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  Her Second Chance Forever Groom

  Bachelor Texas Rebel Romances

  Lorana Hoopes

  I really enjoyed getting to write a football book. I’ve been a football fan for years. I grew up watching the Dallas Cowboys in the 90s when they were a powerhouse team. To that end, you might notice my main character’s name is Emmitt.

  Emmitt Smith was always my favorite player. Not only was he an amazing running back, but he didn’t rely just on his football career. He finished his college degree and that’s what I found truly inspiring about him.

  So, this book is dedicated to the amazing athletes who inspire us with your work ethic, with your drive, and with your never quit attitude.

  Copyright

  All rights reserved.

  © 2019 Lorana Hoopes

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. The reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form whether electronic, mechanical or other means, known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written consent of the publisher and/or author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This edition is published by ArchStone Ink LLC.

  First eBook Edition: 2019

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the creation of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Foreword by Taylor Hart

  Stop what you’re doing and read this book! Now!

  I love Emmitt and Mia so much! I love how Emmitt is truly a Knight in Shining armor and it takes Mia time to forgive him.—Cause that’s how true love is; we love, we hurt, we forgive!

  It’s like a yummy truffle! So read it slowly!

  Hugs-

  Taylor Hart

  Best-selling author of Her Second Chance Prodigal Groom: Bachelor Texas Rebel Romances

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  The Epilogue

  Afterword

  Also by Lorana Hoopes

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Emmitt Brown tossed in his bed, sending his sheets tangling around his feet. Figured. At least now they matched his feelings. He stared up at the white ceiling, wishing his mind could be as blank as the canvas above him. The conversation from a few hours earlier replayed in his mind like a broken record. An accusing broken record.

  “Maybe it’s time for all of us to get that thing off our chest, to get rid of that regret. So we can be like the great Terry Jones,” DJ Madden, safety for the San Antonio Rebels, said as he looked around the table.

  Emmitt glanced around at his fellow teammates. He too missed their beloved owner, Terry Jones, who had died of a heart attack less than ten days ago, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready to face his greatest regret.

  DJ put his fist over the center of the table, just like he would right before going out onto the field. “What do you guys say? The next seven days, we spend making things right.”

  Jett Warren, middle linebacker, agreed first, putting his fist in. “I’m in.”

  Austin Mayhew leaned back, appearing hesitant. “Man, I don’t know.”

  Sy LaMarque, strong sideback, grunted but put his fist in too. “Fine.”

  That meant it was Emmitt’s turn. He couldn’t say no. It would raise too many questions. “We always have things we can ask forgiveness for.”

  “You know I’m with you guys,” Austin said, finally relenting.

  DJ grinned at them. “We get rid of our regrets for Terry.”

  “For Terry,” they agreed, their fists still together.

  Sy cleared his throat. “For ourselves.”

  Jett smiled. “To make us better men.”

  Austin nodded. “To make us better teammates.”

  “For God,” Emmitt inserted.

  “To fixing regrets and second chances! Rebels on three—one, two, three!”

  “Rebels!” they all yelled, lifting their fists into the air.

  So, DJ had regrets, but didn’t they all? Still, why did he have to recommend they go home and face them? And why had Emmitt agreed? He had spent the last few years running from his regrets, and he wasn’t sure he was ready to go back yet. Had he changed enough?

  He’d been working hard on becoming a better man. In fact, it was what had driven him to God, and he knew that part of making that transition completely was apologizing to those he had hurt. Still, every time he thought about it, he chickened out. Mantras of what he’d done was too awful, he hadn’t changed enough, or apologizing wouldn’t change anything blazed in his head. Though Emmit knew none of those were true, the words played over and over, crippling him. His kryptonite.

  With a sigh, he reached for his Bible. When the demons reared up in his head like this, the only way to quiet them was to immerse himself in God’s word. His fingers traced the seam around the Bible and caressed the leather. Most people at his church never brought Bibles anymore, they just whipped out their phones or tablets, but Emmitt enjoyed the feel of the physical book. The weight, the smell, and the peace it brought when he held it in his hands, when he cracked it open, and when he quieted his heart enough to let God speak to him through it. That would be hard tonight with his thoughts careening all over the place like pinballs in an arcade machine, but he would try.

  Before he opened the book, he closed his eyes and took a moment to reach out to God. Emmitt wasn’t even sure the prayer had words as much as a desire for God to show him what he needed. Though he didn’t often, tonight he let the book fall open, and wouldn’t you know it, he landed in Ephesians chapter four. He read over the words, and when he got to verse twenty-five, he knew these were the words from God.

  “What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body, we are all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.”

