The I Do Over: A Meet Me at the Altar Novel

  Contents

  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

  Epilogue

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  One

  Also by Samantha Chase

  About the Author

  BY

  SAMANTHA CHASE

  Copyright 2022 Samantha Chase

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  All Rights Reserved.

  * * *

  No part of this book, with the exception of brief quotations for book reviews or critical articles, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Cover Design: Kari March Designs

  Edits: Jillian Rivera

  Praise for Samantha Chase

  “If you can’t get enough of stories that get inside your heart and soul and stay there long after you’ve read the last page, then Samantha Chase is for you!”

  -NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Melanie Shawn

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  “A fun, flirty, sweet romance filled with romance and character growth and a perfect happily ever after.”

  -NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Carly Phillips

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  “Samantha Chase writes my kind of happily ever after!”

  -NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Erin Nicholas

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  “The openness between the lovers is refreshing, and their interactions are a balanced blend of sweet and spice. The planets may not have aligned, but the elements of this winning romance are definitely in sync.”

  - Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

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  “A true romantic delight, A Sky Full of Stars is one of the top gems of romance this year.”

  - Night Owl Reviews, TOP PICK

  * * *

  “Great writing, a winsome ensemble, and the perfect blend of heart and sass.”

  - Publishers Weekly

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  “Recommend Chase to fans of Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Well-written and uniquely appealing.”

  - Booklist

  This one’s for

  Magnificent Maddie

  (and the teeny tiny tendonitis)

  xoxo

  Chapter One

  “Every passing moment is a chance to turn it all around.”

  Unknown

  Seventeen years was a long damn time to wait for an apology.

  But if Maddie Christopher was ever going to get any peace and closure in her life, she needed to bite the bullet and extend one.

  Pulling into the parking lot of SEAL Security, she was surprised to find it full of cars on a Sunday afternoon.

  Actually, she was hoping it would be empty and the offices closed so she could have one more day to mentally prepare, but clearly that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Well…crap,” she muttered as she pulled into the first open space in sight.

  Facing the building.

  Obviously there was some sort of event going on, so it seemed like a sign that she could take a little more time to think about what she was going to say and how she was going to say it. It didn’t matter that she’d been thinking about it and rehearsing it in front of a mirror almost every night for a month. Saying the words to her own reflection was one thing; saying them to the man she’d wronged so long ago was another.

  Her husband.

  Ex-husband.

  Wait…was he still an ex if the marriage was null and void because she lied on the license?

  Either way, she was here to look Knox Channing in the eyes and apologize.

  Maybe then karma would get the hell off her back and let her get her life together and find some happiness.

  It wasn’t like Maddie hadn’t been happy in seventeen years. It was more like she felt like a shell of her former self. She’d gone to college, currently had a great job, owned her own house, drove a nice car, and had dated a handful of nice guys.

  And if she were smart, she would have married one of them and started the family she’d always wanted.

  “But I’m not smart,” she murmured with disgust. “I’m stupid. Stupid for still thinking about a guy from a whole other lifetime ago who probably hasn’t given me a second thought in all this time.” She sighed. “Why am I even here?”

  Then she remembered.

  A simple recent comment from her mother sealed Maddie’s fate and brought her here.

  “When are you and that nice husband of yours going to have babies?”

  That was it.

  That was the question.

  The funny thing was that her mother had early onset Alzheimer’s and normally couldn’t remember what happened yesterday, but for some reason, she suddenly chose to remember Knox. Not that Maddie had ever forgotten him, but no one dared to mention him in over fifteen years. That one random comment had sent her spiraling a bit and a wave of “what ifs” hit her with a near crippling force. Her therapist said the only way she could ever move on was if she got some closure. That meant she had to seek him out and talk to him and ask for his forgiveness.

  Of course, this wouldn’t be an issue right now if Knox had answered any one of the dozens of letters she had sent him. Granted, the last time she wrote to him was close to fifteen years ago, but still.

  They’d been young and in love and secretly eloped the weekend they graduated from high school. Maddie was only seventeen, but they said she was eighteen on the application for the license. The ceremony was in a cute little chapel up in Maryland and they had a honeymoon at a Holiday Inn off of I-95. When they got home and told her parents though, everything fell apart in the worst possible way.

  She’d never been rebellious—ever. That weekend was the one and only time that she went after what she wanted. She loved Knox and was so excited to be his wife. That weekend they talked about leaving the small town outside of Richmond, Virginia where they grew up and moving to North Carolina.

