TAKE A CHANCE (Chance Colorado Series) (3 page)

But, honestly… shouldn’t a girl have the right to expect to end up with at least one out of four?

“Apparently not,” she muttered under her breath. “Not this girl, anyway.”

“Oh, this is primo.” Matt Flynn kept his eyes closed as he spoke, his head resting against the passenger-side window. “First I have to listen to that crazy cat of yours howling nonstop across three states and now you’re talking to yourself. Out loud. I suppose next you’ll be answering yourself. This road trip with you is just getting better and better by the mile.”

“Chester isn’t howling.” Allie spared a quick look over her shoulder toward the puffed-up ball of fur her brother had disparaged before fixing her gaze back on the winding road ahead. “He’s only trying to communicate with us.”

To be fair, the cat had been
communicating
since they’d pulled away from Allie’s empty apartment yesterday before sunrise. She should have tried harder to find someone in Waco to adopt him, but Chester wasn’t the type of cat people warmed to easily. He came equipped with sharp claws and a seriously bad attitude. Most of the time, she wasn’t sure that she even liked him.

Not that liking him was necessary. She’d found him a year ago—a pitiful, starving kitten wandering downtown and, when no one claimed him, she’d made her decision. Fate had dropped him in her path so he was her responsibility. And responsibility was something Allie took very seriously.

“Only communicating with us, huh?” Matt shook his head, but kept his eyes closed. “You’re starting to sound as crazy as that cat of yours.”

Allie didn’t bother to respond. Matt’s assessment wasn’t that far off the mark. She felt as if she were indeed perched on the edge of Crazy Canyon right now, with one foot already dangling off the wrong side. Over the last several months, everything she’d found comfort in had been snatched away and her plans for her life had been turned completely upside down.

When she’d left her hometown of Chance, Colorado eight years ago, she’d sworn never to set foot in that gossip-filled little backwater again. But life had a way of taking your dreams and even your best-laid plans and crushing them to dust.

Her life did, anyway. And now, here she was, barreling toward Chance at sixty miles an hour as if she had good sense.

Which, obviously, she didn’t, or she wouldn’t be headed back there, no matter what the reason.

Beside her, Matt shifted in his seat, a movement that brought with it an involuntary grunt of pain. His face paled and his lips clamped in that same determined grimace he’d worn ever since she’d first visited him at the military hospital in San Antonio.

“Want to stop and stretch your legs for a bit? There’s a little town up ahead where we can pull off.”

“I’m okay. We’re only a couple of hours from home. I can make it.”

Matt’s words denied his need, but the pain etched in the lines of his face told another story. He needed to keep those muscles moving. She’d been sitting there when his doctor had told him so before he’d left the hospital.

Damn that stubborn Flynn pride of his for getting in the way of common sense again. She of all people should know. She suffered from the same problem too often not to recognize it when she saw it in her brother.

He might not be willing to admit what he viewed as a weakness, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do what was necessary.

“Maybe the way you drive it’s only a couple of hours. But since I’m not up for any speeding tickets on this trip, it’s going to take us a little longer than that to get home. I’m stopping off.”

She headed down the next exit, toward a little town called Scarlet Springs. It turned out to be one of those classic old Colorado mining towns, its main street lined with eclectic buildings. Not so very different from Chance, really.

Though she’d filled up her tank before they’d left Boulder, she turned off into the Pump-N-Go gas station, pulling her old car up close to the first pump.

“What?” Matt opened his eyes and sat up, immediately alert. “Why are you stopping?”

“I told you,” she answered with as much patience as she could muster. “Why don’t you go inside and grab something for us to drink. I’ll do the honors out here.”

Matt stared at her for a moment before getting out of the car. His weary expression as he untangled his wooden cane from the handle of the cat’s cage served as all the proof she needed that her excuse to get him up and walking was completely transparent.

Whatever. He might be her big brother, but if he wasn’t going to do for himself what he needed to, it was up to her to see it done. Those damaged leg muscles weren’t going to get any relief with him all cramped up in the front seat of her little car.

She went through the motions, not surprised when it took less than five dollars to fill her tank. She really hadn’t needed gas. But, since Matt hadn’t yet returned, she had accomplished what she’d wanted. He was up and moving around.

Inside the building she spotted him immediately, hunched over the racks of junk food, hunting his favorites. If he were hungry, maybe she could keep him out of the car even longer.

The clerk smiled a welcome as she approached the counter with her cans of soda.

“Afternoon, ma’am. How can I help you?”

Without being aware of exactly when it had happened, somewhere in the last couple of years she’d managed to transform from a
miss
to a
ma’am.
Considering that she felt like the most ancient twenty-five-year-old on the face of the planet today, the greeting fit.

“Is there a restaurant you can recommend somewhere nearby? Maybe within walking distance?”

“Everything in Scarlet Springs is pretty much within walking distance.” The young man behind the counter grinned. “Your best bet is Caribou Joe’s. You can’t miss it if you head down that way. Looks like a log cabin. And if you’re hanging out until later tonight, they always have some sort of live entertainment. I know that’s where I’ll be after I get off work.”

“We’re not here to hang out,” Matt growled, suddenly standing at her side. “Just passing through, Romeo, so you can save the charm.” He dumped an armful of cellophane packages on the counter and turned from the clerk to her. “Jerky bonanza,” he explained, with the first real smile she’d seen in days.

“I guess this means you don’t want to stop for a sit-down lunch?” she asked, handing over her much-used credit card to the red-faced clerk.

