never move away
when Carlos kissed her?

When he pulled back, he kept
his eyes locked on hers. “I have been dumped by my
wife.
” He reached for her
hand. “We both knew I’m in love with someone else.”

Her breath caught in her lungs and the
heat around her swirled until she felt dizzy. Without another
thought, she sat down on the lounge, and Carlos knelt down before
her, his knee in the sand.

“
See, for the past five
years it seems that I kept thinking about moving on, but really I
didn’t want to. You moved on, and so I thought I’d better just do
it.”

“
Carlos, I never moved on.”
Though she’d sure made a mess of things trying.

He nodded and sat back on his lounge,
her hand still grasped in his. “I remember these two foolish kids
who got married and had a family. They should have talked more.
Instead they said mean things and lived in separate houses. When
really they should have been sharing the same one.”

Madeline covered her mouth with her
free hand.

Carlos took that hand in his and
pressed a kiss to her palm. “You told me you loved me when they
wheeled you away for surgery.”

She swallowed hard. “Oh, I’d hoped
you’d forgotten that.”

He shook his head. “Burned into my
memory.” He smiled. “It stayed there because, honey, I’ve never
stopped loving you. In my heart, you are my wife and always will
be. So I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t be married and pull our
family back together.”

The picture that Ed had sent her of
them kissing had flashed in her mind. “You didn’t marry
Kathy?”

“
Oh, I married her.” He
rubbed his free hand over the back of his neck and bit down on his
lip. “It was a nice wedding.”

“
Oh.” She sighed and tried
to sit back, but Carlos didn’t release his grip.

“
Somewhere between eating
wedding cake and waking up the next morning, she decided I wasn’t
the right man for her. She says we should tear up the marriage
license and move on. She’s leaving for Hawaii and then moving to
California. She had my reservations changed to Mexico so I could
come down here and get my wife.”

The first tears dropped from
Madeline’s eyes.

Carlos picked up the other drink he’d
set on the table. “I was going to drop this into a glass of
champagne.”

He held out the glass to her. A narrow
band of gold adorned the paper umbrella.

“
This is my wedding
ring.”

He nodded. “Yes. Corbin thought
teetering it on the umbrella would be more suited for the
drink.”

“
Corbin?”

He gave her hand a squeeze and locked
his eyes with hers. “Tell me you don’t love him, Maddie. Right now
it would kill me if you told me you did.”

She shook her head. “I don’t love him.
I’ve never loved anyone but you.”

Carlos’s shoulders dropped, and the
sexy smile that won her over every time surfaced on his
lips.

“
Madeline, I love you.” He
took the ring off the top of the umbrella and set the drink back on
the table. He took her hand and slipped the ring onto her finger.
“Will you marry me again?”

She couldn’t answer. She couldn’t find
the breath to speak. Instead, she pulled her hand back, which was
now adorned with the only piece of jewelry she’d ever missed
wearing. She turned and reached into her beach bag.

She pulled a chain from the bag and
offered it to him, his wedding ring hanging from it.

“
I found this the other
day.”

Carlos fingered the band of gold that
dangled from the chain. “You have this with you?”

“
I was wearing it around my
neck when you kissed me good-bye.”

“
You
kissed
me
.”

“
Hm,” she laughed. She
opened the clasp on the chain and let the ring fall into her palm.
“It didn’t belong on my neck.”

Madeline reached for his hand and slid
the ring onto his finger. “It never, ever should have left your
finger.”

Carlos fisted his hand as if to hold
onto the ring. “I love you.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she
was smiling. “And I love you.”

Carlos lifted his hand to her face and
brushed away the tears with his thumb. “So, Madeline, will you give
me a second chance and marry me?”

“
I’ve never wanted to do
something again so much in my life.”

He ran his fingers down her neck and
over her shoulder, sending a surge of passion and promise through
her body. “I’ll make you happy.”

Madeline lifted her eyes to meet his,
and in them she saw his devotion to her. “You always
have.”

We hope you’ve enjoyed book two in the
Keller Family Series, A Second Chance, from Bernadette
Marie.

Here is a sneak peek at book
three.

Opposite
Attraction
by
Bernadette Marie

Chapter One

Champagne flowed, again.

His brother had married,
again.

Curtis Keller knew this marriage would
last, this time, but he wondered if he’d ever love
again.

He sipped from his glass and watched
his brother Carlos dance with the only woman he’d ever truly loved.
His Madeline.

