“We have an R, but her name is not Ariana, its Aria,” My face snaps to her as I look over.
“What?” I know I look like a crazy person because now I am grinning at her.
“Aria, but she goes by R.”
“Thank you, Sandra.” I say tossing down some money to cover my tab and rushing out of the bar and to the hotel that I am staying at. When the door slams behind me I pull out my phone and dial Will’s number.
“What is it Chase. It’s almost midnight.” He says groggy into the receiver.
“Sorry, man, but I think I have figured it out.” I shout at him.
“Figured what out?” He asks full of curiosity.
“Tomorrow can you look to Aria Irby, in Savannah?”
“Yeah, but who is that?” he asks me.
“I found her, Will. Only she’s going by her mom’s name I can only guess so her dad can’t find her.” I don’t want to think that she is also hiding out from me.
I laugh when I her him babble a few more sentences and then the line goes dead. How did I not figure this out sooner?
Chapter Twelve
Ariana
I turn the corner walking around the square to get back to my street; yes I know I am a coward. I was literally standing in front of my house when Chase had stopped me, and l couldn’t let him know where I was living. It shocked me when Sandra told me about him telling her that he had been looking for me. I walk up the steps and push my door to my townhouse open and walk in.
“MOMMY!!!” I hear Avery shout out at me as she runs up and latches her arms around my legs. It makes me instantly feel better until I realize how late it is and that she should be in bed. I look up to Hannah and she blushes looking down at the ground.
“Sorry, we got caught up watching movies and I lost track of time.” I wave them off and walk up the stairs and into my bedroom, kicking off my shoes, and then walking into the bathroom that connects to my bedroom. I sit on the side of the tub staring at the floor when I hear Hannah come into the room, “R, are you alright?”
Two days later I wake up to find us pulling into a parking lot.
“Chase what are we doing?” I ask confused.
“It’s a flea market, Ariana, don’t you want to go.” He’s grinning like a small child.
“Not really,” I admitted wanting to really go back to sleep.
“Too bad, get up and let’s go it will be fun.” He demands.
“Fine,” I grumbled and pulled my shoes onto my feet. “Where are we anyways?”
“Outside of Houston.”
“Yay,” I said sarcastically as we walked up to the large flea market, he pulled me up to one of the vendors and caused me to laugh when I turned around with him staring at me with a ten gallon cowboy hat on.
“Oh, god Where did you get that from?” I’m giggling.
“What you don’t like it?” He asks, joking.
“Oh, it’s great.” I smirk walking farther into the market. I feel his fingers grasp around my hand. We stayed at the last hotel for three nights. We talked about nothing and about everything, with the exception of our past. We watched bad TV, laughing at it and laid together, and of course we kissed some more, but Chase was determined that when we had sex it would be special it wasn’t going to be in some dump of a motel. He pulled me by the hand over to a stand that held at least 200 pairs of sunglasses on it.
“Like these?” I hear Chase say at my side and when I turn around they remind me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I can’t help but laugh. “I’m going to buy them.”
“Please don't.” I beg, and he laughs harder.
“Too late,” he tells me turning around and buying them.
“They go perfect with the giant cowboy hat.” He grins to me. We walk around the market for an hour he makes me laugh; picking up things that I have never seen before. When we finally make it back out to the car we are laughing about something I can’t even remember now what it was.
We are on the road shortly after we leave the market and begin our way through the state of Texas as the sun is setting until Chase sees a sign for the Trinity Bay coming into view.
“We’re stopping.” He shouts at me.
“What?” I ask.
“We’re stopping.” He repeats.
“Why?”
“Were going swimming.” He adds, nonchalantly.
“But I don’t have a suit.” I tell him laughing. When he turns to me and smirks.
“What happened to the one that you were wearing at the park?”
“I think I left it at one of the hotels.” He laughs loudly.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better I don’t have one either.” It doesn’t make me feel any better it makes me even more nervous. I watch him as he moves the car and continues to drive. I see him bypassing road signs for the bay as I begin to wonder if he knows where he is going.
“Do you know where you are going?” I finally ask.
“Yeah, I used to live out here.” He admits.
“I thought you’re from in Tennessee?”
“Technically I am, but when we were kids we lived out here for a few years, it’s a part that Matt and I used to go to all the time.” We stay quiet until we pull up to a point in the bay that is completely empty, and I smile as I look over to him and see the grin spreading on his face. He pushes the door open and then walks toward the bay I watch, still stuck sitting in the car as he peels his shirt off of his body and then slides down his jeans. I can’t help but gasp as he jumps into the bay and all I can think is about running my hands over his body. I hear through the rolled down window him shout over to me to come and join him. I stand on wobbly legs as I make my way over to him, sliding off my shorts and I jump in. I attempt to keep my shirt over my body so that the wound that is still healing on my stomach won’t be seen.
He swims around me after I jump in and starts laughing at me as he comes up and dunks me under. I come up and glare at him and he erupts with laughter. Before I have time to prepare myself I am hit in the face with a splash from him.
