Second Chance Read Online Free

mine.”
    By the time they’d gone to Kiki’s and drunk way too much sugar for Collin’s taste, it was getting late and he’d gotten six more calls, all left unanswered. They were getting ready to leave the café when Deirdre asked him if he needed a ride to his car.
    He shook his head and pulled his jacket on. “Nah, I parked back at the library. I’ll walk back. It’s not far.”
    “If you’re sure…”
    “Yeah, I’m sure. But speaking of the library, I didn’t know Marnie Thomas was the librarian now. You remember her? I think she was your year.”
    He hoped he sounded more nonchalant than he felt. For some reason, even saying her name out loud was making his blood pump harder and giving him a funny feeling in his chest. But if Deirdre sensed any of that, she’d never let up.
    Deirdre nodded. “Yes, she was. She went away to college, but she didn’t stay away. I think she returned because her mom got sick, then languished for a long time. Marnie managed to hold down the job at the library and take care of Mrs. Thomas ‘round the clock in those last years.”
    Oh, damn. That sounded rough. He made a sound of sympathy. “I’m sorry to hear that. I had Mrs. Thomas for eleventh grade English. What happened to her, anyway?”
    “Cancer of some sort. I think she had chemo treatments for a while, because I remember her walking around town with a scarf over her head at some point. But about a year later, I ran into Marnie at the pharmacy and she told me that her mom was too frail to walk anymore. Mrs. Thomas died the next month.”
    Collin was silent, taking it in. He remembered Marnie’s mom as a nice woman, but already a little faded even ten years ago. Marnie, though…despite her awkwardness, she’d been bright and vibrant. Intense, even. She’d been kind of girl that somehow endeared herself in a man’s heart.
    And now she was the kind of woman who heated a man’s blood.
    He wondered whether she got out much. Whether she was still mourning her mother. He shook his head. “It’s a shame. Both parents gone.”
    “Actually, Mr. Thomas is back now. He actually moved back here with his new wife and his bratty little son. The kid is in Claire’s class, in fact. You might have seen him today. Dark hair, really nasty attitude.”
    No way.
    Collin was willing to bet the Granger development that the man he’d rebuked this afternoon was Marnie’s dad. “You don’t say. Does the kid’s name happen to be Patrick, by any chance?”
    Deirdre blinked in surprise. “Yes, how did you know?”
    “His nasty attitude got out of hand even during the story hour at the library.”
    “Oh, no. Don’t tell me that Mr. Thomas was there even when Marnie was reading…” Deirdre trailed off when Collin nodded. “Oh, good gracious. He ran out on them, too, you know. Just like Graham did to me and Claire.”
    Damn. He shouldn’t be surprised that the guy was such an asshole, but it made him think about how shy and reserved Marnie had been in high school, and he regretted not making more of an effort to draw her out of her shell back then.
    “I didn’t realize. I always thought he’d died.”
    She shook her head. “May as well have. He left when Marnie was twelve, right before we moved here. It was a pretty bad time. But I didn’t know her well enough in high school to get any more details from her.”
    At least some generous spirit had seen fit to deliver a form of payback in the library. He snorted in amusement, remembering the scene, and told Deirdre, “Well he got a smidge of comeuppance, anyway, by falling on his face in front of all the kids and their parents at the library today.”
    “What?” Her tone was mildly concerned, but a smile played on her lips while Collin shared the story. When he was finished, she laughed. “Serves him right.”
    That’s what Collin had thought at the time. But now, he could only think about how that was nothing compared to the pain that man had inflicted on his wife and