Chasing Leah (Journey Series) (9 page)

“I can tell you’re a really
independent girl Leah that’s one of the first things I noticed. I guess coming
from a big family I find it hard to think how it would be without them.” He
rubs his hands together to try and warm them up. He’s still dressed for 80
degree weather in his faded jeans and plain short sleeve black shirt that’s
stretched across his chest.

“On a lighter note I can’t wait
till we hang out tomorrow. I have a ton of fun stuff
planned,
everyone deserves to have some fun once in a while you know.”  He crouches
down and gives Caleb a high five. “You ready for some fun buddy?”

“Yup fun, fun.
Now Chase.
NOW.”
Caleb demands as he jumps up and
down. I roll my eyes at him and scoop him up. “See what you’ve done Chase?
Tomorrow
buddy,
gotta
wait
till tomorrow. Thanks for the ride, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I wave to him as he
turns to head towards the building his class is in. “Can’t wait, see
ya
Leah! Bye Caleb.”

Tuesday brought another early
morning shift at
Ginos
with Remy. Luckily Chase found
the problem with my car and I just needed a jump to get it running again. I
hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Remy since we had gone out the other night so
I hadn’t mentioned that I was getting together with Chase.

“Hey Leah how are
ya
sweetie?” Remy called from a table that she clearing as
I stash my purse behind the counter.

“I’m good. I’m glad we get to
work together this morning, you always make the day more bearable.”

“Glad I can help,” she laughs as
she walks up to join me at the counter. “We’ll have to go out soon again I had
so much fun the other night. Chase was an absolute sweetheart.”

“Yeah he’s a pretty good guy.
He’s fun to hang out with as friends.”

“Really,
friends Leah?
The way he was looking at you all night I was getting way
more than a friend vibe off of him.”

Chase was looking at me all
night? Ally had said the same thing. He had girls practically throwing
themselves
onto him all night you’d think they were some
headlining tour band.

I walk over and began wrapping
silverware before the oncoming rush started that I knew was coming.

“Well I’m really not interested
in a relationship right now Rem. I’m just way to busy right now.” I pause and
put a hand on my hip. “Besides I thought you were into Chase.”

“Leah trust me he only has eyes
for you. There’s plenty of other fish in the sea out there for me. Besides,
me
and the drummer
kinda
hit it
off. We’re going out tomorrow!” She squealed.

“That’s awesome!” I pictured the
drummer whose name was Mark in my head. He seemed to be a pretty nice guy, not
sleazy like the lead singer, Teddy.

“Speaking of going out, are you
coming with me to that thing at
Allys
sorority? I
really don’t
wanna
be stuck all by myself.”

“Yup I traded shifts with one of
the usual morning girls, so we are both free for the night. Mark was telling me
they have a gig that night but he’s going to meet up with us afterwards, maybe
he can bring Chase along.”

I shrug my shoulders, “Maybe, he
might have plans though. I’ll ask him tonight, we’re meeting up to hang out.”

Remy looks back at me with a
smirk, “Hanging out,” she says with air quotes, “Is that what they call it nowadays?”

I roll my eyes back at her,
“Whatever
Rem
, it is possible for girls and guys just
to be FRIENDS,” I emphasize.

“Trust me Chase doesn’t want to
be friends with you. He wants a whole lot more.”

Chase

“Hi honey it’s so good to see
you, I feel like it’s been so long.” I try to pull away just slightly out of my
mom’s tight embrace. For being such a small woman she has one hell of a grip.
“Mom I was just here on Saturday, it’s been like three days. She finally
loosens her grip and pulls away before turning back to the kitchen to finish up
with dinner. “I know baby but it’s never the same without you here. The girls
are always missing you.” She stirs a pot of sauce that’s simmering on the
stovetop and I peek over her shoulder.

“Well maybe I should start
coming every day. Whenever I’m not here I miss your cooking. Your homemade
spaghetti sauce is so
gonna
hit the spot.”

