Chance Of A Lifetime 1987 Read Online Free PDF Page B

then nodded in agreement. „You’re right. But for some reason I always seem
    to run into the female variety. I could tell you stories about my last secretary that would make you shudder. She was
    always moaning about something or other. Always had an excuse for not getting her work done. Then there’s my
    Aunt Agatha. According to her, she’s been at death’s door for the past twenty years. A total hypochondriac. And my
    sister – “
    „We were discussing your great-great-grandfather.“
    „Yeah. Well, Great-great-grandfather finally lost his patience and told his wife to shut up and choose between him
    and the bright lights of San Francisco. He wasn’t about to leave Snowball’s Chance. This place meant a lot to him. It
    was the symbol of everything he’d been looking for when he came West. It was the visible evidence of his success
    and good luck.“
    „What happened to your great-great-grandmother?“
    Chance’s smile broadened into a grin. „She suddenly found herself pregnant, and that made her eminently
    reasonable. She stopped having tantrums and settled down to being a wife and a mother.“
    „In this house?“ Rachel asked skeptically.
    „Sure. This was the house her husband chose to provide. She decided to make it into a home.“
    Rachel nodded soberly. „Women in those days didn’t have many options, especially if they got pregnant.“
    „Don’t look so sad for Great-great-grandmother. From all accounts she was a happy woman once she’d ceased
    trying to manipulate her husband.“
    „Uh-huh. So your ancestor gave your great-great-grandmother an ultimatum and managed to bully her into staying
    here. What happened to the next couple of generations?“ She deftly caught the toast as it leaped out of the toaster.
    Chance scowled at her summary of the situation. „The next generation of Chances was born and raised here, too.
    But by Dad’s generation things had changed.“
    „You mean women had gotten a little more assertive?“
    „I guess. All I know is that my father never came back here to live after he left to go into the army. When he got out
    he married and stayed in the San Francisco Bay area. That’s where I was born and raised. But Dad never got around to
    selling this place. He tried renting it out a couple of times, and once in a while we came here for vacation in the summer,
    but that was about it.“
    „But you loved it here, right?“
    Chance smiled again. „Right. I liked the idea that it had been in the family since Great-great-grandfather’s day.
    Something about the historical connection appeals to me, I suppose. Funny, because I am definitely not the
    sentimental type.“
    „I believe you,“ Rachel said coolly. If there was any real sentimentality in this man, it was buried under an awful lot
    of steel.
    He ignored her interruption. „For me the house is a link of some kind. My mother and sister have no interest in the
    place, though. It’s been sitting empty for years. My work has required a lot of traveling. I haven’t had a really
    permanent address since I went off to college. Then, a year ago, Dad died.“
    „I’m sorry,“ Rachel said awkwardly. She resented the fact that she felt any sympathy at all for this man. He
    certainly didn’t deserve it.
    „He’d had a long, reasonably happy life,“ Chance said quietly. „How much more can a man ask? But he did manage
    to put a monkey wrench into my life before he departed.“
    „How’s that?“
    „He didn’t leave me anything but this house. He thought money was bad for a man’s sense of ambition. That was
    fine with me. I’ve always taken care of myself, and the house was the only thing I wanted, anyway. But he did leave a
    couple of sizable trust funds for my mother and sister. Unfortunately, I got saddled with the job of administering the
    funds. Beth doesn’t mind.“
    „Which one’s Beth?“
    „My mother. I’ve called her Beth for years. She hates dealing with numbers, but Mindy, my sister,