Second Chances (3 page)

Her dad Gary reminded her of a dark-blond version of Dave Grohl. He always wore his hair like he was at least a month past the need for a haircut.

His goatee always looked in need of a trim. He was a big man, just like his three younger brothers. They were like carbon copies of each other—well, except for the youngest, Garrett. He was tall, but not as broad and was more clean-cut.

The other two were built like linebackers: broad shoulders, big arms, narrow waists and muscular legs.

Her dad and uncles were all dark blonds and had hazel eyes. They were all part-time musicians to boot. Since before she was born they performed together in their band, Everything But The Kitchen Sink. Some of Stacy’s earliest memories were of sitting on her mom’s or one of her aunt’s laps watching her daddy play.

It wasn’t long before Stacy’s dad realized she could sing and she began to perform with them.

Even now, with most of her cousins taking over in the band, she still performed with them when they came around, which was going to happen that coming weekend for a mini-family reunion.

Stacy snuck up behind her dad and wrapped her arms around his middle. She inhaled his familiar scent of Dove soap and fabric softener.

“Is that my sweet girl?” her dad asked with a chuckle.

“Hi, Daddy.” She stood up on her tiptoes to give her dad a peck on the cheek.

Stacy walked over to her mom and gave her a big hug and a kiss. “Hi, Mom.” She pulled back a little. “Wow, you’re  looking fantastic—you and dad both.”

“Thank you,
Meu amor.
I figured it would encourage Mr. Stubborn to keep exercising if I did it with him.”

Her mom had a slim figure that Stacy always envied when she was younger. Stacy’s mom had always refused to listen to Stacy criticize her body. She explained to Stacy that in her native Brazil that she grew up with all of her girlfriends to love their bodies and to never be upset about what God gave them.

Her mom grew up outside of Sao Paulo, which was about five hours from Rio de Janeiro. They’d only been there once to visit and that was to celebrate Stacy’s high school graduation, although it wasn’t until the following February. They had visited with some relatives and had gone to Rio for Carnival.

It was one of the first times that Stacy hadn’t been ashamed of her body. Women of all shapes and sizes wore next to nothing and wore it proud. She’d never forget that trip, and someday, if she finally made enough money with her photography, she’d pay to take her parents again.

Stacy’s
Vovó e vovô
still lived there with her mom’s older sister and her family. Although Stacy knew they were still not big fans of her dad, she knew they loved her a lot.

“Well, I’m glad to hear it. Daddy, what happened at your check up Friday?” Stacy took some bowls and silverware from her mom to set the table while she waited to hear about her dad’s checkup.

“Doc says I’m fit as a fiddle and that he’d almost never known I had a heart attack a year ago. All of my blood work and scans came up negative. He says my cholesterol is better than it’s ever been. But when your mama only feeds me chicken and rabbit food, what do they expect?” He pulled her mom into a hug. “But you’re letting me eat that gumbo, aren’t you?”

Stacy watched the open affection between her parents and couldn’t help but be envious. All her life she’d wanted what they had, but when you hear that you’re not meant for anything long-term enough, you start to believe it.

“Of course, baby, but only one bowl, so you better make it count.”

Stacy laughed as she heard her dad grumbling as he walked to his place at the table.

***

After dinner, Renée cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher with the help of her beautiful daughter. She could hear Gary strumming his guitar in the living room.

“So where’s Mark?” she asked Stacy.

Just by the look on her girl’s face she knew she wasn’t going to like the answer.

“Um, well…I broke up with him.” Renée knew something was wrong when Stacy wouldn’t make eye contact with her.

“Okay, but what happened,
Minha filha,
my daughter?” She could see her baby’s shoulders start to shake and she knew Stacy was crying.

Renée watched her one and only child turn to her and whisper, “He’s married, Momma. I swear I didn’t know.”

She did the only thing she could. With her arms wrapped around her daughter, she let every curse word she knew fly out of her mouth. Renée should’ve been mortified, but Stacy only knew a little Portuguese. She’d really like to get a hold of that asshole and smack him for hurting her baby.

