Second Chance Christmas

by Jahquel J

Genres: Holiday Romance

Synopsis

Old flames are reunited with the burden of their past and a love that still lingers in this heartfelt holiday romance by Jahquel J.

Being known as the daughter of the Sageport’s town drunk always left Faith Stone defending her mother and herself. Her only solace was her boyfriend, Rome. Even as a teenager, Faith knew she wanted forever with Rome Atkins. Their small town, her mother’s struggles, and everyone’s opinions of their relationship couldn’t hold them back forever. After graduation, they would put Sageport behind them and start life anew together . . . but prom night changed everything.

Fifteen years later, Faith, now a divorced, single parent, finds herself back in Sageport for the holidays. The memories and pain are still fresh, as if everything happened yesterday, especially when she runs into Rome, who never left Sageport. Also fresh are the unexpected lingering feelings they still harbor for each other. Do old wounds run too deep, or can the joy of Christmas provide enough healing power for a second chance love reunion?

Release date: September 24, 2024

Publisher: Black Odyssey Media

Print pages: 288

Sample

FAITH

GOD, I HATED Fridays.

I stood behind the counter and sipped my coffee while listening to my children bicker about who would ride shotgun on the school drop-off.

It was less than a month until Christmas break, and I was counting down the days until I was rid of the carpool lines and complaints from both kids.

“Daddy said he would make it to my school play tonight.” Madison, my daughter, stood on her toes and batted her long lashes at me.

Lashes that she inherited from her father.

Lucky bastard.

Ashton wouldn’t make her school play because he never made her plays. He had too many meetings that were always far more important than his family. Madison knew he wouldn’t make it, but that never stopped her from believing he would show up with the pink and purple roses she always requested.

“How about we call him on our way to school?” I nuzzled her hair and waited for that look of satisfaction to come across her face.

Once it did, which it always did, I gently ushered her toward the mud room to grab all her things for school.

“Okay, Mommy. We can call hi—”

“I want to call him first.” Mayven interrupted her sister and bumped into her at the same time. “Daddy wants me to call him first,” she continued.

“No! I’m calling Daddy!” Madison shoved her sister back before I got in the middle of them.

“Mayven, have you packed your things into your backpack?” I crossed my arms and stared down at my daughter, who loved testing my patience.

Especially when we were running behind.

“No, Mama . . . I want to ca—”

“I don’t want to hear another word unless you have everything packed and ready to go.”

Mayven groaned before stomping off to the mudroom to make sure all of her things were ready for school. Madison stood there with a sly expression fixed on her lips before skipping off to the mudroom to do the very same thing.

Madison and Mayven were eight years old and the most opposite set of twins I had ever met. Usually, twins loved to spend time with each other.

That was utterly false when it came to my set.

Ashton and I even hired a therapist to see if it was normal. Mayven and Madison were just twins who enjoyed having their own things and space. They hated being treated like twins and loved when treated like individuals. If Madison were picking out a purple shirt, then Mayven would go out of her way to find a shirt that was the furthest thing from purple. The only time I got away with dressing them alike was when they were too young to speak out against it.

Every morning, I put out tiny fires to avoid a bigger explosion. The goal was to get out the door in one piece and without a meltdown from either child. Some days, it felt nearly impossible.

“When are you going to call Daddy?” Mayven asked the moment I buckled myself into my car.

I looked in the rearview mirror and heaved a sigh before responding. Mayven was so intense, and at times, her tone didn’t feel like it belonged to an eight-year-old child.

“Your tone, May.”

She sucked her teeth and folded her arms. Some days, I didn’t know how I would survive when the girls turned into teenagers. I remember how I was as a teen, and they wouldn’t be anything like me. My daughters had way more attitude than I ever had when I was their age.

They also weren’t a big fan of hiding their feelings. Unlike me, whenever they were having big feelings, they would let it be known.

“You never let me call Daddy. It’s always Madison’s turn, and I’m sick of it,” she continued with her sassiness.

Today wasn’t the day to go back and forth with Mayven. This morning, it took every ounce of energy to pull myself out of bed and have a smile plastered across my face while making their breakfast. Whoever said divorce got easier definitely lied or didn’t like their husband to begin with.

“Jesus Christ, enough, Mayven . . . Shit!” I hollered, losing my shit in the process.

