Second Chances: Love Nibbles by Bonnie Dee

Second Chances
    Formerly published in Prime Passions anthology as Moving On
     
    Copyright © 2015 by Bonnie Dee
    All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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    Chapter One
    The room seemed smaller without the books. Shouldn’t all those empty shelves appear wide open, ready to be filled with something? But without the rainbow of book spines filling the wall from ceiling to floor, the space appeared diminished.
    Camilla smoothed her fingers over the brown tape covering the seam of one of the boxes. One end wouldn’t stay stuck down. If it peeled off, the items might spill out in the back of the moving truck. She needed to seal it shut and keep her things safe. What was in the box anyway? She’d forgotten to label it.
    She tore off the tape, opened the flaps, and stared at the contents: Sam’s awards and plaques. What in the hell was she supposed to do with things like that? There wasn’t room for them in her new place, yet it seemed wrong to send these signs of her dead husband’s merits to the dump. She picked up the glossy plaque on the top of the pile—an award for excellence. Sam had been outstanding in so many ways: a brilliant linguist, an exceptional professor, a generous civic benefactor, a trustworthy husband and a thoughtful lover. If she’d felt a lack of something during these past few years, it must have been on her part, her foolish middle-aged craving for excitement due to a sense of time passing her by. Surely the flaw hadn’t been in such a good and kind man as Sam.
    “You’re supposed to be closing the boxes, not unpacking them.”
    She jumped and turned. A shaggy-haired young man wearing a gray T-shirt with a moving truck logo on the front stood in the doorway. Underneath the graphic were the words Bert and Ernie Take You Home .
    She stared for a beat too long at the way the words stretched across his broad chest. “Are you Bert or Ernie?”
    “I’m Ryan. Bert and Ernie stopped ‘taking you home’ about four years ago. I don’t think Bert could climb stairs anymore, let alone carry furniture down them. Your doorbell’s broken, but the door was open so I came in. Let me tape that for you.”
    Walking toward her, he pulled a tape roller from a holster on his waist like a gunslinger. He waited while Camilla put the plaque inside and closed the flaps of the box. When he leaned over to seal a fresh piece of tape over the seam, Camilla inhaled the warm, masculine scent of his body. His large presence invaded her space, alive and youthful and far too magnetic. Something stirred deep within her, making her breasts tender and her pussy throb with her quickening heartbeats.
    She stepped away from him and those uncomfortable, unacceptable reactions.
    Ryan straightened and looked down into her eyes. His were light green. His low voice rumbled like the engine of a muscle car. “It’s hard to know what to keep, isn’t it?