TAKE A CHANCE (Chance Colorado Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

ordeal he’d dreaded since he first heard the news. Today he’d be forced to accept that one friend was gone forever. And the other? The other might as well be gone, too. After Logan had deserted his best friends, he could hardly expect to encounter anything but contempt from the man he’d have to face today.
    Making his way across the parking lot, memories of his friends buzzed around his head like angry bees around a hive. All their lives had turned out so very different from what they’d imagined as they were growing up together.
    Danny was gone, leaving them with nothing more than their memories of him and his name emblazoned in gold on a big sign in front of the new community center.
    Matt, who’d been at Danny’s side as he’d breathed his last, and who had very nearly met his own end in that ambush, waited somewhere out there in that crowd.
    As for Logan, while his best friends had fought for their lives in a foreign land, he’d been safe at home, plodding along with his mundane life as if everything was business as usual.
    Maybe if he’d left school and joined the Army with Matt and Danny, things would have turned out differently. Maybe if he’d valued his best friends over the woman who turned out not to value him at all, his whole life would have been set on a different path. Maybe he could have made a difference. Maybe Danny would be alive today.
    Too many maybes haunted him with their siren call of second guesses.
    While his friends had chosen to fight for their country, he’d stayed behind for the woman and now he had to live with the consequences of his poor choice.
    “Logan!”
    He looked up to find his younger sister hurrying in his direction, her brow wrinkled in a perfect imitation of their mother. He was in for either a monumental lecture or a big dose of worried sister, neither of which he was in any mood to deal with right now.
    “Hey, Katie-Kat.” He flashed his best smile in hopes of heading her off. “You’re doing that frown thing again. You’re going to end up with permanent wrinkles before you’re even legal.”
    “Twenty is legal enough, mister, and you can just quit trying to distract me. I know you too well for that little trick to have any effect on me. Besides, you’re a fine one to talk. From your expression a minute ago, I’d say that frown thing must run in the family. You okay with all this?” She fluttered a hand behind her toward the crowded lawn.
    Even his baby sister could see right through him.
    “Hell yeah, I’m okay with it. I’m good. Danny’s memory deserves all this and more.”
    Katie arched her eyebrow skeptically and Logan had a pretty good idea of what their grandmother must have looked like fifty-odd years ago.
    Katie crossed her arms and tipped her head almost imperceptibly to the left. “Matt’s here. He’s standing with his family over on the other side of all the chairs. Wearing that uniform, he’s looking pretty hot for a guy leaning on a cane.”
    “Good. I’m glad he’s here.” Logan filled his lungs with a deep breath as he looked across to the place his sister indicated. If only he could get his roiling stomach on board with his words. “I was hoping to see him here today. Hoping for a chance to talk to him.”
    The moment he’d dreaded since first hearing the news of Danny’s death had finally arrived.
    He forced his feet to move, one after the other, toward the spot where his friend’s family had gathered. Directly ahead of him, Matt leaned heavily on the cane Katie had mentioned. As Logan drew closer, Matt glanced toward him, his eyes shining with an emotion Logan couldn’t read.
    Too late to turn back now.
    “Matt,” he greeted, extending his hand, silently praying his old friend wouldn’t reject him for the disloyal coward he was, right here in front of the whole town.
    Matt grasped his hand and pulled him forward, clasping him in a tight hug.
    “I hoped you’d be here.” Matt spoke in that quiet way he’d always had,