Hope's Chance(84)

“Probably.”

I was brushing my teeth, looking at the mess on the top of my head. With a brush stuck in my mouth, I continued to speak. “So when do you want to head out to the stores?” I asked.

“Well since the Mall is about an hour from here, I would say soon.” He replied.

I ran back into the bedroom and jumped on top of him. I had fresh breath and managed to get my hair looking halfway decent. “Get up then. I will meet you in the house in a half hour. I am going to go run around the block and then hop in the shower.” I said as I leaned in to kiss him.

He pulled me back down on top of him. “I just need one more hug from the future mother of my children and caretaker of Rumplestilskin.” He joked.

I got up and headed out of the pool house, just like I did almost every morning.



Chance

After finally managing to get myself out of bed, I jumped in the shower and got myself dressed. I had to call two different places before I managed to get someone that could repair Hope’s window today while we shopped.

When I headed into the main house I found the three of them glued to the television in the kitchen. They barely took their eyes off of the screen. “Good morning people. What is so interesting?” I asked.

Buffy didn’t say anything; instead, she grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

Investigators found the woman living in Ohio. It appeared that the incident had been staged so that the woman could run away from her life here in Virginia. Since there were never any formal charges in her disappearance, the case has been closed.

After getting the volume on the television back down, they all turned to looked at me.

I took a sip of my coffee. “What? I told you all I had nothing to do with it.”

“We are just glad everyone else knows that now Chance.” Buffy admitted.

“Buffy is right, you have to feel some kind of relief knowing you don’t have that lingering over your head.” Mark added.

“I do, but I knew all along that I had never even met the woman.” I took another sip of my coffee. “So I managed to find a shop near the mall that can fix Hope’s window today. She and I have some wedding, and Christmas shopping to do, so we are going to drop it off.” I explained.

“Thanks for taking care of that so quickly Chance. I was going to make some calls about that this afternoon.” Mark replied.

I finished my cup of coffee and rinsed the cup in the sink. “It wasn’t a problem. Besides, I am the one that had to break it.”

“Yeah, but you did it so that Hope wouldn’t freeze to death.” Buffy added.

When I finally looked up to meet Hope’s eyes, I noticed that her hair was down and the natural waves were showing off her highlights. She was wearing tight jeans that tucked into a pair of black riding boots, and a sweater that showed off a lot more cleavage than it probably should in the shape of a V. I tried not to stare, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She caught my gaze. “Are you ready to go Chance?”

I was wearing one of my Penn State hoodies and a pair of jeans that were meant to have small rips around the pockets. In comparison, we really didn’t match up well. “I am just going to change my shirt. I think this might be too hot once we get into the crowded mall. I will be right back.”

I ran straight toward my closet and found a short sleeve v-neck that I usually wore when I went out. I kept the jeans on, but grabbed my leather jacket, which happened to match Hope’s boots. With one last spray of cologne, I headed to the front yard where I found my beauty waiting for me.

Hope bit down on her lip when she took a look at what I had changed in to. “My boyfriend is yummy.” She confessed in a low enough voice that no one else could hear.

“He doesn’t compare to my girlfriend” I joked. “Seriously Hope, you look f*cking amazing.”

She smiled and started her car. “Thank you.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off of her for the entire car ride. At one point she held her hand up to shade herself from me. When we finally got to the glass shop, I jumped out and opened her door for her. I wanted everyone there to know she was taken.

The mall was right across the main highway from the shop, so it was easy for us to walk over there and get our shopping done, while we waited.

I held Hope’s hand as we crossed the highway, and even as we walked from store to store. I noticed people looking at us, and I couldn’t help but smile. We were both dressed pretty nice. A few people were actually shopping in raggedy old pajama pants.

When we got into a major department store, I headed directly toward the household section. “Where are we going?” Hope asked.

“We are getting your dad and Buff one of those new coffee machines that makes one cup at a time.”

Hope giggled as we approached the said machine. “You are getting them something we can use too? How awesome is that?”

“My ideas are always stellar baby.” I said sarcastically.

We ended up picking out the biggest machine, and after buying the specific coffee and accessories, I wasn’t worried about them thinking we bought it for ourselves too.

Hope decided she wanted to get her mother a charm bracelet. I thought it was a great idea, because they could always build on to it. We found a jewelry kiosk in the center of the mall and started working with an associate to gather the charms Hope was looking for. Even before Hope noticed, I saw the chick checking me out. I tried to be polite and smile, but she immediately got all googly eyed.