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  “I don’t know what to do or say.” He took her hand and pulled her closer.

  “You don’t have to do anything.” She squeezed his hand to let him know she would never be far if that’s what he wanted.

  “But I want him to know I was here, and talking doesn’t seem like enough.”

  She fished inside the pocket of her dress and pulled out Ava’s necklace her father had given her. She dangled it from her fingers so the sun caught the gold. The chain flickered in the light. Gage narrowed his eyes.

  “This is my gift to Ajay.” She placed it on the top of the headstone.

  “Leaving something on the grave is my family’s tradition. I should’ve thought of that.”

  “I hope you don’t mind that I’m doing this. It’s Ava’s necklace. I hoped having something of Ava’s might help Ajay know he’s forgiven so his spirit can find its way home. More importantly, that I’m asking for his forgiveness.” Her heart clamored against her ribs. She hadn’t told him about the necklace.

  He remained still but looked off in the other direction.

  “I should’ve checked with you first,” she said.

  He grabbed her hands. His eyes glistened as his gaze met hers. “Thank you for this. It’s exactly what Ajay needs. It’s exactly what I need. He will be able to go home now and be in peace. Maybe even sit beside my father again.”

  “I love you, Gage. I’ve loved you always. You are woven into the fabric of my life. I can’t imagine another minute without you. If you can forgive me for allowing my hurt to keep us apart for too long, I want to spend the rest of my life with you and only you.”

  He placed a kiss on her lips. “I love you. You showed me how to let go of the pain I carried around for too long. If you really want me—and I’d be the luckiest bastard in the world if you do—then I promise to be the best man I can each and every day for you.”

  He kissed her again long and hard.

  She laced her fingers through his, and together they found their way back, and their way home.

  Enjoy this excerpt from

  A Second Chance House

  by

  Stacey Wilk

  Heritage River Series, Book One

  Chapter One

  Grace Starr turned her Subaru Impreza into the driveway of her two-story gray colonial with black shutters and matching black double doors. She loved this house with its oversized deck she sat on at night catching the breeze and drinking tea, the big kitchen with plenty of cabinets, and the gas fireplace that burned clean. Twenty-Five Tudor Drive was the place she started a family with her husband and raised her daughter, Chloe.

  She hated the For Sale sign in the front yard.

  She had an hour before she had to be back at the library. She should get some lunch, take a walk, clean a bathroom. The bathroom would win, and if she had time, she’d throw in a load of laundry, wipe down the counters, sort the mail into piles. Her favorite pile being the one that went into the garbage.

  The extra car was parked in the driveway too. What was Chloe doing home from school in the middle of the afternoon? Had there been a half day Grace had forgotten about? Some kind of teacher in-service thing? Possibly. Lately, she kept returning to the bathroom to touch her toothbrush just to see if it was wet. Her mind couldn’t hold a thought if it were a vault. Problem was, she didn’t know if the absentmindedness was her age or the stress of the divorce. Better to blame it on the divorce. She wasn’t that old…yet. Maybe Chloe felt the effects of senior year ending and was ditching.

  The garage door yawned open, and Chloe came out in bare feet, her blue-streaked hair bouncing off her shoulders. Her nose piercing sparkled in the sun, mocking Grace from its coveted place on Chloe’s face. Her shorts barely covered the necessary parts, and her shirt showed too much skin.

  Grace cringed at the uncontrolled appearance of her almost-eighteen-year-old. She tried to arrange her face in a way that said she was used to seeing Chloe this way. Larry had let her get the piercing. He had bought her the blue dye. Grace was always the bad guy. The boring parent.

  Chloe waved something in her hand. “Mom, you’ve got to see this.”

  Please don’t let it be a letter from the guidance counselor.

  “What are you doing home?” Chloe said, slightly out of breath, through the open car window. “I thought you were volunteering at the library today.”

