Chasing Leah (Journey Series) (19 page)

Leah

“Jeez Ally contain yourself.
It’s not his fault he can’t keep his hands off me,” I say teasingly. I grab my
suitcase off the floor where Ally had thrown it in. “Hey Sky, how was Thanksgiving
with your family,” I ask as I ignore
Allys
look of
frustration.

He smiles over at
Allys
pouting mood and plays along with my game, making
Ally wait even longer. “It was good. My family loved her of course, who
wouldn’t? I’m sorry to hear about your mom Leah.”

“Thanks Sky.” I look over at
Caleb who’s already busy playing with all of his toys that he missed while we
were gone. “You want a snack buddy or you want to lie down and take a quick
nap?” He shakes his head at me not even looking up from his dinosaurs he and
Skylar
have lined up. Gee thanks Caleb, now I have to deal
with the wraith of Ally. Thanks
buddy,
I’ll remember
this next time you want your favorite movie on.

“Alright, alright quit trying to
stall. We can pick this up later, I’ll be back in awhile Sky,
you
keep an eye on Caleb. Make yourself comfortable you
might be out here for awhile,” she says as she shoves me towards my room. I
roll my eyes and throw a wave over my shoulder at Sky, who just grins back at
his ferocious girlfriend.

“So spill.
I need to know everything. First of all how are you really doing Leah, I’m sure
it was a shock about your mom. I wish I could have been here for you.”

I unzip my suitcase and start
throwing all of my dirty laundry into a hamper while setting my toiletries
aside.

“Really Ally, this weekend was
fantastic. I mean I was totally shocked about my mom but I got a bit of crying
out of the way and really I’m over it. She was never there for me and she
certainly wasn’t there for Caleb. I’m not wasting time being upset over her.
She did leave me a letter though.”

“So did you read it yet?” She
asks as she helps me line up all my things back on my bathroom shelf.

“No I just threw it in my purse.
I think I need a little bit of time before I do that.” We both plop down on my
bed and Ally absently starts twirling my curls through her fingers.

“Well when you want to read it
I’ll be here for you, pinky promise.
No matter what.
Now for the juicy details about Chase.
Did you guys finally
get it on? Did you give up the v card to him, huh, huh?” She asks as she
wiggles her eyebrows up and down at me. I roll over onto my stomach and cover
my hands with my eyes.
“Finally?
  We just started
dating if you even want to call it that.”

“Oh please there
is
so much sexual tension between the two of you when you’re
around each other it’s ridiculous. And all you’ve been doing is hiding away
from him when he wants to make sweet
sweet
love to
you.” She clasps her hands together and bats her eyelashes at me. I hurl one of
my throw pillows at her and groan.

“Yes we finally ‘got it on’,” I
say with little bunny ear fingers. “I am no longer the innocent girl you once
knew. It was amazing and perfect, he’s amazing and perfect. I just don’t want
things going too quickly with him.”

“Um I’m pretty sure it’s too
late for that Leah. You pretty much put the fast forward button on with Chase
and there is no rewind or stop button. Just see how things go. I know how you
don’t like to depend on people Leah but a relationship is a two way street you
don’t have to be THAT girl. You can still be a strong ass independent woman and
have the hottest man known to earth as your boyfriend.”

I quirk on
eyebrow up at her.
“What about Sky? Isn’t he supposed to be the only guy
you look at?”

“Really Leah, just cause I have
him doesn’t mean I can’t stop looking. Sky is the only one in my book but any
girl would be nuts not to drool over that man candy.”

I cover my eyes back up. “Trust
me I know I’ve already been a witness to some of that. That’s one thing that
kind of worries me, he says he doesn’t want the limelight of the band but I
can’t help thinking that one of those groupies will sink her claws into him and
he won’t give me a second thought. I just don’t want to risk my heart and end
up getting it broken.”