  Oh, how fitting those words were. He was lying to himself. His teammates called him “The Reverend” or “Rev” for short because he was always praying or using scripture, but he was lying to them the same he was lying to himself. The same way he had lied to Mia over five years ago.

  Emmitt knew he had to go back. He had to make amends though he didn’t even know where to begin, but that knowledge didn’t tame the twisting flame in his stomach. He would just have to trust that God would open Mia’s heart. At least long enough for Emmitt to apologize.

  He replaced the Bible on the nightstand and turned off the light. It was going to be a long night, and an even longer tomorrow.

  “Carter, it’s time for bed,” Mia called as she turned off the sink and dried her hands. There hadn’t been many dishes tonight as she tried to cook the dinner in one pot, but still she missed the dishwasher. Washing by hand every night was killing her skin, and it gave her too much quiet time to think.

  “But Mom, I’m not tired.” His whiny protest was punctuated p
erfectly with a large yawn as he looked up from his tablet. Mia was glad she and Marcus had purchased it for his Christmas gift last year. She would never have had the money to get it for him this year, and while she didn’t give him much screen time, it was her saving grace when he was extremely needy. And he’d been extremely needy a lot since Marcus’s death. Not that she blamed him, but she was already stressed trying to be both the mom and the dad as well as the sole breadwinner. She just had no patience left to deal with neediness.

  “Uh huh, I see that, but it’s still bedtime. Let’s go, sport.” As she ushered him down the hall of their tiny one-bedroom apartment, she wondered if life would always be like this. Five and a half years ago when she’d married Marcus, they’d had big dreams. He was going to open his own business and become a wealthy entrepreneur, but after his third business idea failed, he had given up and taken a job at the local high school. It hadn’t been the fame and fortune he had hoped for, but they’d been content. At least until a drunk driver took his life.

  After Marcus’s death, Mia had been forced to sell their modest house and move Carter into this tiny apartment. She’d taken a job at the restaurant down the street because the tips generally paid better than a traditional minimum wage job, but she was working overtime just to keep a roof over their heads. And she missed spending time with her son. Time, she knew, was the one commodity you never got back.

  She helped Carter change into his pajamas, sighing as she realized he was outgrowing these as well. He only had two pairs and both were now well above his ankles. She’d have to stop at the Goodwill soon and see if they had any a size up.

  “Momma, when will Daddy be back?” he asked as he climbed into the bed and snuggled his bear. It was a question he asked at least once a week, and while Mia knew his nearly five-year old brain just wasn’t capable of processing her response, she was tiring of giving it.

  She brushed his hair back from his forehead and flashed a small smile. “Carter, baby, Daddy’s not coming back. He had to go live with God.”

  “Forever?” His sad eyes pulled on her heartstrings.

  “Forever, buddy, but you and me? We will be just fine.” At least as long as nothing happened to her job. Or her car. Or the apartment. Or herself. That was a lot of things hinging on those last five words.

  He yawned again and his eyes shut for a moment before pulling open again. “Do you think God will ever send me a new daddy?’

  This was another question he asked often. “I don’t know, bud. We’ll have to wait and see.” His eyes closed again, and she placed a soft kiss on his forehead before pulling the blanket up to his chin and tiptoeing out of the room.

  Would God send another man her way? She didn’t know. For the first few months after Marcus died, she couldn’t imagine ever marrying again, but now, almost a year later, the thought had popped in her mind once in a while. She still wasn’t sure she could marry for love, but if he was a good man, a believer, she could consider marrying to have someone by her side. A friend to share the evenings with and someone who could help her provide a better life for Carter than the one she could by herself.

  She sank down on the couch, not bothering to change her own clothes, and grabbed her Bible from the nightstand. Mia knew a lot of people in her situation would have turned from God, claiming He didn’t exist or didn’t hear her prayers since it appeared her life wasn’t improving, but He was all she had and she refused to turn her back on Him. Still, she did wish He would reveal His plan for her. She didn’t think she could keep going this direction much longer.

  Chapter 2

  Emmitt sighed as he passed the small sign welcoming him to Kempton, Texas. He’d thought when he left this town that he wouldn’t be back. He’d even flown his parents to San Antonio the first few Christmases after he’d left to avoid returning to this dinky town. Then he had helped them move out of Kempton and retire in Florida. It wasn’t the town’s fault, and it hadn’t been awful growing up here, but once he’d betrayed Mia, the guilt had kept him away, gnawed at his insides and convinced him that nothing remained for him here.

  In fact, he wasn’t even sure Mia still lived here or that she hadn’t married. Maybe she had been whisked away by some wealthy businessman or maybe she had decided to move elsewhere and was now working a dream job and making millions, but Emmitt knew that probably wasn’t the case. That was a fantasy he had spun the last several years to make himself feel better about what he’d done. People rarely left Kempton. He had been the exception and not the rule.

