Love's Second Chance (Second Chances #1)(61)

“Yes, we need to call them. I’m sure they’ll understand why we didn’t call them sooner. We needed that time together.” When I was about to pick up the phone to call his family, Galen stopped me. “I love you, Korinne. I would have fought to the end of time to come back to you.”

“I know you would have, but you’re here now, and we have so many new experiences we need to share with each other.” I paused to stare into his bright blue eyes, the eyes I’d missed seeing for so long. “And I love you. Now that you’ve fulfilled your promise to come back to me, it looks like you’re stuck with me … and our child.”

Galen smiled. “I think I can live with that.”





Chapter Twenty-Four





I didn’t remember much about the coma. It was like I was in a void, neither here nor there. It was like a passing of time where I was non-existent, and not even a part of the world. Ten months have passed, and my body is just beginning to feel normal. Being told of the repercussions was really scary. Not knowing how long my kidney was going to last was the biggest thing. I wanted to live, and I wanted to be there for Korinne and the baby.

My therapy came from Korinne and my little girl. Looking at them every day reminded me of how I needed to push through the obstacles and move through the pain. My leg still ached from time to time, but it was manageable. I hobbled around for a few months on it until I regained the strength in my muscles. I sold my other motorcycle and promised Korinne I would never ride again. Now that I had a family of my own, I couldn’t risk getting hurt.

Our daughter was almost three months old and we named her Anna. When Korinne went into labor in the middle of the night we still had no clue what we were going to name her. I was so ecstatic to be having a child of my own that we could have named her anything and I would’ve been happy. Once she came out and we saw her for the first time, the name kind of slipped out. It felt right, so we named her Anna Grace Matthews after both of our mothers. We took each of their middle names and combined them together. They were both ecstatic when they found out. Other than Korinne, Anna was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. She had blonde curls and bright blue eyes, and the first time she smiled at me I was whipped. So now I have two women that I fawn over all the time.

I went back to work fairly quickly after getting out of the hospital. Korinne’s name was still a growing commodity, and she stayed super busy until our daughter was born. Anna now had her own little nursery corner in our office. Needless to say, the office sex was put on hold for a while. Most days we were too exhausted to even think about it.

“Mr. Matthews?” Rebecca said while poking her head through the door.

I looked up and smiled. “What, no intercom today?”

She opened the door fully and laughed. “I’m so used to not using it now since the baby stays here sometimes.”

“Yeah, Korinne took the day off to spend it with her parents. They’re in town to see the baby.”

“Oh that’s nice. I know she doesn’t get to see her family much. I bet they just go crazy over that little girl of yours. She’s so adorable,” Rebecca cooed.

“Yes she is,” I said while grinning at Anna’s baby picture on the desk.

“Oh yeah, I came in to tell you that Jenna is on the phone. She said she tried to call your cell phone, but it didn’t go through for some reason.”

“I wonder why she’s calling. What line is it?” I asked.

“She’s on line two,” she said and closed the door behind her.

I picked up the phone and pressed line two. “Jenna?”

“Hey, Galen, how are you?” she responded nervously.

“I’m fine, how are you?”

“Well,” she paused. “We have a problem, or maybe not exactly a problem, but in a way I guess it is if …”

“Stop babbling and tell me,” I interrupted her.

“You know how I was supposed to hold your painting for you until your anniversary?”

“Yes,” I groaned knowing something was wrong. “What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s not here,” she blurted out.

“What do you mean it’s not there?”

“I have something to tell you and I know your anniversary is only a couple weeks away, but you need to hear this,” she said excitedly.





Chapter Twenty-Five





Getting a good night’s sleep felt amazing. It had been a while since I was able to sleep all night. Our cabin had been finished a couple of months ago, so Galen and I had decided to spend our anniversary weekend there. I couldn’t wait until we could move to the mountains permanently. When Galen opened his eyes, I wrapped my arms around his waist. “Is it bad that I enjoyed sleeping in?” I asked, stifling a yawn.

Galen blinked a few times and turned to face me. “No, it’s not bad. I quite enjoyed it myself.”

“It was nice of your mother to take the baby for the weekend.”

“My mother would keep Anna every day if we asked her to. She only ever had boys, so being around a little girl is heaven for her. You know she wants to move up here, close to us when we make the move.”

“I can understand that. She’ll be alone in Charlotte if she doesn’t. We would also have a babysitter if she moved up here.” I grinned.