Free Hope's Chance by Jennifer Foor Page B

the week to keep from going completely insane. One day I had climbed on the roof to fix more missing shingles. She set a lounge chair up directly under me and started rubbing oil all over herself. I got so caught up in watching her, that I almost lost my balance and fell to my death.
    Yesterday she went for a run in the community. I had washed my bike around the side of the house and put it in the garage so it didn’t get dusty. She thought nobody was home, but I was in the pool house having lunch. The next thing I knew she was stripping down to her bra and panties, swimming laps in the pool. When she climbed out I could see her hard nipples through her white bra.
    Day after day something would happen and I would see it firsthand . It was torture. I was back to smoking almost a pack of cigarettes a day just to relieve some of the stress I was undergoing.
    My sister and Mark were due to leave tomorrow morning.  They decided to have a nice family dinner tonight before they left. My sister  had cooked Italian, which was my favorite. She made homemade bread and the house was filled with the scent of yeast and garlic. The formal dining room had finally been painted and the new furniture was delivered last week. Buffy had set out candles and lit them around the table. She looked on the internet to find how a fancy place setting should look and did her best to mimic it.
    Per her request, we all dressed up and met in the dining room at a quarter to six. I decided on wearing what I had wore to the bar the night Hope had come home with me. Part of it was because I still hadn’t unpacked the boxes in my closet, but the other reason was because I knew it would drive Hope insane to see me wearing it again. The last time I had these clothes on, she had been the one to remove them.
    When we got to the table I noticed that Hope’s seat was empty. She finally came running down the st airs and came around the corner entering the dining room. Buffy had a huge smile on her face as Hope walked in. She must have lent her one of her outfits. She was wearing a light gray skirt and a thin silk shirt that was see through, revealing a lace bra underneath.
    I noticed her father’s face from the corner of my eye, and quickly turned my head so that he couldn’t see me admiring his daughter. Once again it took everything I had for me to not look at Hope.  The table was a large rectangle. Buffy and Mark were at both ends and Hope and I on either side. I stared down at my plate as we ate our salads. When Buffy passed the bread around, she reached the tray across the table to me. For just a moment our hands touched. I felt a jolt of electricity running from my hands all the way down my legs. For that instant our eyes met and I could feel the passion between us.
    As quick as it started, it had vanished. Hope looked toward her father and started talking about his cholesterol and what he should and should not eat while they were away. He rolled his eyes, but promised he would try to pay attention to what he ate.
    Buffy talked about how long the bread took to knead. When Mark praised her good cooking, she blushed. I could tell she was beside herself with happiness. She had dated such losers for as long as I could remember, but Mark was different. I knew he admired her, and I never got the pervert vibe from him like I had with the many other guys she dated in the past.
    Mark treated her like a princess. He had picked her up when she’d hit rock bottom and given her a new life. The day he and I went through those clothes and got rid of them, I knew he cared more about her than how she looked. Even when he gave her the money for the boob job, he specifically told her to do whatever made her feel happy with herself, and that if she didn’t do anything at all , he would be fine with it.
    She was so happy, which in turn made me happy. Our mother died at such a young age. We had each other now and I would do my darndest to stick around and make her proud of