Lucky Chance by Marissa Dobson Page A

chuckled. “She wants me to come and work for her as the public relations manager. I guess she spoke with Gwen this morning and found out I was considering moving back home to be with you.”
    “So, are you going to take it?”
    “She’s sending all the information to your email. If you could forward it to me, I can consider things further this afternoon. But…maybe. It sounds like it could be interesting.”
    He rolled to his side and propped himself up on his elbows. “There’s something else I should tell you.”
    “Hmm?” She let her eyelids fall shut so she could enjoy the moment in his arms.
    “When your parents wanted to move to Florida, I bought your old family home. Before you bitch about it, they didn’t tell you because I asked them not to.”
    “But why? Why did you buy it?”
    “Because I wanted it. You loved that house, and I thought someday you’d come back to me. I thought we might move in and raise our own family there.”
    “What about all these years? You had to have figured I wasn’t coming back.” She remembered how much she’d loved the house she grew up in, and how devastated she was when she found out her parents had sold it. She hadn’t even gotten one final visit home before they closed the deal. No one had told her they were even thinking about it until after the sale was complete.
    “I admit I lost hope that we might ever be together again, but I couldn’t see someone else owning that home. It meant so much to you, and therefore it meant a lot to me. I’ve kept it, but I couldn’t bring myself to live there. Not without you. I’ve rented it out. Currently, I have it rented to a family that had lived on base but wanted to have a place of their own. They just received notice they’ll be moving. Before you showed up in Graves’s office, I had considered selling it, but now that you’re here, I want us to move in there. We can raise our child there, and when I’m deployed Ace and Gwen will be right around the corner.”
    “Raise this child in my old home…” Tears swam in her eyes. “Oh, Lucky, I can’t believe you.”
    “Is that a yes?”
    “But what about your condo? Ace said you love that place.”
    “I do, but I’d rather be in a house where our child can run around, play in the creek, visit their aunt, uncle, and cousin just over the creek. We can make that a home for our family.”
    “Your determination is showing through again.” She smirked. “Let’s do it.”
    “Another one down, only one more to go. Next up to bat…marriage.”
    She swatted at his chest, but he caught her hand before she could make contact. “We’ll see about that.”

 
    Lucky’s part of the competition was over. Now they just had to wait. Sergeant Major Graves had called that morning to wish him the best. It had been the first time they’d spoken since Lucky had been called into his office and given his new orders. It had also been the first chance he had to ask why he hadn’t been told that Kyle had been the one who recommended him.
    I didn’t want it to put you off your game. Seeing Phillips was better than me telling you. It was his recommendation, so he needed to be the one to explain why. The words played in his thoughts again, and even though he had the answer, he didn’t care.
    Maddie ran her hand along his thigh as she did her best to distract him, but nothing could keep his mind from what the judges were doing now. He had been the first contestant to cook for the judges, and the hours since had gone by at a snail’s pace.
    “This is the first time in weeks we don’t have an interview, and you don’t need to spend the evening cooking or testing new recipes. Why don’t we take advantage of it? Maybe we should go out and celebrate my new employment.”
    “I still can’t believe Wynn talked you into taking on the public relations for her designs. Before you know it, she’s going to be global.”
    “I can’t believe it either.” Excitement laced her voice, and