Second Chance - Tanner & Shannon (New Beginnings - Romance) Read online

  For what seemed like hours, the sounds and shaking continued. I screamed and started crying. Within about 30 seconds it was over.

  “Shannon, are you okay? I didn’t hurt you did I?” Tanner asked in a worried tone as he rolled off me.

  “I’m okay… are you okay? Did you get hit with anything?” I asked sitting up slightly and putting my hand on his forehead to check for cuts.

  “No, I’m okay,” he said reaching up to hold my hand.

  “I can’t believe you threw yourself over me. No one has ever done something like that for me before,” I whispered, my eyes locked on his.

  “Well, they should have…” Tanner whispered back. The attraction was obvious and hanging thick in the room like a fog. The house has stopped shaking, and the storm felt as if it had passed outside but only strengthened inside.

  Tanner leaned down and lightly brushed his lips on mine. I swear I felt a bolt of lightning travel from my lips to my hips.

  “Tanner…” I whispered not sure if I was asking him to stop or keep going.

  Before he could continue, we heard someone upstairs yelling down to us.

  “Is anyone in here?” a man yelled from the top of the stairs.

  “We’re down here!” Tanner yelled back as he jumped up to his feet. He walked over to the stairs and looked up. “Oh, my God…” he said with shock pulsating through his voice.

  “What? What is it, Tanner?” I asked as I made my way up to my feet.

  “Look…” he pointed up the stairs. I could see daylight above the police officer’s head. He was standing at the top of the stairs talking into his radio. Debris was all over the stairs, blocking us from going up.

  “The house!” I yelled as I tried to brush past Tanner to climb over the debris.

  “Ma’,m! Don’t do that! It isn’t safe to climb the stairs,” the officer shouted at me holding his hand up. “A tornado hit this house. We’re going to have to send a rescue crew down to bring you both out. You were very lucky today,” he said.

  “Did he say lucky?” I said angrily as I walked away from the stairs. “Lucky that my new house, the only place I have to live, is now destroyed?” I faced away from Tanner, aware that the tears were on their way.

  “Yes, lucky, Shannon. We’re alive,” Tanner said putting his hands on both of my shoulders.

  “I need to call Courtney… see if she is okay,” I said stepping away from Tanner enough to cause his hands to drop to his sides.

  “The storm wasn’t tracking near Atlanta. I’m sure she’s fine. But, she is probably very worried about you,” Tanner said.

  “We’ve got a rescue crew on the way. Just hang tight, folks,” the officer yelled down to us.

  A little bit later, the crew arrived and used a harness system to bring us both up the stairs. I went first, followed by Tanner. When we got to the top of the stairs, neither of us was prepared for what we saw.

  The top floor of the house was severely damaged. Over one hundred years of history was wiped away in moments. There was major water damage on the main floor, and the roof was sheared away in several areas.

  “You realize this house is not habitable now, ma’m?” the officer asked me.

  “Yes. I understand…” I said, mouth still gaping open in shock. My furniture was ruined. What little I had brought with me was either gone altogether or damaged beyond repair.

  I felt like a black cloud had made its home above my head. Had John somehow orchestrated this tornado to steal more of my life away?

  “Who is the owner of this home?” the officer asked me as we stepped away to have a conversation.

  Tanner continued to walk around the living room and kitchen, looking up and down. While I talked with the officer, I could see the pain in Tanner’s face. He loved that old house, and he was just as devastated as I was.

  I finished up with the officer just in time to hear excitement in Tanner’s voice.

  “Shannon! Look!” he was pointing out the back window toward the guest house. I looked and saw the most amazing sight. The guest house and barn were still standing as if the tornado had skipped right over them.

  “Oh my goodness! I can’t believe it. They don’t look like they were hit at all. Tanner, how wonderful for you. Your home survived,” I said touching his shoulder.

  “Our home,” he said turning around and smiling.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You need a new place to live, right?” Tanner grinned like a schoolboy.

  “Um, no… I will go live with my sister…” I started to say.

  “Shannon, stay here. Build your new life here. Let me help you have fun again…” he pleaded with me. “I will be a good boy. I promise. No funny business.” Why didn’t I believe him?

  Chapter 13

  Against my better judgment, I told Tanner I would take him up on his offer to move in. The guest house only had one bedroom, but he offered to sleep on the pull-out sofa bed.

  It took a couple of hours for the police to finish up their work and instruct us on what to do. I called Parker to let him know what happened. He was none too happy that he would have to deal with the contractors and insurance company if he wanted the repair work done. Honestly, I wasn’t concerned about it. After all, it wasn’t my house anyway.

  I called Courtney, who was beside herself with worry. She was moving to her dorm the next day, so I assured her that I was fine. I never mentioned Tanner. Just told her I was moving into the guest house for the time being.

