Chasing Leah (Journey Series) (16 page)

Chase comes out of the bathroom
and flicks off the lamp sitting on the nightstand before pulling back the
covers and sliding in next to me. He snuggles up to my back and wraps an arm
around my waist and I
scootch
back into his warmness.
He brushes my hair to one side before lightly kissing the side of my neck,
“Night Leah.”

“Night Chase.
Thanks for today too, it really helped with you being there. I can’t believe I
broke down like that, it’s been so long since I’ve even seen my mom I didn’t
think I had any emotions left for her.”

Chase starts to rub small
circles on my back and shoulders instantly relieving some of the tension that’s
built up. He really does have some magic hands. “I’m glad I could be here Leah.
She was still your Mom though so it’s okay to cry, maybe you’re crying more for
what you never had with her and now you won’t ever have that opportunity.”

“You know you’re actually a
genius for being such a pretty boy.” I say as I feel my eyelids grow heavy from
the relaxation brought on by
Chases
expert hands.

“Uh thanks,” he laughs out. “I
guess that’s a compliment.” We lay there together a bit longer and I can’t help
but enjoy the warmth of Chase. I wouldn’t mind sleeping with him every night if
possible. Maybe taking things slow with Chase would work if I just
tried,
life can be taken away in the blink of an eye just
like my mom. I hear the slow steady breathing of Chase and realize he’s fallen
asleep and I close my eyes and do the same after the draining day.

Leah

I wake up the next morning to
the enticing smell of coffee wafting into the room and realize
Chases
warm body isn’t beside me. I rub my fingers over my
eyes and can fill the puffiness still there from the tears the night before.

“Hey sleepyhead,” Chase says as
he walks into the room with a cup of coffee in one hand and his laptop in the
other. Caleb is following closely at his heels and he jumps onto the bed with a
squeal. “Mommy, mommy me and Chase were
playin
’
games. You can play too if
ya
want.”

“Oh yeah, what were you guys
playing?”

He replies back between each
bounce. “Um hide and seek,” bounce, “duck duck goose,” bounce, “ring around
with
rosie
.”

“Wow you’ve been keeping him
pretty busy, huh?”

“I was trying to keep him
occupied so he wouldn’t try to wake you up,” he says as he flops down onto the
bed by my feet.

“Why what time is it,” I ask as
I stretch my arms above my head.

“
Its
almost 11.”

“Wow I can’t believe I slept
that long, I normally like to sleep at least past 7 but not that long.”

“You needed it. Can you grab my
glasses for me off of that nightstand?”

I reach across the bed and grab
a pair of square black frames and hand them back to Chase as he slides them on
to look at the screen of his laptop.

“I didn’t know you wore glasses,
do you normally wear contacts?” That would explain the brilliant green color of
his
eyes,
I knew it couldn’t be natural.

“Nope I just use these for
reading sometimes,” he says as he stares down at the screen intently,
occasionally clicking the mouse.

“Oh well they definitely give
you a more studious look.” I stand on my knees and run my hands through the
mess of his short dark hair. “And with your hair grown out now you don’t look
like such a bad ass, more like the sexy teacher all the girls dream about.”

He grins back at me as he slides
back to sit next to me with the laptop balanced on his knees. “Good that’s totally
the look I was going for.” Caleb squeezes his little body in between us and
stares intently at
Chases
laptop. He types in a few
more things and then turns to me.

“So when I took over the phone call
for you last night from the detective, he said that it would be best for you to
come to Michigan. They have some paperwork for you to sign since you’re the
next of kin and then you can handle any funeral arrangements that you decide
on. I figured we should probably leave pretty soon it looks like it’ll be about
a six hour drive.”

I hold up a hand in protest,
“Whoa, whoa Chase.
We?
I can do this on my
own,
you don’t have to chauffer me around. I don’t need to
depend on you.”

He grabs my hand and kisses each
of my fingers and I can’t help the butterflies that shoot through my stomach
just from the simple touch of his lips.