“Chris will be home in a bit, so
we’ll eat then. Come out in to the living room for now, the girls are working
on some homework and we can catch up.” I follow my mom through the kitchen and
dining room into the living room which is immaculately clean, my mom makes sure
of that but it still has a homey feel to it with the overstuffed couches and
quilts thrown over the back that my mom made.

Three of my sisters are sitting
around the coffee table with stacks of textbooks spread out between them. They
squeal when they see me and yell out a collective, “Hey Chase!” before I’m
smothered in hugs.

“So honey what’s been going?
Any lucky ladies yet?”
Ah always the first question my mom
has for me whenever we see each other. She just can’t wait to plan another
wedding. My two older sisters have already been married off.
“Nothing
new to report mom.
There is this girl that I’m interested in, Leah. She
is so gorgeous mom and she acts like she doesn’t even know it. But she says
she’s not interested in dating so…” I trail off. “Well that’s never stopped my
baby from getting what he wants. Has she said why she’s not interested in
dating?” I knew that question was coming and my
moms
like the least judgmental person ever, so I don’t see it as a problem.“She
sorta
has a kid.” My mom lifts one perfect brow at this and
my sisters turn their heads away from their books, hoping to hear some juicy
gossip. “
Sorta
? I don’t think that’s really possible
Chase unless she’s pregnant? And I don’t want to tell you what to do but I
think that could be a real sticky situation.”

“No it’s not that mom.
The kid, his names Caleb.
Real sweet little dude, he’s about
the same age as Belle. He’s actually
Leahs
younger brother. Her mom took off on the both of them and Leah stepped up when
she was old enough to take over guardianship. She’s really busy with him, work,
and school and she’s convinced she has no time for dating.”

“Oh my, what a
poor thing.
How a mother could ever do that to her children I’ll never
know. Well Chase that is definitely a sticky situation but you’re a good kid
I’m sure you’ll know what to do if you’re really interested in her.”

“Thanks Mom. I always know who
to come to for advice.” Now I just needed to convince Leah that dating me would
be a good idea. And I have a feeling that’s going to take some work.

Leah

After work and classes I hopped
on a bus to rush home and get ready to go out wherever Chase was planning to
take us. I took a shower so I could shave my legs for my bathing suit. I had no
clue where we would be going in the middle of October that I would need a
bathing suit for but I guess I would go along with it. I threw on my white
bikini with the tie strings at my hips and around my neck. I still had a deep
tan left over from the summer that wouldn’t lighten up much back to my normal
complexion. I threw on a pair of jeans and a black V-neck shirt over my bikini
and grabbed an extra change of clothes and a pair of trunks for Caleb.

I heard a knock on my door and
ran down the hallway to meet Chase. I opened up the door to Chase who was
leaning against my doorframe in a pair of loose jeans and a plain gray t-shirt
stretched tight across his chest, his tattoos peeking out. He had
a light
stubble across his jaw and chin and his green eyes
were twinkling back at me.
“You guys ready to go Leah?” He asks as he slings a black duffel bag onto his
shoulder. “Yup we are ready.
Calebs
been
talking about it nonstop. What all do you have in
store?”

“Oh you’ll see when we get
there,
Mark and Teddy are meeting up with us too.” He says
as we make our way to the jeep with both of our bags and Caleb following
closely behind him.

Good, I’m kind of glad I won’t
be totally alone with Chase that way we can keep it strictly a friend
relationship. I couldn’t resist glancing over at him though while he navigated
the jeep to our secret destination.  His signature black hat was turned
backwards as his green eyes focused on the road and he sang along to the radio
with his low sensual voice. No wonder the band had so many groupies, they could
have the worst voices known to man and the girls at least would still come
faithfully to all of their shows.

Ten minutes later we pulled up
to a large complex that sat far off the road called
Fastimes
.
Chase leapt out of the jeep and jogged over to help me and Caleb out.