  “I am, later. I was wondering what you were doing home on a Wednesday. Did you get in trouble for wearing that outfit to school?” What was the point in fighting? But she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.

  Chloe rolled her eyes with the skill of a seasoned pro. “No one dress codes in June. School’s boring. We’re not doing anything. They won’t even notice I’m gone.”

  The same arguments about doing the right thing bubbled inside Grace and died on her tongue. Did it really matter? And look what doing the right thing did for her. She had followed the rules and planned for all possible outcomes. She was the dutiful wife, and she had still been evicted from her life. “Don’t make skipping a habit. I don’t care that there’s only two weeks of school left.”

  Ignoring her last remark, Chloe shoved the white paper at Grace. “This came in the mail today. I didn’t open it, but it looks interesting. Did Dad get new lawyers or something? Did he move out of state and not tell us? It would be just like him, the jerk.”

  “Chloe, don’t call your father names.” Even if Larry was a big fat jerk. Grace inspected the envelope addressed to her. A postmark she didn’t recognize. A law firm’s name and address in the top corner. Pretty official. What had Larry gone and done? She shoved her way out of the Impreza, gripping the envelope. She took a closer look. Tennessee? “This must be a mistake.” She handed the envelope back.

  “Are you kidding? You’ve got to open this.” Chloe shoved the envelope at her. “Maybe we won something.”

  “Wishful thinking. I’ve never even been to Tennessee. Take it inside, please.”

  “No, Mom. Open it.” Chloe gripped Grace’s hand and shoved the envelope in her grasp.

  Why was this so important? “Oh, all right.” She ripped the envelope open and scanned its contents.

  A letter on the firm’s letterhead. Her hand began to shake. She had to read it twice to make sure she was seeing things correctly.

  “Well, what is it?” Chloe’s blue eyes had grown to the size of sunflowers. Her face sagged when she stared at Grace. “Dad did something bad, didn’t he? He’s keeping all his money or not letting me go to college, right?”

  Grace shook her head and searched for her voice. “Surprisingly, Dad has nothing to do with this, but it must be a mistake. There’s no way this is real.” She looked back at the letter. “It says someone has left me a house. Who would do such a crazy thing?” A laugh bubbled up into her throat.

  “That’s great. Now we have a place to live. You can tell Dad you don’t need him anymore.”

  Grace thrust the letter back in the envelope. Chloe’s loyalty was sweet, but it might not last. These days they got along one minute, and the next Grace had said or done something wrong. Having a teenage daughter could be wonderful and exhausting at the same time. “The house is in Tennessee. You don’t want to live there. I don’t want to live in Tennessee. I like it here, in this town. Like I said, I’m sure it’s a mistake. You want to get some lunch?”

  “Wait. Who does it say gave you the house?”

  Grace folded the envelope. “I don’t know. They don’t want to be identified.”

  “And you don’t think that’s mysterious and want to find out more?” Chloe raised her eyebrows.

  She envied Chloe’s ability to still believe amazing things happened at random moments. That was a blessing of youth. “Even if it’s legitimate, which I highly doubt it is, nothing good can come from an unidentified person giving you a house. It’s unheard of and ridiculous. People don’t do things like that.” Well, not practical people anyway.

  ****

  The darkness c
overed Grace like a cocoon. The only light spilling into the kitchen was the dim one over the sink. She liked this time of night when Chloe either was out or barricaded in her room and she sat in the protection of the dark.

  She sipped the white tea with citrus and stared at her computer. The law firm on the envelope had an impressive website. They certainly looked legit. But it still didn’t make any sense. Who would leave her a house, especially one in Tennessee? No one she knew, and no one she knew had recently died. She had no relatives except Chloe. Her father had walked out of her life when she was too young to remember him, and her mother passed away when Grace was in her twenties. Both of her parents had no siblings.

