Thank you @Authors_Notexox  for making the beautiful cover for Love's Second Chance'! 

Prologue:

Parker sat alone in his truck with only his thoughts and his regrets for company. If someone had told him four years ago that he would be sitting in a suit and tie across from the church that his mother had drug him to every Sunday for years, while Emily Thompson married someone that wasn't him, he would have laughed at them.

But here he was, in a suit and tie that he had borrowed from his father, watching the closed church doors, waiting for them to burst open and for the only woman he had ever loved to come running out with her new handsome, successful husband.

He had come with every intention of walking into that church and watching her move on with her life. Watching her claim her new happiness, but when he had pulled up he had not been able to force himself from his truck.

Parker looked over at the chauffeur, that her new man had no doubt paid a fortune for, as he leaned against a long black limo and took long slow puffs of the cigarette in his hand.

Parker closed his eyes and his mind drifted back to the past as he wondered how things had turned out this way...

4 years earlier

"I can't believe this is happening!" Emily exclaimed happily as she looked down at the marriage license in her hand. Parker smiled and lifted her hand to his lips kissing her tiny diamond engagement ring. He had had to save every dime he'd earned at that garage for the last two months but he had finally made enough to buy it for her.

"I'm glad you're happy." he said as he drove down the tiny back roads toward the house of the preacher who had agreed to wed them.

"My birthday and my wedding day all at the same time.. This is really the best day of my life." she said. Parker reached his hand out and laid it over her slightly rounded belly.

"I can think of another great day that's going to come in about five months." he said matter-of-factly. Emily smiled but he had known her since they had both been in diapers and could see the sadness in her green eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked gently. Though he already knew. She had wanted a big wedding but her parents, and his, had refused to help with it. They thought that the two eighteen year olds were making an even bigger mistake by getting married so young than they had made when Emily had gotten pregnant.

He wished he could make them see how much he loved Emily and that he would have married her with or without the tiny life growing inside her.

"Nothing's wrong, Parker. I really am happy. I promise." Emily said her voice full of the love that he knew she felt for him. Most people doubted the feelings they felt for each other since they were so young but they had both been inseparable since they had been in preschool and had known they were going to get married since they'd been eight years old and Parker had proposed to her with a ring pop sucker.

"If you want a big wedding then we can wait. I can keep saving up from the garage and...." Emily cut him off by laying a gentle hand on his arm.

"No." she said. "All I want is to be your wife. I don't need a big wedding. Besides that house you're renting takes most of your payday already and we need the rest to take care of the baby." Parker nodded, knowing that she was right.

Suddenly without warning the sky opened up in the hardest rain Parker had ever seen. He quickly turned the beat up trucks wipers on high but still could barely see a thing. These tiny mountain roads made driving in these conditions dangerous, but Parker wasn't worried. He'd been driving these roads since long before he'd had a drivers license.

He didn't even slow down as he continued on his way. Emily bit her lip nervously and glanced over at him.

"Maybe we should pull over until it dies down a bit." she said uncertainly. Parker looked over at her and smiled.

"Aww come on, Em. You know I'd never let anything happen to you." he promised. He was still looking over at her when she looked back at the road and he saw her look of trust turn into a look of pure panic and fear.

She screamed his name and he looked ahead just in time to see the loaded eighteen wheeled coal truck coming across the yellow line into their lane. Parker slammed the brakes and jerked the wheel hard to the right.

Their truck went careening off the road and Parker reached his hand out and covered Emily's belly in a desperate attempt to protect his unborn son. Emily's screams, the sound of crunching metal and screeching brakes filled the air as Parker's truck slammed headfirst into the cliff.

Present day

Parker's memories were interrupted before he could remember any more from that horrible day and the painful weeks, no years, that had followed, by the sound of ringing bells filling the air. He felt his already shattered heart breaking into a million more pieces as the doors were thrown open wide and his Emily came running out with another man's arm wrapped tight around her.

