“Come on little guy we are so totally late it’s not even funny.”
He replies with a little giggle, “I think it’s funny Mommy. I excited to go to school.” I roll my eyes at him and bite back a grin. At least someone’s excited to go to school. I wish I could finger-paint and play with blocks in place of classes all day.
I grab a red bull out of the fridge as I grab my books. I am really gonna need this today and rush out the door pulling Caleb behind me and run right into Chases broad chest.
“Whoa Leah what’s the hurry? Apartment on fire?” He grabs my hips to steady me and I feel a rush of electricity zap through me at the slight graze of his fingertips. “Hey Chase. I don’t have time to talk, sorry. Running behind.” I say as I stand up straight and head towards the stairs.
“Let me help you get Caleb in the car, I’m heading over to campus too.” He scoops Caleb up and follows me down the stairs and straps him in his car seat while I hop in the drivers seat. I stick the keys in the ignition and nothing happens. Okay lets try this one more time. Yup nothing. Great. I bang my head on the steering wheel. “Leah is there a problem?” Chase asks as he leans in the driver side door.
“Yup my life. The one piece of shit my mother leaves for me and I can’t even rely on it. I might as well just skip classes today.”
“Here,” he holds out his hand to me and gently pulls me out of the car shutting the door behind us and running over to unstrap Calebs car seat. “You guys can ride over with me. I’ll take a look at your car later when I get back.”
“Um okay that sounds good, thanks.” I follow him over to the jeep and hop in. “So how was your weekend, were you and Ally gone? I didn’t hear you coming and going at all. Not that I’m spying on you or anything.” He grins over at me.
Wow I could look at his smile all day. He is really completely different from Gage, who has more of the preppy look. Chase is totally the bad boy who your mother warns you to stay away from, well if you had a mother that actually cared. “Yeah we went back home and visited with Allys family and I had to grab a few things. We got in late last night and I’m about to crash.”
“Didn’t you say you lived with your grandma? Did you get a chance to stop by and visit her?”
“Yeah I lived with my grandma since I was a sophomore in high school. She didn’t really adjust her life much when we moved in. She has a house in Florida that she spends almost half the year at. That’s part of the reason me and Ally have always been so close, we practically lived at her house.”
I see his jaw tense as he looks back at me pulling over near the building of Calebs daycare that I had directed him to. He leans over and brushes his finger over my cheek. His long slender finger is so warm and sends shivers through my body. “I’m sorry Leah, you don’t deserve that. You’ve taken so much on and haven’t had anyone from your family to lean on.”
I shrug my shoulders as I loop my backpack on and hop out of the jeep, opening up the back door and letting Caleb out. “Trust me Chase I’m used to it. I’ve gotten by just fine.”
We both walk towards the main part of campus where the wide path is dotted with trees, the leaves beginning to change brilliant shades of oranges and reds at the start of fall. This time really is my favorite season; the smell of the weather changing, hot apple cider, and pumpkins. Then the nasty snow has to come and ruin it having to slush around and making everything a gloopy mess. I really wasn’t looking forward to trudging through that to get from class to class.
“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.