The Resolution of Callie & Kayden(29)

Before I can say anything else, though, she pushes open the door to get out. ‘Are you ready to visit the next place?’ she asks, wiggling her other foot into her boot before she swings her feet out onto the ground.

I nod, grabbing the can of spray paint from the center console before I hop out of the car with her. I take her hand as soon as we reach the path, unable to keep myself from touching her. That’s the thing with Callie – something as simple as her touch can warm the cold inside me. Her words are so much more powerful. They not only warm the cold, but melt it into a puddle.

It’s what her words did for me at the restaurant. It’s why I told her I want to move in with her. I think I always have, but wasn’t able to say it until that moment when I realized not only how much she meant to me, but how much I meant to her. I may fight it, may worry I’m not good enough for her, but in the end, I’m what she seems to want and she deserves to have what she wants, so I’m giving it to her – giving me to her the best I can.

‘We probably should have brought flashlights,’ Callie says as the path starts to wind into the hills, making the city lights below disappear and our surroundings shadow over.

I reach into my pocket to get my phone and swipe my finger across the screen so it lights up. ‘How about this?’ I hold it up and aim it down on the path.

‘You’re brilliant,’ she says then picks up the pace, pretty much skipping through the dark.

‘Careful.’ I grip onto her as she starts to slip on a patch of ice.

She keeps skipping and I end up shuffling after her until we reach the steep rock I once sat on with her before we even kissed. There’s a light layer of snow on some of the rocks and icy spots on the ground.

‘I’m not sure we should climb up that in the dark,’ I tell her, pulling her toward me until her back is pressed against my chest.

‘But we climbed them in the dark before with Seth and Luke,’ she says as I circle my arms around her waist.

‘I know, but I love you now and would die if anything happened to you.’ I kiss the sensitive spot behind her ear and she sighs.

‘All right, you win, but only because you made such a beautiful argument.’ She takes a seat on a small rock and faces the path we just walked up. ‘Remember how each time we came up here, you had to help me climb up the rocks?’

I nod and sit beside her, turning the timer on my screen on so it’s at the max – we have ten minutes of light. ‘I also remember how I had a naughty dream about you where I was helping you down the rocks.’ I set the phone down beside my feet and try to get comfortable even though the ground is freezing my ass.

Her head snaps in my direction. ‘What? When?’

‘The night we first came here.’

‘But you were still dating Daisy then?’

‘It didn’t mean I wasn’t attracted to you,’ I tell her. ‘Trust me, I was. Way, way attracted to you.’

She presses her lips together as if she wants to say something, but is fighting it.

‘What’s on your mind?’ I brush my finger across the inside of her wrist.

Her shoulders rise and fall as she heavy-heartedly shrugs. ‘You know, I never got how you were attracted to me when you were dating her. I mean, I know you love me now, but it never made sense why you’d break up with her then want to date me right after. I mean, I know she was a bitch, but she was … well, she was really, really pretty.’ A thousand protests run through my mind, but before I can say anything she adds, ‘I’m not saying that so you’ll compliment me. I know you love me now. I was just telling you how I felt in the past, since this is a night about the past.’

It takes me a moment to find my voice, but only because I’m still shocked about the first thing she said. ‘First of all, let’s get something straight. All looks aside, you are a thousand times a better person than Daisy will ever be. The girl was more than a bitch. She was evil and self-centered. She never asked about my scars, never tried to get to know me in the way you did, when I felt completely and utter vulnerable, but in a way I needed to be. You saved me, Callie, not only from my father, but from myself and a life full of misery and self-loathing. And yeah, I know I still have a ways to go, but you still help me even now.’

‘Good, I’m glad. I love helping—’

I cover her mouth with my hand, silencing her. ‘I’m not done yet.’ I position my hands so her face is trapped between them, wishing it wasn’t so dark so I could see my favorite part about her – her eyes. They’re a mirror to her emotions and I love being able to see what she’s feeling whenever I look into them. ‘And second of all, you’re a million times more beautiful than Daisy will ever be.’ She starts to protest, but I talk over her. ‘And not just because you’re beautiful on the inside, which I know you’re about ready to say, but because you are ridiculously beautiful in a way that almost seems unreal sometimes.’