Becoming Calder (A Sign of Love Novel)(94)

I reached inside the bag and scooped out all the loose change I had and then looked up at Calder, standing right next to me, his mouth hanging open. Xander rolled toward the loud sound of the change clinking onto the ground, his eyes dreamy, half open.
"Well, holy hell," Xander mumbled out.
"For the love of the gods. She's worse than you," Calder said, looking over at Xander.
"Where'd you find her?" Xander asked woozily, slurring. "I think I'm in love."
Calder laughed and looked over at me, his dark eyes filled with warmth. "Oh, I found her by this pretty spring one time . . ."
I smiled at Calder and then Xander attempted a grin, but promptly passed out again, his head falling back to the ground. Calder looked from Xander, snoring softly, back to me and started to laugh, shaking his head as if the whole situation was kind of ridiculous, which in actuality, I guessed it kind of was.
"Isn't this what you wanted me to do?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Calder stopped laughing. "Hell no," he said. "It was far too dangerous." He let out a breath, one side of his lip quirking up. "But since it's done, I'm glad you did."
I smiled up at him as he knelt down on the grass next to me and started taking inventory of what we had. After a few minutes, he said, "Three hundred eighty-three dollars." He put the paper money in a neat stack and then handed it to me so I could put it back in the bag.
"I have no idea how much this other stuff could be worth," Calder said, holding up a gold ring with a red stone in it, a ruby maybe. "But it's gotta be worth something, especially if this is real gold."
I nodded and then we packed everything back up in the bag. He looked at me. "You did really well, Eden," he said. The look in his eyes told me he was not only impressed, but thankful and relieved. I smiled proudly.
"So now the only thing we have to do is get changed and get out of here," Calder said. "Eden, you're gonna have to help me change Xander."
I nodded and then frowned. "If he can't dress himself, how's he going to walk?"
"He's not," Calder said. "I'm going to carry him. And get him somewhere he can heal," he finished quietly.
Calder grabbed the bag he'd dropped by the entrance to the spring and perused the items for a few minutes, holding them up and then deciding who should get what.
Calder and I dressed Xander in jeans and a blue button-up shirt, trying our best not to hurt his back. But he was pretty out of it and didn't seem to be in any pain. I turned my head when I was at risk of seeing something too personal and let Calder take over.
As Calder was dressing, I packed everything up in the bag and then turned around. I sucked in a breath. Calder was wearing blue jeans with a light gray T-shirt that was just a little bit too fitted over his lean muscles, but in a way that made my mouth go dry. And he was wearing a cap with some kind of orange logo that looked like an S and an F entwined together.
I grinned. "You'll do." My smile faded. "But what am I supposed to wear?"
"We were going to wait for Kristi to give you something," he said. "So you'll have to wear what you're wearing for now. Hopefully with us dressed normally, you'll blend."
I nodded. There was no other choice. "So what do we do?"
"We get far away from here, and we find a hotel until Xander can call Kristi."
"I think we're about twenty miles from the city," he continued. "Maybe fifteen. Do you think you can make it?"
I nodded my head. I'd do whatever I had to do to get far, far away from Hector and his wild eyes. I'd walk barefoot if I had to. I glanced down at our feet. We all still had on the same simple sandals we always wore. There was one woman who made them on Acadia, and her craftsmanship was about to be put to the test.
"But Calder, you can't walk twenty miles, carrying Xander," I whispered.
"I don't have a choice," Calder said. "I'm sure as hell not leaving him here."
My heart swelled with love for my brave, strong boy.
"I think it's a good idea to stick to the desert area as much as possible since Hector most likely sent someone, or many someones, after you." A chill went down my spine and I considered what was in store for us as Calder went and picked Xander up gently, his strong thighs flexing through his jeans as he stood up and again put him over his shoulder.
I wished so desperately I could just snap my fingers and we'd be in a room somewhere deep in the city, safe and locked behind a door. But of course, life never worked that way. You had to live every minute of the hard part in order to get to the good. Maybe that made it all the sweeter though. If you could just skip over the bad parts in life, the good parts would start to feel bland and emotionless. In that moment though, with fear and trepidation moving through my body, bland sounded just fine.