“Leah I WANT to be there with
you. You don’t always have to do everything on your own. Besides it’s a long
weekend, we still have three days left till classes start back up. We can make
a road trip out of it. And I can take care of Caleb while you’re handling
everything.” I press my lips together contemplating what he said. This would
definitely be a next step in a relationship with Chase. And of course he played
the Caleb card, which kind of makes
sense,
he doesn’t
need to be around to hear that stuff. Three days alone with him. I guess we
could use it as a trial without the distraction of school and work.

“Well…” I say as I try to contain
my smile looking at Chases defeated expression.

“Please Leah?”

“Okay, fine. You can come with
me. I guess.” I tack on at the end.

His face transforms as his smile
lights up his face reaching into his eyes as he jumps up off the bed, grabbing
a duffel bag out of his closet. “Awesome, since I already made reservations for
us. You should run over to your apartment and grab a few things for you and
Caleb. He can stay here with me.”

“Oh you were pretty presumptuous
in thinking you could convince me to let you tag along, huh?” I teasingly ask
as I climb out of bed.

“Well I can be very persuasive,”
he says with a smirk as he grabs a few t-shirts out of his closet. “By the way
I called Ally for you this
morning,
I figured you
didn’t need to go over it all again.”

I grimace as I imagine
Allys
reaction. She tends to be a little bit of a drama
queen sometimes. “And how did she take it?”

“Uh well it took me about ten
minutes to reassure her that you were okay. Then she was demanding
Skylar
drive her back here so she could take care of you
but she settled down after I explained I have everything under control.”

“Yeah that sounds like Ally.
She’s the one person that’s been there for me the past few years, she’s like a
sister. I’m sure
Skylar
had his hands full with her this
morning.”

“I know
shes
pretty awesome but
Skylar
seems to handle her pretty
well. She said to call if you need to talk to her though. Apparently I don’t
know about women’s feelings or something.”

I smoothed my hair out and
gathered it up into a ponytail and then found my purse that I had thrown in the
corner of the bedroom to dig out my keys. “I think you have a pretty good
handle in that area. I’m going to take a quick shower and I’ll grab some things
from my apartment and meet you out front in about 30 minutes, sound good?” I
lean down and kiss Caleb on the forehead who’s found a game on
Chases
computer. “You
gonna
be
okay with Chase for a minute buddy?”

“Yup I’m a big boy now ‘member
Mommy?”

“Oh sorry I totally forgot.”
What was I thinking three years old, he’s practically a grown
man.

“Yup, I’ll see you in a bit,”
Chase stops me before I leave the room and pulls me into a hug.
“You doing okay with all of this?”

“Yeah I’m good. I think I just
needed to get a long cry out of my system but I’m really okay. Especially
thanks to you,” I say as I stand on my tiptoes and place a quick kiss on the
corner of his mouth. “Now hurry it up, I’m sure we’ll be hitting tons of
holiday traffic.”

I head across the hall to my own
apartment and pull out a comfy outfit of jeans and a
hoodie
for the long car ride before heading into the shower. Afterwards I toss a few
clean outfits into a small rolling suitcase along with some underwear and bras,
selecting a few of my sexier pieces in case things go any farther with Chase. I
tuck in my bikini at last minute, thinking the hotel that Chase booked might
have a pool.
Now onto Caleb.
He’s never been on this
long of a road trip before and I’m not sure how he’ll do, it should be
interesting. Plenty of snacks and toys should do the trick.
Hopefully.
Before heading out to meet Chase I grab my cell phone and dial the one person
that I figured should know about mom.

“Hey Grandma, it’s me,” I say as
she answers the phone after a couple of rings.

“Oh hi Leah.
I’m surprised to be hearing from you, did you need something dear?”

I roll my eyes before answering,
of course that’s the only reason she would think I would be calling. “Actually
I just wanted to let you know that a detective called yesterday. Moms dead,” I
rush out, feeling the foreign words on my tongue.

