A Hope and a Chance

by Jennifer Foor

  Chance looked like he was uncomfortable, but not like he was in pain. He put his hand between his legs, as if to hold something down. I smiled before sliding my hands down my waist and over my backside.

  “Where do you want to touch me first, Chance?” I asked, as I slowly ambled toward him, taking very small steps.

  When his hands immediately slid under the outside of my shorts, I let out a gasp. “Everywhere,” was all he said before his lips found mine.

  Chance’s hands traveled to the back of my butt while he pulled me to sit on his lap. I leaned my body back thinking he was going to take off my shirt, but he gently ran his fingers up the fabric of my cami top. “Hope, you have no idea what you do to me.”

  His palms cupped my breasts. I wanted him to be touching my bare skin, but he continued teasing me over the fabric. I began rocking my body back and forth while sitting on top of him. He reached around and gripped both of my butt cheeks, as he began pulling me into him harder.

  “I want this,” I whispered.

  We kissed slowly, savoring the fact that we had all night. “I know, baby.”

  I felt Chance’s hand slide up the inside of my shorts. He could immediately feel my readiness when his fingers reached my pussy. I was so turned on that I was panting for him to touch me there. “Please don’t stop,” I begged.

  I felt his finger enter me. I rocked my body up and down as he guided it in and out. The friction sent thrills deep into my core. I wanted to scream when my body started to uncontrollably convulse. When I leaned my head on his shoulder to catch my breath, he put his mouth against my ear. “I’m just beginning.”

  Chance guided me to stand up, and he quickly climbed out of the chair. He leaned me over and stood behind me, running his hands up to my hips. He tugged me back until my ass was pressing against his erection.

  Within seconds, he had grabbed the elastic of my shorts and pulled them down off of my backside, revealing my naked ass. He rubbed one of the cheeks before I heard the zipper of his pants sliding down. I stood there bent over just waiting for him to be inside of me. It was as if I needed him to be closer to me than he already was. I couldn’t explain why I needed him; I just knew that I did.

  Chance was gentle as he slid inside of me. He picked up the pace almost instantly. I could tell he liked this position, because he was in total control. His hands were tight around my waist and with each thrust, it felt like he entered a little more. When we finally both climaxed, he collapsed his spent body over my back. I could feel the sweat from his chest against my hot skin. His breathing was heavy, but he continued kissing my back.

  “I fucking love you.”

  Chance stepped right out of his pants, leaving them on the floor in the living room. I followed him into the bedroom where he pulled down the covers for me before climbing in himself. He held one of his arms up, allowing me to cuddle my body against his. “This is where you belong.”

  I looked up into his brown eyes. “I’d do anything for you.”

  “I know, Hope. That means so much.”

  I closed my eyes and easily fell asleep knowing that he wasn’t going anywhere, because he already was home.

  I held Hope in my arms and couldn’t fall asleep as easily as she had. My mind was a crazy mess of what had transposed in the last two days. Just a few hours ago, I was in a jail cell, but now I was home in my bed with my beautiful girlfriend in my arms. Technically, I hadn’t been charged when Trevor must have showed up at the station. I was still in a holding room waiting to be processed. One minute I was preparing to be fingerprinted, and the next I was being released.

  It was all surreal considering all that had happened. Even though the charges were bullshit, they still would have stuck, had it not been for my witty girlfriend.

  Mark had done a one-eighty and was now okay with me never going back to South Carolina again. He seemed genuinely okay with me being friends with Hope. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it would do for now. At least he knew that I’d never hurt her.

  For so many nights I had to lie awake missing her. Talking to her just wasn’t the same as being near her. I missed her touch and the way that her skin smelled and tasted. I longed for her beautiful smile and those sweet kisses she gave only me. She brightened my days, and without her it seemed like I was living in a storm.

  There were some nights that I broke down. Part of it may have been the alcohol I was consuming, but I truly missed her. It felt like a part of me was missing. I didn’t understand how my feelings for her had intensified, until I saw her at that airport. She was everything to me; my reason for living.

  Her little seduction tonight was unnecessary. She already knew I wanted her. She didn’t have to wear certain clothes or act sexy. I didn’t care how she looked, because she would always be perfect in my eyes.

  I couldn’t explain it and I didn’t want to. I squeezed my arms tighter around her and kissed the top of her head. This wasn’t a dream. I was really here in the pool house.

  I assumed that being back would warrant me to make some major decisions about my future. Since I had talked Hope into registering for college, I knew it was time for me to do the same. It was already too late for this semester, but by next semester, I would be sitting in classrooms again.

  It had been such a long time since I wanted a future, but now that I had Hope I could see myself having a real shot at life. I wanted to be someone that she could be proud of, not someone who lives in a pool house, because he has given up the will to do anything with his future. I had to change.