“Oh, honey,” she crooned. “Of course you didn’t know.”

“What’s going on?” Renée turned to see Gary standing there watching them. “Stacy, why are you crying, sweetheart?”

“
Esse filho da puta é casado!
”
she growled.

“Okay, little Momma, you know my Portuguese is limited, but I know you just called someone a son of a bitch,” Gary said. He still looked confused.

“That son of a bitch, Mark, is married. He lied to our baby and has broken her heart.” She continued stroking Stacy’s hair as Gary came over.

“Is that true baby girl?”

***

Stacy really didn’t want her dad getting upset, but there was no sense in keeping it from him. “Yes, Daddy. He’s married and has t-two little babies at home.” She tried her damnedest to keep her voice from cracking.

Her dad had never liked Mark. He, like everyone else, was grateful for him protecting Bellamy, but he always told Stacy that he seemed to be hiding something.

Stacy felt her dad’s arms wrap around her. She felt the love her parents had for her at that moment. Stacy swore she heard her dad swear under his breath that he was going to kill Mark. She knew she’d get through it, and she was done with men.

Chapter 3

Dustin sat at his dining room table making some last minute changes to some plans that he was going to show to a potential client in a couple of hours. He wanted everything to be perfect.

He was glad to be busy for the rest of the week because he felt like he wanted to hover over Stacy, and his hovering was the last thing she needed. He’d talked to her over the weekend and she sounded a lot better.

Dustin knew she had dinner the night before with her parents. He wondered just how much she was going to tell them, if anything at all. Dustin would bet a million to one that she’d tell them everything except for when that piece of shit grabbed her and then bit her.

He’d been checking in with her just to make sure that Mark had stayed away from her. Dustin had been relieved that so far she hadn’t heard from the asshat.

Unfortunately, Dustin had a bad feeling that Mark’s silence wasn’t going to last long.

He shook his head and got back to the task at hand. Stacy was a grown woman. She didn’t need him to baby sit.

***

Luke invited Dustin to come to the house with him for lunch and for that Dustin was grateful. His baby sister had become quite the little chef since she and Luke got married. He definitely was not one to turn down a free meal.

Dustin followed Luke out to his truck and climbed in. Married life and fatherhood looked really good on his best friend. Yeah, he looked a little tired, but he always had a small smile plastered on his face.

“So is it everything you thought it’d be?” Dustin asked.

“What?”

“You know: marriage, a baby.”

He watched Luke for a minute while he seemed to consider his answer. “You know what? There aren’t any words to describe how happy I am. Sure I haven’t slept more than a few hours at a time these past few months, but let me tell you that it’s so worth it. I couldn’t imagine my life without Bellamy and that beautiful little girl of ours.”

“Well, I’m so damn happy for you guys. That little niece of mine is gonna be a heartbreaker,” Dustin said with a smile.

Luke and his sister had another daughter who Bellamy had lost 32 weeks into her pregnancy and Luke didn’t know about it until last summer. It was hard for both of them, but with time the hurt had lessened.

Dustin knew that Luke had gone with Bellamy to the therapist she had been seeing since she lost the baby. Therapy helped them deal and cope, especially when Bellamy had gotten pregnant so quickly after they got married at the end of last summer.

Both families and friends helped support them during Bell’s pregnancy, especially when she got to 32 weeks again. Her anxiety had been so bad that they put her on a low dose anxiety medication to help her through it.

“So do you think you and Bell will have any more kids?” Dustin asked as they pulled into the driveway at Luke and Bellamy’s house.

“I don’t know. I know we’d like to have more, but it was mentally exhausting last time. Not so much for me, but every time Carrington quit moving I could see Bellamy start to lose it. I’d find her a lot sitting out on the deck praying that God wouldn’t take this baby from us.” Luke rubbed a hand through his hair. “I guess when Care Bear is a little older we’ll talk about it again, but for now we’re gonna enjoy every minute with our little princess.”

