Chance Encounter(31)

She turned off her office light, intending to go to her cabin and collapse in bed, but a light down the darkened hall drew her.

Chance.

All thoughts of sleep vanished, replaced by images of comforting him, holding him close, somehow making him accept the fact that for once, she could help him. Even if that help came only in the form of comfort.

She was just outside his office door before she heard his low, quiet voice say, “Yes, everyone’s safe.”

“And Ally,” came Lucy’s voice from the speakerphone on his desk. “How’s my Ally?”

Chance was leaning on his desk, arms crossed, staring out the windows into the dark night. Every inch of his body looked tense and taut as steel. As if he sensed her, he turned to the door. Their gazes met and locked. “Ally’s okay,” he said, staring at her. Absorbing her.

“And you?” Lucy asked, blissfully unaware of the tension now shimmering in the room. “I know you too damn well, Chance. You’ll be the one out there where it’s not safe.”

Chance didn’t break eye contact with Ally. “I’ll be fine. I have to go, but I’ll call you first thing in the morning, okay?”

“Fine. But Chance?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you, as if you were my own son. I just wanted you to know that.”



CHANCE TURNED AWAY from the window and grabbed the phone. With his throat suddenly tight, so tight he could barely speak much less breathe, he was eternally grateful for the dark room.

“Say it,” Lucy said in his ear. “You don’t have to tell me you love me back, just say you know I love you, and that you believe it.”

His eyes burned, and it wasn’t from inhaling smoke for hours. “Lucy.”

Her voice softened. “Hon, I know damn well you’ve never let your own family close enough to tell you how they feel, so let me tell you tonight of all nights, when things are as bad as they can get. Everyone needs that, needs to know they’re loved.”

He hadn’t ever believed that, until now, but he couldn’t speak past the football-size lump in his throat. He was painfully aware of Ally watching him.

“Chance? I’m going to keep telling you, do you hear me?”

“Hard to miss it,” he managed gruffly. “You’re shouting.”

Although he knew Ally could no longer hear Lucy’s side of the conversation, he saw her smile. It was a bit ragged, as was she from the night’s events, and more than anything, he wanted to hold her. “I’ve really got to go.”

“Okay, you don’t want to talk mushy, I understand. But I meant what I said.” Lucy’s voice was full of warmth and affection. “Goodnight, Chance.”

“Goodnight…and Lucy?” He waited until the last possible second to say it. “I love you, too.”

He hung up and stared at the phone for a long moment before lifting his head. Ally was still there, silhouetted in the dark, open doorway. She was filthy, smelled like smoke, was pale as a ghost, and she’d never looked more beautiful to him. He wanted her, probably more than he’d ever wanted anyone, but that wasn’t what scared him now, as he’d felt that need before, with other women. It was how badly he wanted to bury his face in her hair, wanted her to hold him, while together they rode out this terrible, haunting sense of…aloneness.

That was entirely new.

“You okay?” she asked, her voice soft and somehow comforting in the dark.

“You should be in bed.” Another image he didn’t need, her in a bed, all tangled in the silky sheets, hair spread over the pillow, lips soft and inviting…

“I’m going soon.”

Good. Great. He’d be picturing that for the rest of the night. “Tired of the big, bad wilderness yet?”

“I miss the city,” she admitted. “But I’m not tired of Wyoming.”

Which wouldn’t hold her here. He knew that.

“And to be honest…”

No, don’t be honest, he wanted to say. Don’t open up to me. Don’t make me care any more than I already do.

“In the month before I came…” Her eyes flickered with embarrassment. “I managed to mess things up. I…lost my job when they accused me of stealing.”

“You wouldn’t do that.”

“No,” she agreed softly. “I wouldn’t. But Thomas didn’t have such qualms, and—”

“Thomas?”

“My very ex-boyfriend. He stole some classics and let me take the blame. Luckily he’s the one that ended up in prison.”

Chance was surprised at the hot white surge of fury that caused within him. “Doesn’t sound like a good enough punishment to me.”

To his surprise, she laughed. “It worked for me, once I got Lucy’s letter asking me to come to Wyoming.”

He gave in to the curiosity he’d been fighting. “Jo says your family calls a lot. Are you supporting all of them?”

“Does Jo always tell you about other people’s private messages?”

“When she’s worried about a friend.”

Now it was Ally’s turn to grimace. “She doesn’t consider me a friend.”

It surprised him, the look of hurt. And knowing he’d put most of it there made him uncomfortable. “I know that at first the staff wasn’t exactly welcoming, but I also know that’s changed.”