Right Place, Right Time (Second Chances Book 2) by Jennifer L. Allen

good—to see just how bad I am for her. Doesn’t she realize she doesn’t have a future with someone like me? She can’t ever take me home to meet her parents. She can’t take a guy like me to those fancy banquets and shit doctors and other rich people attend.
    She has no future with me.
    None.
    The sooner she realizes it, the better.
    ***
    I’m wiping down a custom chopper I’ve just changed the oil on when my phone vibrates in my pocket. I let out a frustrated sigh, certain that it’s probably Kate calling me for the third time today. It’s been two days since I left her at her apartment. I’m trying to stay away, but she’s relentless…calling a few times each day. I feel bad letting the calls go to voicemail, but I’m trying to put distance between us. I’m no good, and she needs to get that. Tough love or whatever. I know I came to California to see her, but not with the intention of starting something physical…just a friendship. At least initially.
    I look at my phone and am relieved to see it’s not Kate but Sean, my best friend from back home.
    “Hey, man, what’s going on?”
    “Nothing, bro. Just checking in, seeing how things are going.”
    “Everything’s all right,” I tell him, dropping the cloth on the work bench and stepping outside the garage. My boss, Leroy, knows I’m a decent worker, so he doesn’t mind when I take a quick break here and there. Mostly because I never take them.
    “How’s Kate?” I let out a sigh. Leave it to Sean to go for the jugular. “That good, huh?”
    “Kate’s Kate. She’s amazing and perfect…”
    “And everything you shouldn’t have…blah blah blah,” Sean says, cutting off my usual diatribe.
    “Right.” I kick at a small rock in the parking lot and cringe as it heads towards the open garage bay. I relax when it stops short of the bike I’d just finished working on.
    “Look, man, why the hell are you even out there?”
    “You know why.” He’s the only one who knows the whole story of me and Kate.
    “But if you’re going to keep sabotaging yourself, then what’s the point? I get that you think she’s too good for you. Hell, she probably is.”
    “Thanks, bro.”
    “I’m not finished. You’re self-deprecation is really starting to get on my nerves, Spencer.”
    I laugh. “I love it when you use big words on me.”
    “I’m serious, Jay. You’re a good guy who’s been dealt a shit hand and you just keep playing it anyway. I get that your parents putting you down all the time fucked you up, okay? But you have a chance to start over…start fresh. It pisses me off that you’re not taking it. It pisses me off that you’re going to let a few bad years dictate the rest of your life. You’re better than that.”
    Now that pisses me off. Those “few bad years” are going to dictate the rest of my life. “Listen here,” I start, but he cuts me off again.
    “No, you listen here…you have a choice and you’re making a shitty one. You’re conforming to what you think society thinks of you instead of manning up and being who you really want to be. You think that girl sees you the way you see yourself? The way your parents saw you? Hell, no. She wouldn’t have kept writing to you all that time if she had. But if you keep treating yourself like that, other people are gonna start doing it, too. Get the fuck over your shit, man.”
    I want to reach through the phone and choke my friend…but I know the asshole is right.
    “So you up for a road trip to Sturgis this year?” Sean asks after a few moments of silence.
    “That’s a long ass road trip,” I tell him, appreciating how quickly we can flip from wanting to punch one other to making plans.
    “Says the guy who rode his bike across the country,” he responds dryly.
    I laugh. “Exactly, so I know.”
    “Come on, dude. It’ll be a kick ass time. If you’re still in California, we can meet in Kansas or some shit.”
    “Okay, deal. When else am I gonna get to have a road