Escape Route | ✓

6

'How was it?'

Carrie smiled lightly at Jace's expectant face. 'It was okay.'

'Only okay?' his eyebrows shot so far up his head they were almost in his hairline. 'I thought you loved Chicago with every bone in your body?'

'I do,' she agreed. 'I just... I didn't really go back there for a happy reason. It's a long story that I don't have time for right now, but yeah.'

He frowned, stopping her from walking any further. He'd come to pick her up from the airport, and they were walking towards his pick-up. 'Is everything okay?' he asked quietly.

She smiled weakly. 'Yeah, everything's okay.'

Both of them could tell that she wasn't being entirely honest, but Jace decided to let it slide. 'I'm here when you're ready,' he informed her, before continuing towards his truck.

She clambered into the passenger seat. 'Thank you,' her voice was quiet. 'You've been very patient and nice, so thank you for that.'

He shrugged casually, starting up the truck, and beginning the drive back. 'It's no problem,' he told her honestly. 'I get that something's going on, but it's only my business if you want it to be, you know?'

A small smile broke out over her face. 'You're too good to me, you know that?'

He chuckled, puffing his chest out jokingly. 'Well, what can I say?' he drawled, cockily grinning at her.

She rolled her eyes at him. 'You're such a dork,' she informed him, but she laughed all the same. He was somehow always able to cheer her up, and she valued that a lot more than she'd ever let on.

Jace shook his head adamantly. 'I am not,' he refuted. 'If anybody is a dork here, it's you,' he replied as he turned left at an intersection.

'Takes one to know one,' Carrie grinned cheekily.

'So you're a dork?' he raised an eyebrow.

She shrugged casually. 'Maybe I am, it's no big deal.'

He rolled his eyes at her. 'I finished all the farm work today,' he changed the topic. 'So I was thinking that we could just hang out for the evening, and watch a movie or something?'

A grin split over Carrie's face. 'That would be great,' she told him gratefully. During the last couple of weeks, he'd really made an effort to get along with her.

He shrugged easily. 'Okay, who has the bigger TV?'

'I think you,' she said, trying to remember what his TV looked like. 'Yeah, probably you. I didn't bring mine with me, and the one that's in the house is absolutely tiny.'

He chuckled. 'Yeah, Simon was never big on watching the telly, he always said it was a huge waste of time. He only ever sometimes watched the news.'

Carrie nodded. 'Yeah, we'll go to your house then. How's everyone else by the way? Like Alice, Mal, and Gabe?'

Jace turned at another intersection. 'Yeah, they're doing fine, last time I checked, which was the day before yesterday. I explained that you had a couple of things to do back in Chicago, and so you'd gone back for the week, and they were fine with that.'

'The day before yesterday?' she echoed. 'I thought you talked to them every day?'

'I do,' he confirmed, as they reached the driveway to his house. 'It's just that with you gone, I have a lot more to do, and I get more tired, so I don't go out in the evenings.'

'Oh, I'm sorry,' Carrie winced. 'I thought that you would be okay by yourself!'

He rolled his eyes. 'I am okay by myself,' he reassured her quickly. 'It's just that I had a little more to do, it's no big deal.'