Real Love 2 (Second Chances)

Second Chances

(Real Love Series – Book 2)

Christian Novella

H. H. Fowler

Copyright © 2015 H. H. Fowler

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All characters, names, descriptions, and traits are products of the author’s imagination. Similarities of actual people – living or dead are purely coincidental.

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Dear Reader,

Off the coast of the Bahama Islands, there is a fictional place called Devin’s Cay. The series consists of seven books, which could be considered standalones, but are intricately tied to each other. My hope is that you will be entertained, inspired and illuminated.

If Only You Were Mine (Book 1)

Second Chances (Book 2)

Hungry Hearts (Book 3)

If Loving You is Wrong (Book 4)

Love the One You’re With (Book 5)

I’m Still in Love With You (Book 6)

Love Knows No Bounds (Book7)

CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

Excerpt from Hungry Hearts (Book 3)

From the Desk of H.H. Fowler

Chapter One

Sasha, please, slow down!

Drake barely caught his wife’s lithe frame turning the corridor, determined to get away from him. He’d finally tracked her down and he was not going to let her get away from him. They had to talk about this situation with Levi. But Drake didn’t get why Sasha was so upset when she was the one who’d cheated on him. He almost felt justified leaving her for those six months because it certainly didn’t compare to what she’d done to him. However, this negative chain of thoughts was not what Drake wanted at the start of their conversation. Because it was such thinking that had kept him from seeking reconciliation with his wife in the first place.

Sasha, Drake called, right before she’d slammed one of Hunter’s bedroom doors in his face, are you going to calm down so that we can talk?

So now you wanna talk, she spat back. You should have thought about that six months ago when I begged you to tell me what was going on with you. You looked at me with disdain and intentionally said things to hurt my feelings. The next thing I knew, you disappeared without a trace.

I didn’t disappear; I went to Tampa and stayed with my brother.

Sasha pulled the room door open and looked at Drake like he’d lost his mind. I didn’t know where you were. If you wanted me to find you, you would have said so in the note you left me, which by the way, were some of the most heartless and painful words I’ve ever laid eyes upon. And the thing that hurt me the most was that you never gave me the opportunity to explain my side of the story. That was so selfish of you – to treat me with such blatant disrespect, as if I never mattered to you!

I realize now that I’d made a very immature decision, Drake tried to explain, but Sasha, pause for a minute and put yourself in my shoes…

I don’t need to put myself in your shoes, she snapped, because I would have never done what you did, no matter how hurt I was.

Sasha spun away from Drake because his handsome face was making it hard for her to enjoy her anger. Those six months he’d been gone, she’d cried herself to sleep almost every night, wishing she didn’t miss him so much. But she did, so much so that she thought she would literally die from the loneliness. Now he was suddenly back in her life and she did not know how to react.

Drake followed Sasha into the room, closing the door behind him. Can you imagine what it was like for me, seeing you in Levi’s arms, kissing him, and we hadn’t even been married a week? What was I to think – how was I to react – especially when I had an anonymous note in my pocket that said you’d slept with my best friend?

Sasha kept her back turned toward Drake. Do you even know who sent that note to you?

Does it matter?

Of course it matters… It matters because the note wasn’t true. It matters because Levi was the one who sent it. It matters because you believed it and acted upon it and allowed it to ruin years of trust between us.

Drake crumpled his forehead in confusion, as his perception of the situation began to disintegrate into a million pieces. Who told you that Levi sent that note?

No one told me anything… Sasha whirled around and leveled her gaze with Drake’s. The way Levi had been acting, following me around and trying to seduce me, I figured it out myself. I turned his house upside down and found the notepad from where the note had been written – the very same notepad you bought me almost three summers ago. Levi stole it because his intention had always been to find a way to ruin our relationship. But had you stayed in Devin’s Cay, you would have discovered this for yourself and saved us both six months of wasted time.

Drake was at a loss for words. Did he even dare believe Sasha was telling the truth? This was Levi they were talking about – his best friend from their prepubescent years. He paced away from her, feeling his heart grow cold all of a sudden, because it was impossible to believe Levi had been that calculating. Where do you suggest we go from here? he asked her.

Are you serious? I can’t believe you asked me that question. Sasha felt the switch in Drake’s mood and she didn’t like it one bit. If your mind is not made up about saving this marriage, why did you come back to Devin’s Cay? Well, of course, you came back for Rev. Henderson’s funeral. How could I have missed that? I was just an afterthought.

Sasha, that is not true…

Admit it, Drake, you don’t know what you want! And until you do, my suggestion is that you go back to Tampa and let’s pretend that we never had this conversation.

You don’t mean that.

Of course I don’t. But I refuse to live my life in limbo and endure the misery of not knowing how you really feel about me.

Drake ached to touch his wife’s slightly-full lips, which were quivering and moist with tears. He wished he could turn back the hands of time and do things differently. For starters, he wouldn’t have abandoned her, because he saw how his actions had done more damage than good.

I think you should go, she said after a long stretch of silence, because I don’t know what else to say to you. It is as if I don’t know who you are anymore.

Drake choked back his tears. He probably deserved every harsh word Sasha was tossing in his direction. However, he was honestly trying to purge his mind of the last six months. But he just didn’t know how to do it. I am sorry –

Sasha stopped him. Don’t say it; just leave and think about what you really want. But whenever you come to your senses, I can’t promise you that I will be around.

The air felt like it had been sucked out of the atmosphere. Sasha took in a deep breath anyway, dried her tears and walked out of the room.

Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of a man are never satisfied.

Proverbs 27:20

Chapter Two

It hadn’t even been three days since Rev. T. G. Henderson had been buried six feet under and his life’s toil was already being challenged by those he’d left behind to run the church. For starters, the commencing of Thursday night bible study had been upped from 7:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., prayer meeting had been scaled back from early Friday morning to Saturday evening and Rev. Henderson’s office was presently being stripped of its décor to accommodate its new occupant, the unopposed contender, Elder John Dewey.

Elder John, as he’d always been called, who was one of the oldest surviving members of El Shaddai Ministries, had a convincing way about him. He made it clear to the board that even though Drake Beckford was Rev. Henderson’s first choice to become the next bishop, he (Elder John) had been his second. And since Drake had been ‘missing in action’ the last six months, it would be a grave insult to thrust such an unstable young man to the helm of power.

It didn’t matter that Drake had used Rev. Henderson’s funeral as a platform to apologize for his waywardness, and that the congregation went giddy with their applause, the