His Chance

Chance-Chapter 1

The music changes now and I watch as the back patio doors open. Drew steps out first, just a little ahead of Hailey, but then I see her.

Felix looks toward the patio doors and then looks over at me and says, "Look at that beautiful girl, man".

And that's exactly what I do. She steps out the door on Drew's arm and once she's outside and standing right next to him, she looks up and over at me and our eyes meet. We both smile and I think to myself that I have never seen a vision of beauty like her in my entire life. She's wearing her mum's wedding dress and she is stunning. I lose total control of all of my emotions and my eyes fill with tears. Felix puts his arm around my shoulder when he sees me and I pull the tissue from my suit pocket to dry my eyes.

I watch as Drew walks her across the bridge and to the steps of the gazebo. I walk a few steps toward her and step down to meet her. Drew places her hand in mine and gives her a soft peck on the cheek and smiles at me.

She grabs hold of my arm now and I turn and look into her beautiful blue-gray eyes that are full of tears, I softly kiss the side of her neck and whisper in her ear so that only she can hear, "I've got you, baby", and she looks at me and smiles and we walk together up the steps of the gazebo. We turn to face each other and I hold both of her hands in mine. Grace bends down and straightens the back of Hailey's dress and Pastor Dan begins.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the presence of God and these witnesses to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony.........".

Holy matrimony. I take a deep breath. It's hard to believe this is happening. How is it possible that in the span of a little over a month, that I have gone from a guy that would gladly hook up with any woman once and then never give her a second thought to the guy who is standing right here, right now, feeling blessed beyond all measure that this beautiful girl next to me is about to become my wife. All I know is that ever since the day I met Hailey Jo Johnson, everything in my life has changed. Somehow she had the key to my heart, honestly, I didn't think that there was one, but she had it because from the moment I laid eyes on her, my heart has belonged to her.

This girl somehow broke down the wall that I had built to protect myself from the heartbreaking losses that I've had in my life. Growing up without even the memory of my father and then losing the only person in the world that I ever loved, my mum, while still a young boy, will cause your heart to harden and become off limits. I never gave anyone the chance to get too close to me. I protected myself by having only superficial, physical relationships with women, yeah, who am I kidding, they weren't relationships, they were hookups. I had my rules. Very little talking, absolutely no kissing on the mouth and no hanging around afterwards so as not to give her the wrong idea. Yeah, I was a real prick. I honestly was not proud of myself for how I treated women but it's what I did to survive. That has all changed now.

This beautiful girl that is standing by my side came into my life at just the right time. I was basically at rock bottom. I had been arrested and charged with drunk driving and drug possession. That of course caused some very negative publicity that led to me being fired by the West Ham Football Club that I played for. I was unemployed and facing possible jail time when my agent, and cousin, Drew, brought me back to his home in North Carolina with him. He thought that getting me out of London for awhile would be a good way for me to fly under the radar. It was on that very first day that I arrived in the States that he introduced me to his sister-in-law, Hailey, that my life started to make a turn for the better.

Of course I was attracted to her the moment that I first saw her because, well look at her, she is absolutely beautiful. With her long, blond hair and blue-gray eyes and that adorable southern accent of hers; I was most definitely intrigued by her on the very first day. The thing about her though, is that her outer beauty is just that, it's just the surface. The most beautiful part about Hailey is who she is on the inside. Her inner beauty just radiates from her and I found it so intoxicating. I was drawn to her right away. I even tried to fight it as I knew from the start that she was way too good for me but I couldn't stay away from her.