Jill Shalvis - Chance Encounter

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.

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 I know for a fact you did get something back by running Sierra Peak, so don’t you tell me otherwise. You learned to trust yourself, you learned just how strong and independent you can be.”

Ally sank to a chair and let out a little laugh.

“And you know what else? I think you learned a whole hell of a lot more than that. Not that you’ll admit it to me right now, but I think you learned how to receive love as well as give it.”

Ally stared at her. What would Lucy say if she told her she was right, she’d received lots of “love.” On her desk. Against a tree. In the kitchen. The shower… Her heart cracked and broke. “Chance was in on this, right? Give the city girl a thrill?” A man like him would never have given her a second look, why in the world hadn’t she seen that? Because she hadn’t wanted to, she’d been too busy reacting with her hormones.

“I swear to you, honey. Chance had nothing to do with this.”

“I need air.” Desperate for it, she headed toward the door.

“Dammit-” Lucy fought wildly with her covers, trying to get out of the bed. “Dammit!” She flung up her hands in frustration. “If you’re going to leave, then help me up so I can follow you. We’re not finished!”

Ally stared at the door in front of her, knowing she should walk out, but she couldn’t. Miserable, she studied the white paint, but what she really saw was Chance lying sprawled out in her bed, rumpled and sexy from the night they’d spent.

Loving each other.

Her throat tightened. Her eyes burned.

“Ally. Oh, Ally, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah. Me, too,” she told the door.

There was more rustling and more swearing. “Then get back here and let me shake you!”

Ally laughed a little, swiped at the silly tear that had escaped, and slowly turned to face her. “Don’t hurt yourself. Just stay put.”

“Not until you understand-”

“I do. I know that you care about me, and that-”

“I love you, dammit. And I love Chance. If ever there were two people who deserved to find each other more, I don’t know who they are. I just thought-”

“You thought wrong.” With a sigh, Ally moved back to the bed. She would not take her pain out on Lucy. “You should know you’ve been meddling in vain. I came to tell you it’s time for me to go. Now that you’re getting out of here, the timing is perfect.”

“Don’t tell me he found someone else, I know that boy too well.”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Good. Now tell me you love him again.”

“Lucy-”

“Tell me!”

Ally swallowed hard, but the truth came out. “Okay, fine. You win. I fell in love with him. But-”

Lucy’s eyes flared with triumph. “No buts needed.”

“ But, whether Chance loves me back or not doesn’t matter.” She had to swallow hard. “Not when he doesn’t want to love me. That’s why I have to go. Please understand. If I stay, I’ll go weak again. I’ll take whatever pathetic scraps of attention he can give me, because I can’t resist him. I’ll take it and feel grateful for even that little bit.”