One Last Chance by Molly O'Keefe

Author:Molly O'Keefe [O'Keefe, Molly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

6

NATALIE

New day. New plan.

It didn’t take an expert in human psychology to know that Jack was going to ignore me today. So I had to regroup and come at him a different way.

His staff. Jack had always been a real grumpy Papa Bear toward his staff.

And nothing made an ally of staff like a staff meal. Free delicious food and a chance for them to voice some opinions.

So, at ten in the morning I had a pot of coffee on and all the new food plated up family style so everyone could get a taste of it. Mark had made the asparagus, the green goddess dressing, and the new Caesar dressing. I’d made the salads and fresh guacamole. We had them all laid out on the bar like a buffet. Behind the bar I stood next to Bea and watched Kimmy, Mark, and some of the bus boys grab plates and pile them high.

I bit my lips to keep myself from saying what I wanted to say to Bea. I wanted to try and convince her that, yes, I’d been grieving and selfish. But I’d also been really young.

And that I was sorry.

Whatever Jack told you about me, I’m not that bad.

Whatever he said, I still love him. And I’m here to make it right.

“You’re not hungry?” I asked her. We were both leaning against the bar, coffee cups in our hands.

“No. I’m starved. I’m just—”

“Being loyal to Jack?”

“Something like that.” She turned to me and put her coffee cup down, all business. “I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with you and him.”

“I want my husband back,” I said.

“Do you really think that’s going to happen?”

My body was sore from the way he fucked me last night. My clit and my nipples. My wrists. They carried the aches like secrets just under the skin.

“I do,” I said. “I have to think it’s going to happen, because I can’t imagine my life if it doesn’t.” I turned to face her. “Are you in love?”

She nodded. “Very much.”

“And you’ve never…screwed up? Said something you wished you didn’t? Or maybe…not said something you wished you’d said? You’ve never been prideful? Or scared? Stubborn?”

“Of course I have,” she said.

“Well, so were we. Compounded by my very manipulative parents.”

“Jack told me about your dad having him arrested.”

I bit my lip because thinking about that night could still bring tears to my eyes. Jack went to a juvie program for three months and my father forced me to church every day, where all I did was pray for Jack and make plans for what we’d do the second Jack came home. “When Jack showed up at our front door after getting released from that program, he told my dad there was nothing he could do to stop us from being together. My father threatened to kill him.”

“Oh, my God,” Bea breathed.

“Yeah. It was…dramatic. And scary.”

“You married him anyway,” Bea said, and I looked over at her, wondering how to put my feelings for Jack into words that made sense.

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