Take it All (Blinded by Love) (15 page)

“Sure, what’s the scoop?”

“I don’t know, he just said about spending the day together.” She put her cell phone into her bag then turned and grabbed her coat she had left lying across the chair, and slid it on.

“You coming back here tonight or going to your place?”

“Probably mine, have to work at the station in the morning.”

“You mean, we have to wait until sometime tomorrow to find out how your day long date went?” Tatum asked, sounding unimpressed.

“Sucks don’t it,” Lennox laughed, sitting on the chair and pulling on her black Uggs. “Come by the station in the morning, it’ll be just me ‘cause mom and dad have a meeting downtown at one I think.”

“Oh you can count on us being there, and I want a free coffee, too.”

“Have I ever made you pay for it?”

Before anyone could say another word the doorbell sounded. All three looked at the clock to see it was only ten to eight. “He’s early, good man.”

Lennox laughed nervously then slid her purse over her arm and made her way across the room, “I guess I’ll talk to you guys later,” she said, the butterflies fluttering around even faster than before, making her feel more anxious.

“Call when you get home, so we know he didn’t turn out to be an escaped mental patient who only wanted your liver and kidneys for dinner,” Tatum chuckled then winked at Lennox before curling back up under the covers.

“Thanks for that.”

“Anytime, Lenny, it’s what I do,” she said, her eyes slowly closing as she started to fall back asleep.

“I’ll walk you down, babe,” Londyn said, sliding out of bed and following her out of the room and down the stairs. “You nervous?”

Lennox hit the bottom of the stairs and looked at Londyn, “Uh... if I told you there was Kong sized butterflies in my stomach, would that suffice?”

Londyn laughed, “Yeah, that’s normal, it’s a good thing too.”

Her brows pulling together, she asked, “Why?”

“Well, the way I see it is, you like him and you have since you were six. You obviously want things to go well and possibly go somewhere; and with that comes the nerves. If you weren’t nervous, I’d be wondering.”

“Valid point,” she said, looking to the door a couple feet away, “I should probably get going.”

“Go have fun, Dollface– you deserve it, but... just don’t do anything Tate would do.” She leaned against the edge of the stair railing, crossing her arms over her chest, grinning.

“Not even going to go there.” Lennox walked to the door, and took a breath before opening the door to Caleb standing on the front step.

“Hi,” she said, shyly, her cheeks turning a soft shade of pink as she looked over him. His jeans were hanging nicely off his hips and his dark blue tee was stretched across his chest under his open leather jacket. A pair of aviators hung on his shirt, while his hair was a sexy, tussled mess. He looked just as good as he had a week ago.

“Lox,” his smooth, slightly rich, voice said, “you look great.”

“Thanks,” she smiled.

She could feel Londyn’s stare on them but didn’t turn around to look at her; instead she made her way out the door, onto the front step and closed the door behind her. She was standing in close proximity to him, so close she could smell the faint scent of him; it was fresh and clean, like laundry or the smell of a cool summer day after it rained. “You ready?” he asked, a half smile playing on his lips.

Nodding, she smiled and said, “Always.” He led her down the steps and across the walk way to where his car was parked in front of the house. Just like she had thought, the snow had fallen through the night, leaving a new batch over the already fallen snow. The air wasn’t as cold as it looked if you were to have looked out your window first thing, but it was warm; warm enough that the new batch of snow wouldn’t be around later in the afternoon.

Lennox stopped at the passenger door behind Caleb. Using his car remote, he unlocked the car and opened her door, holding it until she was settled inside. She pulled her seatbelt across her chest and clicked it into place as his door opened and he climbed in next to her
. “So, where’re we going?” Lennox asked, resting her purse on the floor by her feet, looking back at him.

“My place,” he said, putting the car into gear and pulling away from the curb.

“You have your own place?”

“Yeah, well I live with my buddy Emerson. He moved out here with me from the coast.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” she said, wondering if his friend was going to be there or if it was just going to be the two of them.

