Hope's Chance (33 page)

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 to our relationship. Since we had been together for so many months now, it was 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 classes for the next semester and made sure to take as many classes 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 that once she turned eighteen and college started back up after the
New Year
, we could come out of 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 had 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 up on it to get them back to the house, then we had to return the trailer that same day or we would be charged for another day.

I had been busy this morning and it kept my mind off of the little amount of time I had seen her this week. 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 on the New Years Eve wedding knowing that all of her friends from back home would be off for the holiday and be able to make it. The only problem that I had with that was her one friend Susan.

Susan had been a friend of my sisters ever 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 to sit close to her just to get a whiff of her shampooed hair. At first she thought of me as the creepy kid brother to 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, while my sister was being with herself.

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. When I had gotten into all the trouble, Susan came back into our lives saying she knew I could never do something 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 it before Susan 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 time she was with Buffy, I feared she would find out.

Chapter 41

Hope

For the past two
weeks,
I had been alone with Chance only three times. We saw each other daily, but alone 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.

This morning was seemingly like all the other mornings, except Chance was already in the kitchen. His
ornery
smile was flashing across his face, making me want to burst out in laughter. “Good morning Sunshine.” He said while still grinning.

“What’s with you and where is everyone else?” I asked.

Chance leaned into me and gently rubbed his nose against mine, before pressing his lips on my lips. “They had to go Christmas shopping baby. We are all alone.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him again. “Well I wonder what we should do all day.” I joked.

Chance picked me up and sat me on top of the counter. He moved toward the fridge and started gathering items. “I am going to make you breakfast first. Then I plan on spending the rest of our day helping you study, in bed of course.”

“I don’t know how much I can learn if we are laying in bed Chance. To be perfectly honest with you I don’t think I can concentrate on anything other than you.” I confessed.

He continued to gather
ingredients
for our breakfast. “Oh we will study. I promise you will be fully prepared for those finals. I have a study plan.” He admitted.

“A study plan? You have really thought about this haven’t you?” I asked.

“Buffy sent me a text this morning saying that she and Mark decided to go out shopping last minute. I knew you had to study, but I miss you, so I implemented a plan that we could be together and study at the same time. Aren’t you curious about the plan?” He asked.

I started swinging my feet while sitting on the countertop. Chance did not have his face to me, but I knew he was smiling. He was
dancing
around as something fried in the pan in front of him.

“Okay fine! What is the plan, since I can tell that you are busting to tell
me?
” I laughed.

Chance turned around and caged me in with his hands on the countertop on either side of me. “So this is how it works. You will be thoroughly quizzed on all courses. When you pass all of the questions on each subject, I will remove one article of clothing. If you fail a
topic,
the clothes go back on. So, in order for you to have some of me today, you have to be prepared for all of your finals.” Chance had a huge grin on his face. He bit down on his lip while he waited for my response, still only inches from my face.

“What if I cheat?” I joked.

“Not possible! This study proposition is full proof. When you get your answers right you can have me, otherwise you gets none of this.” He joked as he pointed from his head to his feet.

I rolled my eyes. It sounded like a good plan and it was possible it would motivate me to try hard. I was in. “Okay fine. We can study your way.”

“Perfect.” Chance said as he turned around and put two pieces of toast and some eggs on a plate. “Here, you need to eat before we get started.”

I took a fork and put my eggs inside of the toast and made a
sandwich
. I loved watching the yolk run out of the sides then later dipping it back into my
sandwich
. Chance curled his lip up as he held his toast up and gently dipped it into his egg.

“You do realize that mine tastes exactly the same as yours does?” I asked.

“Whatever. It’s just weird. I prefer to dip. It seems more classy.” He joked.

I laughed. “Oh yeah, because eating an egg with toast is so classy. You are ridiculous.”

“You love me anyway Hope.” He said as he stuck out his tongue at me. He stuck his plate in the dishwasher and headed toward the door. “When you are ready to be schooled by all of my wisdom, head on over baby.”

“Maybe I will, or maybe I won’t.” I teased.

“Oh, I know you will Hope. You can’t resist this.” He lifted his shirt revealing his rock hard abdomen. I felt like licking my lips. It would have only let him know he was right about me not resisting, so I held my mouth shut.

“See you soon.” He said as I watched him walk toward the pool house.

I grabbed my plate and cleaned it before heading up to my room to change my clothes. Because Chance had acted so cocky about me not being able to resist, I decided to get a shower. The longer I took, the more impatient he would become. I knew that he was
ultimately
helping me, but I wanted to be the one who was
irresistible
.

When I got out of the
shower,
I looked out of the window toward the pool house. I could see Chance standing at the door. Just as I went to turn away, he waved to me.

“Son of a bitch! How did he know?” I said to myself.

Obviously,
he knew me too well. I took the towel off of my head and brushed my hair, before heading in my room and putting on a cotton sweat suit. By the time I finally made it to the pool house, Chance was sprawled out on the couch. The textbooks were in front of him with paper surrounding them.

“There she is….Mrs.
I always know what Chance is thinking and there is no way he has the upper hand on me.” He said.

“Shut up!” I said as I ran over and jumped on top of him. “You still love me, so who cares?”

“True. How about you hop off of me so we can get serious up in here.” He joked.

I rolled my eyes again. “Fine.” I removed myself from Chances magnificent body and sat down next to him. He pointed to the chair across from him. The chair where it all started.

“Get over there and do not get up until we are finished. Got it?” He ordered.

I shook my head and laughed as I headed over to the chair.

Chance

A friend of mine at Penn state used to use this study plan with his girlfriend, except she was the one testing him. He said she never let him tease his way out of studying. Hope hated to study, and she would be the first person to admit it.

Once she sat down and stopped trying to argue her way out of studying, I grabbed the first book and started with the questions.

For her math class, she did alright, but did not answer enough questions correctly on the first time around. She got mad, but only for a few minutes. I grabbed the notes that she had taken and taught her little things to remember the answers easier. When she seemed like she understood things better, I quizzed her again. She only missed one question, which in turn required me to remove one article of clothing.
It was a wise choice for me to layer up too. When I removed the t-shirt to show that I had an undershirt underneath, she
wasn’t
too pleased.

“Seriously? When have you ever worn one of those? Did you steal that from my
father’s
laundry basket?” She said frustrated.

When we got to her next course, which happened to be chemistry, she tried to distract me. She unzipped her sweat jacket revealing only a
bra underneath. “It is really ho
t in here today.” She said as she fanned herself.

I stared
into the
book and refused to look at her.
Finally,
after a few minutes she focused her attention on me only being one shirt away from a naked chest.

Hope must have enjoyed Chemistry class because she did well on my quiz the first time around. I stood up and acted like a sexy male stripper, as I removed my undershirt.

Before I could turn
around,
I heard
catcalls
coming from Hopes chair. I turned around and sat down on the couch, like it never happened.