  Ironically, that was where he currently resided.

  After everything happened, her parents sent her off for an extended stay with her aunt and uncle in Washington State. She’d written him so many letters apologizing, but never got a response. Then she found out he’d gone into the Navy and had to do a little detective work to get an address where she could write to him, but…she never got a response. Logic would dictate that he clearly wasn’t interested in what she had to say, but Maddie knew this was something she had to do.

  She knew it even if her therapist hadn’t told her to.

  And she’d still be procrastinating if she hadn’t gotten that postcard in the mail.

  Which was weird.

  It was a postcard for SEAL Security and the services they offered. There was literally no reason why Maddie should have been on their mailing list, but the timing was certainly convenient.

  So now here she was and rather than getting out of the car and
ripping the damn bandage off, she was rehashing history in her head.

  “Dr. Marcia would say I’m reverting to my stalling tactics…” she groaned. “This shouldn’t be so hard!”

  Basically, she was going to confront a stranger. She didn’t know this grown-up version of Knox Channing, so this shouldn’t be a big deal. Granted, she’d seen some pictures of him and wished she did know the grown-up version because he’d grown into a fine-looking man.

  Not that she was surprised. He’d always been good looking and all the girls in school had crushed on him. But Maddie was the girl he picked–the one he fell for–and she was the envy of them all.

  And then she was the girl everyone mocked because she was stupid enough to let him get away.

  Not that she had a choice.

  “Okay, no more of this,” she said firmly as she turned the car off and grabbed her purse. “No more stalling, no more depressing trips down memory lane.” Looking up at the big building, she let out a long breath. “Time to get this over with and move on.”

  Walking across the parking lot, Maddie noticed that the people leaving the building were wearing baseball or softball uniforms. She didn’t know much about Knox’s business other than the fact that it was a training facility for bodyguards and security teams, but it looked like they also hosted ball games.

  “Good for company morale, I guess…”

  She hesitated slightly at the door, but when a group of people came out, she simply held the door and forced herself to step inside. Following the sounds of people talking and laughing, she made her way through a small office area and through a doorway that led to a massive gym. There were small groups of people scattered around the room and she scanned them all from her spot to see if she recognized Knox. It didn’t take long to realize she didn’t.

  With no other choice, she walked to the first group and asked if anyone knew where he was, but they didn’t. Then she moved on to a second and then a third before she started to second-guess her decision to show up here today.

  “Should have waited until tomorrow and normal office hours,” she said quietly before approaching a couple sitting on a pile of mats. “Excuse me?”

  The dark-haired woman turned to her and smiled. “Hey! Can I help you?”

  Glancing around nervously, she replied, “I’m looking for Knox Channing.”

  They both stood and looked around the gym. “I think I saw him head into the locker room just a few minutes ago,” the guy said, pointing to a doorway in the corner.

  “Thank you,” she said before turning and walking to the locker room door.

  “Um…” he took off after her and stopped her before she could open it. “Um…that’s the men’s locker room. If you’d like, I can go in and get him for you.”

  But she shook her head even as her heart threatened to beat right out of her chest. “That’s okay. He doesn’t have anything I haven’t seen before.”

  “Oh, uh…”

  And for some bizarre reason, she finished with, “I’m his wife.” That effectively left the poor guy speechless before she walked into the locker room and let the door slam shut behind her.

  Now what, genius?

  Yeah, she probably should have thought this through before acting so recklessly.

  Taking a minute to assess her surroundings, it didn’t seem like anyone was even in here. It was almost painfully quiet. After walking a few more steps, however, she heard the sounds of a shower running.

  Uh-oh…

  It was just her own breathing and the water until…

  “I'm bringing sexy back…” The poorly sung lyrics came from somewhere in the back of the locker room.

  Slowly, Maddie began to walk toward the awful voice and prayed it was Knox. She’d die of embarrassment if she ended sneaking up on some other guy caterwauling like that.

  “Baby, I'm your slave…”

  Oh, good grief, she thought.

  The closer she got, the more nervous she became. In the distance, she heard the water shut off and seriously hoped he wasn’t going to be standing there naked in the shower. How awkward would that be? Like she needed anything else to make this situation worse?