Curtis leaned up against the pillar of
his sister’s porch and watched as couples danced with the bride and
groom in the garden. He gave a little chuckle to himself. Carlos
and Madeline had been young when they’d first married. No one ever
saw it coming, the day Carlos announced that he and Madeline were
getting divorced.

She’d gone on and remarried. It had
taken Carlos five years to finally remarry, but that had lasted
less than a day. Now here they all were celebrating their second
marriage, to each other.

Curtis tipped his glass in a toast
when Madeline glanced his way. She was a glorious sight and as a
doctor, as well as her dear friend, he was happy for her. Only a
year earlier she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer. But with a
full head of chestnut hair swinging at her shoulders, compliments
of his sister Arianna’s extensive wig collection, no one would have
ever known that only months earlier Carlos had shaved off all of
her natural hair.

His nephews and niece danced among
them. His brother-in-law Zach danced with his own mother and
Curtis’s parents hadn’t missed a song all night. In the middle of
the dance floor was his older sister Arianna and her date from
Carlos’s last wedding, and Zach’s right hand man in his
construction company, John Forrester. They seemed comfortable, as
comfortable as you could be with a set-up-date.

As for him, he was happy to watch. The
memory of his date at Carlos’s last wedding still burned in his
gut. Tonight he didn’t have an escort, and that was just how he
wanted it.

His sister Regan slid up next to him,
a glass of champagne in her hand. “You look lost in
thought.”

He scanned a look over her. “Are you
supposed to be drinking that?”

“
I won’t tell if you
don’t.”

He shook his head. “Expectant mothers
aren’t supposed to drink.”

She nudged him. “Well the expectant
father said I could have just a little sip, and since the expectant
brother is sleeping I’m not going to worry about it.” She lifted
the glass to her lips and drank down the bubbly drink. Curtis
grabbed her hand and she laughed. “It’s sparkling cider. I made
sure we had plenty for the kids.” She laughed as Curtis settled
back against the pillar.

Regan was a wonder to him. There she
stood a happy woman married to the man of her dreams. Their son was
almost a year old and she was weeks into her second pregnancy. Only
he and her husband Zach knew about the baby. She was waiting until
after the wedding to announce that she was expecting. She hadn’t
wanted to take away from the celebration happening around
them.

Regan shifted her glance from the
dance floor back to him. “You don’t seem to be having as much fun
at this wedding.”

“
You didn’t arrange a date
for me this time either.”

With a slow nod, Regan sipped from the
drink then handed him her glass. “I’m going to go steal my husband
away from his mother.”

Curtis watched her do just that and he
retreated to the kitchen before Zach’s mother Audrey caught him and
begged him to dance.

Caterers moved about the house and
Curtis fixed himself a plate of fruit. He’d be happier in the
kitchen he decided. The reception was depressing him.

When he lifted his head from the
platters of food, he saw the reason it depressed him standing right
in front of him.

“
Hello, Curtis.” Simone
Pierpont’s French accent stabbed right into his heart before he
choked on the grape he’d just swallowed whole.

He coughed until he could breathe. Her
eyes never wavered from him and he was sure they had bore a hole
right through him.

“
Simone. I didn’t expect you
here.”

She twisted her fingers together and
smiled nervously. “I’ve been out of town.”

Didn’t he know that? He’d tried for
the past month to find her. Even his brother-in-law Zach, who she
claimed was her very dearest friend, hadn’t known where to find
her.

“
You’re looking well.” He
wasn’t sure what else to say. He’d been dumped by women before, but
it had never hurt like this one did. Oh, she’d had him fooled. Yes,
he thought there’d been a chance for something real. He’d thought
it was love.

But he had to acknowledge that there
were women in the world who appreciated the art of seduction and
fast steamy love affairs without stings just as men did. He just
never thought he’d be the man who was used and disposed
of.

Damn her anyway, he
thought.

She took a step toward him and then
stopped just short of reaching him. Her knuckles were white now and
her nervousness wasn’t helping him keep calm.

Simone bit down on her lip then
shifted her blue eyes to his. “I would have called…”

“
Listen,” he set down his
plate. “You don’t owe me any explanations. Zach and Regan set us up
to share the evening together so we wouldn’t be alone. They didn’t
tell us to,” he lowered his voice, “screw like rabbits and run off
to your yacht in the French Riviera. So we had a good time. Really,
who thought much of it?” He had and he fought his eyes to make sure
she didn’t know how much he’d thought of it.