He looked at her, a smile dancing over his lips, “Don’t worry, he’s not there, it’ll just be the two of us,” he answered as if he had read her mind.

“Okay,” she said, softly, nervous, “Are you feeling better?”

Caleb looked back to the road as they turned out of town and got on the highway. Lennox noticed the tightness in his jaw that only lasted a second before it softened and he said, “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Good. So, you didn’t have to work today?”

“Nope,” he grinned, looking at her from the corner of his eye, “took a sick day.”

“You took a sick a day, why?” she asked, trying not to sound anxious as a part of her wanted him to say it was for her.

He didn’t answer her right away, instead his left hand loosened on the wheel and he rested his wrist on top, his hand relaxing. His other arm rested on top of the center console with his large hand covering the top of the gearstick. His seat was reclined back and his body was relaxed into it; he looked at home behind the wheel, like driving was his thing. Some people don’t look like anything behind the wheel except for a plain driver but Caleb somehow was the epitome of one who made it look good, who took something as simple as driving a car and turned it into something close to an art.

Lennox couldn’t get over how damn attractive he was just sitting there driving. She instantly felt her cheeks burn as images of leaning across the car and kissing him flashed through her mind, playing with her overactive imagination
.

“Because,” he started, his voice bringing her out of her head and back in the car, “I wanted to see you, wanted to spend the day with you and I thought what better day than today.”

Lennox looked over at him, her brows pulling together in confusion as she asked, “Today, what’s so special about today?”

He glanced over at her, the look of surprise and amusement blended together, “Seriously? You don’t know what day it is?”

“I know it’s Tuesday...”

“Cute, so you really don’t know.”

Lennox, still looking at him, tried racking her mind on what she was missing, but came up with nothing. She knew it wasn’t his birthday, as his was in June, and It wasn’t hers; therefore, she had no idea what was going on or what he was talking about. “No clue, what am I missing?”

Caleb opened his mouth to say something but at the last moment closed it, deciding against telling her what he was going to say, as an idea came forward. He looked over at her with a half-smile and said, “I guess this day just turned into a surprise.”

Lennox’s face dropped, “I hate surprises.”

“I know,” he laughed.

“Come on, Caleb, tell me,” she turned in her seat, and pleaded with him, “Please?”

“Nope.”

“Pretty please,” she pouted, sticking her bottom lip out.

Caleb looked at her, his eyes dropping to her lips, lingering a second before darting back to her eyes, “Nice try, didn’t work on me when we were kids, not gonna work now, Lox.”

Her eyes brightened and widened, “It so did work as kids,” she said, overzealous, “Remember that day at the pond? You had that sucker or whatever it was, and with just one pout you handed it over to me.”

Caleb let out a chest shaking laugh and his head fell back against his head rest, “Only because I dropped it in the dirt then washed it off in the pond, right before.”

Lennox’s mouth dropped open, “You mean... I ate
frog pond water
?”

Laughing, he nodded his head, “Surprise!”

“You jerk, no wonder it tasted so funny. I thought you just hadn’t brushed your teeth yet,” she said, her face scrunching up as if she smelt something sour.

“That would be a negative.”

“Such a boy, I’d hate to know what else I unknowingly ate thanks to you,” she said to herself.

He raised his hand, “That was the only thing, I swear.”

“Uh huh,” she said, unable to hide her grin any longer, “guess I should tell you, remember the summer after you moved in, and we went to that park a couple blocks away?”

Caleb looked at her warily, “Yeah... what about it?”

Lennox bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing, “Remember when you left your hat sitting by the sand box and when we were getting ready to go, you grabbed it and put it on only to find it was full of sand? And Ben started laughing, and you thought he put it in there so you chased him home,” she said, fidgeting with her hands in her lap, avoiding the look he was giving her.

“Lennox...”

“It wasn’t Ben; it was... kinda... sorta... me,” she said innocently with a small smile.

“And here I thought you were perfect the whole time growing up,” he teased, grinning over at her.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I watched you do it, but I let you have the moment, since I did give you the sucker covered in frog water.”

“Then why’d you chase Ben all the way home?”

