My brother's best friend

Chapter Forty

Hailey's POV

"Come on Chase give me the phone back! What is she saying? Chase!" I said to my older brother as he paced around the parking lot with my cell phone in hand as he spoke to my mother who was on the other end of it.

"No mom - you don't get to say you're sorry now. It's too late for you to apologize for just disappearing for so long! Do you know what we have had to go through without you? Fucking hell mom! Have you even heard about what happened to Hailey?" he yelled into the phone before stopped abruptly in the middle of the gas station parking lot and hung up the phone.

"Chase, please tell me what she said. I have the right to know! She called my phone!" I could feel the tears starting to well up behind my eyes, we were basically having a screaming match in the middle of the parking lot. Chase just looked at me and then started walking towards me, he hands me my phone and then storms past me grumbling under his breath that he was going to pay for the gas and snacks. I stood there and watched him as he walked into the convivence store that was attached. I could feel my body start to tremble and just as I was about to cry I felt the familiar warmth of Link come up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist pulling me into him. I immediately turned around and welcomed his embrace and put my face as close into his chest as I could. He had his one hand on my lower back and the other caressing the back of my head. Occasionally stroking down my hair. I stood in his embrace a few seconds before pulling away and regaining my composure, looking up to Link smiling to let him know that I was ok.

~

We continued our drive, Chase was now driving with Julie in the passenger seat. We had about 45 minutes left to go, and we decided to stop off and get some food, all we had eaten really was the snacks from the gas station and as good as they were we needed actual food in our stomachs. We pulled off the main road we were on and went to a mall plaza where there seemed to be lots of restaurants and some small shopping outlets. We parked the car and the four of us all walked towards the restaurant. It looked like a higher-class restaurant but still easy enough for us all to just walk in and only have to wait for about 10 minutes for a table. As we are waiting a beautiful women who looked probably 30 years old came up to us. She had medium length chocolate brown hair that matched the colour of her eyes. She smiled warmly at us before she spoke.

"Hi there, welcome to Rose's. My name is Rose, I am the owner and I will be showing you to your table this afternoon. Have you guys been here before?" Rose asked as we followed her to our table. She was extremely nice, and it was different to see the owner of a restaurant working so closely within the staff, the place was pretty busy for it only being lunch time and there seemed to be only a few empty tables around the restaurant.

"No we haven't, were just passing through town right now on the way to visit out dad" Chase answered to her question as she showed us to a nice table in the back of the restaurant by a window where we could see out into a small garden that had an arrangement of flowers and bushes, the center had a small pond with a lilac tree placed beside it. It was beautiful to look at and I wouldn't mind going out to get a better look when we finished our meal, I noticed there was a glass door close to our seats that had a sign posted. Encouraging guests to go out and enjoy the garden but to be respectful of its beauty.

"Ah well thank you for choosing Rose's for your lunch today, your server is Mindy and she will be right over with some menu's and water to start you guys off. If you have any questions please feel free to flag me down, I'm usually wandering around somewhere close by. And don't be afraid to grill Mindy on her knowledge of our menu. She knows a lot! Please enjoy your lunch!"

We all looked over the menu and agreed that there seemed to be so many amazing options to choose from. Chase chose salmon, Link chose steak, Julie chose a salad and I myself chose a penne dish. We put in our orders and sat around the table discussing the rest of our day and where we would be staying for the night. Chase had gone online and booked us a hotel room to stay in for the night depending on how things went when we arrived at our dad's house. We decided that right after we were done our lunch we were going to be on our way to his house. 25 minutes later our food was delivered, Mindy delivered everyone else's food to them and Rose came carrying my food in her hand.