“Well unfortunately I don’t have
any psychic ability Leah but if I did I don’t think I would ever be able to see
Chase doing that. You’re all he talks about and he was constantly finding ways
to sneak in little questions about how you were when you were trying to avoid
him. He’d have to be nuts to look at anyone else than you. You’re gorgeous and
smart and funny. You’re just as perfect as he is.”

I sit up and give her a tight
hug. “Thanks Al. For everything at least I know I’ll always have you.”

“Yup, never
going to get rid of me.
I’m like the leech you can’t ever get rid of.”

“I wouldn’t go that far but um
okay,” I say with a wry smile.

“Now are you hungry,
me
and Sky are going to make some dinner and we’ll have
plenty for you guys. Caleb seems to at least try whatever we fix.”

I roll my eyes as I follow her out
of the room into the kitchen. I’m sure one of her and
Skys
creations will be far from anything appetizing but I sit there and listen to
them chatter on as they cook together and Caleb acts like their little guinea
pig, testing every bite, which I’m surprised he actually seems to like
everything and doesn’t spit anything out. I daydream about Chase and our
wonderful weekend together, hoping we have a redo of that very soon.

                                                                                                                               
               
************************************************************

School and work both start up
again after the short holiday break and I quickly jump back into the routine of
things. There’s just a few weeks left before the extended winter break and I
know I’ll have to be cramming for my final exams of this semester.

Chase has been so sweet working
out my schedule with his and slipping in small dates in our short amount of
free time. We’ve even started staying at each other’s apartments a couple of
nights a week so we can spend more time together. It took a little bit of
convincing on Chases part since I wasn’t so sure about carting Caleb back and
forth but Caleb didn’t seem to mind. Chase had his extra bedroom set up for him
and I think he liked staying there more than our actual apartment.

The Major Hoosiers have been
steadily performing since we got back and Teddy even lined up a gig back in his
hometown for a buddy of his that’s getting married. This will be one of their
bigger performances and the first time at something so formal like a wedding
reception. I can tell Chase has been a little nervous about it, working on
songs when we’re together often. I asked him about it and he said that he wouldn’t
want to mess up someone’s special day with the antics of Teddy.

He can tend to get a little wild
when alcohols involved and especially when there’s willing females around. I’ve
been witness to it a couple of times when me and Remy, whose still dating Mark,
caught some of their performances.
Teddys
left almost
every time with at least two girls wrapped around him. Chase just seems to find
it funny and ignores the repeat of girls that follow them from gig to gig. He
only has eyes for me when he has his guitar cradled in his lap likes he’s
playing solely for me.

“You sure you don’t want to come
with me baby?
Me
, you, and Caleb could get a room of
our own, we could make another road trip out of it.” Chase wiggles his eyebrows
at me as he stuffs clothes into his suitcase and sets his guitar case on top.
I’m sprawled out on his bed while he was finishes up with his packing and
really not looking forward to him leaving, I’ve gotten used to always having
him around. “No I’m sure. I need to stay here for work and you’ll be busy with
the guys anyways. On another note, did you officially dub ‘baby’ as my new
nickname?”

“Oh yeah you finally caught onto
that, huh? Well I didn’t have much choice, you can’t really shorten your name
much unless I call you Lee and I know I tell you your sexy as hell all the time
but that sounds a little butch to me and its bring up a mental image of you
with a shaved head and some enormously baggy clothes on.” I roll my eyes at the
image that he’s conjured up in his head and I guess I can see his point. “My
pretty was also one I thought would fit you too.”

“Aw that’s sweet Chase but it
also reminds me of the wicked witch from Wizard of Oz, so I guess that one’s a
no go too huh?” He leans down and kisses my forehead before heading into his
bathroom to grab a few last minute things. “Okay last one and if you shoot this
one down, baby it is. I know you don’t celebrate your Italian heritage much
since your Grandma wasn’t one to spend time in the kitchen with you making big
pots of tomato sauce and showing you the ways of fresh pasta but how about my
little
cannoli
? That one’s totally originally, you
can’t even deny it.” I snort out a laugh covering my mouth with the back of my
hand so I don’t offend Chase. Obviously he’s spent a lot of time thinking about
this. “Let’s just stick with baby, okay?”