  Tanner prepared dinner that night again. It was grilled chicken with barbecue sauce, mashed potatoes and black eyed peas. I loved his Southern cooking. It made me feel at home. Cared about. Wanted.

  We piled onto the sofa after dinner and he turned on some music.

  “Long day…” Tanner said leaning his head back on the sofa. He was sitting with his back against one end and I was on the other end.

  “That’s an understatement,” I said exhausted. It was late in the evening when we ate dinner and now it was bedtime. But my mind was still racing, and I knew I couldn’t sleep yet.

  “Can I ask you something?” Tanner asked smiling.

  “Sure…”

  “Would you have let me kiss you?”

  “Maybe,” I whispered looking down at my hands. “But, it would have been wrong.”

  “Wrong? Why would it have been wrong?” Tanner reached over across the small sofa and tipped my chin up with his fingers.

  “Because my husband just died… and I promised…”

  “A husband who was a jerk and an abuser… And you promised what?” Tanner asked.

  “I promised myself that I would never let myself fall for another man again. I can’t risk it,” I responded.

  “So your plan is to go through life without loving any man again?”

  “Yep.” I snipped turning my head toward the front door.

  “And how is that working for you?”

  “Not very well right now…” I said smiling. “But there is a difference between love and lust.”

  “Oh… are you lusting after me, pretty lady?”

  “No, I am not… Just the heat of the moment…”

  “It’s in the heat of the moment when living begins, Shannon. How can you live when you are closed into a box that some abuser built for you?” Tanner asked.

  “Tanner, I just met you. It’s been a whirlwind of a week for me. Don’t push, please…” I pleaded looking into his eyes again.

  “I don’t mean to push you, Shannon. Really I don’t. I just see things in you that you don’t see. I don’t want to see you waste your life away by putting yourself into an invisible prison. That’s what John wanted…”

  “You sound very sure of that,” I responded with my eyebrows furrowed. “Did you ever meet John?”

  The silence was deafening. Tanner looked at me for a moment and stood up. He walked over to a small desk near the front door and pulled out an envelope.

  He sat back down and was on the edge
of the sofa looking down at the paper.

  “I have to tell you something about myself, Shannon,” he said quietly. Suddenly, my stomach knotted up because I knew I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear.

  “Okay…”

  “When Tina took Emmy, I needed an attorney. I had been trying to find her on my own, but I couldn’t. I called the law office and was paired with John. We only ever spoke on the phone. I told him that I didn’t have a lot of money, but I wanted to find my daughter. We talked a few times about it, and one day John called me. He said he had a job for me to do, and that if I did it well, he would find my daughter for free,”

  “A job?”

  “John had been diagnosed with his illness by then. He knew his days were numbered. He also knew that I had a lot of experience with horses. He told me about this place and said that I could live here and work with the horses…”

  “Yes, I know that part… But, what is in the envelope?” I asked.

  Tanner shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He sighed and shook his head to himself.

  “I told you that John had a trust fund. That fund pays for a lot of the expenses of living here. What I didn’t tell you is that John actually wanted me to do another job for him after he died. He wanted me to hurt you…” Tanner said as he handed me the envelope. The apologetic look on his face startled me.

  I slowly opened the envelope and took a deep breath to steel myself for whatever was inside. The contents shocked me. In it, I found a letter from John to Tanner spelling out the details of how he was to pretend to fall in love with me, lure me in and then dump me at the altar. He was to have a letter waiting for me back in the room at the church where I would hear from John from beyond the grave.

  His hatred for me was in every pore of the letter. For this “job”, Tanner would be paid $250,000 by Parker. That money was in a trust separate from the house one and the one set up for Courtney.

  “Oh, my God…” I said quietly as I laid the letter on the coffee table in front of me. “I knew he hated me, but I never knew how deep it went…”

  “I’m so sorry, Shannon… I wasn’t going to tell you…” Tanner started.

  “You weren’t going to tell me? You were just going to break my heart into a thousands pieces, leave me standing at the altar and cash your check?” I bolted up from the sofa with tears streaming down my face. I headed for the front door, but Tanner cut me off and slid his body between me and the door.

  “No… Shannon, please listen to me for a minute. Just a minute, okay?” Tanner pleaded.

  I stepped back and crossed my arms in front of me.

  “A minute,” I said sharply as I stared into his piercing green eyes.

  “When John tried to hire me for this extra job, I knew he was basically blackmailing me. If I didn’t comply, or at least tell him I would, he wouldn’t help me find Emmy. I would do anything for that little girl… just to brush those blond ringlets from her face or hold her hand while we go get an ice cream… You have a daughter, you know what I am saying here,” Tanner said, his face melting and my heart sinking.

