Hope's Chance (43 page)

“You’re right. I did promise you, but I had already fallen in love with her.” I took a deep breath, preparing myself to be hit with a fist. “We had already been together when you introduced us.”

It was as if everyone in the room disappeared. The four of us were in this private conversation with no regard for the people around us.
The room was completely silent.

“I don’t understand. You couldn’t have met her.” He reiterated.

Hope interrupted. “I met Chance when I first came to see you here. I walked in on him changing in the pool house. I didn’t know anyone lived there and you told me to explore. Later
on,
he saved me from a shady man on the side of the road. Then after that
,
he saved me again, when Rylee snuck me into a bar you guys went to.
I didn’t want you to catch me and when my friend refused to leave, Chance took me home. Dad, it just happened. It wasn’t planned, I swear.
”

Mark’s eyes lit up. He
knew exactly when it happened. He turned to me.
“When the police came, they asked you
questions
you wouldn’t answer
?
”

I nodded my head. “I found out how old Hope was after the fact. I knew
I couldn’t let the police know that she was a minor
,
so I lied to keep her safe.
I didn’t want you to find out about that night for several reasons.
”
I confessed as I put my head down.

Mark had real tears in his eyes. “I love her Mark. I swear to you that I have always loved her.”

He looked over to Hope. “This is why you have been acting so
weird
?”

She nodded. “We didn’t want to tell you until my birthday, but Susan wouldn’t leave Chance alone. I couldn’t take it anymore. Please say that you forgive us. Please Daddy.”

“I need to talk to Chance alone.” He said as he grabbed me by the arm and took me into a private room.

I looked back and saw the two
women, that
I loved the most in the world, standing there with tears in their eyes.

When we got into the room, Mark closed the door behind us.

“Sit down.” He ordered.

I sat down and looked at the floor.

“Do you have any of th
os
e cigarettes on you?” He asked.

“I quit for Hope months ago.” I admitted.

“Of course you did.” He shook his head and almost smiled. “You really have put me in a bad place Chance. I trusted you with my daughter and you gave me your word. Now, after all of this time I have
really gotten to know you and accepted you into my family. I appreciated how you always were there for Hope and I thought you treated her like a sister. I knew that you cared, I just didn’t understand how much.”

He ran his hands through his hair. “I love you like you are my own son Chance.”

“Mark, I am so sorry. I don’t know what to say.
I should have told you. We were just so afraid that you would keep us apart.
” I admitted.

“
Back then I probably would have.” He shook his head and looked at the ground. “
I should have known. I should have seen it.”

“
Keeping us apart
wouldn’t have changed how much I love her. Please give me the opportunity to show you. Let us be together. She makes me want to live again. She has given me my life back.
When I moved here, after losing so much, I just wanted to give up. She changed that. She changed me.
” I confessed.

“So, you are asking for my
permission
to date my daughter?” He asked.

I took a deep breath. There was no turning back. I had waited so long for this. “Actually, I am asking for
permission
to marry her someday. Not now, but someday.”

Mark didn’t say anything. He just stood there looking
at me. Just when I thought all h
ope was lost, he extended his hand to me. “You have my blessing.
Chance, I can’t see her being with anyone better than you. I wish you wouldn’t have lied, but I understand why you did.
” He said confidently.

“Mark, I swear to you that I will take good care of your daughter. She means everything to me.” I promised.

“I see that now Chance. I should have seen it months ago, but now that everything is out in the open, I understand. I appreciate you taking such good care of her when I neglected to do so myself. I wasn’t always an ideal father to her. I want that to change. I want her to be close to me again.” He admitted.

I put my hand on his shoulder. “Give it time. She will.”

“Your new wife is waiting.” I added.

When we walked back into the room, the party had already started and only Hope and Buffy were waiting for us.

The chairs had been removed and round tables were being set by the caterers. Music had started to play and the group of guests seemed to not even be interested in our family feud.

Buffy and Hope came rushing to my side. “What did he say?” Hope asked.

I looked back at Mark, who gave me a nod. “He said that I have his blessing. He said that someday we can be married.” I announced.

Hope fell into my arms and finally I held her there and didn’t care who saw us. I kissed her right on the mouth.

Buffy put her hand on my shoulder. “Congratulations. Now can we get back to my wedding?”

Mark walked over to Susan
, who seemed to be fuming,
and pulled her close to us. “Susan, I am going to
clear
this up right now, so there is no more misunderstandings. “This is Hope’s Chance, they are together and I would appreciate it if you backed off of my
daughter’s
future.
”

I slipped my hand into Hope’s and knew all we had to look forward to was our future together.

Epilogue

Two years later…..

Hope

I always believed that everything happens for a reason. That goes without saying when it comes to me and Chance. We had been together for almost three years now and finally had settled into college life. Chance worked out a deal with the school that we could live together if we were married.
Since he was the best short stop that they had probably ever had, they did whatever they could for him.

