Hope's Chance(94)

“Back then I probably would have.” He shook his head and looked at the ground. “I should have known. I should have seen it.”

“Keeping us apart wouldn’t have changed how much I love her. Please give me the opportunity to show you. Let us be together. She makes me want to live again. She has given me my life back. When I moved here, after losing so much, I just wanted to give up. She changed that. She changed me.” I confessed.

“So, you are asking for my permission to date my daughter?” He asked.

I took a deep breath. There was no turning back. I had waited so long for this. “Actually, I am asking for permission to marry her someday. Not now, but someday.”

Mark didn’t say anything. He just stood there looking at me. Just when I thought all hope was lost, he extended his hand to me. “You have my blessing. Chance, I can’t see her being with anyone better than you. I wish you wouldn’t have lied, but I understand why you did.” He said confidently.

“Mark, I swear to you that I will take good care of your daughter. She means everything to me.” I promised.

“I see that now Chance. I should have seen it months ago, but now that everything is out in the open, I understand. I appreciate you taking such good care of her when I neglected to do so myself. I wasn’t always an ideal father to her. I want that to change. I want her to be close to me again.” He admitted.

I put my hand on his shoulder. “Give it time. She will.”

“Your new wife is waiting.” I added.



When we walked back into the room, the party had already started and only Hope and Buffy were waiting for us.

The chairs had been removed and round tables were being set by the caterers. Music had started to play and the group of guests seemed to not even be interested in our family feud.

Buffy and Hope came rushing to my side. “What did he say?” Hope asked.

I looked back at Mark, who gave me a nod. “He said that I have his blessing. He said that someday we can be married.” I announced.

Hope fell into my arms and finally I held her there and didn’t care who saw us. I kissed her right on the mouth.

Buffy put her hand on my shoulder. “Congratulations. Now can we get back to my wedding?”

Mark walked over to Susan, who seemed to be fuming, and pulled her close to us. “Susan, I am going to clear this up right now, so there is no more misunderstandings. “This is Hope’s Chance, they are together and I would appreciate it if you backed off of my daughter’s future.”

I slipped my hand into Hope’s and knew all we had to look forward to was our future together.





Epilogue


Two years later…..



Hope

I always believed that everything happens for a reason. That goes without saying when it comes to me and Chance. We had been together for almost three years now and finally had settled into college life. Chance worked out a deal with the school that we could live together if we were married. Since he was the best short stop that they had probably ever had, they did whatever they could for him.

My parents weren’t too keen on the idea at first, but they wanted us both to be happy. We had a small service at the courthouse. For the first time in forever, my parents managed to get along for an entire day. Even my mother and Buffy were cordial. For our wedding gift, they sent us to a cabin in the mountains.

We had such a great time being alone and not having to worry about schoolwork. Chance had worked so hard and was finally set to graduate in the spring. He had changed his major twice, before finally settling back into his love for being a lawyer some day. Chance was wrong about not being able to pick up with baseball. He played fantastic and ended up being the starter. I never missed a home game and sometimes even managed to go to some away games, with my dad and Buffy in tote of course.

I had doubled up my courses and could graduate next year with a teaching degree. Chance and I weren’t sure yet where we were going to end up living, he was waiting for a few offers from some reputable law firms in different cities. His grade point average was damn near perfect and we were sure that after they got a look at them, he would have his choice. The baseball draft was coming up, and although we were all hopeful, you just never knew with something like that.

He kept asking me why I picked teaching and all I could say was that I could do it no matter where we lived, and I loved the idea of having the summer off. We knew Chance would have to go through Hell in his first years after passing the bar exam, but I never doubted him.

Since I had forgotten my birth control pills on our honeymoon, we were both standing over a little white stick, waiting for little lines to tell us if we were going to be parents. Chance had been super excited, while I was more reserved to being petrified.

I wished that we could have been in our first home or Chance to have at least been with a firm already.

“Stop being nervous.” He said as he rubbed my back.

“Why are you so excited. We aren’t prepared for this Chance.”

He kissed the top of my head. “We will make it work Hope. I know everything will be okay as long as I have you.”

I rolled my eyes. The timer on his cell phone started beeping and we both looked over at the white stick. “Two lines.” He said happily.



Seven months later