Second Chances Read Online Free PDF Page A

watching her walk away. Dustin knew they were friends, but maybe in time they could be so much more. He turned and went back inside to say bye to his sister and niece.
     
    ***
     
    Stacy was glad that she had decided to walk when she went over to Bellamy’s. They were heading into the end of summer and soon it would be rainy. The heat never bothered her as she felt a light sheen of perspiration cover her body.
    She would have time to look over some more pictures she’d taken and send them off to be printed before she had to get ready to go teach.
    Stacy was a few blocks away from Bellamy’s when she heard a car roar up next to her to a stop. She didn’t recognize the car, but she froze because she certainly knew the driver.
    She started walking at a fast clip until a hand wrapped around her arm stopped her.
    “Stacy, stop!”
    “Fuck off, Mark.” Stacy didn’t want him to see how scared he made her.
    “Come on, baby, I gave you a couple of weeks to cool off, so let’s stop this shit. Get in the car, I’ll give you a ride home,” Mark said.
    “Um, yeah, I don’t think so. How’s your wife?” She couldn’t keep the quiet disdain out of her voice. “You know what? Don’t tell me, because you’re a liar and I wouldn’t believe what you said anyway.”
    “Oh, so that’s how it is? Well, I see as soon as I was out of the picture you ran back to Dustin,” he sneered. “That bitch left me and took my kids. I’ll get them back and then you and I will raise them together because I told you already: you’re mine and I don’t want anyone but you.”
    Stacy felt like she was gonna be sick. He was obviously delusional and at least his wife was smart enough to leave him and take the kids. The closer she looked at him, she realized that he almost looked strung out…Idiot. One thing he prided himself on when they had been friends was the fact he could, for the most part, keep his job and personal life separate.
    Maybe it got to be too much for him, but it didn’t matter to her because she no longer gave a shit about him.
    Stacy took a deep breath. “I. AM. NOT. YOURS! I’ll never be yours. You’re a liar and you hurt me, so let me go. Now.” She couldn’t keep the trembling out of her voice. Stacy wrenched her arm away from him and started to back away.
    She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Luke and Dustin drive by and then pull over. Dustin quickly hopped out with Luke trailing behind him.
    “Hey, sugar, is there a problem here?” Dustin said with a hint of menace in his voice.
    Stacy shook her head and moved to stand next to him and felt safe when he slipped an arm across her shoulders.
    “Oh, I see. You’re fucking him now, aren’t you? You slut. You’re gonna be sorry, and believe me when I say this isn’t over between us.”
    She watched as he climbed into his car and peeled out onto the road, barely missing Luke.
    “Jesus, that guy is seriously fucked up,” Luke said.
    Stacy walked alongside Dustin to the passenger of Luke’s truck, climbing in when Dustin opened the door for her. She settled herself in the middle of the bench seat as she waited on Dustin and Luke.
    They were right behind her, but now they weren’t. She turned and saw them talking quietly behind the truck. “Great,” Stacy muttered. Maybe she should just get out and keep walking.
    One thing Stacy didn’t want was to become anyone’s headache. It brought to mind right before she’d caught Brian and Celia together when he reamed her for depending on him too much and why couldn’t she be more independent.
    Stacy hated that he had made her feel bad, and worse, she pulled away from people because she was too afraid that they’d find her too dependent on them.
    Why, oh why did she have such horrible taste in men? Dustin wasn’t like them, but she never gave him a chance to hurt her. It made her want to laugh at the irony. She got Dustin to agree to just being friends and then she was dating Mark, and what did he do?