My parents weren’t too keen on the idea at first, but they wanted us both to be happy. We had a small service at the
courthouse
. For the first time in
forever
, my parents managed to get along for an entire day.
Even my mother and Buffy were cordial.
For our wedding
gift,
they sent us to a cabin in the mountains.

We had such a great time being alone and not having to worry about
schoolwork
. Chance had worked so hard and was finally set to graduate in the spring. He had changed his major twice, before finally settling back into
his love for being a lawyer some day.
Chance was wrong about not being able to pick up with
baseball. He played fantastic and ended up being the starter. I never missed a home game and sometimes even managed to go to some away games, with my dad and Buffy in tote of course.

I had doubled up my courses and could graduate next year with a teaching degree. Chance and I
weren’t
sure yet where we were going to end
up living, he was waiting for a
few offers from some reputable law firms in different cities. His grade point average was damn near perfect and we were sure that after they got a look at them, he would have his choice.
The baseball draft was coming up, and although we were all hopeful, you just never knew with something like that.

He kept asking me why I picked teaching and all I could say was that I could do it no matter where we lived,
and
I loved the idea of having the summer off. We knew Chance would have to go through Hell in his first years after passing the bar exam, but I never doubted him.

Since I had forgotten my birth control pills on our honeymoon, we were both standing over a little white stick, waiting for little lines to tell us if we were going to be parents. Chance had been super excited, while I was more reserved to being petrified.

I wished that we could have been in our first home or Chance to have at least been with a firm already.

“Stop being nervous.” He said as he rubbed my back.

“Why are you so excited. We aren’t prepared for this Chance.”

He kissed the top of my
head. “We will make it work Hope. I know everything will be okay as long as I have you.”

I rolled my eyes. The timer on his cell phone started beeping and we both looked over at the white stick. “Two lines.”
He said happily.

Seven months later

Chance

Hope and I were in shock when I got an offer to play professional baseball. I had been drafted by the Baltimore Orioles and for the past two
weeks,
I had been in the process of
getting
us all moved in. Hope
stayed in Virginia because she was too far along to travel until the baby was born.
I didn’t know where my baseball future was going to go, but I had a law degree to fall back on.

The doctor had assured us that she wouldn’t go into labor for at least a week, so I was trying to get everything in order before hand. When I got the
call,
I start
ed freaking out. I had left my w
ife alone and she was going into labor. I drove faster than I knew my motorcycle could go, and broke every law that a driver could break to get to Hope. After a
two-hour
drive,
I made it to the hospital just as she was being put in a birthing room.

When she saw me, I rushed over to her and grabbed her hand. “I am here baby. I made it in time just like I promised.”

“Chance, I was so afraid you were going to miss it.” She admitted.

“I wouldn’t miss this. Besides, I need to be the first to know whether we have a Lucky or a Faith.” I joked.

Hope didn’t have time to laugh or scorn me. She let out a huge scream and the room fi
lled with nurses.

“You have to breathe baby.” I yelled as Hope was starting to freak out. Her contractions were already three minutes apart and she had just started labor about an hour ago.

The doctor finally came into the room with his rubber medical gloves on. “Hello there Mr. and Mrs. Avery. I hear we are going to be having a baby tonight.” He pulled the stool up between Hope’s legs and took a look. “Looks like you are ten centimeters
dilated
. Are you ready to push?”

“What about drugs?” Hope yelled.

The doctor shook his head. “I am afraid we don’t have time for that Mrs. Avery. Your baby is already starting to deliver itself.”

I looked down at Hope, who appeared as if she was going to kill me, like rip off my head and feed it to wild boars. “I can’t do this.” She cried.

“You can do it baby. I promise you can do this.” I assured her, but truthfully I was nervous as shit. Hope was in agonizing pain and it was killing me to see her that way. My eyes
filled
with tears every time she screamed.

Finally,
after pushing only three times, I watched a very slippery
baby
come sliding out of my wife. I had never seen something so horrifying and beautiful at the same time. The doctor yelled. “It’s a girl”, before the nurses came and took her to get cleaned off. Hope looked at me with exhaustion in her eyes.

“You did so good baby.” I said as I kissed her on the head.

Moments later
,
our baby was brought over and put on Hope’s lap. The doctor wa
s still getting everything sewn
up, but we just pretended he wasn’t even in the room. When my vision became
blurred,
I realized my eyes were full of tears. Hope stared down at our daughter.

“She is perfect.” I cried.

I stuck my finger near her fingers and they tightened around it. I placed my lips on her tiny little head
and kissed her
and then kissed my beautiful wife. “I love y
ou Hope. Thank you for this life
.”

“Thank you for being mine Chance and for giving me this beautiful part of you. I love you so much.” She said.

We both sat there admiring our daughter, and finally the grandparents showed up. After a lot of cooing and
tears,
they all settled down. “Did you pick out a name?”
H
er mother asked.