A Hope and a Chance(86)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“I don’t know what to say.” I pushed the pillow out of the way and leaned in to kiss him. Then I whispered in his ear. “You know the probability of me having nine children that are all boys is highly unlikely.”

“How about we start with one and go from there? I only wanted nine to have my own ball team, so I guess I’ll just have to be the coach of our child’s team, whether it’s a girl or boy.” He kissed me again.

“When will we be having this child?” I was afraid to ask. It was understandable that Chance wanted to discuss our future. I remember wondering what I’d name my kids when I was still one myself. I think it just represented long-term. As much as I wanted that, it was scary going into uncharted territory.

He shrugged. “Whenever you decide to go off the pill. I don’t think Mark would have the heart to kill his grandchild’s father. I’m not saying I want to do it now, but if it did happen, I wouldn’t be pissed about it.”

“You seemed to have put a great deal of thought into this. Do you have names already?” I asked curiously, knowing darn well that getting pregnant at eighteen was not on my to-do list.

“Of course I do.” I watched dimples forming on his cheeks, and knew this was going to be good. “The girl will be named Faith, and our son will be Lucky.”

I burst out in laughter.

“What? Don’t you think that’s good? We can have one of those country signs made over our door. Instead of it saying Faith-Hope-Love, it will say Faith-Hope-Chance-Lucky.”

I continued laughing until I was sure I was going to pee myself. I got up and ran for the bathroom. It was becoming a habit for me to just go with the bathroom door wide open, so I decided to continue the conversation. “What would the dog’s name be?”

“Oh that’s easy, Rumplestiltskin,” he yelled.

As I was trying to get up to finally brush my teeth, I cocked my head into the bedroom door. “What the hell? Why?” I asked while still in hysterics.

“Have you ever known a dog with that name? I mean, if I take him to the park I want him to know I’m talking to him. I think it is quite genius actually.” Chance was still in bed with both his arms folded behind his head.

I rolled my eyes and let out another chuckle. “You know that is ridiculous right?”

“Probably.”

Looking at the mess on the top of my head, and brushing my teeth with the 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 had managed to get my hair looking halfway decent. “Get up then. I’ll meet you in the house in a half hour. I’m going to go run around the block, and then hop in the shower.” 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 continued with his early morning bantering. As much as I wanted to stick around I knew I had to get myself motivated. I got up and headed out of the pool house, just like I did almost every morning, leaving my cute, half-naked man in bed.

After finally managing to get myself out from under my warm blankets I jumped in the shower, and then dressed. I had to call two different places before I managed to get someone that could repair Hope’s window 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’s 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 adjusting the volume back down on the television, they all turned to look at me.

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

“We’re just glad everyone else knows that now, Chance,” Buffy admitted.

“Buffy’s 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’d never 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’re going to drop it off,” I explained. It was great that we were actually allowed to hang out together. It sure made being together easier.

“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 it in the sink. “It wasn’t a problem. Besides, I’m the one that had to break it.”

“Yeah, but you did it so that Hope wouldn’t freeze to death,” Buffy got her two-cents in.

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’m just going to change my shirt. I think this might be too hot once we get into the crowded mall. I’ll 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’d 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 fucking amazing.”

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