Limitless (Journey Series) (8 page)

“Cool, little dude.” Leah kicked
Ally out? Obviously, the little man was over exaggerating, which he tended to
do. I walked over and fluffed his hair before crouching down to kiss him on the
forehead.

The big weekend was coming up when
he would be gone at Roy’s and I wasn’t looking forward to it. It was definitely
going to be strange. I had planned to keep Leah and I pretty busy, so we could
keep our minds off  it. “Where’s Mommy at?”

“I think she’s in bed. She was in a
bad mood after she peed on the stick. She came in a little bit ago to check on
me and then went back to your room.”

Peed on a stick? Ok-ay. Kid just
keeps getting weirder and weirder every day. “‘Kay bud, I’ll go check on her
and then fix us some dinner.”

I walked down the hallway towards
our room, the door was open but the room was dark. “Baby?” I slid across the
bed and wrapped my arm around her waist, where she was lying face down buried
in a pillow. She slightly lifted her head and looked up at me through swollen
eyes. I reached out and pushed back her matted hair, swiping at the one lone
tear that was rolling down her cheek.

Leah normally wasn’t a crier, so
something was definitely up. I guess my little bit of bad news could wait, no
reason to upset her anymore. I wanted to wrap her up and take away whatever the
hell was wrong, but she didn’t look like she wanted me to. Actually, she looked
like she was sort of pissed at me.

“What’s wrong, Leah? Just talk to
me, whatever it is will work it out.”

She let out a loud huff, burying
her head in the pillow once again, and mumbled something incoherently. I leaned
down so I was right next to her and gently moved her head to the side so I
could cradle it between my hands. “You know I didn’t hear you, so just spill
it.”

“Ugh, Chase.” She scrubbed her
hands over her face and peeked out between her fingers. “I’m pregnant. And it’s
your entire fault,” she added at the end with a groan.

“What?” I jumped up to my knees,
grabbing at her hands to pull her up with me. “Seriously?” I was going to
ignore the little fact that she was blaming this all on me. Pretty sure, it
took two to tangle and she had no problem with that.

She nodded her head, squeezing her
eyes shut and sniffling. “I knew you would react like this.”

“Of course, what did you expect?
I’m happy as hell, our baby is in there.” I splayed my hands across her flat
stomach and leaned down to kiss it.

“You’re not excited about this?” My
smile faltered just a little when I looked at her miserable expression. I guess
I shouldn’t have been too surprised. Any kind of life altering changes usually
freaked Leah out. We hadn’t really talked about having kids much and I knew we
were still pretty young, especially Leah, but if it was meant to be, so be it.

“I don’t know, Chase. The timing
just seems so off. I’m already busy enough as it is between school, work, and
Caleb. It’s just a little overwhelming.”

“We’ll make it work, I promise.
Whatever I have to do, I’ll do it. This will be one of the most exciting times
of our lives, just wait, you’ll see.” She let out a loud groan and collapsed
against my chest. “Why does everyone have to be so damn happy about this?”

                                                                                **********

I promised to keep Leah busy the
weekend that Caleb was gone to keep her mind off the fact that he was gone, and
for the most part I did. I think she cried pretty much the whole ride back to
our house after we dropped him off with Roy. We both had gone in to check out
his house when we dropped him off.

 Roy’s house looked like he had
went out and bought every single item under the sun for baby proofing, even
though Caleb was almost four. He really didn’t need that stuff anymore, but we
were both glad that he was putting in the effort. He had also went and bought
every kind of boy toy and filled his spare bedroom to the brim. Caleb was in
heaven.  

I knew Leah was upset about the
whole situation, but I’m sure pregnancy hormones were thrown in to the mix as
well. I had been around my mom enough through her pregnancies that I knew all
about the highs and the lows. Fun times.

Leah worked Saturday, so I hung out
with the guys before one of their performances. When Teddy found out we were
going to my mom’s for family dinner on Sunday, he couldn’t help but invite
himself.

I still hadn’t talked to her about
the whole situation at school, but I was planning on it tonight before Caleb
came back home. There really was no telling how she would react.