Parker didn't know the man who was now Emily's husband. He had learned from his father that the man's name was John and he was from some rich family up in New York. Apparently he had agreed to have the wedding here in the small eastern Kentucky town because he knew that Emily's family and friends would have trouble making it up to New York.

Parker's father had also told him that the newlyweds would be leaving and going back to live in New York City where John was part of some successful law firm.

Parker watched Emily's family and the friends, that had at one time been friends of his as well, back before he'd messed up every relationship in his life, congratulating the clearly happy couple as they walked down the tiny walkway to where the black limo was waiting.

The chauffeur had thrown out his cigarette and was now standing next to the limo holding open the back door for the newlyweds. Parker saw the happy smile on Emily's face and felt a tear roll down his cheek.

There had been a time, four years ago, when she had worn that same happy smile every time she had seen him. There had been a time when those green eyes had sparkled with just as much joy as they were now, every time she'd looked his way.

John led his new wife to the limo and Parker's heart nearly stopped beating in his chest when her eyes fell on his truck. He knew she wouldn't recognize the truck.. He had not figured that she would recognize him either from this distance.

After he had left her four years ago and told her not to wait around on him he had lived hard. He had only been out of the military a short time and he was only on his fourth day of sobriety as he sat here and watched her. His hair was cut shorter than she would remember and his face was not smooth and clean shaven any more.

But as their eyes met he knew that she recognized him. He saw her green eyes widen in surprise and shock as she looked at him. He knew that his own eyes were full of tears and sadness as they stared back at hers.

Emily swore that the moment she looked into his brown eyes the world stopped turning. She was standing there in her white lace wedding gown, her arm wrapped through her new husband's, but the moment she saw those eyes she was suddenly eighteen again.

Four Years Earlier

"You're leaving?" Emily demanded, feeling whatever hold on her sanity she had managed to keep quickly slipping loose.

"Yeah." Parker replied coldly as he threw some clothes into a suitcase.

"Where?" Emily asked sitting down on the bed because her legs no longer seemed to want to hold her up.

"Don't' know yet. Somewhere far away from here." he replied. Emily saw that he was having trouble with the zipper. His hand that he had so bravely used to try to save their son was still covered with a stiff cast. Emily stood and pushed him out of her way as she finished zipping the suitcase, then picked it up and placed it in his good hand.

"I know you need time, Parker. I know that you blame yourself for what happened...."

"To hell with you! You don't know anything!" he yelled angrily. Emily closed her eyes to fight back her own tears. Parker had always been gentle and kind with her. Always quick to laugh and smile. But in the last three weeks since the accident he had changed. At first he had been quiet and withdrawn. Then he had started staying out and not coming home until the early hours of the morning.

Emily had tried talking to him about the accident and the loss of their baby and that was when the anger had started showing itself. He would yell and throw things. The walls had become riddled with holes from his angry fists.

Emily's heart ached to ease his pain and his suffering but she had no idea how. He would not let her touch him.. They had not kissed or held each other since she had woken up in that hospital bed and he had told her that their baby was gone. She had been overcome with grief and tears and she had seen the pain and tears in his own eyes but he had stood up and walked out of the room without another word, leaving her alone with her sorrow.

"Parker, don't push me away. I love you." She said desperate to push through his defenses.

"I don't love you! Why can't you see that! Now that the baby is gone, I'm leaving. I'm out of here! There is nothing keeping me in this damn town!" Emily could not hold back her own anger or pain any longer. She had taken all his anger and avoidance in stride. But her strength and her patience were at their end.

"Really! You don't love me? I have stood by you for fourteen years! I have loved you since before I even knew what love was! If you want to leave then leave, I can't make you stay and I can't make you love me! But if you leave don't expect me to wait on you..." Emily thought she saw something other than anger flash in his eyes. Something like love or pain. Some trace of the old Parker, but it disappeared quickly, replaced by the same anger that had become the norm.

"I don't fucking want you to wait for me! I will never want you back, Emily. We are done." he said. She nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. She held her head up high and pulled her tiny engagement ring from her finger.

