The Babysitter✔️

Chapter||16

Cats or dogs? We like both!

I rang the doorbell to the Johnson home and took a deep breath.

It felt like deja vu waiting to see what they would think of me.

After a few seconds Hallie opened the door and I heard Jace yell "what did I tell you about answering the door without me Hal?"

Hallie looked up at me for a second expressionless, and finally she screamed "LEX IS BACK," and she ran over to me and embraced me with a hug.

"Hey Hal," I said squeezing her back.

Jace walked into the foyer and just looked at me for a minute, "Why did you come back," he asked with an angry look..

"I couldn't leave you guys," I smiled hesitantly and put Hallie down, "Where's Cal?"

"Lacrosse practice," Jace said looking at me with a distant look in his eyes.

"Oh yeah," I responded, "We should go watch him."

"Yeah!" Hallie exclaimed, "I'll go put my shoes on!" And she ran upstairs to her room, leaving Jace and me alone with each other.

"I'm sorry I ran away," I confessed.

Ignoring what I just said, Jace looked at me, "I'm not gonna pretend that our kiss never happened."

"You don't have to," I said and then Hallie came down the stairs so I whispered , "We can talk about whatever is going on later."

Jace nodded in agreement and we all got in the car and drove to Cal's Lacrosse practice.

...

At the practice, one of the boys on Cal's team had a younger sister around Hal's age, so the two of them ran around and played, leaving Jace and me alone.

I pretended to watch the practice, because the silence between us was starting to get awkward until Jace put his hand on my leg. I looked down at it startled and then he spoke, "I forgive you."

"You- you forgive me?" I ask confused.

"Yeah." He sighed, "I should've seen it coming. Everyone always seems to leave me and my family."

"No, Jace-"

"I guess I should be used to it by now, huh? I just thought you'd be different for some reason." Jace explained.

My heart clenched.

"I mean you came back though. That's a first." Jace chuckled darkly, "Why did you come back anyways?"

I bit my lip trying to form my answer. "Because Jace, I couldn't leave you guys."

"That's not really an answer." Jace replied.

"I couldn't leave you guys alone." I persisted.

"Again, not what I'm looking for." Jace reiterated.

"Because I was confused and I needed some time to figure things out, you ass!" I yelled in a whisper at him.

I lashed out with my hand to hit him in the arm, but Jace caught my hand. Holding it firmly yet gently in his own, he asked slowly, "And what did you figure out?"

He had shocked me into silence, and I sat there frozen and squirming in his grasp and under his gaze.

After realizing I wasn't going to answer, he released me, and I noticed Cal walking up to us from practice.