The Third One(second draft version)

Chapter 6

~Asher~

By the time we get to the park, the memory of the hair has faded away and I'm concentrating on getting the kids out the car and keeping track of them as soon as they leave. Kind of hard considering as soon as I put them on the ground they all shoot off into different directions. Seeing them all scatter, I hang my head and sigh. Ella laughs and says she'll keep an eye on Harper, and Qiana says she's going to play with Kyla.

'I guess that leaves me with the boys'  I think, walking around the the park to see them playing on the swings. I sit down against a tree that's close to where they're playing and take out my my book and head phones. The book I'm reading is Wings  by Aprilynne Pike, it was my favorite book series when I was about 12 and it still is. I've read it about 4 or 5 times now but I love it so it's okay.

I've read a couple chapters, glancing up every once in a while to make sure the kids are okay, when I notice a shadow fall onto the pages of my book. I look up and see Nate, the guy I met at the library a couple weeks ago, standing there with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face.

"Hey! How are you? It's been awhile," I say, smiling and closing my book after putting a bookmark between the pages.

"Hey! I've been good. How about you? Can I sit?" He answers back with a slight smile still on his face, taking one of his hands out of his pocket to gesture to the ground beside me.

"Oh!" I say eyes widening slightly. "Yeah, of course!" and move over some, putting my bag on the other side of me. He sits down, his jean covered thigh gently brushing against my bare one. I look up at his face to see him watching the kids play on the jungle gym, a small smile on his gorgeous face. He looks down at me and I look away starting to blush, playing with a loose thread on my shorts pretending like I hadn't just been flat out staring at him. Out of the corner of my eye I can see that he's still looking at me with a giant grin on his face that makes my heart sigh of happiness.

"So," I clear my throat and try to erase the awkwardness. "What're you doing here?"

"Not much really, just got bored sitting around at home. What about you?"

"Mom wanted to do some cleaning so I took some of the kids to the park," I reply nonchalantly, shrugging my shoulders.

"Ah, makes sense. How many siblings do you have?"

"I have 8, I'm the oldest. What about you? Do you have any?"

"Oh dang, that's a lot. And yeah actually, I have a little brother," When he says this he gets an adorable scowl on his face.

"Oh really? How come you didn't bring him?"

"He, uh, lives with my dad."

"Oh, are your parents split?"

"Nah, my mom died when I was 12. I lived with my dad until about a month ago then I moved here by myself. They live up in, um, Ketchum."

"Oh dang, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry," I apologize, feeling bad. He looks looks up from where he was messing with something on his shirt. His bright green eyes are boring right into my blue ones and I'm completely entranced. A small smile makes it's way onto my face and I, once again, look away and blush.

"Asher, it's okay don't worry about it. So, what do your parents do?" He asks, taking the attention off of himself. 

"Well, my dad is a carpenter, my mom works at the assisted living home, and my second mom is a waitress," I reply smiling forgetting all about the awkward situation that took place not even a minute ago.