Second Chance His Unending Love (Calista Hartwell) novel Chapter 96

Chapter 96

Nostalgia softened Evander’s gaze as he spoke, “Do you remember the summer our parents all left on business trips? You, me, and Kyle-we each cooked a dish, competing to see who made the best. In the end, your tomato meat sauce pasta won by a mile.”

Calista burst into bright, unbridled laughter, the sound of childhood joy filling the room. “Of course I do! I’ll never forget Kyle’s mushed potatoes-they tasted like absolute slop, total garbage.”

Leaning in with a playful grin, she added, “I recall you made curry beef. That was better than him…”

“Kyle has never had an ounce of talent for cooking.” Evander chuckled, shaking his head. “No matter how simple the ingredients, he turns everything into the same bland mess-all his food tastes like cardboard.”

“His sharp tongue’s probably a side effect of tasting his own terrible cooking,” Calista joked.

“Couldn’t have said it better.” A faint lull fell over

Eyander’s voice, his eyes distant with longing for those5:47

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carefree days-tenderness pooling in his gaze as it rested on her.

“Calista, I want your tomato meat sauce pasta. Please.”

“Sure thing.”

Alisa chimed in at once, bustling forward with a warm smile, “Fresh tomatoes are right in the fridge! Mr. Hayes is hardly ever home, so I don’t keep much on hand, but we’ve got pasta and tomatoes-exactly what you need.”

Calista followed Alisa into the kitchen, waving off the older woman’s attempts to help with a firm shake of her head.

“I’ve got this-you just sit back and relax.”

Alisa hurried to explain, sensing her immediate misunderstanding, her hands wiping nervously on her

apron.

“Ms. Hartwell, please-treat me like the staff I am. My son died in active service, and Mr. Hayes took pity on me. He gave me this roof, a pension, something to keep me busy. He’s gone so much that I barely have work to do as

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it is–it makes me feel guilty, like I’m taking something for nothing.”

Calista kept stirring the simmering tomatoes, a soft, understanding smile on her face. “He doesn’t give you this to have a maid. He wants you to enjoy your retirement, to rest easy.”

“You get him, that’s for sure.” Alisa leaned in, glancing furtively at the living room where Evander and Olivia sat, her voice dropping to a quiet whisper.

“I’ll let you in on a secret-you’re the first woman Mr. Hayes has ever brought home. Ever.”

Calista laughed, a soft, warm sound, and nodded at the

sweet revelation.

Alisa’s eyes crinkled with delight, her voice thick with genuine pleasure. “He used to come home every now and then, cold and quiet-no smile, no small talk, just an empty house to match his mood. But tonight, with your two here? He’s alive again. Human, for the first time in a long while.”

She sighed, her gaze soft as she watched Evander laugh at

< Chapter 96

something Olivia said.

“I’ve never seen Mr. Hayes smile so much. Not once, in all the years I’ve been here.”

Alisa’s words settled heavily in Calista’s chest, a dull, gentle ache of sympathy blooming for Evander.

Twenty years trapped in a marriage, spinning in circles around her husband and kids, busy every single day-and she’d never stopped to think about the lack of warmth in her own life, let alone someone else’s.

But Evander?

This huge, immaculate house, spotless and empty, no trace of a life lived, no place to call a home for his heart.

A team full of comrades, brothers in arms, but no one to smooth out the rough edges of his loneliness, no one to

come home to.

Twenty years of this quiet, unspoken solitude-how unbearable it must have been.

A silly, unbidden thought slipped into Calista’s mind; 5:47

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What if she’d married him instead of Killian?

She jolted back to her senses, shaking her head hard to dispel the thought, her hands tightening around the wooden spoon.

Why was she imagining a life she’d never lived?

There were no ifs, no do-overs.

She had Olivia-her perfect, wonderful daughter-and she’d never regret the life that brought her to her.

Alisa noticed her shifting expression, rushing to soothe her with a pat on the arm. “I’m sorry, Ms. Hartwell, I rambled too much. Don’t think about it too hard, or Mr. Hayes’ll scold me for running my mouth.”

“Never. Evander would never blame you for that,” Calista said, smiling softly.

Alisa beamed, her face lighting up. “See? I told you you get him-you know how kind he is, deep down.”

Calista nodded, her heart softening further.

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She’d always known. His kindness, his quiet generosity- they were the reason he’d stepped in to help the Hartwell family all those years ago, no questions asked, no favors expected in return.

Her mother had once told her, when she was young and foolish and head over heels for Killian, “Marry a man who is good, not just a man who is good to you.”

How prophetic those words had been.

Killian had been good to her once, back when it suited him-sweet, attentive, promising forever and a day.

But his love had always come with strings attached, conditional on her fitting his mold, on her being useful to him, on her staying small and quiet and obedient.

The second she’d lost her value, he’d cast her aside like

trash.

Evander, though-his goodness was his foundation, his very nature. After all these years, he was still the same.

She’d just been too young to listen to her mother’s wisdom back then.

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And now, it felt like it was too late.

*****

In the living room, Evander pulled out Wesley’s chess memoir he’d swiped from Byron earlier that day, holding it out to Olivia with a small smile.

Olivia’s scream of joy nearly shook the ceiling.

“Mr. Hayes! I love you! You’re my third idol!”

“Who’s first and second?” Evander asked, amused by her

unbridled excitement.

“Sir Winchester and Professor Wiseman!” Olivia counted off on her tiny fingers, then threw her arms around the memoir, hugging it to her chest.

“Mr. Hayes, you’re the ‘Amazon Prime’ of wish fulfillment —what I want, delivered fast, and with perfect accuracy!”

Evander blinked, a flicker of confusion crossing his face.

Is that a compliment?

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