“
There’s
Teddy and Mark,” he says motioning with his head toward the front entrance and
we each grabbed one of
Calebs
hands swinging him
between the two of us. “Let’s go.”

The complex consisted of go
carting, putt
putt
golfing, batting cages, and an
arcade. The guys insisted that we had to do everything and I felt like I was
with three 10 year old boys. But Chase was right, we did have fun. Caleb was
having a blast with the go carts and putt
putt
,
even though I think I spent more time actually chasing
down the small neon green ball that he kept chucking in every direction but the
hole. But he was having fun too, especially with all the attention from the
guys. Especially Chase, you could tell he was really good with kids.

“
Yo
Leah.
Next race on the go carts, winner gets a
congratulatory kiss from you,” Teddy says to me on our third trip to the track.

“Oh yeah and what if I’m the
winner, what do I get?” I tease back.

“Well it would only be fair for
me to give you a kiss since I did set this whole day up,” Chase says with a
smug look on his face.

“Hmm…we’ll see. I am a little
confused with the bikini you told me to wear. I don’t exactly see a swimming
pool around here,” I say as I look around pretending to scan for the pool that
I know isn’t there.

“Bikini, what dude?” Mark says
with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t they tell you
that’s
the requirement for driving the go carts Leah?  Must have slipped our
minds.”

Chase playfully shoves Mark.
“Don’t worry Leah after we ditch these two, we’ll move onto the second part of
the day. And I’ll be the only one seeing that bikini.”

We each pick a go cart with
Caleb insisting he needs to ride with Chase and do our five laps around the
track. Teddy ends up beating us all by a mile and stands with his arms crossed
over his chest at the finish line waiting for me. I jump out of my cart and plant
a wet kiss on his cheek as he looks back at me with a pouted lip.

“Really Leah, the
cheek?
I beat all of your asses. Most girls can’t keep themselves
outta
my pants.”

“Sorry I must be immune to you
or something. Besides we never said WHERE the kiss had to be.” Chase slings an
arm over my shoulder. “Well guys we are so ditching you now. Thanks for meeting
up with us. You ready Leah?”

“Yep lead me away. Bye guys.”

We walk back out to the parking
lot and its pretty much dark now, I can’t believe how much time we spent there
it seemed to fly by. And right next to
Chases
jeep is
Skylar
and Ally. “Hey guys what are you doing here?” I ask,
knowing that it’s pretty strange they would show up here, not their kind of
place.
At all.

“Oh Chase you are such a good secret
keeper!” Ally says as she picks Caleb up and
Skylar
grabs his car seat to transport it into
Allys
car.
“Chase kind of arranged things so you guys could have a little
alone time.
He wouldn’t even tell me where he’s taking you, can you
believe that?” She stomps her foot down but I can tell by the smile creeping up
on her face she’s just happy about getting us alone.

“Is that okay with you Leah? I
know you don’t get a lot of time with Caleb but I figured it was pretty close
to his bed time so
..”
He gives me a crooked grin and
jams his hands in his pockets. He actually looks a little nervous that I’ll
turn him down.

“Yup totally fine,” I lean down
and give Caleb a kiss whose eyelids are already drooping after the long day he had.
“Night baby, love you.” I lean into the passenger’s side window to talk to Ally
before they take off, “He’ll probably fall asleep before you leave the parking
lot. You sure you don’t mind?”

“Nope not at all, go have some
fun but be prepared to spill all of the details.” I wave at her and hop into
the jeep where Chase is waiting for me.

“Well there was your fun. Now
I’m taking you to your relaxation,” he says.

What in the world could he be
taking me to for relaxation?
A massage maybe?
We pull
up to a building just on the edge of town called Oasis. Chase grabs the black
duffel bag out from the backseat and we head towards the building where he
checks us in. The attendant at the desk looks to be around my age and clearly
has the
hots
for Chase. Who wouldn’t though? I don’t
think she even noticed I was with him as she batted her eyelashes at him and
left her hand on his a minute too long when handing him his credit card
receipt.