Page 95 of Second Chance Saloon

His stomach shrank. “When you put it like that … I sound like a dick.”

Maybe Eve was right. “This is what I mean. Already the past tense.” He sank back on the bed, both hands pressed over his eyes. “Fuck, I’m Rose. And she’s Jack.”

Hunter snorted. “Titanic … Seriously, Mitch?”

“No, think about it. Eve would’ve been that poor bloke Rose married and had kids with. But when she died, she spent her eternal life with Jack. It’s like her husband didn’t count at all.”

“You know it’s fiction, right?”

Mitch continued, unfazed by his mockery: “Eve was right when she told me I never fully opened my heart to her. I didn’t see it at first, too angry at what she did, but she was right. She deserved better. Like that poor bloke did. Everyone knows Jack’s name, but no one remembers Rose’s husband.”

“You’re making zero sense. And if you’re so bent on the Titanic comparison, who’s Cal?”

Mitch frowned. “There’s no Cal. But that doesn’t matter. I need to tell Jackie how I feel.”

Hunter let out a full, long laugh, the familiar sound reminding Mitch how much he missed his best friend. He hadn’t laughed like that much before he’d met Caroline. But he took his chance on love, and that was exactly what Mitch would do.

“I don’t want to wait until we die to be with her,” he said, the truth hitting him square in the chest.

“You might want to consider how it’s going to come across, though. In her mind, you were meant to be married. She doesn’t know you’ve never stopped loving her. She might think you’re only saying so in an act of desperation. Because your not-wedding was a disaster. Because you ran into each other in a weird twist of fate. That’s what I’d think,” Hunter said.

“You know that isn’t true,” Mitch protested.

“Hey, I do. I’ve been friends with you for years. I spent hours listening to your drunk love tales about her. Granted, you stopped all that once you met Eve.”

Mitch closed his eyes, massaging his eyelids. His left eye had started twitching on and off in the past week, probably due to all the stress and alcohol. “I really wanted to give us a chance. I tried.”

“I know you did.”

“Jackie told me she can’t have children,” Mitch said, absentmindedly. “We used to talk about having kids when we were together.”

“How do you feel about it?”

“You know I want kids. I always did, I think. But there are other ways to have a family. Not a conversation for right now but—”

“Mitch. It’s very much a conversation for right now. You aren’t eighteen anymore. It’s not like meeting someone on a dating app and seeing how things go or something casual. You could never do casual with Jackie.”

He sighed. “True.”

“So, you’ll have to talk about this.”

They shared a moment of transatlantic silence during which the cogs in Mitch’s brain were working overtime. All the possibilities spinning in a mirage of further heartbreak. What if Jackie told him she didn’t feel the same? What if she told him she never wanted to see him again? Deep down, he didn’t think she would. Whatever bound them together ran much deeper than the epic chemistry they joked about in the cenote.

And at the completely opposite end of this fear, what if he risked it and became the happiest man in the world? What if it all worked out? Even a chance at that was worth fighting for.

What about the fact she broke your heart? What about the fact she left, leaving behind only that shitty short note?

There was that. But somehow, he knew it hurt her just as much, if not more. Was he still angry over it? Truthfully, he was never angry. Heartbroken, yes. But angry at her? Not really.

Hunter coughed. “You still there, Mitch?”

“Yeah.” He exhaled, his nerves sinking to the pit of his stomach. “I’m going to tell her. Screw it.”

“Awesome. You go do that. Let me know how it goes. Not necessarily today, you might be busy,” Hunter teased, innuendo screaming down Mitch’s phone.

He snorted. “Sure. Tell Caroline I’ll be fine and not to worry.”

“You can tell her that yourself. I’ll call you when she’s home next time. Bye, Craigton. Go get your woman.”