As Dustin got out of Luke’s truck he couldn’t help but smile. He was so happy that his sister and Luke got together. They made such an amazing couple and he knew that Luke would always support Bellamy in whatever she did.

He followed his brother-in-law inside and the sight he saw damn near stole his breath. Stacy was holding Care Bear and singing to her while Bellamy looked at something on the table,

Dustin walked over and kissed the baby on the forehead. He couldn’t help himself and did the same to Stacy. He reached over to hug his sister and to see what she was looking at.

“Stacy, did you do these?” he asked as he looked through the prints. The first was a picture of Carrington lying on what looked like a cloud. She was on her stomach with her legs tucked in and her little tush up in the air. Her little hands were tucked under her chin.

“Of course, I did these. Here, look: I’m gonna use them when I get my website up and going,” Stacy said as she handed him a couple of 5x7s.

The first was a black and white shot of Luke lying on his back with Carrington lying on his chest. Bellamy was lying on her side with her head resting on Luke’s chest, next to Carrington. It looked like Stacy had been standing over them and shot the picture straight down.

The second was Bellamy’s bare back to the camera standing partially in front of Luke, who didn’t have a shirt on, either. Bellamy had Carrington up so you could see her over Bell’s shoulder. They both smiled down at their sleeping girl.

“Stacy, these are amazing.” He turned to his sister. “I hope you’re ordering lots of extras, because I want one.”

Carrington started fussing in Stacy’s arms, so she started rocking side to side and humming softly until she started to calm again.

“That’s what we’re figuring out now,” Stacy told him.

***

Stacy held her little Care Bear all through lunch. She hadn’t planned on staying, but Bellamy insisted. Stacy was excited that the pictures she’d taken had turned out so well and that they were letting her use some of them to get her website going.

Since she left Chicago, work had been scarce. Stacy had done a couple of weddings, a couple of family portraits, and a couple of ads for a few local companies.

Stacy refused to borrow money from her parents, so she picked up a couple of night shifts bartending down at The Waterfront. Since Bellamy was slowly coming back to work after having the baby, she was even helping Bellamy’s mom, Ruth, at her dance studio.

She’d been a dancer most of her life and that was where she’d met Bellamy. Stacy now mostly worked with the older kids, but it was a steady two day a week gig that paid enough that with her bartending, too, she wasn’t destitute.

***

After lunch Stacy reluctantly gave Carrington back to Bellamy to nurse since the baby was hungry. She told Bellamy that she’d bring the prints over as soon as she got them back.

Stacy’s goal was to save enough money to open her own studio, but that was a long way off. Her dad told her over and over that he’d help her, but she knew that money had been tight with them since her dad’s heart attack. They still had medical bills they were paying off.

Her dad made good money working for the city, but her mom was a first-grade teacher, so her income was smaller during the summer.

Stacy was walking when she heard the door open behind her. She smiled at Dustin and waited at the bottom of the steps for him.

He’d been one of her best friends since the summer before, even after the sexual part of the relationship stopped. It had been a mutual decision between the two of them…sort of. She’d gotten scared because she was starting to care for him too much, and given his reputation, Stacy didn’t want to get hurt when he got bored and moved on.

She knew her relationship with Mark never would’ve lasted either, even without the whole  married bit. Maybe because deep down she didn’t care about him nearly as much as she did about Dustin, and she was thankful that she still had Dustin in her life.

“How you doing, sugar?” Dustin asked as he wrapped his arms around Stacy.

Stacy held on to him. His body warm against hers. “I’m actually doing really well.” She snuggled into her spot on him, right under his chin. “I never did thank you for everything you did for me, so thanks.”

***

Dustin enjoyed the moment of having Stacy snuggled in his arms. Her hair tickled his chin and he recognized the milk and honey scent of her shampoo. She was dressed in cut-offs and a fire engine red tank top that hugged her breasts like a lover’s caress.

She was tall, slender in parts and curvy in others. Her features by themselves would look different, but on her all together gave her an exotic beauty that had drawn Dustin to her last summer. Her lips were full and wide; when she smiled she was all teeth, but they were straight and pearly white.