“That’s right,” Matt confirmed as he ripped into one of the bags. “All I want is to get home in time to get rested up for tomorrow.”

As if his words had reminded him of what awaited them when they reached their destination, his smile faded and he headed back outside, leaning heavily on his cane.

The clerk refused to make eye contact as he handed back her card.

“Sorry about my brother,” she muttered, her own cheeks feeling much warmer than they had been when she’d walked into the store. It hardly seemed enough to make up for Matt’s comment, but it was the best she had to offer.

By the time Allie joined him in the car, Matt had his earphones in place and his tunes cranked up so loud she could hear a tinny thread of sound pulsing from his side of the car. Though his eyes were closed, the steady movement of his jaw as he chewed the jerky assured her he wasn’t sleeping. He simply didn’t want to talk.

Not that she could blame him. Having to face everyone they’d ever known in Chance tomorrow morning at the dedication of the new community center was a daunting enough prospect for her. It had to be a hundred times worse for Matt. Add that worry to the frustrations he’d wrestled today when they’d visited Fort Logan military cemetery in Denver, and it was little wonder he was seeking escape. He had a lot on his mind.

Back on the highway, Allie’s thoughts drifted over the path that had led her brother to this moment.

Matt, Danny Collins and Logan O’Connor had been known as the Three Amigos since they’d become best friends in first grade. They’d done everything together, including going off to Boulder after they graduated from high school to attend college. But two years later, when Matt’s money ran out, Danny decided they should all drop out of school and join the Army. Only Logan remained behind to finish his education while Matt and Danny headed off to war.

And now Danny was dead.

Had Matt hopped out of that truck a step ahead of Danny to assist those wounded soldiers, they might be naming the community center after him tomorrow.

Just thinking about the possibility made Allie’s stomach roll.

She tightened her grip on the steering wheel to stop herself from reaching over to touch her brother’s arm to reassure herself that he indeed sat in the front seat of her little car, safe and whole.

They’d come so close to losing him.

These last few months had taught her how important her family was to her. Much more important than losing her job or a boyfriend who couldn’t be trusted the second she turned her back. Family was even more important than being forced to face down her own personal demons in order to move back to Chance to look after her mother.

It didn’t matter that she’d have to see
him
again. It didn’t matter that he would be married now, after eight long years, and likely have a houseful of kids. It didn’t even matter that every time they saw each other she’d have to live with his knowing that she’d tricked his younger brother into dating her for the sole purpose of getting close to him.

None of that mattered because she was totally and completely over Logan O’Connor. She was over all men. None of them could be trusted as far as she could throw them.

A quick glance from the road to her passenger brought a smile to her face. Her brother might be the one exception to that rule. She admired him more than anybody she’d ever known.

Matt had endured five long months of hospitals, multiple operations, and what had to have been an unimaginable degree of pain. In spite of it all, he was here beside her, headed back to Chance to face the loss of his friend, Danny. Matt had survived and was doing what he had to do.

Just like Matt, she was doing what she had to do.

Her family was her biggest responsibility and she was determined to see to their welfare, both Matt’s and her mother’s.

Allie rolled her shoulders and leaned forward to squint at the sign ahead. After three hours of driving with no conversation save Chester’s constant complaints, the big green sign overhead announced her turnoff in a quarter of a mile. She followed the arrows, leaving the highway behind to pick up a small mountain road. Several more minutes and the little town of Chance lay stretched out before her, looking as if time had passed it by.

In a way, it had. This was it. She was back home again as if she’d never left.

Time to check her dreams at the door and put on her game face.

CHAPTER THREE

Of all the stupid things Allie had ever decided to do, wearing these heels today had to rank right up near the top of the list. If she could manage to make the long trudge across the rutted, rocky parking lot without breaking an ankle, she’d consider herself a lucky woman. Ending up on her butt in a field certainly wasn’t the impression she’d hoped to make after not having seen these people for so many years.

Allie grabbed on to the car door to stabilize herself before following behind her mother and brother as they made their way toward the gathering of people on the front lawn of the new community center.

The second time she stumbled on a dirt clod, Matt fastened a hand on her elbow.

Perfect. Both Matt and her mother were forced to use a cane to steady their steps, but who was the one stumbling into town and needing help? Her, of course. The one who was supposed to be there to help them.

At least she could console herself that she was being escorted by the most handsome man in Chance. Her brother, always attractive, cut quite a figure in his uniform.

“Hey!” a cheery voice called from behind them. “Wait up, you guys!”

Allie turned toward the sound and spotted her cousin Desi hurrying in their direction, her arm raised in greeting.

Though Desi’s twin followed several steps behind, there was no mistaking one for the other. The only similarities between Desi and Dulcie were their features and their size. Beyond that, they had always been as different as was humanly possible for identical twins.

Since before high school, Desi had been the more eclectic of the two, and today was no exception. From the bright purple braids twined through her long brown curls, right down to the black and white high-top sneakers peeking out from under her long gypsy skirt, Desi sported a look all her own.

Seeing her never failed to bring a smile to Allie’s face.

“It’s been too long,” Allie said, holding her arms out to capture her cousin for a hug.

“It sure has,” Desi agreed, returning the hug before linking her arm through Allie’s. “You look great. But what the heck was in your head to convince you to wear shoes like that? Ten feet from the car and I’d be curled up on the ground, writhing in absolute agony.”

“But they look awesome,” Dulcie added as she joined them, leaning in to kiss Allie on the cheek. “I’m so glad you finally decided to move back home. We’ve all been so worried about Aunt Susie.”