Page 71 of The Meeting
He was thankful for it now. His head was filled with what ifs when he began packing up his belongings. Most of them had been negative what ifs about failing. He had pushed the thoughts aside and moved anyway. He knew he had a place to fall back on if Modesto didn’t work out. His family would take him back in a heartbeat. He didn’t want to have to rely on them, but just knowing they would be there for him was the push he needed to move and try something new.
“I do miss everyone,” Chase said. It had been three months since he had seen his family. The more days that passed, the more he ached to see them.
“Maybe I can try to make a trip up that way for Mom’s sixtieth birthday,” Chase said. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before. She would be ecstatic.
“She would lose her mind if you came. We could throw a party.” The excitement in Derek’s voice grew. He always enjoyed pulling a fast one on his parents, and a surprise that they didn’t expect was right up his alley. “I’ll put together the details. We can throw it on my ranch so she doesn’t suspect anything.”
Chase laughed. “I saidmaybeI can come.”
“It’s too late now, bro. You’re locked in. I’m throwing a party. It’s done.”
His mom’s birthday was approaching quickly, being only a month away. He looked at the ever-present stack of case files sitting on his desk. It was silly to contemplate which to finish first in case the party interfered, because most of those would be cleared up by then. The problem was that he didn’t know which new files would be sitting on his desk.
At some point, he would have to learn to juggle his work so he could go on vacation. What a better way than to jump right in?
“Okay. You pulled my leg. I’ll be there. Let me know what I can help plan from here.” Even talking about going home created a bubble of excitement for Chase. He knew he had been working an abnormal amount of hours since his business gained speed a few months back, but he didn’t realize it had dampened his mood to that extent. But it wasn’t lost on him that a lot of his good mood those days had to do with Kailynn, and Kailynn alone.
He hadn’t realized what he was missing until it had been reintroduced to his life—companionship. Despite not having the best relationship with his ex-wife, he still had someone to come home to. It was a strange adjustment for him to go from being with the same person since college to suddenly living alone. He had never lived alone before, and he’d only realized how lonely it had been when Kailynn came into his life. Not having her every second of the day was hard. He only wanted to be with her and around her. He had realized, without her, his days were lonely.
“And bring that girl you’ve been seeing,” Derek added.
Chase was knocked out of his thoughts at that comment. “Wait, what?”
“The girl you’ve been dating. You should bring her. It sounds like mom already loves her.”
“Mom has never spoken to her.”
Derek laughed. “Since when has that ever stopped mom from liking someone?”
That was true. Their mom always fell in love with people based on what other people said about them. She didn’t need to meet someone to know she would like them. Apparently that meant Chase had said enough good things about Kailynn.
“It might be too soon for that. We haven’t been dating for very long.”
“It’s up to you, but you know she’d be welcome here,” Derek said.
And he was right. They would welcome her with open arms, and she would easily fit right in. That would be the least of his worries.
* * *
Chase knockedon Kailynn’s door as soon as he dropped his items off in his apartment and changed. He knew she had been interviewing candidates for the marketing job and was excited to find out if she had hired anyone.
She pulled open the door with the biggest smile he had ever seen plastered on her face.
“You found someone?” he asked.
She nodded emphatically.
“Chase, she is seriously the greatest. Her name is Maddie, and she has all of this experience in New York doing marketing for fashion designers. She even has connections over there and can promote my work to them if I want. It’s crazy! I don’t know how I lucked out. And, oh my God, I’m rambling, but I have so much more to tell you!”
Chase laughed. “Well, I would love to hear everything you want to tell me.”
She grabbed his hand and led him over to the couch, sitting down and tugging him down next to her. She propped her leg up next to her so she could turn to face him.
“Abi came by and heard some stuff from Sheila. That girl seriously needs to watch her surroundings when she’s yakking up a storm. Sheila, not Abi. Not that she knows Abi anyway, so she wouldn’t have known that Abi and Logan were sitting in a booth RIGHT BEHIND HER.”
Chase raised an eyebrow. “Wow. What are the chances?”
“I know, right? Anyway, so Sheila left Drew because he wasn’t paying her anymore. Apparently it wasn’t love. She was in it for the money.”
