Love And Leather

Chapter 23

The summer is ending. It was filled with lot of funny, cute, sad and loving moments. Jug spent almost the whole summer with me, which means we were always me, him and Millie. Sometimes Jellybean tagged along, like when we went camping and stuff. Millie's the cutest three year old anyone would want even though she can sometimes be all feisty and throw a tantrum anywhere she goes.
Right now though, she's sleeping. We're driving back to Riverdale from New York, Jug behind the wheel, holding my left hand, our fingers intertwined and resting on my thigh. We came from NYU. They had an open house and we decided to check it out. They have so many writing programs, for journalists, writers or whatever you wish to do. We're strongly thinking about it.
Also I finished writing a book and Jug had a few old ones so we entered them to a few competitions.
Right now though, the sun is shining through the glass windows, mine opened a little, beautiful nature everywhere you look. But I'm not looking outside. I'm staring at his face. Millie is a little sick and so he's checking on her in every few minutes from the rearview mirror. It looks so cute. He seems seriously worried, but relaxed at the same time, brushing his thumb over my knuckles every second, caressing my hand softly.
“You don't need to check on her in every five seconds you know,” I say and bite my laugh back as he starts smirking, but keeps driving, not even glancing towards me. I let out a quiet chuckle and lean over to him and kiss his cheek, he leaning towards me as well so that I could do it better.
I chuckle quietly as he quickly turns his head and pecks my lips after the cheek peck and then rapidly looks back in front. “You haven't been that worried to crash for a while.”
“We have a kid in the back of our car, Betts,” he smirks and I smile at that. And just as on cue the ‘kid' wakes up and starts crying. Jug's face grows worried immediately as he looks at her from the mirror once again. I turn around and lean back and touch her forehead softly.
“Jug, stop the car,” I say calmly, not wanting for neither of them panic. “I wanna take her temperature, maybe we have to go to the doctor when we get home.”
He does as I told; pulls the car to the side of the road, and we both get out of the car, me taking Millie to the long grass, a small river in front of us now. I sit down on the grass, holding her on my lap.
“Baby, how are you feeling?” I ask.
“Bad,” she cries, tears boiling in her eyes. I kiss her hot forehead and Jug brings me a thermometer we bought from New York, sitting down next to us as well.
“Baby,” he says to her, taking her little hands into his. She focuses on him and he tells her to breath and does some weird as fuck breathing voice, making me laugh and Millie giggle while she's still crying.
“Okay?” I ask her in a few minutes when she's calm. She nods a little and lets me put the thermometer into her mouth. It beeps only a half minute later and Jug takes it out, resting his head against mine as he sighs and shows it to me. 101.3.
“Am I sick?” Millie asks with the cutest voice in the world.
“Yeah, baby,” I say and kiss her cheek. “We have about an hour to drive to home, okay?” I ask softly, stroking her hair.
“Mommy, I'm hungry,” she tells me with a pouty voice and face. Jug sniggers next to me as I sigh.
“How can you be hungry when you're sick?” I ask with a small smile.
“I don't know,” she pouts and crosses her arms on her chest.
“Baby, we have to wait until we get home, okay?” Jug asks.
Millie frowns, still pouting. “I want it now. I'm hungry.”
“I know. But right now we don't have food,” Jug says calmly, both of us knowing she isn't feeling good at the moment.
“But daddy,” she whines.
“Daddy’s gonna get you food when we get home, okay?” I ask.
She huffs but nods and I sigh in relief. Jug picks her up from my lap and we get her back in the car and he starts driving again.
“Millie, do you wanna play in daddy's phone?” I ask her as she's shifting in her seat all the time. She nods and Jug smirks as I give it to her. She's 3, but kids her age all have phones when they get like 2, which is stupid if you ask me. She won’t get her first phone until she's in elementary school (not kindergarten).

“Hey,” FP says as we enter their house. Kelly and Kev are here too, because FP made dinner and he quite often has us over so that we'd eat normal food, because none of us really agrees with making food if we can order pizza or Chinese or whatever we have the mood for.
“Hey,” I smile tiredly and give him a kiss on the cheek as he takes Millie from me.
“Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?” he asks her.
“Icky,” she says quietly, hiding her face into FP's shoulder while tears start running from her eyes again. “I’m hungry,” she whines.
“Dad, could you change her clothes, please? I'm trying to make something she'd actually have an appetite for,” Jug sighs. FP nods and goes upstairs with Millie. We keep some of her clothes and toys here cause almost half of the time we're here. She's even stayed here for the night many times with Jug when we were fighting and didn't want to sleep in the same bed but we still figured that since she takes him as her dad, she should spend time with him too even if I'm not there.
I squat down next to Collie who is here too. “Hey, bud,” I sigh. She lets out a sobbing voice and puts her head onto my lap as I sit down next to her, tears running down my cheeks. Her tail is wagging tiredly but even that doesn't make me smile… It's painful looking at her like this. She's 15, the time has almost come and she's not moving much anymore, her appetite is gone, she's just lying around, loving when someone pets her or cuddles with her. We just try to make it as comfortable for her.
“Hey, you okay?” Jug asks softly, sitting down next to me. I look at him with my teary eyes, making him sigh.
“Can you handle Millie? I'd like to take a nap.”
“Yeah,” he says, nodding a little and gives me a kiss on the forehead and them on the cheek after what he kisses Collie's nose and I get up, Collie following me and making me smile. I go to the living room and curl up on the couch, my dog snuggling next to me, half lying on me. I wrap my arms around her and rest my head onto her body as I feel her licking my nape and close my eyes, feeling extremely warm but sad.