  What would it hurt to call? And what if someone had left her a house? The idea began to buzz around inside her head. She could sell it and buy something nicer up here. She had been planning to rent, but with extra money she could maybe buy sooner. Renting left a lot of unknowns, but buying at least would allow her to settle in and make the place her own.

  She shook her head. What was she thinking? She had to stick to the plan. She and Chloe would move in with Grace’s long-time friend, Jenn, until she found a place. She would have to find a job at some point too. The alimony was enough, but it wasn’t her money. Never was.

  She gripped the letter, ready to tear it in half. Her cell vibrated and interrupted her thoughts. Who would call at that hour? She checked the screen, and her heart sank.

  “Hello, Larry.”

  “Sorry to call so late.” His voice was low and raspy, as if he might have been speaking for a long time or didn’t want anyone to hear him. “I haven’t had another chance all day, and I wanted to reach you as soon as I could.”

  He had stood in their kitchen on a night not much different from this one and leaning against the gas range, confessed feelings for someone else. He had used words like controlling, obsessive, cold, and buttoned up.

  She was controlling, but she wasn’t buttoned up. She thought they were in a rut. Didn’t all marriages have those after nineteen years? How excited could you get when you knew all of the other person’s moves? It wasn’t as if Larry was creative. While she was busy running their home, raising their child, and volunteering at the library, he was busy being creative with someone else, though. Someone younger than she was. Grace was the quintessential cliché. He had packed up and moved in with his young hottie whose skin still stayed in all the right places and who hadn’t pushed a baby out of her hoo-ha.

  “I’ve got some news,” he said.

  “You’re joining AARP?” She picked at the corner of her letter. She didn’t want this man back, did she? No, not the man. She wanted a marriage and a large family. He never really wanted to share a marriage with her, and his cheating had proved it. He ended the large family dream back when her eggs still dropped on a regular basis. She thought she didn’t care about the latter—how wrong she was—and was too blind to realize she was the only player on the marriage team.

  “Stop being so bitter. I have something to tell you. This is going to come as a shock, because no one was more surprised than me. I can’t believe I’m about to say this out loud—”

  “Could you get to the point?” Why was he calling her with his news? Did he really care what she thought any longer? What was he going to announce? Early retirement?

  “Annie and I are getting married,” he blurted in one swift breath.

  The phone slipped from her hands. She grabbed at it like a hot potato. “What?”

  “I want to buy your half of the house. Before you say a word, just listen. I’ll pay more than the market value for it. You know as well as I do we’ll never get full price for it if we sell, but if you’ll sell your half to me, you’ll get more than you expected.”

  She gripped the phone tighter.

  “What do you say, Grace? It’s a good deal. Better than you’ll get any other way.”

  “Why do you want the house so badly?” She gripped the kitchen chair, trying to steady herself. She couldn’t bear the idea of that woman living in her house. The house she had decorated with careful planning, from the colors on the walls to the pillows on the couch. The cabinets she kept cleaned and organized. The lamppost she had installed by the front walk because it was too dark for guests at night. All belonging to that woman? Over her dead body.

  “I want to do this for you. I buy the house, you make the most money on your share, and you’re rid of me. It’s what you want. To be rid of me.”

  She wanted him out of her life—no point in denying that little truth. “We have a child together. I don’t think we’ll ever be completely rid of each other, as you say.” She flopped down in the chair, creating a wind that sent the mysterious letter floating to the floor.

  “Will you accept my offer?”

  “I need time to think about it.” The money would be nice. They hadn’t had any bites on the house, and Larry couldn’t afford the mortgage here and his rent forever.

  “We could have the sale completed in thirty days.”

  “Thirty days? I don’t have another place yet. I can’t find a place that quickly.” She had barely begun looking. Research needed to be done first. She wanted to create a neighborhood prospectus. The new house would most likely be where she’d finish out her later years. She couldn’t buy a house that had the perfect number of rooms on a pretty yard without careful consideration.

  He heaved a sigh. “Listen, Grace, I know this is coming as a shock. I’m a little shocked too, but we want the house.”

