Mending His Past Read online

  Mending His Past

  Second Chance Romance in Liberty Cove

  Kristen Iten

  Copyright © 2020 by Kristen Iten

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Dedication

  You’re Invited

  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

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  You’re Invited

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to say a special thank you to a couple of wonderful friends and fellow authors. Liwen H. and Jocelynn F., your support and encouragement made this book what it is today. You’re the best writing pals a girl could have.

  Dedication

  To the sweetest and most naturally adorable little girl ever born. Your darling antics will live on in the pages of this book long after you’ve grown into the beautiful woman you’re destined to be.

  Love you always…

  You’re Invited

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  Chapter One

  “There ya go, boy. Give it a try.” Trent Roland stood and squared his broad shoulders, gesturing toward the dog house with his hammer. A quiet, tawny-brown and black German Shepherd sat at the other end of a narrow chain-link run, one of twenty at the Wounded Warrior Dog Rescue. The animal stared at his new home with suspicion in his chestnut eyes.

  “Come on, Sport. It’s got all the comforts of home. Waiting for you. Inside.” Trent punctuated each sentence with a sweeping motion of his arms, intended to get the dog moving in the right direction. Sport curled his bushy black tail around his legs and cocked his head to the side, apparently unimpressed with Trent’s workmanship.

  Puffing his cheeks, Trent released a long breath and brushed sawdust from the knees of his army fatigues. The multiple hues of brown in his camo pants may have been designed to help him blend into sandy environments, but they only served to make him stand out in the small beach community of Liberty Cove, Texas.

  “You know, I could be in San Antonio right now getting my business up and running. I had plenty of properties lined up to go check out. But I came here instead, to build this for you. What’s the problem, boy?”

  He waltzed over to where the dog still sat, unmoved. Trent squatted down beside him and draped his thick arm around Sport’s slender body, feeling his ribs beneath a thick coat of fur. Aunt Kat was right. After twenty years of running the rescue, she knew what she was talking about when it came to the animals in her charge. This dog was taking the loss of his previous owner hard. “You want me to be the guinea pig, don’t you?”

  Sport flopped a massive paw onto Trent’s arm and offered a tentative wag of his tail.

  “Message received, loud and clear.” He scrubbed his fingers behind Sport’s ears and headed back to the dog house. Dropping to his knees, he looked back at the uncertain animal. “I’m not sure how this is going to work. I didn’t exactly design this door with me in mind, but I’ll give it my best shot. You go in, you come out. Let me show you how it’s done.”

  Trent stuck his head in the dog house and lowered his shoulder, trying his best to slip his torso through an opening designed for a creature with much less mass than himself. “This place isn’t going to eat you.” A grunt escaped his lips as he struggled to twist his body and get his other shoulder through the door. “I’ll prove it to you.”

  With one final push, he slipped into the miniature house up to his waist before his tool belt caught on the door frame. This was a bad idea. He scrambled to free his belt, the treads of his boots tearing up the sandy soil outside. But it was no use—he wasn’t going anywhere.

  A small growl rolled around in the back of Trent’s throat. Done in by the very tools that helped him make sense of the world, he shifted his body once again, trying to force himself the rest of the way inside.

  “So much for that idea, Sport. Looks like you’re going to have to figure this one out on your own.”

  Trent tried to slide backward through the tiny door, but the entire dog house moved with him. Okay, this was a very bad idea. His hands searched for something to grab hold of—anything to push against and give him some traction. Nothing. He’d done too good of a job making sure there were no protruding boards that might make a dog uncomfortable while inside.

  He wiggled and squirmed, shifted and twisted, but none of his efforts did any good. With his front end stuck inside a brand new dog house and his rear end waving to the sky, he was caught, and wasn’t going anywhere.

  Aunt Kat would never let him live it down if she found him like this. With her penchant for cracking jokes and poking fun, she’d get a lot of mileage out of this fiasco. All he could do was hope that he could squeeze his way out before she or any of the other military veterans working at the shelter waltzed by.

  Earlier that week, he’d agreed to put his plan of starting his own business as a commercial developer on hold for a little while. Hurricane Parker had done a number on the rescue, and Aunt Kat had called in a favor. He’d arrived in town only a few days ago, and now it was his job to oversee the repairs.

  What was I thinking? He wasn’t here to play therapist to a dejected dog and convince him to try out his new home. But there was something about Sport. When he looked at Trent, it was almost like he was quietly pleading for help. The poor dog didn’t understand why his man had abandoned him.