“Ass,” I mutter laughing. It’s dark outside and I can barely see him in front of me as he comes closer, laughing.
“I’m sorry, Ariana, I didn’t mean to.” I can see the smile still on his lips. I can’t help myself but I let my teeth scrap my bottom lip seconds later he comes closer reaching his arm across me and pulling me into him. My body presses into his as he lets his mouth lean over to mine. Although we have been doing this for the last few days I feel as though it is the first time. He pulls me closer as our kiss deepens and I feel a smile spread onto his lips as they brush against mine. I let my legs wrap around his body as he pulls me back up and out of the water walking me back to the car. I hear the metal open up as he leans us in and breaks only to close the door behind him. I look up to him as he comes back over top of me and begins to kiss me just as desperately as he was outside. It steals my breath when I feel his need press up to me and in that instant I want to take the remainder of our wet clothes off. He slides off my wet shirt and all thoughts leave my mind as I feel him run his large hands over my breasts and down my side. His hands suddenly stop exploring my body as he pulls away and looks at me, looking down briefly and then sitting up and turning on the interior light of the car. I sit up looking to him confused. His eyes darken at me and I panic trying to figure out what was wrong.
“Chase, what’s a matter?” I ask him.
“Ariana, I’m going to ask you something, and you better be fucking honest with me.” My eyes widen as I see him look to my stomach. “What the fuck is that.” He shouts pointing down to the long wound that is still healing on my stomach. I look down at my stomach, quickly covering it with my hands; not wanting to meet his gaze.
“If you’re that mad then you already know what it is.” I simply tell him. He gets out of the car slamming the door, which causes me to jump, and then goes out grabbing the rest of our clothing that lies on the ground, he is dressed before he climbs in and tosses
my shorts over to me. He starts the car as I continue to sit in the backseat just staring at him. I want to be mad at him, he doesn’t really know me, and he has no reason to be mad at me for something that I did before I even knew that he existed. He stops at the first hotel that he sees and gets a room; I don’t get out of the car until he comes back out and walks into the room, leaving the door open. I sulk inside and shut the door. He is acting like a child and it’s really starting to piss me off now.
“How are you going to be pissed at me, for something mat I did before I met you?” I finally shout at him.
“How long?” he asks me without looking up to actually look at me.
“What?”
“How long?” he shouts at me looking up. “Have you been cutting yourself?”
“Since my mother died.” I pause, “Shit, Chase it’s not like I am trying to kill myself, I just need to feel something and that’s the only way that I can, you wouldn’t understand.”
“I’m sorry, Ariana,” he instantly softens and pats the bed next to him asking me without words to come and sit next to him. I’m not sure why, but I do. “I do understand.” He pauses looking up to me and flicking on the light next to him, he holds up his arm showing it to me, I had to look hard and close, but I could see the white scars that slid across his arm just past his wrist. “I didn’t mean to get mad at you, when I saw it. It’s just it makes me think back to myself, Ariana, you have to understand that I have never told anyone about it; no one, after Matt died, I blamed myself, I tried everything to dull the pain, but I couldn’t stop it from seeping into me.” he took a deep breath and looked to me again. “Seeing it, it just brings back all these feelings that l don’t want to have anymore.”
“But,” I say looking to him, “We’re a tarnished set.” I tell him holding out my arm that holds the matching scars. I knew that the scars would eventually fade but for now we matched one another perfectly.
“Why on your stomach.” I gulp and look up to him.
“It was the night before I went to the water park; it’s the last time I have cut. I did it there so it wouldn’t be seen when I was at the park.” He nods.
“I’m sorry I ruined the moment.” He frowns and then leans over to me and brushes my lips with his again. I deepen our kiss as he lays me back on the bed and he breaks the kiss pulling up my shirt slightly and kisses the mark on my stomach. “Please never again.” He asks me and I sit up looking to him.
“Chase the other morning in the bathroom I wanted to, but I didn’t I heard you out here and I know it sounds crazy because we have only known one another for a few weeks, but hearing you out here it made me stop.” He grins to me and brings his face to mine again, kissing me and then covering my body with his.
“R,” I hear Hannah shout, standing in front of me, “Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” I say, brushing her off, and walking into my closet. That night we lay in bed together and kissed, passionately, but it never got further, Chase was determined to make it special.
“R, something is wrong, what is it?” she demands to know.
“Chase, he is looking for me, well that’s what Sandra told me, so I came home early again, because it was slow. On the way home he saw me, he stopped me, and he wanted to talk. It was right outside of the house.”
“What did you tell him?” she asks me.
“That I couldn’t do that right now. He thought that l meant I was seeing someone, and got mad so I yelled at him.”
“You didn’t tell him about Avery.” She’s stunned, and probably slightly pissed at me.
“How am I supposed to in that scene? Say, ‘Hey, you want to come inside and meet your five year old daughter that you never knew you had?’” My voice is full of sarcasm.
“Well, it’s better than never telling him. You sent him away without telling him, and you aren’t even going by your real name.” She looks at me as if I’m an idiot.
“You know why that is.” I tell her
“You know that your father will figure it out one day.” She says to me.