“Leah, I’m so excited to see you!”
The front door burst open and my mom rushed out to meet us as soon as I pulled
my truck into the driveway. She wrapped Leah in a tight hug and then pulled
back to lightly rub her stomach. Way to keep your mouth shut, Mom.

Leah’s eyes widened at the touch of
my mom’s hand and her mouth fell open. “You already told her? No offense Mary,
but we haven’t even been to the doctor yet. I don’t even have a clue how far
along I am. Your son doesn’t know how to keep his lips zipped.”

Teddy laughed and I slapped him in
the head when Leah turned her steely gray eyes to him. “You told him too? I
guess I should ask, who
didn’t
you tell?” She crossed her arms over her
chest and lightly tapped her foot, waiting for my answer, but truthfully, I
couldn’t answer. I had even told the cashier at the grocery store last night
when I went out to grab a case of beer.

“Leah, he’s just so excited.” My
mom patted her on the back and ushered all of us inside. Instantly, I was
assaulted by the mouthwatering smells coming out of the kitchen. I loved coming
to my mom’s for dinner, there was nothing like it, even though Leah’s cooking
was starting to come pretty close.

We were attacked by all of my
younger sisters as soon as we walked in, all of them chattering about the new
baby and what names they already had picked out. From the death stares coming
from Leah, I knew I was going to be getting serious shit from her later about
this.

When we sat down to dinner and the
conversation still hadn’t changed, I decided to bring up another topic. “So
Ted, you excited about the tour? It’s coming up pretty quick.”

He nodded his head in between
shoving mouthfuls of mashed potatoes in and dropped his fork when his plate was
finally cleared. “Yup, should be awesome man, too bad you aren’t coming along.
It’s gonna be epic.”

Leah cleared her throat, a small
smile finally on her face and it was actually directed at me. Maybe I was
earning some points back at changing the subject. “I heard Remy and Ally are
going too, that should be fun.”

Teddy visibly stiffened when Leah
mentioned Ally, I think she was hoping for that effect. I saw the way he looked
at her and he was fucking jealous over the fact that she was with Tyler. I
tried to bring it up more than once but he always brushed it off saying that he
could care less, pulling the next girl in the long line onto his lap.

“Yeah, should be a ton of fun.
Different city, different girl or should I say girls.” Leah rolled her eyes at Teddy’s
cocky smirk and my mom who was sitting on the other side leaned over and nudged
him with her elbow.

“Now, Theodore.” Teddy’s smirk
disappeared when my mom used his whole name; I think she was really the only
one ever to do it. I knew his own mother, who could give two shits about him,
didn’t. I think that’s one reason he acted the way he did, he was just looking
for the attention his mom had never given him. “You should always be respectful
to women. Don’t go messing around with every girl throwing herself at you while
you’re out on the road. It will just lead to trouble.”

Teddy’s eyes cast downward and he
answered with a quiet, “Yes, ma’am.” I knew Teddy had barely any relationship
with his own mother, so he looked up to mine as his own. Maybe her words would
actually stick in that thick head of his. Yeah, probably not.

We dropped Teddy off on our way
home. Leah had been quiet since we left my mom’s house, but she slid her body
across the seat, latching the middle belt across her lap and laying her head on
my shoulder. Apparently, she had forgiven me a little for opening my big mouth.
I just couldn’t help myself.

“I think I want a girl,” she said
quietly right before we pulled into the driveway. I didn’t say anything back,
but inside I was jumping up and down like a little kid jacked up on sugar.
Maybe she was finally starting to accept this whole pregnancy thing. “I mean, I
would be happy either way, but I want to do all the girly stuff that I get to
do with Belle. Do her hair, buy pink clothes, and play with baby dolls. I think
that sounds like fun.”

“I’m glad, baby.” I opened up the
door and scooped her out of the truck, carrying her to the front door.
“Whatever that little baby is, it will get spoiled like crazy.” She giggled
when I set her down to slide the key into the lock and before I scooped her up
again to carry her inside, I leaned down to place a kiss on her stomach.