  “And get your sexy on…”

  This time she rolled her eyes as she stopped on the edge of the shower room. But then…she saw him. His back was to her so she couldn’t be one hundred percent certain it was Knox, but…she knew. The sandy brown hair was the same–well, it looked darker because it was wet, but she was confident the color was the same. He might be bigger and taller and more masculine, but…wearing nothing more than a towel, she swore she’d know him anywhere.

  Or…her body would because all her girly parts were suddenly on high alert.

  He was doing some little dance and Maddie wasn’t sure if she should laugh or clear her throat or do something to alert him to her presence, but all she could do was watch.

  Every time she imagined seeing him, he was fully dressed and sitting behind a desk. How was she supposed to have a serious conversation with him when he was practically naked?

  Focus on his eyes…just look him in the eyes…

  It was good advice and something she was prepared to do. He was still dancing and his singing had turned to gibberish–like he didn’t really know the lyrics–and she couldn’t believe she was standing less than ten feet away from the boy she had vowed to love and cherish forever and he didn’t even know she was there.

  Until he spun around a few times and finally noticed her for himself.

  “What the…Holy shit!” he blurted out mid-spin. “Maddie?!”

  Then several things happened at once.

  His towel started to slip at the same time he tried to take a step toward her. The next thing she knew, he let out a startled sound as he slipped and fell on his ass.

  “Oh my God!” she gasped, and wasn’t sure if she should turn away or help him up.

  Good manners dictated that she turn away because…ahem…things were showing that she should not be seeing.

  But that didn’t mean she couldn’t peek.

  Knox wasn’t sure what to do first—fix the towel so everything he had wasn’t hanging out or reach out and see if the woman standing there was actually real.

  He opted to fix the towel.

  “Um…Maddie?” he croaked before clearing his throat. “What are you doing here?”

  Her hands were over her eyes—barely—as she said, “I wanted to talk to you.”

  For a moment, he was too stunned to respond.

  Then he came to his wits. “You waited seventeen years and you couldn’t wait another ten minutes until I was out of the shower?”

  She dropped her hands. “I didn’t know you were in the shower!”

  “Still, it’s a men’s locker room!” He maneuvered to keep the towel from exposing any more of himself as he came to his feet.

  And winced.

  “Are you okay?”

  Rubbing a hand on his butt, he groaned. “Yeah. Fine.” But when he went to take a step, he winced again.

  “You probably just landed wrong,” she said. “It’s not uncommon to develop a bruise on your…um…gluteus maximus. Forceful impact on a muscle can cause damage to muscle fibers and underlying blood vessels, resulting in bleeding underneath the skin. Direct impact on the gluteal muscles can cause a…”

  “I get it, Maddie,” he quickly interrupted. “I’ll have a bruise on my ass. Got it.”

  The bruise to his ego was the bigger issue.

  “You should put some ice on it as soon as possible,” she went on. “If you can rest for a few days, it should be fine. But if you need someone to look at it…”

  “Are you volunteering?” he asked with a hint of sarcasm. He might be standing there in a towel, but Knox crossed his arms over his chest and did his best to flex his muscles and look intimidating.

  “What? Uh…no!” she stammered. “I’m definitely not volunteering to look at your butt, Knox! I mean…get over yourself.”

&nb
sp; He would have believed her if her voice wasn’t so shaky and her cheeks weren’t bright red. It was cute as hell and…

  No! he admonished himself. Don’t think of her as cute or sweet or anything!

  “I’m over everything,” he said firmly. “But clearly you’re not since you’re here and it was important enough to sneak up on me while I was in the shower, so…say what you’ve got to say.”

  All she did was blink at him—as if she wasn’t expecting him to be so blunt with her. How did you think he was going to react to her after all this time? Seventeen damn years without a word from her and now…now…

  Now she was openly checking him out.

  Okay, maybe not openly, but she was definitely looking at him from head to toe—while trying to act like she wasn’t looking.

  Adorable.

  Stop it!

  Watching her, Knox noticed her gaze lingering a little too long below the belt and couldn’t resist calling her out on it.

  “Hey!” he said with a snap of his fingers. “My eyes are up here.”

  And then grinned triumphantly when she blushed again.

  “Can you please go put on some clothes?” she asked with exasperation.

  “What’s the matter? Am I too distracting?” Knox knew he was in great shape and women were constantly complimenting him on his physique, but right now, he wanted Maddie to say it.

  “I would like for us to have a serious conversation,” she said with a sigh. “An adult conversation. I just think you having pants on would help for obvious reasons.”