“I know what I hope it means.”
“You tell me yours first.” Fuck, I love it when Callie gets excited. She’s like a grown child bursting with happiness, and I can’t help but get caught up in her excitement. She makes me feel more alive than I’ve felt in years.
“I hope it means more time with you.”
She sighs. “It definitely will.”
“What were you thinking?”
Her eyes sparkle. “It means more A-game for you.”
I groan because I can hear Sean running through the house towards us, and all I want to do is sink as deep inside her as possible and lose myself to her love. I wouldn’t have it any other way, though. Any time spent with these two is time I would never give up.
Callie moves out of my arms and smiles as Sean rounds the corner. “Callie!” He squeals with delight and flings himself into her arms.
She pulls him up and wraps him close as she presses a kiss to his forehead. “Hey, mate. I missed you today.”
“Daddy said we could have ice cream for dessert!”
She laughs and meets my gaze. “Really? I bought a treat home that I thought we could have, but I guess we can have ice cream instead.”
Sean’s eyes bulge. “What did you bring?”
I lean against the counter and cross my arms. “Yes, Callie, what did you bring?” She knows I don’t allow dessert most nights, but I would never begrudge her giving him something special every now and then. I love the relationship she’s building with my son.
She wrinkles her nose at me. “This is just between me and Sean. You’ll have to stick with ice cream, buddy.” Turning to Sean, she whispers something in his ear. The way his body moves with delight tells me she’s hit gold.
“Yes, yes! I want that,” he exclaims.
“You know you can’t have it and ice cream, right?” Callie says.
Disappointment crosses his face, but only for an instant. He nods. “Yes.”
Callie grins and lets him down before shaking his hand. “It’s a deal.”
I lift my chin in the direction of the bathroom. “Go wash your hands, little man. Dinner’s almost ready.”
After he’s gone, Callie eyes me. “You wanna know what you’re missing out on?”
“I’m intrigued. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him pass up ice cream so fast.”
She opens the paper bag to reveal cookies. “They’re from that paleo café near my work. Banana and dark choc chip cookies. Much healthier than ice cream.”
The love I have for her expands. The fact she knows Sean loves bananas as much as he does shows how hard she’s worked to get to know him and gain his affection. Then to find a healthier dessert for him just takes the whole gesture to a new level.
Reaching for her, I bring her close and press my lips to her forehead. I hold her there for a long few moments before saying, “Thank you.”
She embraces me. “I’m just glad to have found something he’s keen to eat.”
I shift back so I can look her in the eyes. “No, thank you for loving my son.”
A smile touches her lips and I know my words mean everything to her. “How could I not? He’s part of you and I love every single part of you.”
My response to Mrs Harper today flashes through my mind. I love Callie’s beauty, but it’s her heart I want to hold onto for eternity.
It’s Callie’s heart and soul that make her the most beautiful woman I know.
27
Callie
It’s amazing to me how someone can become everything to you in the blink of an eye. How you can go from knowing nothing about them to knowing so many intricacies you never imagined existed before. Like how I now know that when Luke sleeps, he has this tendency to bite his lip; and how he has this OCD habit of stacking cutlery in the dishwasher in groups with forks all together and so forth; and how when he drives, he weaves in and out of the traffic in an effort to reach his destination faster.
We’ve been together for four months now. Luke’s the first person I’ve shared every single piece of my soul with. I’ve held nothing back—not my fears, my vulnerabilities and certainly not my faults. He knows them all and he loves me fiercely because of them.
I love him just as fiercely. For the amazing man he is, as much as the vulnerable man he’s become since having his life ripped out from under him.
It’s on a Friday afternoon, late November, that I begin to wonder about love. It’s just a whisper of wonder at first, but it quickly progresses into full-blown uncertainty. Is love ever really extinguished or do the embers glow forever, just waiting for the right moment to rekindle a fire that once burnt brightly? Is it possible to fall back in love with someone after you’ve stopped loving them?
Luke calls me just before four. “Baby, I’ve got a huge problem for tomorrow and I need your help to fix it.” Luke never sounds stressed, but he kinda does right now.