Their Second Chance by April Angel, Milly Taiden

do it for him.
    Tricia placed a hand over hers on the table and smiled. “I know you do.”
    Her head was pounding worse than when she opened her eyes, but at least now her stomach wasn’t making waves. Ugh. The last thing she needed was to come down with something bad because of stress.
    “I think this client is giving me migraines. And an ulcer.”
    “You need to go to a doctor. All these long hours working are taking a toll on you. I swear, I’m going to start coming by here at night and check to make sure you went to bed.”
    Ari grinned and quickly winced at the pain behind her eyeballs. It was time to go to work. The faster she got that project done, the sooner she could take a day to just relax.
     
     
    Ari bit her lip and studied her reflection in the full-length mirror. The dress was fine. Wasn’t it? Jesus. She’d never been this insecure about having dinner with a man, especially not her own husband. Not even on her first date with Nick, which happened to be a tutoring session gone strangely longer than usual, did she have the panic clawing at her gut like she did now. Thinking back to their first date always brought a smile to her face. He’d requested help, and she’d shown up to teach him. She’d been wary of his bad boy image, but as they said, don’t judge a book by the cover. While Nick had tattoos, long wild hair back then, and always wore worn jeans and vintage T-shirts, he’d been the perfect gentleman with her.
    Most of the night was spent talking about her love of crime novels and his love for all things handy. A second attempt at tutoring found them eating Chinese in his dorm room, while watching a sci fi movie. They’d talked for hours over what was the best horror movie ever filmed, and he even went as far as admitting to being creeped out by The Exorcist. When she told him she’d never seen it, he’d found his way into date number three. By then, she’d been too interested in the inconsistencies between the harsh bad boy outer shell and nice boy soft center.
    At the sound of her bell ringing, she blinked back the memories and turned to her bed in a panic. Piles of dresses, tops and skirts littered the mattress. She grabbed handfuls of her clothes and shoved them in the closet. Harley started to bark around her legs. She almost tripped over her dog in her rush.
    “Harley, shush!”
    When she tried to shut the door to the closet, the clothes kept popping out. She kicked them on the floor, shoving them far back in the small space, huffed, and shut and locked the closet door. There. Taking a final look in the mirror, she glanced at her dark hair and brushed the mess she’d made changing for the fifteenth time. The bell rang again. Oh, why did he have to be punctual? Damn it, she’d forgotten he was a stickler for being on time.
    Harley barked again, hopping around her in excitement. If she hadn’t known it was Nick before, she was sure of it now. Harley never got that excited.
    “Calm down, Harley. Don’t make us look so desperate.”
    Harley stopped her hopping, cocked her head and proceeded to run off toward the front door.
    “Nice going.”
    Slipping on some black sandals, to match her blue and black dress, she ran down the hallway and stopped suddenly, exhaled slowly and strolled toward the door with as much calm as she could muster. Thankfully, he couldn’t hear how fast her heart was beating or see how sweaty her palms were.
    “Hi.” She tried not to sound breathless as she opened the door. That was beyond difficult. Seeing him in something other than blue jeans and a vintage Tee was different…and nice. The flowers and wine in his hands were another surprise. Nick had given her flowers before, but the times he had there had been some holiday happening.
    “Hi.” He glanced down her body and slowly made his way back up. Her skin heated from the flicker of lust she saw brightening his eyes. “You look beautiful.”
    A rush of pleasure filled her. “Thanks. Come on