Page 2 of Second Chances

“Right—like you were the first couple ever to get married while pregnant. For a variety of reasons, it wasn’t exactly a happy day, was it, Lottie? Honestly, the entire summer was hell. While I was getting ready for college, you were getting ready for a baby.” Amy squeezed Charlotte’s hand in hers. “We never got to be college roommates like we had planned.” Charlotte, with her looming due date, had not gone to the University of Iowa as she had intended.

“Can I confess something? When you left for Iowa City that August, I was so envious. Maybe a little resentful, too,” she shook her head, “of both you and Brady. It wasn’t fair that he still got to go to college. I mean, sure, he never left Sioux City, but his plans weren’t derailed, like mine.” A tractor two cars ahead of them made traffic crawl along Main Street. In the silence of the car, Charlotte admitted to her lifelong friend, “You know, I was planning on breaking up with Brady that summer. Didn’t want to be one of those stereotypical girls starting college with a boyfriend.” She emitted a small chuckle. “Instead, by the time I finally started college, I had not only a husband but also a five-year-old.” Beginning her adult life had been nothing like she had expected, but she had no choice but to come to terms with her reality quickly.

“Oh, Lottie,” Amy assured her, “it’s okay to have mixed feelings about everything. Even if your marriage wasn’t the steamy love affair you’ve read about in books, you guys were together a long time.”

“That’s why it was so hard to let go. Staying married was safe.” And an unspoken agreement between Charlotte and Brady, until he met someone else, leaving her to question how much of her life she had put on hold while devoting herself to her family. “Now here I am: single and fifty.” And confused with her newly found freedom.

The tractor finally turned, and they came to a shop called Mr. Beans. “Does this look okay?” Amy pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head after parallel parking.

“Does what look okay? Your parking job or you using your sunglasses as a headband? You know I hate that,” she teased, switching her own sunglasses to her regular eyewear.

“No, you bitch, does this place look okay for lunch?” Amy clarified with a chuckle. “Don’t get salty with me about my sunglasses. We all have our own styles, and this is mine!”

“I stand corrected,” Charlotte grinned. “I’m just jealous my glasses always need to be on my face, not on top of my head. And yes, this place looks great. Ooh, look at the menu board. The special is a warm chicken salad sandwich. Yum—” Halting suddenly, her gaze rested on a man across the street. Sitting on a bench outside an auto shop, with one leg crossed over the other, he held a book in one hand and a coffee cup in the other. A baseball cap pulled low didn’t obscure his face, nor deter her intense, visceral reaction to him. When someone came out of the building to talk to him, the man put his cup down and removed his cap, running one of his hands through silver-streaked dark blond hair that glinted attractively in the midday sun.

“‘Yum’, indeed,” Amy concurred in her ear. “Are you done ogling the man candy? I get it if you’re not. He is hot, but I am starving.”

“What? I wasn’t—” The lift in her best friend’s eyebrow signaled to her she wasn’t buying the denial, so she stopped. When had a man, including her own husband, caused such a primal reaction in her? Giving her friend credit, she agreed he was very attractive, but some intangible quality about him intrigued her even more.

“I’m guessing divorce doesn’t seem so bad after all, does it?” Amy commented lightly, and Charlotte gave an unsure laugh.

After the women placed their orders at the counter, Charlotte used the restroom before joining Amy at a table, where her friend wore a devilish grin. “Lottie, do you believe in fate?”

Uneasiness spiked in her. “Um…why?” When Amy started talking about anything paranormal or extraordinary, Charlotte proceeded with caution.

In a low voice, Amy said, “I just heard our neighbors talking about the English teacher retiring at the high school next year.”

Charlotte glanced over to the table next to them, where two younger men sat. “Okay…so?” Uneasy with her friend’s satisfied smile, Charlotte had absolutely no idea where she was going with the conversation.

“So? This could be it!” Amy grinned.

“How much sugar did you put in that?” Charlotte nodded at the iced mocha in Amy’s hand. “I am going to need you to please speak coherently.”

With an exaggerated sigh, Amy clarified, “This could be your chance to shake things up! Like that Reba song, ‘Is There Life Out There?’ Take a chance, make a move, start fresh.”

Charlotte shook her head, “Not exactly sure that’s how the song goes, Ames.” Though not entirely willing to follow her friend’s line of thinking, she was slightly intrigued but played ignorant. “Still not getting where this is going.”

Amy grumbled, “It’s about you. How many times have you complained about living in Sioux City? How many times have you told me you wished for something better? Something different?” Okay, so her best friend was going there. Amy reached over to take one of Charlotte’s hands. “Just between you and me right now, be completely honest. Even if you don’t admit it to me, at least be honest with yourself.” Without giving Charlotte a chance to respond, Amy rushed on, “We both know that if you hadn’t gotten pregnant with Isobel, you wouldn’t have married Brady, right? I mean, you just admitted to me in the car that you were going to break up with him. Which I already knew, by the way. Like you could keep that from your best friend. Please…”

Closing her eyes, Charlotte held Amy’s words in her mind. She’d pondered these questions herself throughout the years, and a sense of betrayal always immediately followed. She had never envisioned staying in Iowa, let alone living in Sioux City for the rest of her life. One year at the University of Iowa, maybe two, before she transferred out of state somewhere, destination unknown. When she was eighteen, that had been her plan. Unsure of anything else in her senior year, Charlotte’s dreams had been considerable—paleontologist, art historian, actress—that was the point of youth. In the end, when she had finally attended college, she had chosen a “sensible” career: English teacher, and though it may not have been her dream, she had treasured it for almost twenty-five years. And she couldn’t imagine a world in which her daughter didn’t exist, since Isobel was her greatest blessing. Emotions running high, she admitted, “I hate even thinking that way now. It makes me feel like I regret having Isobel.”

“Lottie, no one is saying that. But right now, you are entirely free: Issy is grown, with her own life. Brady has moved on.” Amy’s eyes held hers. “You guys sold your house, and you need to move anyway, right? Why not here?”

Was her best friend insane? Charlotte looked around dramatically to prove her point. “So, just pick up and move to the middle of nowhere? Hours away from you, from my daughter…from my home?”

“Listen, you could use some separation from your kid so you stop using her as a crutch. Besides, with my schedule, it’s not like we see each other every day, anyway. Plus, this isn’t that far from Sioux City, only a smidge over two hours!”

“You can’t be serious. I know absolutely no one here,” she protested.

“And? Look how nice everyone has been so far!”

“You mean the barista, who is paid to make our drinks and take our orders?”

Amy wiggled her eyebrows. “Your first friend could be that sexy man from across the street.”

“God, Amy, you are incorrigible.” Charlotte shook her head, even as she tingled thinking about him.

Amy abruptly turned to the table next to theirs. “Excuse me, I’m so sorry for interrupting, but you two seem nice. Can I introduce my friend and myself?” Charlotte rolled her eyes.”I’m Amy Scully, and this is Charlotte Berg.”