The corners of his mouth turn up
slightly as he nods his head at me in agreement. “Good that was the one that
suited you perfectly anyways. I like to carry you around like a baby, you tend
to whine sometimes, and you’re the most beautiful and peaceful when you’re
sleeping.” I’m pretty sure he just insulted me in telling me that he likes me
best when I’m sleeping but I guess I’ll let that one fly for now. “How about I
make your nickname my little
cannoli
, it fits a
certain male appendage of yours perfectly.”

“Oh really,” he says in a low
growl and flicks the button of his jeans open before pushing them down along
with his boxers into a puddle on the floor.
“You willing to
test that theory out?”
He asks between kisses as he climbs on top of me
and works my skirt up over my hips and shoves my underwear to the side. “Um you
think we have time for this, aren’t the guys waiting for you?” I ask in between
pants against his lips as his fingers explore my body. “Don’t worry, will make
this quick,” he replies before thrusting his hips and ramming into me.

                                                                                                                                               
********************************

“So are you excited for the guys
to come back?” Remy asks as we work a night shift together. We were pretty busy
for a week night and we both had full sections of drinking college students
which tended to be pure chaos sometimes.

“Well I don’t know about the
other guys but I can’t wait to see Chase,” I say teasingly as I run back a
pitcher of beer to one of my corner tables.
Especially after
the quickie that we had a few minutes before he left.
He obviously did
that on purpose, just making me wait for more. I’ve literally been counting the
minutes down until he would be home and I was going to jump on him like the sex
starved girlfriend that I was the minute he walked through the door. I would
make sure he never left me alone for that long again.

“You guys are so perfect
together,
you’re like Ken and Barbie. If Ken had tattoos all
over him and Barbie was of Italian descent,” she adds.

I giggle at
Remys
description and shake my head. “Um thanks, I think. How are you and Mark
doing?” I ask as I follow behind her with a tray of food for one of her tables.
She drops off everything with each customer and I trail behind her to the
kitchen.

“We’re doing okay I guess. I
just don’t know if we’re on the same page. I think he just sees our
relationship as something casual.”

“What Remy, how could you think
that? That boy is head over heels in love with you.” I lean over and snag a
piece of silver glittery garland out of her hair.

We had started decorating
Ginos
before the place started picking up that night. With
the holidays right around the corner everyone was getting into the Christmas
mood even our round little owner himself, Gino. He could be tough to work for
at times but he had a soft spot for “his girls” as he called us.

And as soon as Remy and I had
walked in earlier to start our shift, he had shoved an overflowing box of
decorations at us and demanded “his girls” start spreading the holiday cheer
around the place. I had rolled my eyes at the heap of garland and lights
already having dealt with Ally decking out every nook and cranny of our small
apartment the day after Thanksgiving. I wasn’t into all the decorations but
Caleb loved them and that was all that counted.

But Remy dived in hanging
strings of lights from all of the exposed beams and wrapping garland around the
bar. There was a light snow falling outside too which Remy said officially
meant it was decorating time. She even turned on some Christmas music which
helped to get me in the mood.
A little.
I wasn’t big
for holidays especially Christmas time.

I always felt a little left out
at the James house even though they included me in everything even playing
Santa on Christmas morning. When Caleb came along I guess I
kinda
had to get into the mood. I always tried to make it as special as possible for
him. This year
Chases
mom who I talked with on the
phone at least twice a week had already invited me to their house for
Christmas. We were planning on getting there two days before the holidays and
she wanted to wait till then so we could all decorate the tree together and
bake cookies. The girls were all excited for Caleb to come and help out. Chase
had been acting like a little boy lately whenever it came to talking about our
upcoming time we had planned together. Holidays were big in his house and he
was excited that I was coming with him so we could share the time together.