Chance of a Lifetime (Anderson Brothers) Read Online Free Page B

ordered him to leave, but he didn’t. Walter and Chance argued, and then he left. Tonight was the first time I’ve seen him since.”
    “And it was quite a reunion.”
    No kidding.
    “There has to be more to that story.” Sherry’s chair scraped on the floor as she stood. The air stirred as she gathered her garbage from the table. “It makes no sense that he didn’t come straight to the hospital, and I don’t understand why he stopped talking to you. You’re leaving something out.”
    It was too hard to explain. At the hospital, he and her big brother had talked about her like she wasn’t even in the room—or worse, like she wasn’t competent enough to be included in the conversation.
    “She could have died!” Walter had yelled. “She’s disabled. Blind. Helpless.” He’d used every word she’d been denying for years, over and over until she’d wanted to scream. But she didn’t. She’d lain in the hospital bed completely silent. Helpless, like she’d been labeled.
    At fifteen years old, surrounded by her disapproving family, covered in stitches, and embarrassed at her reliance on sighted people, all she wanted was to be normal and independent. She’d thought Chance saw her that way, but he just took her brother’s reprimand in silence, never once defending himself or her. He might as well have called her those things himself.
    After that, Walter launched into a tirade about how careless Chance was and how he was always doing crazy shit. That he was a terrible influence. Her parents told the boys to take the discussion out of the room, probably because she was shaking at that point.
    And then Chance left with Walter, muttering the only words he’d said directly to her since he arrived at the hospital, and the last words she’d heard from him in a decade. “I’m sorry, Genny.”
    Until tonight. That one word—“Genny”—was all it had taken to rip her heart wide open again. She bet he hadn’t even looked back since he’d left her at the hospital. Never once felt the pain of her absence.
    As if of its own accord, her palm pressed to her sternum where the old, familiar ache pounded.
    “So, are Chance and your brother still friends?”
    “They drifted apart for a while after that, but reconnected in law school. I’m not sure how close they are. Chance is a taboo topic with my brother—with my whole family, really. I kept track of him through news articles about his family or high school friends, though. He was always doing cool stuff. Climbing mountains, white-water rafting, skydiving. Even as early as sixth grade, he loved danger—which drove my family crazy.” It drove her crazy, too, only in a different way.
    For weeks after the hospital, she’d called and texted his number multiple times a day with no answer. Then, her attempts got further apart until she stopped calling altogether when she finally got his silent message loud and clear. Leave me alone.
    Sherry touched her shoulder. “Sorry, Gen.”
    Not nearly as sorry as she was. Her entire life had been ripped out from under her that night. From that point forward, her family had helicopter hovered, never letting her go anywhere unchaperoned until two months ago, once she’d scraped enough money together from her job to rent her own apartment. Even then, she had to be sneaky and move out when Walter was out of town. But that wasn’t going to be the end of her quest for independence.
    “I’m taking the rest of the week off from work. I already turned in my vacation leave notice,” she said, reaching for her cane propped against the table.
    “Whoa. Vacation? That doesn’t sound like you.”
    It didn’t, but Sally’s death was a game changer. “I’m on a mission. I’m going to knock out the bucket list.”
    The door opened, and she turned her head to listen but the outrageously loud family leaving drowned out whoever had entered.
    “What else is on your bucket list?”
    “Stuff I should have done a long time ago, but