After we stopped for lunch and had driven for several more hours, Chance turned to me. “Are you in a rush to get to Temecula by a certain time?”
“I don’t start my new position for another week, and the house I’m renting is fully furnished, so not really. Why?”
“Care to take a little detour before darkness falls?”
“Sure. I’d be up for that. What do you have in mind?”
“Somewhere rock hard and deep.” He winked.
Well, that piqued my curiosity.
Chapter Six
We parked the car near the perfect spot overlooking the steep rocky walls of the Grand Canyon. Its beauty was overwhelming.
“Oh my God, Chance. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of stopping here myself. I’ve always wanted to see it in person. It hadn’t dawned on me that it was right on our way. It’s so breathtaking.”
I looked over at him and saw that he’d been staring at me instead of out toward the majestic peaks.
“Yeah. It’s very beautiful,” he said in a low voice.
“Let’s take a picture.”
With the Canyon as the backdrop, Chance snapped a selfie of us with his phone. He then texted it to me so I’d have it. The snapshot came out so good. The sun was shining into the blue of his eyes, and we both looked so happy and at peace. It made me wish this moment could go on forever, that we never had to leave this place.
As we sat looking out into a blaze of red colors while the sun set over the panoramic scenery, Chance suddenly said, “Tell me about your family.”
“My mother lives back in Chicago. She wasn’t happy about me moving at all. I’m her only child. But ever since she remarried, I’ve felt like she hasn’t needed me as much. My father died a year after I graduated from law school, so at least he got to see me live out his dream, which was that I become a lawyer like him.”
“It was his dream, but not yours…” he said in understanding.
“No. It’s really not what I wanted.”
“What is your dream?”
“I just want to be happy and fulfilled, but I have no clue what that even means anymore or how to get there. So much is up in the air right now for me. I feel like I’m at a crossroads in my life.”
“That’s not the worst thing in the world. Sounds like a good time to find yourself, especially since no one is tying you down.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Speaking of which, I think we definitely scared off Harry Balls for good.”
Our laughter at his comment caused an echo.
I stretched my arms and stared up at the sky. “You know what? I’m definitely happy right now. This—our little adventure—has been good for my soul.”
He flashed a sincere smile. “You have a good soul. I could see that about you straight away despite your little bitch façade. You know why you’re happy?”
“Why?”
“Because you’re finally loosening up.”
“I guess you took the stick out of my ass while I was sleeping in the tent last night then?”
“Yup. Burned it in the campfire.” He nudged me with his shoulder.
I smiled and changed the subject off of me. “What about your family? Where are they?”
Chance paused and scratched his chin. “Like you, I also lost my father. He died of pancreatic cancer a few years after my injury.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I just have one sister, Adele. She’s two years younger. With Dad gone, my mother and she decided to move back to the states, but I stayed back in Melbourne. I never planned to move back here with them, but Adele got into some really bad shit. She needed me. I had no choice but to leave everything there behind to come handle things here.”
“What happened?”
“It’s a long story, but basically, she took up with a drug dealer and started using as well. It was a fucking nightmare.”
“God, that’s awful.”
“I felt a lot of guilt because with my Dad gone, I was supposed to be the man of the family, looking out for her. I had my head stuck so far up my ass in Melbourne that I didn’t know how bad things were with Adele.”
“Where is she now?”
“Hermosa Beach…lives near me.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s straightened up a lot, although she’s still a work in progress. She’s not with that motherfucker anymore. That’s the main thing.”
“And your Mom?”
“I was coming back from visiting her when I ran into you, actually. She’s living in Iowa temporarily now to be closer to her mother. My Gram is dying. But my mother was also living in California near us before Gram got sick.”