Hope's Chance (28 page)

“We better be.” Buffy joked. “Hope
,
why don’t you go see if Chance is ready yet.”

“Okay.” I said calmly, but
really,
I wanted to scream and jump up and down.

I was wearing heels, which made it impossible to run toward the pool house. I adjusted my dress at least three times be
fore making it to there
. When I opened the
door,
I could smell Chance’s cologne. I followed the scent toward the bathroom and lost my breath at how handsome he looked.

Chance was wearing a pair of black pants. His blue polo shirt displayed every muscle on his arms and chest.
While he had been gone, I washed all of the clothes he had in boxes still and then hung them up. He obviously had appreciated my hard work by wearing one of the outfits.

“Well don’t you clean up nice?” I joked.

Chance took one look at me and flew out of the bathroom. “Hope. You look fantastic.” He said as he kissed me gently on the lips. “And thanks for the work you did in my closet.”

“You are welcome.” I said as I wiped my
lip-gloss
of
f
his lips. “They are waiting for us.”

“Let me just get my wallet and I will be there.” He said as he started walking.

I decided not to push my luck with my father and headed out to the driveway. As I approached the car, I heard Chance running to catch up behind me. “Sorry you guys had to wait.” He said.

“It is fine Chance. Are we ready to go?” My dad asked.

I interrupted. “Um dad, I was thinking I should drive my own car. If you guys want to stay
late,
I can head home early. I just want to have the option, you know?”

My dad creased his brow and looked over to Buffy. She gave him a nod and his
face calmed. “Probably a good idea Sweetie. You know how I get when I run into my golf buddies.”

I started to walk alone to my car and heard Chance calling. “Hope wait! I will ride with you so you don’t have to drive alone.” He turned to face my dad. “Is that okay with you guys?”

“Of course it is.” Buffy interrupted.

Chance got into the passenger side before I had even opened my door. “Good plan.”

“Thanks!” I said as I started the car.

We got out of the driveway and followed my dad out of the community. Chance suggested that I not follow too close so he could kiss my hand and play with my hair.
Luckily,
when we came into town my father ran a yellow light and we stayed when it turned red. At the
same
exact
time,
we leaned into
one another for a kiss. “I love you beautiful.” Chance said as he looked into my eyes.

We were interrupted from our sweet moment when the person behind me started honking because the light had turned back to green.

Chance

That old woman had ruined our make-out session. If I hadn’t missed my girlfriend so much, I wouldn’t have minded. Hope welcoming me home was even better than I had thought it would be. She seemed different, but yet, still the same. Her hair was longer and something about her face made her seem more mature, but whatever it was, I loved it.

Working that construction job had been pure Hell. There had been so many times where I wanted to buy a cheap car and come home. I played out in my mind how I would pick up Hope and we would drive as far away as we could.

Hope and I would sit awake at night talking about everything. Mark had only made us stronger and now that I was back, I knew I needed to pull him aside and tell him I didn’t want to return to South Carolina. I would have appreciated the job if I hadn’t met Hope, but I had something to live for now and being away from her was killing me.

As if she was reading my mind, Hope brought up the topic. “I am not going to let you get back on that plane Chance.”

I grabbed her hand and kissed it. “Are you going to wrestle me to the ground?” I said sarcastically. “Because, I think I would really like that.”

“Do you want to go back?” She said concerned.

I chuckled. “Are you kidding me? Hell no!”

I looked over at Hope and ran my hand across her cheek. “I don’t want to ever go back Hope. I just want to be here with you. You shouldn’t have to ask that baby.”

We came to another red light and Hope looked over at me. “
I know, I know! I guess I am just on edge. I finally have you back and all I keep thinking about is the fact that you have to leave.” She confessed.

“I will find a way to stay Hope. I have saved up some money, at least enough to get a place and be able to pay for a few months until I can find a job here. I will do whatever it takes.”

Knowing that Hope was worried about this, and the fact that we were on the way to have dinner with the person who put us in this situation was r
idiculous. I hated seeing her
hurting.

“Maybe we should just tell him we are together?” She suggested.

I ran my hands through my hair. “Hope, it isn’t that easy. He could refuse to let me see you. He could get
y
our mother involved. We only have a short time before your birthday. Just let me handle it. I will figure something out.”

“What if you don’t?” She asked.

“I will Hope.”

She started to cry. “I can’t handle you being gone. I know I sound like a selfish little girl, but it is true. I missed you so much Chance. It hurt so much.” She admitted.

We were getting
close to the c
lub and I knew that I need to calm Hope down before Mark started poking around with questions.

“Hope, I love you and I promise I will do whatever it takes for us to be together.”

“Thank you Chance. I’m sorry for being so annoying about it. I just love you so much. I can’t imagine ever losing you.”

I leaned over and kissed her cheek. My lips touched the base of her ear. “You will never lose me and I don’t find you annoying. I actually
feel amazed every time I hear you say how much you want to be with me.”

Hope smiled and wiped the last tears from her eyes. “I am so glad your back Chance.”

