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Chapter 2
Merry
Slade entered,and instantly everything felt smaller. It wasn't just because I was so short, or he was so tall, or even that my house was so modest, it was merely his presence. He commanded a room as soon as he stepped through the door, much the way he had once commanded my heart.
Damn this man. I craned my neck up to look at his face as he stood unmoving in the center of my tiny living room.
"Talk." That's all he said. Just that one word.
"Sit," I countered. "My neck is already cricked from looking up at you for two minutes."
He smiled on one side of his face, his eyes lit with mischief, but he sat. No, he didn't just sit—he made himself damn well comfortable, kicking off his worn boots and stretching his massive frame clear across the length of my couch.
Grumbling, I grabbed a rickety wooden chair from the dining area and dragged it to the living room.
"So talk, then, princess," he prompted me, folding his hands behind his head and leaning even further into my couch.
"I said I was ready to listen, Slade. That means you talk, I will listen. I don't have anything to say."
"Well, darling, I reckon I've done said everything of any importance. Nan's old. Come to Christmas; I'm not leaving here without you." He paused then, tapping his chin with one finger, as if contemplating saying more. "Nope, that about covers it."
Crossing my arms across my chest, for no other reason than to somehow give me some semblance of illusion that I was protected against this man and his charms, I leveled him with a death glare. "You're not staying here, Slade. And I'm not ready to leave just yet. Christmas is weeks away. I have responsibilities here, obligations, and a boyfriend."
Slade snapped into a sitting position, lickety-split, balancing his elbows on his knees as he stared at me. "Is that right? You don't say? Well, where is he? I'd surely love to meet him."
He spoke rapidly, and my heart sank to my stomach, knowing what would come next when he snapped his fingers in my direction.
"Get him over here, why don't you? Give him a call." He paused. "Why don't you call over at your former boss's house? I'm sure she's seen him."
My face flamed and my mouth went dry as I stared at him. "You've been spying on me!" I accused. I jumped to my feet and pointed to the door. "And this is exactly why I should never have let you in. And why I'm certainly not going back to Nan's with you," I ranted. "Who knows, maybe I'll fly her out here after Christmas just so I don't have to spend another second looking at your stupid face!"
Slade stood then, speaking very slowly as he crossed the small space between us. "I hired a private investigator to find your address, and, yes, I did ask him what you had been up to and what your life was like now. I wanted to know the likelihood of convincing you to come back home. Speaking of which, I didn't realize the seventeen dollars in your savings account was enough to buy a plane ticket, these days, and I wonder where you are planning to have Nan stay, since you're about to lose this place, anyway."
"Dammit, Slade," I choked out behind the river of hot tears running down my face. I hadn't wanted him to know all that. I hadn't wanted him to know any of it. I may not have anything, but at least, I had my pride. Stupid private investigators. Stupid overbearing dominant types. Stupid cowboys.
When the tears fell, Slade's face softened. "So, things got a little messed up in your life, babe." A large lone finger wiped a tear from my cheek. "It happens."
"It happens to me all the time!" I cried piteously, fighting the strong urge to fall against his chest for comfort. "Nothing in my life ever goes right. I'm not even sure why I'm still here! I'm just a waste of space and air!"
I heard the low growl start deep in his chest and make its way to his throat. Instinctively, my butt cheeks clenched. The growl that launched a thousand spankings. I remembered it all too well.
He made no move this time, though, except to cup my face in one large hand. "Everybody needs a second chance to get things right, now and again, doll. Seems to me there's no better place for a second chance than Second Chance Ranch, wouldn't you say?"
"Except it's more like my four thousandth chance," I wailed, reaching a point of being nearly inconsolable. Dammit. I had promised myself I wouldn't cry in front of him. I'd lasted all of five minutes. It was all his fault, too, for being sweet and wiping my tears and using terms like doll and little one. Acting like a Daddy did.
It would have been so easy to let the old title fall from my lips, to seek comfort in his arms, and even to accept the discipline I so desperately craved. But I didn't deserve any of that, or even the kindness he was offering.
He looked at me for a long time, with his lips twisted into a grimace of confusion. Then he scooped me up into a cradle hold and pulled me into his lap as he dropped unceremoniously onto the couch. I scrambled to get away, but his hold was firm.
"What was it Nan always said? That if it doesn't change anything, it wasn't a second chance? Just a different scene of the first act?"
"It was just something she said to make us feel better when we messed up," I grumbled. "Because we were kids with crappy lives who didn't know any better, and she wanted us to forgive ourselves."
Slade nodded.
"But I'm not a kid anymore, Slade. I'm a grown ass woman who still hasn't managed to get her shit together. And it's not just a bad spell. It's been one bad spell on top of another for the past five years. You don't know the half of it."
"Try me." His jaw was hard and his eyes were pensive. My stomach sank as I realized he was privy to a lot more knowledge than just the events that had transpired recently.