“He doesn’t care enough too.” she frowns looking at me.
“Look, R, Chase is all you have wanted since you got home, even before you found out that you were having Avery. He comes back, searching for you, and you tell him to leave. Isn’t it everything that you have ever wanted?”
“It is, but Han, I don’t know how to tell him.” I admit, “I’m terrified to.”
“You should probably figure it out before he leaves town, R, or you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.” I know that she is right.
Chapter Thirteen
Chase
I realized a long time ago that you don’t leave someone you love, it doesn’t matter how afraid you are of what they are going to say or how much that they will hurt you. I had already made that mistake with her once, I ran because I was too afraid with how important she became to me so fast, and ever since. I have been searching for Ariana for two years; I’m not giving up now.
My phone buzzes as I look down to the screen and see that its Will.
“Come on, buddy. Give me some good news.” I say into the receiver.
“Man, I don’t know how you figured out that she was using her mother’s name, but I found an Aria Irsby.”
“Did you get a number?” I ask, hopeful.
“No, but I got an address and your right she is in Savannah.” I jotted down the address as he rattled it off to me and smiled before thanking him and hanging up the phone, now all I had to figure out was how I would get her to talk to me, I just needed her to hear me out, and then whoever else was in her life well he would just have to deal with it. I stop by the florist and pick up a dozen flowers; I browse the counter picking up the sunflowers that I knew would be her favorite.
“Stop the car,” she screeched so loud that I thought that I had just run over someone.
“Jesus, what is it?” I asked scared out of my mind.
“Look at all the sunflowers.” She smiled at me, “They are my favorite.”
“Alright,” I said veering off of the road. We picked several flowers and I managed to sneak a few dozen to the car without her knowing. I helped her pick some out as we and then we walked back up to the front paying for the handful of the ones that she had picked out.
As we walked back to the car and got in she shrieked when she looked into the back seat seeing the three dozed that I had bought for her.
“Chase,” she smiled at me but, “How did you do this?” I shrugged it wasn’t important anyways. When we got to a hotel that night I made sure to bring every one of them in and place them in water. Everywhere I looked there was a yellow sunflower looking at me.
I paid at the counter and walked the three blocks to the house address that sat in my hand. I couldn’t help but laugh when I realized that I was on the same street as I talking to her last night that we were literally standing in front of her house. I rang the doorbell calmly waiting for her to come to the door, but the inside of the house was dark and empty. l knocked a few times just to make sure. I wasn’t sure what to do so I turned around and sat down on the stairs.
I have been sitting for almost an hour when I hear a woman shout and I stand as I watch Ariana round the corner to come towards me.
Ariana
We are walking home as Avery skips off towards the house; I hate it when she does this.
“Avery, stop wait for me.” I shout to her as we round the corner and I almost drop the takeout food that I carry in my hands. He manages to take my breath away, standing in a dress shirt with a vest on over top and a pair of dark jeans in front of me, with sunflowers in his hands.
We are passing through El Paso as the sunsets and we decide to get a hotel room. We have been on the road for over a month, staying a week in some places, sometimes more. I was having the time of my life, and the only person I had to thank was Chase for showing me something that no one else would have dared to, he showed me how to live carelessly and he showed
me how to be the person that I always had wanted to be.
There’s a beautiful aspect to El Paso. It has the sort of eerie ominous for me. Maybe it’s the mountains overshadowing over the city. When we pull up to the hotel Chase smiles over to me,
“I think this is the nicest place we have stayed at.” I joke with him.
“'That’s because I called ahead and booked it,” he smiles to me again. We walk inside, checking into the hotel, and walking up to the room. When I open the door I am stuck by the room, it’s gorgeous. The bathroom has a jetted rub and it reminds me a lot of the room in Orlando.
“Come on let’s go get something to eat.” He whispers into my ear. I follow him out as we walk downstairs to the restaurant that is in the hotel.
We walk up to the room laughing; it seems as though I am always laughing with Chase. He leans over me to press the key into the hole and pushes the door open. I walk over to the sliding glass door as I look out onto the mountains.
“I never thought I would like it here, but I guess that I was wrong.” He manages to laugh as he takes off his shoes. “Do you want to go swimming?” I ask him remembering that I had indeed picked up a suit after we went swimming in the bay. He smiles nodding over to me and walks into the bathroom I can only guess to change.
Moments later we walk out to the pool and I jump in automatically. It is starting to darken outside when I feel the splash of water at my side and when I look over I feel Chase’s hands on my legs and they raise slightly higher. We still haven’t slept together even after begin on the road and in and out of hotel rooms for the last month, but we had kissed excessively and managed to cross certain lines. His hands slide up my body as he swims upward and his head, still underwater, nuzzles in between my breasts and even in the cold water I can feel my body starting to warm up. When his head comes out of the water he smiles his crooked smile at me and I melt instantly, luckily we are the only ones out here right now. I laugh as I slide my arms around his neck and he lays kisses along my shoulder and up my neck. I'm sure if people looked out of their rooms that they could see us, but in this moment I didn’t care.
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