Hope's Chance(71)

Hope was my girlfriend, no matter if we had to hide it or not. She knew how important she was to me and that was as good as things could be for the time being.

The wedding was fast approaching and Buffy seemed to be freaking out on more of a daily basis. Her newest conquest was to have Hope involved with everything possible. Part of me was happy that they were so close, but I felt like she was keeping me away from alone time with Hope.

Buffy made it her life mission to save money, so traveling to several towns away for something cheaper was always what she ended up doing. She would tote Hope around with her for the company and they wouldn’t get back until late in the evening.

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.