Page 24 of His Last Chase
“I’m glad you like him. I saw it online and I knew my boy had to have it.”
His boy. Maybe we would be okay.
“How in the world did you find a metal bear? Complete with felt microphone and guitar?” This one was by far my favorite. It wasn’t just a bear. It was a gift that Casey specifically searched for and purchased for me.
I sat him on the bed with the others and hugged Casey. It felt so good to be back in his arms. This day had been full of highs and lows and mentally I was all over the place. Casey calmed me, even when my errant thoughts and worries got the best of me like they had during the car ride home.
More than once lately I’d proven an idle mind was not good for me.
“What do you want to watch, or would you rather sit and talk?” Casey glanced around the room. I had a loveseat and table in the corner facing my collectibles. And then there was my…bed. “Remember, Chase, I said talk. Nothing will ever happen between us that you don’t initiate and even then if I feel you’re questioning it still will not happen. Relationships, at least for me, are about far more than sex and even if that never happened for us I’d be perfectly content.”
“Really?” Was this guy for real?
“I promise. Is that what you’re nervous about?”
“That, and a long list of other stuff.” A never-ending list that would surely drive him away.
Ugh. I was a hopeless mess.
“Here,” Casey sat on the sofa and patted the space beside him. “Let’s decompress and when you’re ready to talk we can, about anything you want.”
I took a seat beside him, still holding the new bear.
“Have you named him yet?”
As soon as he asked I knew. “Lucky.”
“Lucky?”
“Yeah. Lucky.” That’s how I felt right now. “So, what made you want to become a professor?”
“Believe it or not, I wanted to be a writer.”
“That’s awesome. I take it once you got to college that changed?” I loved writing and had kept journals of random musings and thoughts since I could write.
“Somewhat. I’ve had numerous articles published and started a memoir but was bit by the thirst for knowledge bug in college. When I ran out of classes to take I turned to teaching and never looked back. One day I’ll hopefully publish a book but in the interim I’m more than happy with the direction my life went in.”
“I love that. One dream led to another, and two perfect dreams merged.” I could sit and listen to Casey talk for hours.
“I’m used to giving boys bedtimes and reading them stories beforehand but with your lifestyle I’m not sure that will be possible.”
Casey sounded disappointed. “Maybe we could make part of it work?”
“Oh yeah? What did you have in mind?”
“What if you read me bedtime stories each night, providing I’m not on stage, before you went to bed?” I loved his voice. The calming timbre kept the anxiety at bay.
He kissed my forehead. “Genius suggestion. I love it.”
We talked for hours and when we tired of the couch we curled up on the bed together and picked right back up until we fell asleep.
I woke when my alarm went off, thankfully I’d set it so I wouldn’t be late to practice but sadly the bed beside me was empty.
And I hated it.
Rather than lay around and pout about it, I got up and went to the bathroom and there it sat. The journal from my nightstand, opened to a particular page.
Chapter Six