“Well I can be very persuasive,” he says with a smirk as he grabs a few tshirts 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.”