I had made it a rule long before the girls were born that I would never lose my temper with them or raise my voice. I went through my entire childhood always walking on pins and needles because I feared what would set my mother off next.

I didn’t want that for my kids.

“Hello?” I heard Ashton’s voice come from my phone.

I gripped the steering wheel and lowered my head, wondering how this day could get any worse. Ashton hearing me lose my temper with Mayven wasn’t something that I wanted to experience today.

Madison knew that I was irritated, so she just handed me back the phone. I looked back at my girls before getting out of the car to have a conversation I didn’t want to have.

“Good morning.” I leaned against the driver’s door.

“Sounds like a hectic morning . . . Is everything good over there?”

I wanted to scream and remind him of our obligations following our divorce.

No.

I wasn’t all right, and I wished he never uttered those five words. Nothing would ever be all right with breaking up our family because we couldn’t get it right. I wanted so much out of my marriage.

Maybe too much.

I sacrificed so much to be my husband’s backbone, the person he could turn to when things in the outside world became too demanding. I carried our daughters in my womb, nearly dying, while still trying to turn our house into a home. I had given so much of myself to him, and now, I had nothing to show for it.

No. Everything wasn’t all right over here.

“Ash, your daughter wants you to attend her play tonight.” I ignored his painful question and focused on the reason he was even on the phone in the first place.

I could tell from the silence on the other end of the phone that he was about to let our daughter down this morning. The girls were true daddy’s girls and loved spending time with their father. Anything that Ashton was doing, they wanted to do the same thing.

“Um . . . Damn. This is kind of last minute, Faith. I’m in meetings all day, and my last one is the biggest one. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it to the school in time.”

“This has been on our shared calendar for the past two months. Ash, you even dropped her off to a few rehearsals.” I jogged his memory.

Since the divorce, we had a shared calendar for the girls. Both girls were involved in different activities, and I always wanted us to be on the same page when it came to them. Ashton knew this, and I always kept the calendar updated with everything the girls had going on. It infuriated me that he never paid attention to what I set in place to make this transition smoother.

“I know, I know. I’ve been busy with work, so I haven’t had a chance to catch up with everything. Tell Maddie that I’ll make it up to her this weekend.”

“You’re always making something up to someone,” I muttered.

“Seriously, Faith?”

“Goodbye, Ashton.” I quickly ended the call and stood outside the car for five minutes to catch my breath.

I had to climb back into the car, apologize to Mayven, and then make an excuse about why Ashton couldn’t make tonight’s play. Some days, I wanted to be honest and tell her that we weren’t a priority to Daddy. I also knew that would cause more damage in the long run.

“Hey, Faith, are you going to meet us for drinks after the play?” Sherri Richards, the most annoying PTA mom, popped her head over the shrubs that separated her home from ours—mine.

I knew the drinks were nothing more than an invite to get into my personal business. A few drinks would cause loose lips, and she would eat it right up.

“You know, Sherri . . . I’m not sure I’ll be able to get a sitter tonight. Rain check?” I offered an apologetic smile and opened the car door.

My short moment of decompressing was over, thanks to my annoying neighbor.

“Awe, that’s all right. I know how hard it has been with the divorce. Let me know anytime you need a break . . . Lolly and I would love to have the girls over to play.”

The girls hated Lolly Richards and made sure to show their displeasure each time she rang our doorbell. It was rare for the girls to agree on something together, but when it came to Lolly, they both agreed that they hated her and didn’t want to play over at her house anymore.

“Thanks, Sherri. Let me get the girls to school . . . Catch up soon,” I lied, knowing I wouldn’t be catching up with her and would remember to park in the garage from now on.

The car was silent when I closed the door behind me. I hated how I lost my temper with Mayven and should have been better about it. It seemed like everything was being tossed my way this morning, and I couldn’t deal with it.

“I’m sorry for screaming at you, Mayven,” I started the conversation. “Mommy shouldn’t have taken her big feelings out on you, and for that, I’m sorry.”

Mayven smiled weakly. “It’s all right, Mom.”

Mom. The word I hated the most. While Maddie still called me Mommy, Mayven had commenced calling me Mom.

Just Mom.

It felt so formal, as if the little girl I carried and loved on had vanished, and this little woman had stepped into her place.

“I love you girls with my entire heart. You know how Dr. Vicky spoke to you girls about big feelings?”

They both nodded their heads in unison.