“Me too baby.” I said as I rubbed the back of her neck.

We turned into the club and prepared for a long night with her father.

C
hapter 35

Hope

I hated the Country Club. Trevor had brought me here every weekend when we dated. His father was a fixture here and probably kept the place in business. Before
me,
Trevor had found this place to be a great place to bang
chicks;
in
fact,
this is where he took my innocence.

One night a
bunch
of us kids snuck on the grounds and got some golf carts out from where they kept them. Rylee had hooked up with some football player and they went rolling out onto the golf course somewhere, leaving me alone with Trevor.

He had made many advances toward me having sex with him. At
first
they were sweet and innocent, but the longer I held out
,
the more physical he became. The truth was that
Trevor
always scared me and I found myself doing things so that he wouldn’t yell at me, or call me awful names.
On nights like that night, he threatened to tell the whole school I had an STD and that was why
we
weren’t sleeping together.
Finally,
after crying for a long period of time, I lay down on a patch of green grass and let him have his way with me. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t even want to, which made it hurt even worse.

Just thinking about that night made my eyes water up with tears.

“What’s wrong Hope?
I thought you were okay?
”

I shook my head while I was looking for a parking spot. “This is where I lost my virginity. I hate this place.”

I suddenly thought back to when I knew I was truly ready to have sex. The moment when I knew
that
I wanted a guy
without any doubt in my body. It had been my first night with Chance. After that night, nothing with Trevor even seemed to matter anymore
. Chance had showed
me
love and what
it was like to make love. He would never force me, or hurt me and I appreciated him so much.

“Why didn’t you just tell your father that you wanted to go somewhere else?” He asked
, while trying to get me to focus on the conversation again
.

“Because ever since he got this stupid membership he has been hell bent on spending every second here.”
I explained.

We started to get out of the car. “Was it with the dick head?” He asked.

“Yes!” I held my head down, trying to not think about him.
“It was horrible Chance. I wish I had just waited for you. You have no idea how much I wish that.”

Chance stroked my cheek and smiled.
“He can’t hurt you now Hope. I will never let him hurt you again.
I may not have been your first Hope, but I damn sure want to be your last.
” Chance promised.

My father and Buffy approached us and we walked in together, as a family I guess, a really messed up one.
Apparently,
my father had reserved us a table ahead of time so we didn’t have to sit in a more
common area of the restaurant. Our table was
circular, Buffy slid in
right next to my dad so Chance
and I got to sit together. Because we were in a round booth, Chance and I were able to touch legs the whole time sitting. It may not have been much, in
fact,
it was seemingly innocent, but it was enough for me to feel him touching me.

Once we ordered our food, my father started talking to Chance about the t
own he worked in. He even had the
nerve to ask him if he had met anyone special. I felt Chance’s leg start rubbing against me as he answered. “There is nothing there that I want. I go to work and then go back to the motel. It is lonely and I feel like it just drains the life out of me.”

“I am sorry that it isn’t working out for you Chance. I know Buffy hates that you are so unhappy. Perhaps it is time for you to come home.” Before Chance could reply or I could scream, my dad started talking agai
n. “I would have one condition i
f you came back though Chance.”

Whatever it is, just take it
…

“I don’t know what you said or how you managed to do it, but you convinced my daughter to enroll in college.” He looked over at me. “Buffy told me all about it.” Then he looked back to Chance. “
Thank you for that. I want so much for her and I
could not
be prouder.
Therefore
, my cond
ition would be that you mentor
he
r and help
her get through any hard classes. I know how smart you are Chance.”

I could tell that Chance felt happy. He still
did not
care for my father’s actions, but he could finally come home and I was so happy.

Chance

Was this really happening? Was I being asked to come home and spend time with Hope? I didn’t waste any time accepting his offer. “Of course I will help Hope. I plan on enrolling there myself next semester anyway.”

Mark held up his drink. “Well since we are celebrating, Buffy and I have another announcement.”

He turned to my sister and I half expected her to yell out that she was pregnant, but instead she just gave him a smile.
“We dec
ided to get married on New
Years
Eve.” Buffy announced.

A rush of relief went through me and I know it was the same for Hope. It
wasn’t
that neither of us wanted Buffy to have children, we just needed to be able to reveal our relationship first. “That is great news.” I replied.

“Mark and I are going to have the wedding here, with just a few close friends, and we want you both to stand up for us.” She said in an excited voice.

Buffy started clapping and had a huge smile on her face.

“Sounds great guys.” I said as I took another swig of my beer.

When our food finally
came,
everyone got quiet and started eating. Halfway through Hope asked me to scoot out so that she could use the ladies room. I hadn’t noticed a change in her demeanor, but I couldn’t help get
t
his feeling that something was wrong. The last thing I needed was to draw attention to how concerned I was about her in front of her father. All of my plans on coming home would be ruined and I would be back to living hundreds of miles away from her again.

After about two minutes, I noticed Mr. Thomas heading to our table. I cleared my throat as he approached and fought with myself to put on a smile.