"Goodbye, Parker." she said. She threw the ring at his chest and he dropped his suitcase and caught it in his hand. He didn't speak as she grabbed her coat off the hook by the door and walked out of the house letting the door slam behind her.

Present Day

Emily wondered why he was here? Why now? Despite her harsh words the day he had left her she had waited for him to come back. She had been sure that he would. She just assumed he needed time to come to terms with what had happened that rainy night.

But after a year had passed without a single word from him she had needed to get away herself. She had lost both of her parents that year, in a car accident of all things... She had tried to write to Parker in Iraq after getting his address from his father but if he had ever received her letter he had ignored it.

She had left not long after that and moved to New York City. She had gotten a job in a small diner and rented an even smaller one room apartment. Parker had been a constant presence in her thoughts but she was moving on and she was making it.

Then one year ago she had met John. John was a good man. He was rich and successful and he seemed to love her. Emily loved him too. It wasn't the deep all consuming love that she had felt for Parker but it was love just the same and she had accepted his proposal. She knew it probably wasn't fair to marry John when a part of her heart would never be his, but Parker wasn't coming back to her and she wanted to be happy. She was happy with John.

Emily was pulled from her thoughts when John gave her arm a rough squeeze. She gasped in pain and pulled her eyes from Parker's to turn and look up at John. His eyes looked gentle but she could see a muscle tensing in his jaw as he looked down at her.

"Sorry, sweetheart, did I hurt you?" he asked. "You seemed so lost in your thoughts." Emily smiled. She was sure John had not really meant to hurt her.

"I'm fine, darling. Sorry about zoning out for a moment." She let him help her into the limo and he climbed in next to her before the chauffer shut the door.

"Who was that man you were looking at?" John asked. Emily could hear the jealousy and suspicion in his voice and wondered where it was coming from. John had never acted this way before.

"No one. He was just an old friend I used to have but I haven't seen him in years. Nothing for you to worry about." she assured him. He took her hand in his and kissed her fingers.

"I am not worried, my dear. I know that you are mine." Emily told herself that she was imagining the threatening tone in his voice. She was just unnerved by seeing Parker again after all these years. She laid her head on her husbands shoulder and smiled when he kissed her hair.

Parker threw the truck in drive and quickly pulled away in the opposite direction than the limo had taken. He drove out of town and down a long dead end dirt road. He pulled to stop and jumped from his truck walking down to the edge of the quick moving mountain creek.

He stared down into that water wishing he could go back in time and change what had happened all those years ago.

Four Years Ago

Parker just stood there in the living room holding that tiny ring in his hand. He heard her car start up and drive away and still he didn't move. He could not offer a single explanation for the way he had been acting the last few weeks.

God knew how much he loved that damn girl that had just ridden away from him. But every time he looked at her he saw that trusting look that had been in her eyes right before he had been a complete jackass and killed their child.

How could she still love him after what he had done to her? What he had taken from her? He had worked so hard the last few weeks to drive her away from him so that he wouldn't have to think about his son that he had killed. And she had hung on for longer then he had thought she would but finally he had succeeded in what he'd been working so hard to do....

And now he realized it wasn't really what he wanted. But he had realized it about five minutes too late. She was already gone and there was no way he was going to go beg for her back. Not after the things he had done and said to her. He didn't deserve her back. He slipped that tiny ring into his pocket, picked up his suitcase and walked out the door.

Present Day

Parker reached into the pocket of his borrowed suit and pulled out that tiny diamond ring. The diamond was small but it still shimmered when it caught the sunlight. He had kept this thing with him for the last four years. The last piece of Emily that he still had.

In Iraq it had been hooked on the chain with his dog tags. Every other moment it had been in his wallet or his pocket. He had wondered for four years whether or not Emily would ever be his again. He remembered the smile on her face when she had walked out of that church with her new husband and the frown that had replaced it when she had noticed him.

He didn't have to wonder anymore after today. He drew back his arm and let the ring fly. It landed almost silently in the muddy water and was quickly swept away along with all of Parkers hopes and dreams for his future.