  “I know… But how could you say you’d do it? What kind of man does that make you?”

  “I said I would do it because John promised he had connections that would find her. As the months wore on and he got sicker, Parker stopped answering my calls. Then, when John died, he called and said the plan was on. He said that he had a file on his desk with information about Emmy. He said that as soon as I left you standing at the altar, John instructed him to give me the file and the money…”

  I felt like my legs were turning to Jello. Here it hadn’t even been two weeks since John died and another man was already screwing up my life, my heart.

  “Shannon, when I saw you in the kitchen, wine all over you dancing around, I realized that John was the jerk. When I talked to you, danced with you, threw my body over yours, I knew that you were a good person. I knew I had to tell you. I couldn’t hurt you like that, even if it means I don’t find my daughter as quickly. I have integrity, and that can’t be bought…”

  The response I felt in my gut stunned me.

  “I cannot keep you from seeing your baby, Tanner. If it means that I have to pretend to fall in love with you and pretend to get jilted at the altar in front of everyone I know, I will do it… for you… to see your daughter,” I said looking up at him.

  “Shannon, I would never dream of doing that. I don’t want the money. Don’t you understand? It was never about that. It was about Emmy. But then I met you, and I can’t hurt you either. I care about you…” He stepped forward and tipped by chin up with his index finger. I didn’t pull away or move back.

  Slowly, he leaned down without diverting his eyes. His lips pressed into mine, and I felt a shiver up my spine. His lips were soft and moist and divine. He moaned slightly as he reached his hand around to hold the base of my head. The other hand made its way to the small of my back.

  Sensations wracked my body in ways that I hadn’t ever felt before. This man wanted me. He had been honest with me. He was protecting me. I reached up and put my arms around his neck pulling him closer into me, running my fingers through his thick hair.

  He kissed down my neck and around behind my ear. I could feel his warm breath on my neck and I arched my neck back from the electricity I felt. I wanted more of those lips and turned my head to meet them.

  His kiss was more wanting and desperate this time. Our tongues met as we kissed deeper and deeper. It was as if we were trying to move right through each other. I started stepping backward pulling him with me down onto the sofa.

  On top of me, Tanner was running his hands up and down my sides as I played with his hair. The sensuality of the moment overwhelmed me, captivated me, scared me.

  “Tanner… Tanner…. Wait… I can’t,” I said pushing him back as I sat up and covered my mouth.

  “What’s wrong?” Tanner sat up and rubbed his hand on my cheek.

  “This isn’t right. I can’t do this again…” Tears pouring down my cheeks, I jumped up, grabbed my purse and ran out into the rain that had started after the storm. I ran as fast as I could to the front of the house. Fumbling with my keys, I started trying to unlock my SUV. I just had to get out of there before I did anything I regretted. Like falling in love.

  “Shannon! Shannon, wait!” Tanner was running behind me. I could see him in the rear view mirror as I bolted from the farm. From his life. From my fear.

  Chapter 14

  “Girl, you look like a wet dog… What in the world happened? Come in…” Denise said as she answered her door that night.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I muttered as I walked into her foyer drenched in raindrops and tears.

  “You ALWAYS want to talk about,” she said giggling a bit.

  She was right. My sister knew me well, and she knew I would eventually spill the beans about whatever was bothering me. She poured me a glass of red wine, which made me think about Tanner even more.

  The two hour drive to her house gave me a lot of time to think. About Tanner. About that kiss that just about curled my toenails.

  I spent 45 minutes telling Denise everything. About the tornado. About Tanner throwing his body on mine in the basement… and then again in his living room. About John’s plan and the letter and Emmy. Spilled the beans on everything.

  “Wow, that is quite a story. You really know how attract drama, Shan,” Denise said with a smile.

  “I am so over drama, Denise. I thought my drama died with John,” I said rolling my eyes.

  “Love is dramatic,” Denise commented offhand.

  “Love? What’s love got to do with it?”

  “Well, Tina Turner, I think you might be falling in love…”

  “I’ve only known him a couple of days,” I said in an irritated tone.

  “People fall in love like that, Shannon. With Dan, I fell almost immediately from across the room. You know that. We only dated for two months and got married. It h
appens!”

  “Well, it isn’t happening to me. I won’t let myself…”

  “Let yourself what, Shannon? Be happy?” Denise put her hand over mine on the table. “Don’t seal yourself off, dear sister.”

  “That’s what Tanner says. He wants to know why I am putting myself in a prison that John created…”

  “I am liking this Tanner fellow more and more,” she winked.

  “You would like him, actually. He’s kind and sweet and gentle…” I trailed off placing myself right back in his arms, at least in my mind.