  I finally closed my eyes and imagined my future with Hope. I could see us graduating college and buying our first place. I pictured us being engaged and the look on her face when I actually popped the question. I thought about us starting a family and the birth of our first child.

  I wanted all of these things now.

  But…what if she wasn’t sure about me? What if I was just a now relationship? What if Hope did not want me forever? Those possibilities consumed my thoughts. She was younger, and could change her mind at any time.

  I slid myself away from Hope’s sleeping body and sat up in my bed. My fingers brushed away the hair that was blocking her face. It was frustrating just imagining a life without her. There was a possibility that she didn’t know what she wanted her future to be yet. She surely didn’t know when we first met. The only thing Hope had been sure of was how much she hated school.

  Realizing that I was frantically pushing myself to a breaking point, I cuddled my body against Hope’s and managed to close my eyes until I finally fell asleep.

  42

  The next two months flew by. With all of the wedding plans moving in full-force, Buffy didn’t leave me much time to study for my classes or spend time with Chance. He had returned back to his normal routine with ease, and after the first week he was back to repairing things on my dad’s house.

  I kept up with my courses the best I could, using my boyfriend as my study partner. I truly believed that he studied for my classes more than I did. During his free time he began looking into courses he could take the following semester. In the two months that he worked in South Carolina, he’d managed to save nearly ten thousand dollars. He worked a lot of overtime and on weekends, and since he had nothing to spend his money on it just kept accumulating. The community college expenses were not anything like Penn State, so Chance had plenty to get a good start on courses. He was already two full years ahead of me with credits, and I knew that if he had gotten a scholarship to Penn State then he would excel right past me in academics.

  It didn’t matter though, because all I wanted to do was be with him. There were times after running around with Buffy that I would be in the same room as Chance and still miss him. It was something about him that just drew me in. There had been quite a few guys in my classes to ask me out, but none of them compared to my boyfriend. Sure, some of them were good looking, but none held a candle to Chance.

  Day after day we would sneak passionate k
isses in the yard behind bushes, or wherever we could. When my father would leave the house for meetings we would spend the afternoon in the pool house. At least three nights a week I would either sneak out to sleep next to Chance, or he would come in to be with me. There were many times that we weren’t even intimate with each other; we just wanted the closeness. No matter what time of day it was, I was thinking of Chance Avery.

  When I turned eighteen in a month, everyone would finally know our true feelings for one another. Most of them would assume I was too young to know what I wanted, and probably even feel the same way about Chance’s intentions, but they would be wrong. I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that our future held butterflies and rainbows, but I did know that Chance was in love with me as I was him. We had never really had a sit down discussion about marriage, but both of us mentioned how much we wanted to always be together.

  Today was no different from the rest. I had a math class in the morning and afterwards Buffy and I were going for our dress fittings. I was all too thrilled when she picked out a pink colored dress for me to wear during the ceremony. Even my father and Chance had to wear matching bow ties and vests. Chance thought it was hysterical, saying it was exactly how he envisioned Buffy’s big day. One day he teased me about wearing pink so much that I nudged him in the gut. After he finally stood back up from being hunched over he promised to leave me alone about it.

  I don’t even know why I hated the color so much, but all I knew is that if I ever had a child, who happened to be a girl, she would not be wearing that color.

  When class was over Buffy and I headed out to the next town over to the dress shop. She hadn’t picked anything expensive, and I was starting to understand that she was always modest with her spending. Chance told me that she was an excellent money manager and never overspent for anything. He said that Buffy had actually found our house without my dad’s knowledge. He’d been looking at newer homes in normal communities, but for what they were asking, my father was able to get double the space and have an extra pool house attached.

  When I met her I assumed she was this stereotypical blonde, hungry for my father’s money, and someone to take care of her. After knowing her for a while, I had found that it was the exact opposite. Buffy took care of my father. She cooked him gourmet meals and managed his finances, and always made sure his clothes were in pristine condition. She entertained him, and filled him with laughter every time they were close to each other. Most of all, she was kind and loyal to him and to me. I appreciated her so much and I knew for a fact that she was the best friend I had ever had in my life.

  Buffy tried to stay out of mine and Chance’s relationship. It wasn’t because she wanted to, but because she didn’t want to be involved if my father ever found out.

  He and Chance started doing more together. At night, they would have a few beers and watch sports highlights on television. Some days when it was nice, my father would pull Chance from working on the house and take him golfing. I think Chance would have enjoyed it more if he didn’t always have to look over his shoulder for the idiot Trevor, every time he was at the Country Club.

  As he and my father continued to bond, we struggled with the certainty that my dad finding out about our relationship was not going to go over well. We’d even had several arguments about that such topic.

  I hated fighting with him, but I knew that the closer it came to me being eighteen, the closer I was to possibly losing my boyfriend. Since I’d been working hard to rebuild a relationship with my dad, and keep a close eye on my mother I couldn’t imagine losing Chance. We had to find a way to convince my dad that we were better together.

