The Chosen Ones

CHAPTER TWELVE

Matt felt terrible leaving Tyler with Shannon's parents, especially because he and Casey were going to spy on their daughter's boyfriend. The good thing was Tyler was excited to hang out with Sierra, so that took some of the guilt away.

Once they dropped him off they headed for Daniel's place.
"Should we get stakeout food?" Casey asked.
Matt glanced over at her as he drove, wondering if it was a serious question. He raised an eyebrow. "And what exactly is stakeout food?" He asked.
"I don't know, like snacks or something."
He had to laugh. It was cute how into this she was.

"Sure we can get snacks." He said, indulging her.
Matt made a stop at Wawa, the small food market on the way. Casey got an iced coffee and multiple bags of assorted snacks. She asked Matt if it was okay, since her arms were full with food and she obviously had no money given her situation. He just nodded and smiled.

Matt got himself a coffee and they headed out. Even though he wasn't as into the stakeout as Casey was, he did have his black baseball hat pulled down lower than usual along with black sunglasses on, a cliche of a disguise, but necessary.
Casey had her blonde hair in a ponytail and also had her sunglasses on. Matt pulled across the street from Daniel's condo and down a few car lengths.

"Which one is his?" Casey asked.
"I don't know, we'll just have to watch the front gate I guess." Matt replied.
The condominium complex was about average, not upscale by any means, but not exactly low rent either. There was a main gate that needed to be accessed to get into any of the units.

Casey proceeded to open a bag of patato chips. The bag crunched loudly in the quiet truck. Matt turned his head slowly to look over at her as she was putting a handful of chips in her mouth. She froze when she saw him staring at her.

"What?!" She said, trying not to smiling.
Matt burst out laughing. "Nothing, nothing at all. Eat your stakeout chips." He encouraged.
"Thank you, I will." She replied, stuffing her face.
He shook his head. Even with a mouthful of chips Casey was gorgeous. Once she dropped the tough girl act he noticed her sense of humor and personality start to come through as well. She was the total package.

It was a serious matter what they were doing there, but they were having fun. It was another sunny day. The weather in Maple Brook had been gorgeous lately. It was a perfect day to be doing anything other than a stakeout to be honest, but here they were. At least they were together, Matt thought. That's all he really wanted. The two of them were starting to feel really comfortable around each other.

An hour passed. Daniel hadn't come out or come back, assuming they had showed up after he had already left.
Matt had wanted to bring up the kiss from the night at the cabin but didn't know if the time was right. Being that they were stuck in the truck at the moment, he decided he wouldn't have a better opportunity then right now.

"So we gonna talk about the other night?" He asked.
"What? What happened the other night?"
"Uhhh..." Matt struggled to explain.
"Matt, I'm kidding. Of course I remember." Casey said with a smile. "I just feel like we need to take things slow is all."
"Okay, I understand I guess."

But he didn't understand. One second she was all over him, the next she wanted to take it slow. He had to remind himself her family was murdered a few days ago and her whole life was turned upside down. He had been there once, too. This wasn't about him though. Whatever she wanted he would give it to her.

"It's just that we don't know what tomorrow will bring. We could be dead tomorrow. I don't want to get close to anyone only to lose them. I can't do that again." Casey explained further. She turned her attention to looking out the passenger window.