Hope's Chance(19)

After he said that he turned back to his normal laid back self. I headed to the pool house to grab a cigarette while I waited for dinner to be ready.

I had to ignore Hope. There wasn’t any way around it. Just thinking about her made me crazy.

When I saw her walking out of the main house, I noticed she had changed into her bathing suit. I took a drag of my cigarette as I ducked back behind something so she couldn’t see me. She was stunning. I stood there remembering how every inch of her body felt against my skin. I closed my eyes and found myself visioning our time together.

The outdoor kitchen faced the main house, which meant that Mark’s back was turned to me. Hope looked down at her chest and readjusted her two piece bikini, before diving right into the pool. It was like slow motion when her body came out of the water. Her skin glisten from the combination of the sun and the water and she ran her hands though her long wet hair.

The last time I had seen her hair wet like that was when I found her in my shower hiding from Buffy. I couldn’t believe that she was here. How was I going to keep pretending that our night meant nothing? How could I be around her when she was almost naked?

I heard Buffy calling me. I took another drag of my cigarette and I came out of my hiding spot. “What’s up sis?”

“Get your suit on.” She said. I noticed her bright pink two piece. I shook my head and walked into the pool house to change.

When I got in the pool, Buffy and Hope were having a conversation that I did not want to be included in. I started doing laps in the pool, doing my best to pretend Hope didn’t get to me. Keeping my distance was the only way that I saw things could work out.

When we finally sat down to eat, Buffy had taken the spot next to Mark, which left me to sit next to Hope. This couldn’t get any harder. It was like teasing a dog with a t-bone. Not that I was comparing Hope to a piece of meat, but she definitely made my mouth water. Being next to her wet body was so hard. I wanted to look at her, to just peek one time, but I couldn’t chance that my sister or Mark would see me. I just promised him I wouldn’t touch his daughter. If he only knew she was all I could think about, and had been thinking about for over a week, he would have my hide.

Buffy did most of the talking at dinner. I smiled when I saw Hope get up and run to the kitchen, only to bring back a bottle of ketchup, which she covered her steak with. Her dad looked like she killed a puppy.

“Do you want some meat with that ketchup?” I asked.

She gave me a dirty look and began eating her ketchup covered meat. “Don’t knock it until you try it. I have always put ketchup on my steak.”

“I was just kidding with you anyway.” I said, but nobody seemed to care. They kept eating.

When dinner was over we all hung out in the pool. Mark and I were discussing plans for the house, while Buffy and Hope talked about different ideas for decorating her new room. Knowing that she was so close to me was burning a hole into my mind. I wanted to look at her so bad, but there was never a safe moment to do it.

When the mosquitoes started to bite, I thanked Mark for the meal and retired to the pool house. I couldn’t stand being that close to her any more. I was about to explode. A cold shower would be the only remedy for this fellow tonight.





Chapter 11


Hope



I did everything I could to avoid Chance Avery. One of the things included joining a father daughter golf tournament with my father. It was a few towns over so we spent the night there. It was actually nice being able to hang out with my father, without Buffy. She was growing on me though, and I found myself enjoying her company.

Rylee had been consumed with the new guy she met at the bar. She even told him that she was only eighteen and he was okay with it. I invited her over a few times, but between work and Tyler, she was always busy.

Chance and I refused to speak to each other unless we were around my dad and Buffy. I managed to avoid him for a whole week between going away with my dad and unpacking my room.

When my father and I got home from our trip, Buffy was on him like peanut butter to jelly. That night at dinner they gave each other googly eyes and were looking at each other like they were going to come across the table and start banging right in front of us.

Later that night they came downstairs and announced they were going away for the entire weekend. Before I could grab my cell phone and make plans with Rylee, Buffy got one of her great ideas. “Oh I know what you could do this weekend. You could get your room painted.”

My father smiled. “I can leave you a credit card to buy whatever you needed sweetie.”

“And Chance can help.” Buffy added.

I could tell that it was the last thing Chance wanted to do, but he put on a smile and agreed.

I wanted to tell my father that it was a bad idea, that leaving was a bad idea, but then I would have to give him a reason why. That was never going to happen.

I helped Buffy pack for the trip with my father, but I wished that I hadn’t. Her choice of clothing was not something I wanted to imagine my father liking. She may as well have been walking around topless.

For the past two weeks I had been forced to watch countless hours of MTV with Buffy. We would sit in the kitchen and talk for hours. She told me about how she and Chance fought as kids, and what it was like growing up in Pennsylvania. She talked about her old boyfriends and being a cheerleader in high school. I tried to avoid talking about Chance, but since he was her brother, the topic always came up.