  Things had really changed in the last two months for me. Mark had been a completely different person. He not only included me in some of his outings with his friends, but he wanted us all to be a family more around the house. Hope and I both took advantage of the situation, knowing we could be together all of the time. The hardest things were not being able to touch each other. Some nights after dinner we would sit around for hours shooting the shit. It was never that our conversations were boring, but it was hard to know that we could be somewhere else alone.

  Hope was my girlfriend, no matter if we had to hide it or not. She knew how important she was to me and that was as good as things could be for the time being.

  The wedding was fast approaching and Buffy seemed to be freaking out more on a daily basis. Her newest conquest was to have Hope involved with everything possible. Part of me was happy that they were so close, but I felt like she was keeping me away from having alone time with Hope.

  Buffy made it her life mission to save money, so traveling to several towns away for something cheaper was always what she ended up doing. She would take Hope around with her for the company, and they wouldn’t get back until late in the evening.

  Mark didn’t seem to mind. Some days we would both take off early and go to the golf course, or sit around watching football and drinking beer. The subject of Hope and I never came up and I wasn’t even sure what I would say if it did.

  I still had no idea how we were going to confess about our relationship. Since we have been together for many months now, it would be harder than at first. Sometimes I regretted prolonging the inevitable.

  Hope seemed to be content with our situation. Sure, we both wanted to be able to be out in public without wondering who would see us, but we also appreciated the time we did get to spend together and it made it even better.

  She had adjusted well to her first semester of school and I made it a point to help her study whenever we got the opportunity. Mark encouraged it, so it was necessary that we did what he asked.

  We had about one more month of walking on eggshells and then we could come clean about our relationship. I had already registered for the next semester and made sure to take as many courses with Hope as I could. I already had taken most of her normal classes, but we chose several that we could take together.

  I figured that Hope would complain about school, but she never seemed to struggle. My plan was once she turned eighteen, and college started back up after the New Year we could stop hiding our relationship and live together. I hadn’t really mentioned it to her yet, but I planned on doing it the next time we were alone.

  Again, everything depended on how her father took the news. At this point in our relationship I knew that if he went off the deep end, and kicked me out of the pool house Hope would come with me wherever I went. I hated the idea of that, but the truth was Mark had told me to stay away from his daughter, after we had already been together.

  I hadn’t heard from Hope all morning since she went out for her fitting with my sister. I’d been out at the hardware store with Mark picking up some new windows for the front of the house. He and Buffy decided to replace them all at the same time.

  We rented a trailer and piled them all on it to get them back to the house.

  I’d been busy this morning and it kept my mind off the little amount of time I’d seen her this week; but there was something that I needed to talk to her about before she heard it from my sister. I didn’t think it would be a big deal as long as Hope knew ahead of time.

  My sister had decided to invite all of her friends from back home to the wedding. There was only one problem that I had with that; it was Susan.

  Susan had been a friend of my sister’s since they were in kindergarten. She used to spend the night with us every weekend and she even went on family trips. When I became a teenager and started noticing girls, she was the first crush I ever had. I used to try and sit close to her just to get a whiff of her hair. At first she thought of me as the creepy kid brother of her best friend, but as my body started to change, so did her opinion of me.

  One night after a football game I tagged along with my sister to a party a senior was throwing. I didn’t know anyone except Buffy and Susan, and my sister was already up some guy’s ass as soon as we got there. Susan stayed back with me and fed me beer after beer. Finally, after a
few hours she asked if I wanted to go upstairs and lay down. I agreed and headed up there thinking she was just being nice.

  I was wrong.

  Susan threw herself on me, and I wanted it even more than she did. After that first time, we continued to sleep together until I left for college. We never were a couple, but when my sister finally found out she flipped. She didn’t talk to Susan for months, saying she deflowered her brother. It wasn’t like that, but Buffy never got over it. During the time when I’d gotten into all the trouble, Susan came back into our lives saying she knew I could never do anything so horrible.

  Buffy begged me not to get involved with her, and honestly, I never wanted to, but Susan never stopped trying.

  I needed to tell Hope about Susan before she came to stay. Hope’s birthday was one day before the wedding and I couldn’t let something from my past ruin it. If Hope heard it from anyone else, she would think I was hiding something. Finding the time alone with Hope was becoming scarce and every minute she was with Buffy, I feared she would find out.

  43

  For the past two weeks I’d been alone with Chance only three times. We saw each other daily, but private time was just not happening. Our quick kisses and sneaky embraces continued, even though our late night cuddling seemed non-existent.

  It wasn’t that either of us didn’t want to. Chance begged me most nights to come to bed with him, but school had me so overwhelmed. Chance was such a smart person and he loved school. I was determined not to disappoint him. The problem was that it took all of my extra time, even after my study sessions with him to understand anything I was supposed to know already.