“Well, Mommy had big feelings today. I’m going to do better to check them before lashing out at you . . . okay?”

“It’s all right, Mommy.” Madison was the first one to speak. “We all have big feelings sometimes.”

Mayven remained silent. I reached my hand toward the back and rubbed her knee. “Are you okay, May?”

“I’m okay, Mom.” She offered me a smile.

Somehow, I felt like she was saying it just to please me. I looked over at Madison and smiled at her. “Baby, your father has meetings all day today. He’s not going to make it, Bug.”

The sadness in Madison’s eyes spoke volumes without her even having to open her mouth. It pained me to know how much faith my daughter put in her father and how he always found a way to let her down in the end.

“Okay, Mommy.”

I quickly turned around before I became emotional. My daughters were my world, and I hated that the one person who constantly let them down was their father. Ashton had always put everything before me, and I always dealt with it. But it was a whole new feeling with him doing it to our daughters.

“Do you think he’ll be able to come to my jazz recital?” Mayven finally spoke up, and I stared at my sweet child in the mirror.

“Hopefully. Daddy and I will talk and see what he can attend and what he can’t . . . Sound good?”

They both nodded and pulled their tablets out of the back pocket of the seats. I wasn’t usually a fan of screen time before school, but after this morning’s “festivities,” I think we all could use a welcomed distraction. I put on our favorite Beyoncé song and quietly hummed along to the words while the girls became lost in their favorite apps.

Since the divorce, we agreed to put the kids into therapy. They needed someone to talk to help them get through this tough time. They had always been used to a home that had both their parents. Despite how absent Ashton had been, they were used to seeing Daddy making a cup of coffee before bolting out the door to make it to the office. If we were lucky, he might come home earlier than expected with takeout, so I didn’t have to cook.

It didn’t matter how inconsistent I thought my husband was. The girls thought the world of him. He was a good father—when he was present.

Ashton had always worked outside the home while my job was raising our daughters. While Ash worked long hours to put food on the table, I had my hands full, raising our two babies. It was a challenge, but I welcomed it. I wanted to prove I could hold down our home while he ventured into the world to make us money. I wanted my kids to look back on their childhood and smile.

Not cringe like I did.

My parenting style came from the home I wanted as a child. I wanted my mother to be soft, apologetic, and comforting. However, she was the opposite of all of that, and I had trauma that I refused to deal with as an adult.

I never wanted my daughters to look back and have to pay endless amounts of money to unpack some childhood trauma in therapy. That was why I held onto my marriage with their father for as long as I did. I wanted our children to witness a healthy marriage, which I had never witnessed.

They deserved that.

I deserved that.

FAITH

I RUSHED INTO MY favorite restaurant in town and plopped across from my best friend. She stared at me for a second, then raised her already-filled wineglass and tapped the side, mouthing “bottle” to the waiter. These were the times I appreciated having a best friend who could read my body language without me having to utter a single word.

“Thank you, Tierra.” I finally let out a breath and plopped my bag beside me. “Today has been a long day,” I confessed.

The girls’ usual sitter was able to meet me at the school and take the girls home after Madison’s play. My baby girl did wonderfully, and I was there waiting with a bouquet of pink roses.

Apparently, you needed to put in a special order for the purple roses.

I held back tears during the entire play because I knew how much it would have meant to Madison if her father had shown up. He couldn’t put his daughter first and his job second. Not even once. Watching every daughter run into her father’s arms after the performance was hard. Madison looked around before her eyes landed on me, and she rushed into my arms.

It was hard.

I didn’t think I would have been attending my child’s school play alone at thirty-two. When I held my daughters in my arms when they were born, I envisioned a different future for us. I was determined to give them everything I never had.

“How did our superstar do with her play?” Tierra had accepted the bottle from the waiter and filled my glass nearly to the rim.

“Um, I still have to drive home after this,” I giggled but accepted the glass when she handed it to me.

“Girl, your face tells me everything I need to know about your day. Drink the wine and worry about getting home later.” Tierra waved me off.

The funny part was that Tierra used to be Ashton’s personal assistant. At one point, we spoke more than my husband and I did. Tierra would remember to send flowers on anniversaries or important dates that Ashton had scribbled on their calendar. Half the gifts I received were because she picked them out with Ash’s credit card. Tierra played a vital role in our life for the three years she worked for him.