  The town had changed little, and he pulled into the one gas station to fill up and ask around about Mia. If she was still here, the attendant working inside would probably know her. Kempton was so small that everyone knew everyone else—where they lived, who their parents were, what secrets they tried to hide. Emmitt both missed and hated that part of the small-town vibe. Having people really know you wasn’t something he had experienced since joining the San Antonio Rebels and he missed that. But it was his own fault. He had only shared what he wanted the other men to know, keeping most of him and his shameful secret locked away. And San Antonio was a large town. He didn’t even know his neighbors’ names, nor did they know his. It was easier to keep his secret in a town where people passed each other without a word.

  The bell above the door jingled as he pushed it open and a young clerk looked up at him. Good, this kid looked too young to remember him, but he might be too young to know Mia as well.

  “You getting gas?” the kid asked.

  “Yeah, forty dollars please.” Emmitt pulled out his wallet and tried to sound as if he didn’t need the answer when he posed the next question. “Do you know Mia Baker?”

  “Mia Baker?” The kid scratched his head as his forehead wrinkled in thought. “There’s a Mia who works at Manny’s, but I don’t know her last name. Sorry.”

  A waitress? Mia had always had plans of becoming an interior designer. Why would she give that up to become a waitress? “Is she about my age with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes?”

  “Uh, I think she has reddish hair. Never paid much attention to her eyes. She’s too old for me, you know?” The kid shrugged as he picked up the money and placed it in the register. “Do you need a receipt?”

  “No, thank you,” Emmitt said and exited the gas station. If he was about to see Mia again, what he needed was a large helping of courage.

  Mia groaned as she checked her watch. She was going to be late again. Her boss was going to kill her. “Carter, let’s go.” She hated the angry tone in her voice, but if she lost this job, they would be kicked out of their tiny apartment and forced to move back in with her parents.

  “I can’t find my shoe, Mom.”

  Mia clenched her teeth to keep from emitting an agitated growl. This was a daily occurrence. No matter how many times she told Carter to put his shoes by the door, he never did. Instead, he kicked them off wherever he felt like it, and they were forced to go on this hunt every morning. What made it worse was that Carter was in that stage where his shoes could literally be a foot in front of him on the floor and he still wouldn’t see them. And forget looking under anything. If they were under a blanket or a shirt, they might as well not exist in his world.

  She began walking toward the bedroom, checking all the regular places she found his shoes as she went. Under the couch? Nope. In the hall closet? Not there either, but she struck gold in the bathroom. “I found one,” she called out as she grabbed it from the floor. Why his shoe was in the bathroom was beyond her, but hopefully he had the other one.

  She found him in the bedroom, sitting on the bed. Just sitting. Don’t yell. Keep your cool. “Were you even looking?”

  “Yeah, but my leg started hurting, and I needed to sit down for a minute.”

  This was another issue they faced nearly daily—these weird phantom pains of Carter’s. She hoped they were just growing pains, but she worried they were more. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the money to get them checked out, so she w
ould just have to keep praying they were nothing.

  “Okay, well, here’s one shoe. Let’s find the other.” She handed the shoe she had found to him and then proceeded to pick up the clothes littering the floor until she found the other. After helping him get that one on as well, she grabbed his bag and ushered him to the door.

  “Do I have to go to Grandma’s again today?” Carter asked with a sigh as he climbed into his booster seat.

  “Yes, buddy. Mommy has to go to work, and you are too young to stay at home by yourself.” Mia was just thankful that her parents lived in the same town. She didn’t know how they would survive if she had to pay for childcare as well. Her parents were older, but still in good enough shape to keep up with a rambunctious five-year-old most days. Still, Mia felt badly. Her parents were supposed to be enjoying their golden years and instead, they were having to help raise her son.

  “All right, but tomorrow can we go see a movie?”

  Mia wanted to say yes. She wished she could take him to the movies once a month as a treat, but the money just wasn’t there. “How about we go to the park tomorrow morning before my shift?” At least the park was free, and on a good day, he would find a few other kids to play with and keep himself entertained for a while. Since she didn’t work until the afternoon, they’d have a few hours in the morning to play.

  “Okay, I guess.”

  She hated the resignation in his voice. This was not the childhood she had planned for him. She’d planned to stay home with him until he started school, take him to the park and on long walks. Then, once he was in kindergarten, Mia had hoped Marcus would be able to spend off time with him and that she could either return to school to finish her interior design degree or at least work a job where she could set her hours to have more time at home. Sadly, that just wasn’t the hand they had been dealt.