  Being left behind was something Trent understood all too well. It was like they were on the same wavelength. His stomach twisted into a knot when the face of one of his fallen brothers-in-arms flashed into his head. In all the years that had passed since that first painful deployment, he’d never been able to shake the feeling that he’d been left behind somehow.

  Even life itself hadn’t waited for him during the time he spent serving overseas. Coming home to a completely different world from the one he’d left hadn’t been easy. Yeah, he understood Sport.

  Working to get his knees back underneath him, he tried one more explosive move, hoping to break free. The sound of a woman’s laughter stopped him in his tracks. Perfect! Aunt Kat had found him.

  “Do you need some help?”

  Trent froze at the sweet and lively sound of the woman’s voice. That wasn’t Aunt Kat. It sounded just like… no. It couldn’t be her. She’d had big-city dreams of her own last time he’d seen her. There’s no way she’d still be lurking in a podunk seaside town like this.

  His stomach clenched when the gate squeaked. She was coming in. At ease, soldier. It wasn’t her. Not a chance.

  “What can I do?” she asked.

  Trent sque
ezed his eyes shut. He could hear the suppressed laughter in her voice even through the walls of his wooden prison. “Would you mind sitting on the roof while I try to slide out again?”

  “Will it hold me?” she asked.

  “I built it. It’ll hold.”

  “Confident. I like that. But it does make me wonder…”

  “Wonder what?” he asked, as he listened to her climb onto the roof.

  “If you were just as confident about being able to squirm your way back through that tiny door when you first crawled in there.”

  The closed-off box around him muffled the woman’s bubbly laughter.

  “Okay, all set,” she said.

  Every time she spoke, his heart skipped a beat. He needed to hurry up and get out of this mess so he could see for himself that this good Samaritan was nothing more than a stranger with a beautiful voice that reminded him of his past.

  The added weight held the dog house still enough for him to slide backward through the small opening inch by inch until he was free.

  He took a deep breath of fresh air and sat back on his heels. Every muscle in his body tensed when his gaze met the same pair of sea-green eyes he’d fallen in love with long ago.

  Her jaw fell open and the blush of her cheeks matched the burning he felt in his own. Back when life had still held the promise of a happy ending for him, he’d imagined spending his ever-after with her.

  Warmth erupted in his stomach and spread throughout his body. “Olivia?”

  “Trent? I didn’t know you were back in the States. Last I heard, you were deployed in the Middle East.”

  “You been keeping tabs on me?” His nerves forced an awkward chuckle as he stood and brushed dried grass from the knees of his pants.

  Olivia’s creamy cheeks burned a little hotter. She grabbed the end of her long sandy-brown hair, twisting it between her fingers like she’d always done when nervous. “Word gets around in a town this size.”

  It sure did. So how was it that he’d been here for three whole days and hadn’t known until just now that his long-time childhood friend and college sweetheart was in town?

  Trent glanced at the ring finger of her left hand as she played with the fringed edge of her cut-off denim shorts. He sucked in a sharp breath at the absence of a ring. Not that it mattered. She’d never take him back after the way he’d left things between them. But that was fine; it wasn’t like he was ready to jump into a relationship. He was emotionally stopped up and he knew it. Still, seeing she was unattached was enough to raise his heart rate to cardio status in a hurry.

  “Mama.”

  A tiny voice caught his attention. He turned to see a little blonde figure standing with her fingers hooked in the chain-link fence. Her bright pink leggings matched the pink stripes of her pastel rainbow-colored shirt. A fuchsia tutu flared out just above her knees and swished from side to side with her movements. She bent over and tugged on one of her ruffled socks, which stuck out above mini tennis shoes covered in pink glitter.

  “Is she yours?” Trent asked.

  Olivia hopped off the dog house and straightened her pale-green sleeveless t-shirt. It fit her like a glove, highlighting her new, more womanly curves. How was it possible for a woman to be more beautiful than she’d been ten years ago?

  “She’s all mine. That’s why she calls me Mama.” Olivia tucked her hair behind her ear and slipped past him. “What do you need, baby?”

  “We go now?”

  Olivia opened the gate and stepped through. She scooped her daughter up. “Yes, we’ll go now.” She flashed Trent a shy smile. “We’re here to see your aunt. It was good running into you. I guess we’ll see you around?”

  He swallowed hard, his mind as blank as next year’s duty roster. “Yeah, maybe.”

  Yeah, maybe? That’s the best he could come up with after all these years? He stood as still as a statue in the afternoon sunshine, his gaze following Olivia until she was out of sight.

  Sport whined and nuzzled Trent’s hand. He looked down at the dog and smiled. “Come on, buddy. Time to get to work on those walls inside. No more daydreaming. I’ve got a job to finish so I can get out of town.”