I hear an intake of breath on
the other line, “Well I guess that’s not that big of a surprise, now is it? She
was such a wild child and never wanted anything to do with her own mother,
always getting into some kind of trouble. Okay Leah, well thanks for calling. I
do need to get going
though,
I’m meeting some of the
girls for our yoga class. Do you need anything else dear?”

Maybe a little
compassion for your own daughter?
Obviously I knew they didn’t have much
of a relationship but I figured grandma would have a little bit more of an
emotional reaction about her only child. “No that was it Grandma, I’m heading
out to make some arrangements this afternoon.”

“Ok well then goodbye Leah.”

I toss my phone back in my purse
and grab our bags. Grandma had never really explained why
her
and mom had such a volatile relationship. I was surprised she even took us in
when mom ditched me and Caleb with her. She was never rude or mean to us while
we stayed there but she never did warm up to me and didn’t adjust her lifestyle
to having a teenager and a baby.

Chase already had his jeep
started up and ready by the time I got down and he hopped out to help me with
my bag when he saw me coming down the stairs. I saw Caleb strapped in to his
car seat and it looked like Chase already had him occupied with some sort of
hand held game.“All set Leah?”

“Yup all ready. Let’s get this
over with.”

After stopping off at a gas
station to fill up and grabbing a few snacks for ourselves we head out on our road
trip. Chase kept up a constant chatter about his classes and upcoming
graduation in the spring. He had already applied for a few jobs for the next
school year and was hoping to hear back from some soon. He filled me in on the
upcoming band gigs they had and the few new songs that he had written that he
was nervous to be trying out. Caleb of course kept up a steady babble too until
he finally fell asleep. I added a few comments in but was still lost in thought
after talking to grandma.

“Leah?” I look over at Chase who
has a concerned look on his face after I realize he’s been trying to get my
attention the past few minutes. “You okay?” he asks as he rubs his hand up and
down on my thigh.

“Yeah, just
thinking.
I talked to my grandma before we left.”

“Oh yeah,
how’d that go?”

“Pretty much
just how I expected.”
I mumble.
“Seemed like I was
inconveniencing her by calling more than anything.”

I look over at Chase who remains
silent. His strong jaw is tense with his lips pressed into a firm line and he
looks like he is trying to stay in control.

“I’m sorry
Leah,
you don’t deserve to be treated like that.
Ever.”
He
slams his hand down on the steering wheel. “I could tell something was wrong as
soon as you came down. You don’t have to keep everything inside, you have me,
just let me in.”

I reach over and grab his hand
interlacing my small fingers with his long slender ones. “Thanks Chase. I know
you’re here and that means so much to me. It might just take me a little time
to warm up to the
idea,
you just have to give me some
time.”

He lifts our hands to his lips
and gives me a small kiss that shoots tingles down to my toes. Just the
simplest touches from him seem to set my body on fire. “We need to take a
break,
I think we’re about two hours away.”

“Yeah I need to stretch my legs
a bit. I really don’t want to wake up Caleb but I’m sure he needs a potty
break. I’ll take over driving too if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, that would be good.” He
pulls in to a rest stop off the highway and we both run in to take bathroom
breaks. Caleb insists he needs to go with Chase so he can go to the
potty’s
where you stand. I didn’t know those were so
exciting but apparently having Chase around has some benefits. Chase tosses the
keys to me and I follow the directions from the GPS.

 I focus more on my
conversation with Chase and we talk more about my school and I explain to him
how I have about a year left give or take, depending on whether or not I take
summer classes. He talks more about how he learned to play the guitar and how
it was almost an instant thing for him, the playing came so easily.

“You’re really good,” I say.
“I’m not into music much but I could listen to you play guitar anytime.
And your voice.
How come
Teddys
the lead singer, you could totally steal the lime light from him. You have such
a deep gruff tone to your voice and it comes out when you sing.”