Read Online A Beautiful Wreck (Second Chance #3) by CeeCee James - Free Book Online Page B

sarcastically.
    “Twenty-seven!”
    “Don’t say it like that. It’s not like I’m over the hill.”
    “No, I’m just surprised. Leif was—would have been twenty-four.”
    “Yeah, my little cousin.”
    “What happened, Luke? How did you end up in a foster home?”
    “Dad left my mom and me to go start a new family. Mom got sick. Stepmom didn’t want me. I come from good stock.”
    “Your mom?” Her words came out in a whisper.
    “Gone. My dad’s still kicking around somewhere. Not that I care.”
    “You ever try to get back into contact with him?”
    Luke looked at her like she was crazy, and she regretted the question. “Hell, no! He made his choices in life, just like I have to make mine.”
    Cassie frowned. “I’m sorry.”
    “Life. It is what it is.”
    “Why wereyou at the house that day?”
    A heavy exhale escaped his lips. The silence between them lengthened. Finally, he said, “I go there to look for a sign that wherever Jennifer is now, she’s okay. I’ve never been able to make it all the way from the driveway to the house since it happened. Then, seeing you that day, I couldn’t help but hope.”
    “Hope what?”
    “That you were her, offering to forgive me.”
    Cassie felt the air rush from her lungs. “Luke….”
    “I know. I know.” His words were slow, as if he were trying to soothe her.
    She relaxed a bit, although her pulse still thrummed in her neck.
    “Although, I’ll admit, the whiskey did help to blind me.”
    “Um. How do I respond to that?”
    “You don’t need to,” he answered.
    Cassie crammed her hand into her pocket and felt the crucifix, the chain still in a tangled ball. She looked over at him. He rubbed his temples with one hand before blinking hard and staring back up at the sky. Slowly, she removed her hand, leaving the necklace behind.
    “It’s funny how you think you’re doing okay,” she said. Slowly, she twisted in the swing and the metal chain spiraled together. “Like, I’m past the worst of it. Then, out of the blue, some small thing will knock me to the knees. It could be a smell, or a song. Once it was this guy who looked just like Leif, driving a truck that passed me on the highway.” She smiled sadly. “I don’t know why. It’s like all rational thought left me in that moment, and I was convinced it was him. I actually sped to catch up to him.”
    “Not him.”
    “No, of course not. But I didn’t get to see Leif after he died. So a part of me still doesn’t completely believe, I think.” The story made her feel foolish. She released her footing and the swing twirled to unwind. When it stopped, she nervously glanced in his direction.
    Luke's eyes studied her intently. He nodded. “I get it. Once, I chased after a girl in the supermarket because she looked so much like Jennifer.” He clenched his eyes sheepishly. “I seriously thought they were going to call security. In my defense, I was pretty drunk that day.”
    “What did you do when you found out it wasn’t her?”
    “Ahh, apologized. Went home to my friend, Jack Daniels, and tried to drown out the embarrassment.”
    She reached over and rubbed the back of his hand which was hanging onto the swing’s chain. “It’s okay to grieve, Luke.”
    “You, too. Now do you feel better? It’s not just you.”
    “Yes, I guess so.”
    “You know, you’re the first person I’ve talked to who has any idea of what I’ve gone through." 
    Cassie’s eyebrows flickered and she nodded.
    “But you’re surviving.” His voice held a hint of incredulousness.
    “I’m pretty sure you’re the only one to call what I’ve been doing surviving.” She laughed sarcastically.
    “You don’t have hope?”
    “I have ‘trying to take the next step, and then the next.’”
    “Weird, because being around you makes me feel something like hope.” He nudged his swing into motion. “I want that.”
    “Maybe I’m still living on the love Leif left behind. Maybe you can, too?”
    “I