When Mayven had a fever, and Ash was away on business, she rushed over to my house to watch Madison so that I didn’t have to take her with me to the emergency room. Tierra always went above and beyond for the girls and me.

Even when she didn’t have to.

Over the years that she worked for Ashton, we formed a bond. On the days I had a sitter for the girls, we would have dinner together and have girl talk. She became my only friend and one who understood how lonely I was in my marriage.

“Ashton didn’t make it to her play tonight.” I slumped further down in my chair and sipped the wine.

“Please don’t tell me that’s why you’re all disheveled tonight?”

I silenced the call I had received and then turned my attention back to Tierra. “She was so hurt. All she wanted was for her father to be there holding roses for her.”

Tierra took a sip of her wine while shaking her head. “I hate this for her.”

“He misses nearly all of the girls’ events, and I’m the one who has to make an excuse and wipe their tears.”

“How about you stop making excuses for him? I understood why you did it before . . . He was your husband. Just like you have a duty to be the best parent to those girls, he needs to have the same duty.”

I desperately wanted to stop making excuses for Ashton. He made it all too easy to stop making them when he didn’t show up for our children the way that he was supposed to. He was a hero in our girls’ eyes, and I didn’t want to be the person who tarnished that image for them.

Gulping some wine, I cut my eyes at her. “It’s not as easy as you’re trying to make it. Not making excuses means I have to explain more, and the girls will start to hate him.”

“Not hate him . . . They will see that he’s breaking his promises with them. You can’t shelter them from reality, Faith. Eventually, they’re going to figure out things on their own.”

As much as I wanted to disagree with Tierra, I knew she was right. Since the girls were born, I always made excuses for their father’s absence. I often felt guilty about complaining because he was trying to earn a living for us. As an investment banker, it was his job always to be available to his clients. For so long, I tried to be the understanding and supportive wife who stood by her husband.

At first, it was after this promotion, and then he could be more present and not work so many late hours. However, after that promotion, he needed another one so we could take a big family vacation.

When was enough ever going to be enough?

“It’s hard.”

“Only because you didn’t want this divorce. I, more than anyone, know how much you loved your husband and would have fought to keep your family together.”

I would have.

My happiness meant nothing if it meant keeping my family under one roof. I wanted to be the success story that everyone boasted about. All I wanted was for my husband to choose me for once.

Choose us.

Instead, he continued to put his career before our marriage.

Before his children.

Before everything that he ever cared about.

When was it enough?

“I wanted us to work so bad.” I sniffled and took another sip of wine.

Maybe it was the wine that caused me to be more emotional than usual. I wanted my marriage to last, and I wanted my husband.

“I know, baby. I know.” Tierra reached her hand across the table and grabbed my hand. “I also know that you were unhappy in that marriage, and you deserve to be happy.”

The thing about friendship was that you bared your entire soul to that one person. Tierra had witnessed me at my best and worst. She had front-row seats to the destruction of my marriage. I wished it was as easy as Ashton having an affair and leaving me for a younger woman.

That would have been easier.

I almost wished another woman was the problem in our marriage. Maybe then, I could sleep at night knowing I wasn’t the problem within our marriage. As much as I placed the blame on Ashton, I stopped trying. Our sex life had always been the star of our relationship, and it died. The only conversations we had revolved around the girls.

We both stopped trying, but Ashton had stopped way before I did. It seemed like he didn’t care to keep me. All the late hours sure didn’t help our situation either. All I wanted was for my husband to care.

To love me.

Show me that I meant the world to him.

After having two babies at once, I knew my body didn’t look the same as before. I changed because having children did that to you. We both knew that by having kids, things would change and wouldn’t be the same.

We went from living in a skyrise to moving to the suburbs of Atlanta. Our usual dinner dates were put on pause because we had two babies to take care of. When we did have a sitter, I spent all my time wondering what the kids were up to. I had become so wrapped in motherhood that I didn’t make time for him.

I blamed myself for a while.

As the girls became older, I tried to step back into my role as a wife. It never felt the same. I always felt like I was trying too hard, or maybe he wasn’t trying enough. Our date nights were filled with both of us asking useless questions until the check was paid. Even the car rides home were filled with silence.

Not a flirtatious laugh or a touch on my thigh while we waited for the light to turn green.

Nothing.

Ashton couldn’t wait until we walked through th. . .