Chance Encounter

again and have his way with her.

Which he’d done many satisfying times during the night.

A grin broke free at that, and he stretched languidly, lasciviously, thinking no matter what time it was, they could spare a few extra moments to make love again. Then he’d tell her how he felt about her. It was time to let go of his fear of commitment, time to give in and realize Ally would never hold him back, she’d only enhance everything about his life.

It took him awhile, but he eventually realized the cabin was far too still. He slid his hand over the pillow they’d shared, when she hadn’t been sleeping sprawled across the top of him. He’d learned many things about the incredible, warm, passionate Ally in their time together, and one of them was that she was a complete and utter bed hog.

He liked that about her.

But her side of the pillow, though seeped in her light, sexy scent, was ice-cold.

With a jerk of his heart, he shoved up to a sitting position, his gaze searching the room. The closet was open and he pushed the covers aside and hopped out of bed to go look. He tore past the leggings, the new fleece sweats, the wet suit…everything she’d purchased here at the resort. He was looking for the clothes she’d brought with her from San Francisco, the clothes she’d never once worn here, but they were gone.

And so was she.

He threw on his clothes and ran down the path to the lodge. She’d be there, he told himself.

But she wasn’t. He searched everywhere, and the longer he searched, the more desperate he became because he knew the ugly truth. He’d made her unhappy. God, what he’d give to fix that. He wanted to see her smile at him with that love in her eyes, the love he’d been afraid of. He wanted to live with her and watch them both turn gray. He wanted every damn thing. But it was too late.

He was too damn late.

All Jo knew was that she’d indeed left. When Chance called Lucy, she was annoyingly vague, too, telling him she was being released in a few days, that she’d come by the resort to see everyone and that they could talk then.

He couldn’t wait that long. His heart felt like someone had taken a two-by-four to it. How could he have waited so long to face the truth about loving Ally? He’d been so busy being the big, bad, tough T. J. Chance, only his sweet, determined Ally had really been the brave, tough one all along. She’d gone against the grain just to come here. To stay here. She’d risked her self-esteem and confidence to face this world she’d known nothing about.

Over and over again, she’d put herself out on the line. Learning. Experiencing. Risking. And she’d risked the one thing he never had-his heart.

15

EACH TIME ALLY HAD been to see Lucy, her aunt had seemed fresh, happy and full of spunk. And each time, Ally had left the hospital with a niggling feeling that she was somehow missing something.

Things were no different on this early, foggy morning as she made her way to Lucy’s room. She hadn’t called first, but she’d been the surprised one.

The traction was gone.

In fact, there was no sign of an invalid at all. And though she knew Lucy had been progressing wonderfully, that she was close to being healed, it was still a shock.

As Ally entered the room, Lucy and a nurse were laughing over a joke that the doctor had just told-the doctor that had released Lucy.

Ally stood rooted in the doorway, dividing her gaze between the grinning nurse and Lucy. “You’re getting out of here?”

Lucy went utterly still, then plastered a smile on her face. “Darling, how lovely to see you! What a surprise! You shouldn’t have driven all this way just to see little, old, rickety me.”

“Why do I have the feeling you’ve never been little, old or rickety?” Suspicious, and feeling as if the joke was on her, Ally moved closer. “How come you didn’t let any of us know you were coming home today?”

“Well…I…”

“Lucy, have you been faking all along?”

“No!” She sent her nurse a pleading look. “Tell her. Tell her I was helpless in traction, lying around for days in agony.”

“Agony, yes,” the nurse said, smiling fondly at Lucy. “Helpless? Never.” And with that, she left them alone.

Ally waited for an explanation that didn’t seem to be coming. “Lucy?”

“I’m thinking, dear.”

“About?”

“How to best approach this.”

Ally let out a disbelieving laugh. “How about starting from the beginning? Now, please.”

Lucy grimaced. “Are you this tough with your sisters?”

“I am now.”

“Well…I guess that’s a good thing.” Lucy sighed dramatically. “You’re not going to like this, you know.”

Ally already knew that by the way her heart was drumming. “Try me.”

“Okay, well, I really did hurt myself.” Lucy slid the sheet aside, revealing the bottom half of her legs, one of which was still in a cast. “See?” She wriggled her purple polished toenails. “Definitely broken.”

“Skip to the part I’m not going to like,” she suggested tightly.

“You mean where I confess I’ve been matchmaking this entire time?” Lucy smiled sheepishly, looking twelve instead of sixty something. “Is that the part you mean?”

“You…what?”

“I’m sorry.”

“But that’s-” Ally sank to the bed in shock, the breath swooshing out of her lungs. “How? You didn’t even know for certain I’d come here. And you couldn’t have known that I’d fall for Chance, much less even like him-”

Lucy gasped. Her eyes lit up and she brought her hands to her mouth. “Oh darling! It worked? Really? You fell for him?”

“I…” Even as the trap surrounded her, as the noose tightened, Ally refused to go down without a fight. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Lucy let out a dreamy sigh. “It’s too late, I can see it in your eyes.”

“That’s bad temper!”

“It’s love.”

“I can’t believe this.” She felt dazed, railroaded. Mortified. “What a rotten thing to do!”

“Oh, no. No, I didn’t mean it that way,” Lucy said urgently. “I just thought-”

“What? That it’d be fun to mess with my life?”

“No, of course not. Ally…”

But she didn’t want to hear it. Not when the implications of everything were just setting in. She stalked the length of the room to the door, then whirled back. “It was all a ploy? The letter, the job? Everything?” She waited for the denial that couldn’t come because it was all true. “You never really needed me at all.”

“No! I-”

“You were bored? You wanted to amuse yourself, and contrived a way to put my entire life on hold? Is that it?”

“Oh, honey…” Lucy wrung her hands. “This is not going as I planned.”

God, she felt so foolish. Humiliated. “You played on my sense of family loyalty to get me out here. I can’t believe how I fell for it. And all this time I thought I was helping you.”

Lucy lifted a hand and pointed at her. “Now you stop right there, Ally Wheeler! True, yes, that’s all this family ever does-lean on you. I know that, and it’s wrong. I just thought it was time you got something back for once, and