  “Larry, I can’t make a split-second decision like that.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  She wanted to reach through the phone and strangle him. “Don’t make me out to be the bad guy in this one. It’s not fair. I need some time.”

  Chloe shuffled into the kitchen in her slippers, yanked open the freezer door, and pulled out the cookies-and-cream ice cream. “Is that Dad?”

  Grace covered the phone. How can you tell? she mouthed. It couldn’t be the rise and tightening of her voice. Oh no. Not that.

  “Did he tell you Annie is pregnant?”

  “Your girlfriend is pregnant?” she yelled into the phone.

  “What? How did you—?”

  “Shut up, Larry. Just shut up. Chloe told me. That’s why you want this house so badly, you jerk.”

  She stifled a groan and dropped her head between her knees to keep the room from tipping on its side. Larry, with his thinning hairline and paunchy belly, was getting married again and having a baby, having another child she’d wanted so badly her insides had ached for years. He had never wanted more children.

  “I have my child,” he had said, flipping through the newspaper as if they had been discussing the weather. “I don’t want any more.”

  “I knew you might be upset. I don’t blame you.”

  “Don’t tell me you know how I feel.”

  “You’re right. I don’t. Annie loves the house. It has everything we’re looking for, including good schools. She wants to be settled in before the baby comes.”

  Annie loved the house? When had she seen it? They wanted their new child to go to the schools Chloe had attended. Grace thought she might be sick. “And if I say no?”

  “You’d be spiting no one but yourself. This is the only way to guarantee more than a fair sale price. If you want to sell it to strangers, then we will. I’m going to get married either way.”

  Grace went to the faucet and filled the glass with cold water. She gulped it down, hoping to stop the sweats. She stepped on the letter, and the paper creased under her foot. Her damp fingers stuck to the paper as she swiped it from the floor.

  Larry was getting on with his life. Had been even while they were still married. In a few short months, Chloe would be off at college getting on with hers. Where would that leave Grace?

  She stared at the phone number at the bottom of the letterhead. “You’ve got a deal.” She ended the call and threw the phone down on the table.

  She could go t
o Tennessee and check out this house. She could call the law firm in the morning for more details. If she liked what she heard, she would make a plan to go. What harm would it do to just see the house? She didn’t have other options anyway. She hated when Larry was right. She stood to make the most money with his offer. She’d be an idiot not to take him up on it, and he was banking on that.

  The idea of that woman living in her house still made her skin itch. “It’s just a house, Grace. Stop being ridiculous.” But it was her house. The house where she raised Chloe. The house she wanted grandchildren to visit. Was the house she shared with Larry ever really a home? Well, maybe, for about five minutes.

  She could use a few days away. If this house in Tennessee really was hers, she could sell it and have extra money to buy something nicer than she originally thought. Maybe something with a porch she could sit on in the mornings with a cup of tea.

  Buying a new house in town would be a fresh start. Didn’t she deserve one too? A way to show Larry she didn’t need him.

  But did she really want to run into them at the grocery store? Or the library? Or any number of places the new Mrs. Starr would show up with her rounded belly and then later with her child in tow. It would be bad enough to deal with them at Chloe’s college graduation in four years or when she married and had children of her own. She shook her head at the thought of Larry’s new child possibly being close in age to a child of Chloe’s. The man was pathetic.

  She didn’t want to move away. She loved Silverside with its tree-lined streets and parks. She could smell the ocean from her front lawn. Her life was there. How could she live somewhere else? No town would speak to her the way Silverside did.

  She’d sell her half to Larry and hope for the best. In the meantime, she’d go to Tennessee and learn more about this mysterious house. She needed to start living again. Even though her insides shook with the idea of jumping on a plane to some area unknown without the safety net of a plan, she knew she had to. For once, Grace Starr would take a risk. Hopefully, taking a chance didn’t backfire.