Hope's Chance(2)

I cringed at the sight, but quickly gained my composure as my father pushed her aside and got up to head in my direction.

“Well look at my little girl, all grown up.” He took my hands into his and gave me a once over. “You look very pretty honey. It has been so long.” He leaned over to kiss me on the forehead. “I see you have met Buffy already? Isn’t she is keeper?” He said while gazing back at her.

I put on a casual smile, but in the back of my mind all I could think of was belting out that song from the eighties “Angel is a Centerfold”.

“We met outside Dad.” Was all I could manage to say.

“Why don’t you come on in and make yourself at home. We haven’t had time to furnish the whole house yet, but the kitchen is stocked and Buffy has made a nice spread for us to munch on.” He announced.

Buffy grabbed my arm and pulled me through the house again. She took me upstairs and showed me the four large bedrooms, which each housed their own bathroom. Two of the upstairs bedrooms looked out into the backyard. I saw the pool and fell in love instantly with it, before Buffy pulled me along to show off more of she and my father’s house.

When we finally had made it down to the kitchen, the food was ready to eat. “We have to take a break from the tour for a bit so we can eat before all of this food gets cold. Do you like fresh tea?” She asked.

“Um, sure.”

“Great. Here, you sit yourself down over there and we will join you.” Buffy pointed in the direction of the morning room. It faced the pool, which I couldn’t take my eyes off of.

My grandparent’s house was small, to say the least. They never expected to have my mom and I move in when my mom lost the house. A small den had been converted into a bedroom for me, but it didn’t even have a real closet. I had to use one we bought at a store that took up half the room.

Brunch tasted fantastic, but my father barely spoke. He left the conversation up to his new squeeze. She tried to talk to me about fashion, music and finally television, claiming her favorite show was that horrible show on MTV called Teen Mom. She made a point to mention how young my mother had been when she got pregnant with me. I thought I was going to choke on a piece of French toast as she confessed to that. My father seemed mesmerized with everything that came out of her mouth.

I wasn’t sure if it was an instantaneous decision, but I was fully aware that I had lost my appetite.

“So tell me Hope, what is there to do is this town. Your father and I need to get out there and meet some people. We have this big house and nobody to entertain.” Buffy stated.

I cleared my throat and looked directly at my father, hoping in some way he could read my mind and snap out of whatever spell he was in. “Do you know of any bars or clubs that Buff and I could go dancing?” He asked.

Was this a bad dream?

“I don’t really know of any clubs or bars Dad. They really aren’t my thing, and besides I am only seventeen. I am not even allowed to enter into any of those type of establishments until I am twenty one.” I confessed.

“Well I guess things have changed a lot since I was a teenager.” Was all he said I caught my father watching Buffy as she leaned over to clear his plate from the table. The bile began to surface in my mouth and I needed some air. “Do you mind if I check out the back yard?” I asked.

“Sure, make yourself at home.” My father said.

Fat chance!

My father remained seated, as I got up and walked toward the French doors leading to the pool yard. When I shut the door behind me, I couldn’t help but close my eyes and take a deep breath, thankful I made it through the meal without killing my father, or his bimbo girlfriend.

The pool yard was landscaped with tall grasses and lots of unique rocks. Several lounge chairs sat around the pool, and the entire vicinity was privacy fenced in. Attached to the far end of the pool was a building. Since my father had given me the go-ahead to look around, I took it upon myself to venture inside. Assuming that it was just a pool house, I barged in the door.

I was wrong.

The most handsome piece of man I had ever seen was bent over, pulling off a pair of swimming trunks. As the door shut behind me, he turned around, shocked!





Chapter 2


Chance



It was hard for me to believe that in the last year I had ruined my life and possibly my future. My full ride to Penn State University had been revoked. If my mother were still alive she would be kicking my ass, still after six months. What happened was a horrible tragedy and the dean of schools did what he had to do. In one night I had managed to destroy everything I had worked so hard for.

Now I lived with my sister, in a pool house in her back yard at that. We were always close and she never questioned me when I had confessed what happened that night. I couldn’t lie about something like that, but making someone believe me wasn’t that easy. Not when it was on every television station and in every newspaper.

So my sister set me up with a place to live, and a job that would last me at least a year. Her new sugar daddy had bought an old fixer upper and they had big plans for what they wanted the house to become, inside and out.

I hadn’t held a hammer since high school, but thankfully it ended up being like riding a bike. After a few days work, I got the hang of things. Plus working by myself gave me a lot of time to think about the mistakes I had made to get me to this very predicament I was in.