Peyton Ackley - The Beginning of Change

Chapter 26 - Back to London

Waking up in the morning I could feel my head resting on someone's chest. As I rubbed my eyes to wake myself up I felt a soft kiss on the top of my head. Her blonde hair was the messiest of ever seen it and her blue eyes looked a bit dull in the lack of morning light, but her smile was still shining across her face.

"Good morning beautiful," she said pulling me into a cuddle.

"Morning Le, how'd you sleep?" I asked.

"Good. Ready to head back to London?" she asked me.

"Yeah, I want to see Gabe and Noah," I replied placing a kiss on her lips.

"Come on, up we get," the blonde said wiggling herself out from underneath me.

"No, Leah, get back into bed," I whined. She didn't take any notice of my complaints and headed over to her bag to start getting ready. She pulled out a pair of tracksuit pants and a hoodie for the travel and I thought she would head into the bathroom to change, but she instead pulled her shirt over her head leaving her standing in her short pyjama pants and sports bra. "Leah... you're a tease," I said with a smirk on my face.

"Do you like what you see?" she asked with a little twirl.

"You know my answer to that, put your shirt on," I told her climbing out of bed at the same time to get ready too. We had the option to eat breakfast with the team but the flight to London that the Arsenal girls were on was much earlier than expected. I hadn't quite realised what time it was until I picked up my phone to message Steph and realised it was only 6 am.

"Leah, why are we up so early?" I asked rather annoyed. "We don't need to leave for another hour," I complained.

"I thought," she started, taking my hands in hers, "We could go for a walk in the city this morning to grab something to drink," she said with a tight smile.

"Oh. Yeah, of course," I replied pulling her into a hug.

* * *

Walking through Melbourne it was colder than I expected to be, so it was an interesting way to introduce Leah to Australian weather. I'd made sure to wear a hoodie and a jacket but Leah insisted that she was 'English' and didn't need a jacket. She was shortly proven wrong.

"You cold?" I asked turning my attention from the street to her.

"No," she said with her arms crossed and her hands jammed in her armpits. Before she could say no to my offer I slipped my jacket off my shoulders and placed it around her own. Leah's the kind of person that won't ask, but will happily accept. So when my jacket fell around her shoulders, she quickly slipped her arms into it and zipped it up.

"Thank you," she said wrapping an arm around my waist as we walked.

I was pleasantly surprised when my favourite Melbourne cafe was open this early in the morning. It was only a five-minute walk from the hotel meaning we had plenty of time to get coffee, so we took our time.

"What would you like?" I asked Leah.

"Tea?" she replied.

"Tea, it's 6 am don't you want coffee?"

"Not particularly," she answered with a smile.