Love is Silent

Chapter 13

“Why don’t Bev and Carson adopt you?”

Chase shrugged. “I’ll be eighteen next month. There’s not much point in them adopting me since I’ll be a legal adult on December thirty-first.”

“Oh.” He hadn’t told me about his birthday before, but I let it go for now. “So you get along with Bev and Carson okay?”

“I guess so. Like I said, they leave me to myself for the most part. They know what happened to me and they don’t push me into doing or saying anything. And they don’t mind that I like to go running a lot.”

“Will you stay with them after you turn eighteen?”

“Yeah, at least until I graduate high school. They said I can stay for as long as I want to.”

I settled my head on his shoulder again. “Have you thought about what you want to do after high school?”

He hesitated for a moment. “I was thinking of becoming a cop like my dad.”

“He’d probably be happy to hear you say that,” I said.

“What about you? What do you want to do?” he asked, obviously not wanting to talk about his dad anymore.

“I don’t know anymore. Luke and I always planned to go to college for a couple of years before slowly taking over the farm from my parents. But now I’m not sure what I’ll do.”

“You don’t want to run the farm anymore?”

I shrugged. “It wouldn’t be the same without Luke with me.”

“But would he want you to give up what you’d always planned to do?”

“Probably not,” I admitted. “I might just go to college for a year or two to give myself a chance to think about it.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” He kissed the top of my head. “What do you want to do now?”

I knew that he needed some semblance of normalcy after he’d just revealed so much of his past to me, so I got to my feet. “I know it’s cold out, but it’s a clear night. Why don’t we go sit out on the deck for a little bit?”

He agreed so we went upstairs and grabbed our coats. Once we were bundled into them, we went out to the deck and sat together on the glider. He put his arm around my shoulders and we rocked back and forth slowly. The night was so clear that thousands of stars were visible and I gazed up at them. A feeling of peace settled over me as I sat snuggled against the person I loved.

Suddenly I heard a sound, and I lifted my head to try and hear it better. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah. What was that?”

I heard the sound again so I got to my feet and hobbled to the stairs of the deck. “It sounds like it’s coming from underneath us.”

Chase came to stand beside me and he tilted his head when the sound came once more. “I think you’re right. Hang on a sec; I’ll be right back.” He disappeared back into the house and returned a moment later with a flashlight in his hand. “I’ll go check it out.”

“This is usually the part in movies where a scary monster jumps out and eats you,” I muttered as he started down the stairs.

He flashed a grin over his shoulder. “I’m scarier than any monsters out here,” he assured me.

I made a face at his back and then leaned against the railing while I waited for him to come back. I heard him moving around under the deck, and a few minutes later he appeared on the stairs again. “I found your monster,” he said.

He held out his hands and I saw a small amount of gray and white fluff. When the fluff moved, I realized it was a tiny kitten. “Aw, it’s so cute!” I took the little creature from him and cradled it against my chest. “What are you doing out here all by yourself?”

“You do realize that it can’t answer you, right?” Chase asked teasingly.

“Just ignore him,” I told the kitten. “Come on, let’s go inside where it’s nice and warm.” I cradled it in one arm and went back inside with Chase grumbling behind me.

Once we were back in the warmth, I set the kitten down on the kitchen counter so I could look at it better. It seemed a little skinny, but otherwise it looked okay. It didn’t look like it had been away from its mom for too long, and I felt bad for the poor little thing. “Do you have something we can feed it?”

Chase went to one of the cupboards and rummaged through it. “There’s a can of salmon,” he replied.

“That’ll do for now. Can you open the can?”

He sighed in mock exasperation but did as I asked and then set the can on the counter in front of the kitten. The kitten pounced on the food and started scarfing it down as quickly as it could. Chase watched it with amusement. “He’s got quite the appetite on him,” he stated.

“What makes you so sure it’s a boy?” I asked.

“Is it a girl?”

“I haven’t checked yet,” I replied. “What are we going to do with it?”

“Well, we can’t just leave it out in the cold. I’ll keep it overnight until Bev and Carson get home and see what they think.”

When the kitten finished it’s meal, I checked and saw that it was indeed a male. “Okay Starlight, let’s get you warmed up now that you’re full.”

Chase raised a brow. “Starlight?”

I smiled sheepishly. “It seemed like a good name because of all the stars out tonight.”

He just chuckled and led the way back downstairs after we’d shed our coats. He had me lay down with my back against the back of the couch. Then he lay down in front of me and settled the kitten on his chest, switching the TV back on with the remote. My eyes grew heavy as I lay curled against his chest and eventually just before i fell asleep, I heard him whisper, "So you know, I love you too."  

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So now you know a lot more of Chase's story. Other little bits and pieces will be revealed along the way, but that was most of it right there. I added the part with the kitten to lighten the mood a little :-).

Question: Who's your favourite author? (Published, not Wattpad. Obviously I'm your favourite Wattpad author :-P. Just kidding... Kind of.)

Vote and comment to let me know what you thought!