Chance of a Lifetime (41 page)

As he walked up, the kid quit playing. Rick nodded at him but his words were for Trace.

“I thought you were going to say good-bye.”

“I got tired of waiting. It’s time I leave. As soon as Border comes back, I’m on the road, Matheson. There’s no reason for me to stay.”

He could see their wild night together still burning in her green eyes. “We need to talk in private. Beau, you mind if we borrow your place?”

“Fine,” Beau said as they walked past him. “If you break anything, you buy it.”

“Keep playing. We’ll only be a minute.”

He followed Trace into the apartment and slammed the door. A hundred things he wanted to say filled his mind,
but the need to hold her was too great. He grabbed her arm, twirled her toward him and caught her with both arms.

“Rick,” she began.

“So you do know my first name.” He smiled down at her. “When I finish kissing you good-bye, I hope you can still remember it.” He lowered his mouth before she had time to say anything and kissed her as if he were dying for the taste of her.

As he knew she would, Trace kissed him back. For a while they were lost in the passion. Finally, the kiss turned tender as did his touch. When he finally broke the kiss, he whispered, “I’m coming to Chicago in a month and we’re going to have that real date.”

“I won’t answer the door.” She moved her hand over his hip.

“Yes, you will. You’ll be starving for me by then. You’ll answer the door and you’ll be wearing a dress. We’ll go out to dinner and then come back to your place.”

He kissed her again. “Promise me you’ll be there.”

She nodded. “I’ll be there, but this between us will never work. I’ve never been half of a couple before.”

He smiled. “I’m bringing food and water. We’ll give it three or four days before we decide.”

She smiled. “What will we do for three or four days?”

“Talk, among other things.” He pushed her a few inches away as he heard the motorcycle returning. “Now kiss me good-bye again.”

Ten minutes later, they finally walked out of the apartment. Border and Beau were both trying to act like nothing was going on.

Trace hugged them both and told them how good it was to meet them. When she hugged Rick, she whispered, “One month.”

As she drove away Rick realized all they had was possibilities, but for now that was enough.

B
EAU PLAYED HIS SONGS AS THE NIGHT GREW LATE.
He couldn’t stop smiling at the way he’d seen Rick Matheson and Trace Adams look at each other. He’d heard her whisper, “One month,” but he doubted either of them would last that long apart. They were the lucky ones. They’d found something that came along once in a lifetime.

A song came to him about lovers driven by passion into a loving that lasted forever.

Near midnight, he stopped singing and just played a few of the old tunes he loved. He wasn’t sure how it happened, but sometime in his learning to play the music started skipping his brain and going straight from his ears to his fingers. He could play almost anything he heard. It was like the music had come into him and now would live within him as long as he breathed.

Maybe he didn’t need hard times to play. Maybe just life with its good and bad was all he needed. The prize wasn’t to live a perfect life but only to survive the times between
the perfect moments that come along just often enough to keep him going.

As his fingers moved, an old classic Ford pulled up in front of the duplex. “Write me a ticket, Red,” he whispered as he set his guitar down and walked out.

“Evening, Trouble.” He tipped his hat.

“Want to go for a ride?” She smiled. “I know an old part of Route 66 that no one’s been on for years.”

He spread his arms out along the top of her car door and leaned down to kiss her before walking around to the other side to climb in.

With his hat low and his head back he said simply, “Drive.”

She shot off into the night, heading for moonlight along a blacktop road.

In
New York Times
bestselling author Jodi Thomas’s small town of Harmony, Texas, “something is always brewing”
(Fallen Angel Reviews)
. Now, a generations-old feud is about to come to a head—and the stakes couldn’t be higher with two hearts on the line…

Cord McMillan gave up his freedom at eighteen when he went to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Now, ten years later, he’s about to give it up again for a piece of land. Nevada Britain, his neighbor, has just made him an offer he can’t refuse: If he will marry her, she will sign over a section of property that their families have been fighting over for a hundred years. Nevada refuses to explain why, but Cord knows the bargain is in his favor. He just has one condition—she has to sleep in his bed every night for as long as their doomed marriage lasts. Nevada only wants to maintain her family’s legacy—and redeem herself for a wrong she did Cord years ago. But as she spends more time with her husband, she discovers something unexpected—a love so deep it takes her breath away.

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Available June 2013 from Berkley