TAKE A CHANCE (Chance Colorado Series) Read Free

She’d seen the signs for the last few months and had chosen to ignore them. But now, the time to ignore had come to an end. Betrayal of her trust was something she couldn’t forgive.
    “I don’t think so, Drake. There’s nothing to straighten out. I don’t want to talk to you. Not about this or anything else. We’re done. Don’t bother coming over again.”
    “But lover…”
    “Seriously. Don’t bother.”
    Allie ended the call and turned off her phone in case Drake tried to call her back. She waited for some sort of fury or pain to set in, but they didn’t come. She didn’t even feel surprise over Drake’s cheating. It was as if her emotions had gone into total hibernation.
    She felt completely numb. A numbness that permeated her whole being, accompanied by something strangely like resignation.
    She’d been wrong. Drake was no different from any other man. No different from her own father had been. He’d cheated on her just like her father had cheated on her mom. The only difference was that he’d started earlier and she’d found out now, before their relationship went any further. Unlike her mom, who put twenty years and two kids into a relationship without knowing what her husband was capable of doing behind her back. If his car hadn’t gone off the side of the mountain with his mistress sitting next to him, she might never have known.
    It was better this way. Better to have his cheating ways out in the open before her heart had a chance to grow any more invested in him. In them.
    Allie smoothed her hair away from her face with a shaking hand and pushed back through the glass doors in time to see the nurse hurrying down the hall in her direction. Pasting a smile on her face that she didn’t feel, she waited to be taken to see her wounded brother.
    The world seemed determined to tell her something this week. Her job was likely to end in the next few months and her boyfriend was… well, he wasn’t much of a boyfriend, after all. So maybe she didn’t have as many reasons to stay in Waco as she’d thought.
    Maybe it was time to get her priorities straight like her grandmother had advised. Maybe the time had come to consider going home.
     
    * * *
     
    Odetta Flynn stirred her coffee, staring out the kitchen window, her mind working feverishly. If she couldn’t even persuade her own grandchildren to return to Chance, what prospects for survival did her hometown have?
    “Well?” Harley Flynn filled his cup from the coffeemaker and crossed to where his wife stood. “Any luck with that stubborn granddaughter of yours?”
    “Mine? That girl is pure hardheaded Flynn.”
    “I’m the hardheaded one?” Her husband of fifty-three years chuckled and leaned over to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. “You still make me laugh, Odie, you know it? That’s why I’ve kept you around for so long.”
    “Who’s kept who around?” Odetta replied, gifting Harley with a smile. “Don’t you worry about our Allie. She’ll do the right thing. I could hear it in her voice.”
    “In that case, maybe she is pure Flynn,” Harley said with a wink. “I know I can never resist your wheedling.”
    “Hardly!” Odetta snorted, shaking her head. “Her stubborn streak comes from you, for a fact. But that practical bit, she got that from me.”
    “Fair enough,” Harley answered, finishing up the last of his coffee. “If you’re right about her coming home, you’d best be working on a way to convince her to stay once she gets here.”
    As if Odetta hadn’t already spent her share of sleepless nights worrying over exactly that challenge.
    “I think I have that one figured out. With a little help from our girls, we should manage it just fine.” She rubbed her palm down her husband’s arm, ending with a pat to his hand. “As I told you last night, Papa, saving Chance is going to take more than just bringing Allie home. It’s past time we do whatever we can. We’ve sat back and waited for far too long for the