I deposited her onto our bed and
slowly removed each piece of clothing. I gazed down at her beautiful naked body
before quickly removing my own, while the whole time she looked up at me with
that look that was solely meant for me. I kissed every inch of her body,
hovering over her flat stomach, imagining how it would look in a few months.

 Her hands moved to the back of my
head and she pulled me down to her, pressing her lips against my jaw and
working her way to my mouth. I slid inside of her slowly, taking my time,
making love to my wife like I always should. We both found our release and lay
there together in each other’s arms for what felt like hours.

She fell asleep, lightly snoring
and I kissed her belly one last time. “I love you, babies.” I slipped into the
shower and when I came back out, wrapped in a towel, she was awake propped up
on her elbow. “What are you doing awake? You looked like you were passed out
for the rest of the night.”

“Yeah, I thought so too but I’m
starving.” I smirked when she flopped back onto her pillow and rubbed her
stomach.

“I’ll get you something, I’ll be
right back.” I grabbed a million different snacks before heading back to the
bedroom and setting the tray down on the bed. “So, I needed to talk to you
about something.”

“Okay, I’m listening,” she mumbled
in between chews of a cookie. I blew out a breath, hoping her nonchalant
attitude wouldn’t change, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

“So, you know how I told you about
that one student, Brittany, who is always staying after class and flirting with
me?”

She nodded her head at me, so I
just continued. “Well on Friday, I got called into the office by the principal
and a few of the school board members. Apparently, Brittany is claiming I made
a few inappropriate remarks and made the moves on her.”

I stopped to take in her reaction
and she burst out laughing. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, that was how
hard she was laughing. Not what I was expecting.

“Oh my god, I knew your sexiness
would come back and bite you in that fine ass of yours someday. I told you how
you have that whole bad boy vibe, and then you wear those black rimmed glasses
on top of that. Who couldn’t resist you? I just don’t understand why she would
try and get in you in trouble. Doesn’t that kind of throw her whole game off?”

“Leah, I don’t think this is
something to laugh about. This is serious, I could lose my job over it. I’m not
suspended right now, but I’m under investigation by the school board.”

She took a deep breath and grabbed
onto my wrists, the laughter finally disappeared and her face grew serious.
“Chase, you didn’t do anything wrong, you and I both know that. She probably
just got mad that you weren’t returning the flirting, even though you’re her
teacher and it’s highly inappropriate. The truth will come out in the end. We
just have to believe that.” She leaned up and kissed each corner of my mouth
before pulling back and placing a hand on my cheek.

“For now, maybe you should start
wearing a paper bag to school, with your sexy face covered up they won’t want
to flirt as much.” A laugh escaped between her lips before I gently tackled her
down to the bed and pinned her arms above her head. “I’m glad you find this so
funny.”

“You have to admit it is, just a
little,” she breathed out. The towel slipped from my waist as I adjusted my
body above her, and her eyes dropped down. “Yeah, I don’t think the whole paper
bag thing will work. You need like a full body suit made out of paper bags if
you want the girls to leave you alone.”

“Mmhm,” I murmured against her
neck. I arched my hips into her and she let out a gasp, the laughter finally
dying down. Serves her right.

Leah

It was finally here, graduation
day. I couldn’t believe that the time had passed so quickly. The semester had
flown by between studying, work, Caleb, and getting used to the idea of being
pregnant. When I went to the doctor, they confirmed my pregnancy and had told
me that I was newly pregnant at four weeks.

After the next couple of
appointments, we finally got to see the baby on the ultrasound and I think that
was when it really sank in, I was going to be a mom. I mean, I knew for all
intents and purposes I was already a mom to Caleb, but it was so weird to think
I had this little human growing inside of me.

 Chase handled me like a delicate
flower and wanted me to quit working at Gino’s right away, but I put my foot
down. We needed the extra money, and after I graduated who knew when I would
put my degree to use. Who wanted to hire someone when they were almost five
months pregnant?

“You look so cute, look at your
little baby belly.” Ally stood back and looked at me in the deep blue dress
that she had helped pick out. “And now we have to go and make it all ugly with this
bag.” She tossed me my graduation gown and I carefully pulled it over my hair.