“Simple, he liked you.” He shrugged his shoulders like it was enough of an answer.

“He did not.” She turned and looked out the window to see they had just passed the airport. They were coming up to the overpass that would turnoff into a ramp that would take them to the main highway that led right into the city.

“He did, it was easy to tell.”

“And that was how?” she looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“You always tease or bug the one you like.” He turned his head, briefly looking at her, their eyes locking for an instant before he turned back to the road.

Lennox didn’t say anything but turned her attention back to her window, and watched the cars fly by as they sped down the highway. Her mind was on what Caleb said and the look they shared. She hadn’t exactly known he liked her that way, back then. She knew she did but being young it was hard to understand those feelings, until getting older when you find out the feelings you had were in fact real ones and you come to understand them a little more, but for her it had been too late of course.

The drive to Caleb’s was quiet, but not in an awkward way. It was a comfortable silence, one where no words needed to be said to enjoy one another’s company, and before they knew it, they were pulling up in front of a white duplex. It was surprisingly nice, and in a decent neighbourhood; one Lennox had driven by a couple times on the way to the movies. Unbuckling her seatbelt and grabbing her purse, she turned to Caleb who grabbed his smokes and threw open his door. Following his lead she opened her door and climbed out, closing the door behind her as she joined him on the sidewalk.

Caleb placed his hand on her lower back then motioned for them to move in the direction of the front door. As they walked, Lennox took in the surroundings of his place. The lawn was covered in snow, along with a small tree at the front that was proof that area was newly developed. Their duplex was on the right hand side, the sidewalk freshly shovelled all the way to the three steps that led up to a small side porch where two plastic lawn chairs sat, untouched of snow, with a coffee can in the middle.

Caleb followed her gaze and said, “Our smoke can.”

Entering inside they were in a small boot area with a set of stairs on the right hand side. Taking her Uggs off, she then followed him further inside to the living room that was to the left. You could tell it was a guy’s place; black leather couch with the back facing the entry, plain black coffee table in front with a glass ashtray in the middle, and television remotes and X-Box controllers scattered on top. Directly across the living room was a large LED television on the wall with a stand under it that held all their devices from a DVD player to their X-Box. Off to the far right, against the wall were two book cases full of movies and video games and to the far left was a curtained closed window.

“Make yourself at home, I’ll be right back,” Caleb said, with a half smile as he turned and walked out of the living room, leaving Lennox standing next to the couch.

With her back to where he disappeared, she placed her purse down on the floor by her feet, and unbuttoned her coat, laying it on top just as she sensed Caleb come up behind her. “Close your eyes,” he said softly into her ear.

Lennox’s heart stammered in her chest as she did what he asked, “Okay,” she told him in a whisper so low, she wasn’t sure if he had heard her.

“‘Kay, turn around,” he said.

Lennox, with her eyes still closed, turned around and was face to face with Caleb. She could tell they were close, so close she could feel the heat radiating from his body, completely engulfing her. “You can open them now.”

Her eyes slowly opened and she saw him right in front of her, the half smile he wore on his mouth made her knees feel like jell-o and the breath she held rush out. Their eyes connected as he took a few steps back and she saw he had his right arm behind his back. Confused, she said, “Caleb?”

“You remember that day, at the pond? It was awhile after I moved in and it was really hot out, you were wearing that yellow and purple polka dotted shirt, the one I said made you look like a yellow lady bug?”

Lennox, having no words only nodded her head, her heart pounding as she eagerly waited for him to continue. “You remember what you told me?”

“I said,” she started, pausing to clear her throat, “I wanted my own field full of purple daisies, with a giant frog pond in the middle of it.”

Caleb nodded, a small smile spreading over his lips, “So the frogs could be surrounded by purple beauty while jumping freely around, but the daisies couldn’t be the ones with the yellow center–”

“Ones with the dark centers because the yellow made them look like they had pee stains, where the dark made them look like they each held their own night, and brought out their true beauty,” Lennox finished, remembering what she said to him that day so many years ago.