The Bucket List

Chapter fifteen

"'Successful lawyer, Jackson Rose, has yet again won another impossible case against the murder of Samantha Higgins.'" Toby reads aloud, as if I can't read it myself. "'Jackson refuses to be interviewed at the moment and when surrounded responded with no comment.'"

"My dads still alive?" I gasped.

"And successful." Toby muttered as he scanned the article.

There was an unexplainable need suddenly sinking into me. My dad was alive! Hope blossomed in my heart and I pulled the laptop close to me, desperate to find a way to contact him. "Wait, Aaron. This might not even be him, it could be someone else with the same name."

Like lightening I clicked a picture of him and held it up beside me. There was no questions asked I looked like him, except I had my mothers eyes. "I have to talk to him, at least try!"

Toby just bit his lip as I scrolled down the page before finding his official website.

JacksonRose.com.

Was it wrong to feel pride? I felt pride that my dad wasn't a deadbeat, and defiantly not dead. It was easy to find his office number, and I easily called.

A deep male voice answered and I nibbled my bottom lip. "Jackson Rose's office, how can I direct this call?"

My hands started to shake and I couldn't speak. Toby pulled the phone from me and pulled me to his chest. "I'd like to hire Mr. Rose to defend me in a case." He listened to the voice before grunting. "I can not disclose this case to anyone other than Mr. Rose." He made a sound of agreement before telling his cellphone number to the man before he hung up.

"Well?" I breathed.

"He won't be back to work until tomorrow, he scheduled a meeting for us tomorrow morning."

I felt my face pale. "So soon?"

Toby frowned at my and pressed a thumb to my chin. "You don't have to do this, you can let this go."

"No!" I blurted. "No way! Let's just go have fun today."

My stomach suddenly gurgled and Toby flinched. "First off is to feed you." He leaned into my hair before laughing. "Scratch that, first off is a shower."

I laughed and let him guide me to the bathroom. He striped me from the shirt he had managed to put on my and his sweats. I would just forget about my mother. She was gone and didn't want me. I still had my father. Toby and I managed to shower and escape in only an hour, my mind couldn't leave the picture of my father. Would he look the same? In the picture his dark chocolate hair had streaks of gray and his eyes were a beautiful blue. I cursed my mother for giving me my honey brown eyes. I wanted to look nothing like her.

I let Toby dress me because I felt like he still needed to touch me as if to make sure I wouldn't fade away. I felt guilty for going distant earlier and leaving Toby to fend for me. I was selfish. After Toby dressed himself I pulled him to me to kiss. "I love you."

He smiled and pushed his hands to my lower back to bring me forward. "I love you too."

I turned to look in the mirror and smiled. Toby had dressed me in my own clothes that consisted of skinny blue jeans and a button up blue plaid shirt. He had left the sleeves down so they hung over my hands and barely covered my finger tips. He reached to drape one of his black hoodies on me and I almost stopped him on account that it was summer. But it wasn't. It was already getting chilly because summer was over. I grimaced at the lost time that I couldn't get ahold of.

Toby kissed the back of my neck and zipped the hoodie to my chest how I liked it. I smiled at his attire and hooked my fingers in his front belt loops to bring him forward. He wore lose black jeans and one of his band shirts under a unzipped dark purple hoody. I loved how he dressed, something about it just-well, turned me on. But I kissed his chin and pulled away to pull my shoes on. Toby pocketed his wallet and grabbed Tabya's keys as he started out the door.