  Chapter Two

  Olivia’s cheeks were red hot as she left Trent behind. What was he doing in Liberty Cove? A better question was, why hadn’t Kat told her he was coming to town? If Olivia had known he was going to be hanging around the rescue today, she could have made sure to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.

  The hint of a smile tugged on the corner of her lips when she thought of the expression on his face after he pulled his head out of that doghouse. From the looks of it, he was just as shocked to see her as she was to see him. Though it shouldn’t have surprised him that much. This was her hometown, after all. All Liberty Cove had ever been to him was an annual summertime getaway.

  Amid all the questions floating around in her mind, there was one thing she was certain of: his brown eyes still held the same mystique that had drawn her in all those years ago. But it would take a lot more than a gorgeous pair of eyes to suck her in this time.

  Even so, it was difficult to get his image out of her mind as she walked hand-in-hand with her young daughter toward the old beach-front home that housed the rescue. Trent had filled out in all the right ways since she’d last seen him. The passage of time had a way of doing that to a young man.

  She’d always scoffed at friends who drooled over muscled men. But now? She wouldn’t be able to roll her eyes at those friends anymore. The more she dwelt on the image, the more her heart struggled to find its usual rhythm.

  How long had it been since she’d seen him? Too long—or not long enough, depending on how she looked at it.

  He’d cut quite a chunk of her heart out when he dropped out of college and ran off to join the army. She still remembered standing on the curb outside her dorm long after he’d ridden off in a taxi. He was on his way to basic training. She was too stunned to cry.

  Tears came later.

  The memory still stung a little, but she’d chosen to forgive him a long time ago. They were only kids back then, and kids did stupid things—some kids more so than others.

  She was grateful to him for one thing, at least. He’d taught her the first real lesson she’d ever learned about men; they never stick around for long. If only she’d paid better attention when class was in session, she might have saved herself a lot of trouble.

  She glanced down at the tiny hand clinging to hers and rubbed her thumb across her daughter’s dimpled knuckles. Maybe it was better she hadn’t learned her lesson right away, after all. If she had, she might never have married Eddie. Even though her marriage had ended in a divorce she hadn’t wanted, the fact that she had her little girl made all of the pain worth it. Pausing mid-stride, she knelt down in front of her two-and-a-half-year-old and gazed into her round eyes. “I wouldn’t trade you for anything, Molly. I love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  Olivia couldn’t contain her smile, and kissed Molly’s round cheeks until she giggled, squirming to try and get away. “Let’s go find Miss Kat.”

  “Kat, Kat!” Molly squealed.

  Olivia turned her daughter loose as they climbed the stairs and stepped into the sprawling Victorian-style home that had been converted into a dog shelter long ago. She smiled as she watched Molly’s little legs run straight to Katrina Davenport, her tiny ponytails bouncing with each clumsy step she took.

  A tall woman with silver-white hair that was feathered at the crown, squatted and threw her arms wide to catch the tiny blue-eyed beauty running toward her.

  “How’s my little Molly girl?” Kat said, her shoulder-length hair swaying as she hugged Molly.

  “Doin’ good.”

  “Sorry we’re later than I’d planned.” Olivia stepped into a once-grand parlor, now used as the main office for the rescue center. “I had to have everything cleared out of my corner of the store by the end of the day today or Phil was going to charge me storage fees.
”

  A fresh wave of disappointment washed over Olivia at the thought of her struggling pop-up shop. Even now, custom pieces of furniture she’d designed and built with her own hands filled the back of her old pickup. Target practice for the sea gulls—that was all her hard work amounted to now. So much for her dream of conquering the home decor industry one retail space at a time.

  Kat pursed her lips. “I’ll tell you what, I’m not shopping at Phil’s place again until he stops this foolishness. How does he expect anyone to afford to pay double the rent they paid the month before?”

  “I guess we can’t hold it against him too much. He’s just trying to make a living,” Olivia said.

  “Yeah, off the backs of hardworking people like you.”

  Olivia was doing her very best to show grace under fire and give the shop owner the benefit of the doubt, but it wasn’t easy. Kat’s show of moral support did more for Olivia’s mood than anything had all day. Having her knees kicked out from under her every time she thought she was about to take a step in the right direction was beginning to get old. “By the way, thanks for breaking the rules and hiring me, Kat. I really needed this job.”

  “No need to thank me. I’m the one who decided we’d only hire vets around here. My rescue. My rules. I can break them if I want to. Besides, your dad was in the Air Force for, what? Five years? We’re just keeping it in the family as far as I’m concerned.”