Callyn
The last two days have been amazing. Max and Graydon both gave me memories that I will never forget. I love the time I got to spend with them. Here I sit, anxious to go on my date with Lucian. My strong and silent type. He doesn’t say much but when he does everyone listens. I’m excited to see what he has planned for us. I do have to say, I was a little surprised that Graydon took me stargazing. I thought for sure that Lucian would have been the one to do that, explaining the constellations, pointing them out.
Spending that quiet time with Graydon was prefect. I’ve been trying to guess all morning what Lucian and I could be doing, and I’m drawing a blank. Whatever it is, I know it will definitely be all Lucian.
There is a knock at the door. I go to answer it, but my aunt beats me there. One thing I never get tired of is seeing my guys. Every time they walk into a room or are just standing nearby, I realize how lucky I am to have them in my life. I thank whatever forces brought me to them.
“Are you ready to go Callie?”
“Yup.”
“Wait,” my aunt says. “I need to get pictures first.” I groan. “Oh, come on, it’s just a few.”
“She’s lying. She takes like twenty,” I stage whisper.
“Well, the faster you get over here the faster it will be done.”
“She has a point,” Lucian says.
“Fine.” We take the required photos, and then we’re on our way. “So, are you going to tell me what we’re doing?”
“Nope.” It doesn’t take long before we are pulling up to a park. I look at Lucian, raising one of my eyebrows. “I have a plan. Trust me.”
“I do.” We park, and Lucian helps me out of his car. He goes to the trunk and pulls out a picnic basket. “We’re going on a picnic?”
“Yep.”
I squeal, throwing my arms around his neck, hugging him tight. “Thank you.”
He grabs my hand and we walk over to one of the pavilions. Lucian places the basket on the bench, digging through it, grabbing a table cloth and placing it on the table. He then goes and sets everything up. It’s such a simple display of sandwiches, chips, and fruit, but it’s one of the sweetest gestures.
“I know it’s not much but…” he trails off.
“This is absolutely perfect.”
Lucian
It’s always easy to forget that Callyn hasn’t done a lot of things, being sheltered and kept hidden. The simple things in life make her happy. I hope we can all keep doing that, keep the smile that is on her face right now there. I wasn’t sure how she was going to take this date. Max and Graydon told us what they did afterward, and let’s just say that we weren’t happy with Graydon. He should have never taken her for a ride on a motorcycle. He put her safety in jeopardy.
“Hey, you okay?” I didn’t realize I zoned out.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Just thinking.”
“What were you thinking about? Maybe I can help.”
“It’s nothing important.” She puts her sandwich down.
“Clearly it is if it’s drawing your attention away.”
“It’s just me being over protective.”
“How so?”
I sigh. “I was just thinking of how dangerous it was for Graydon to take you out on that ride.”
“Why?”
“Motorcycles are too open, there is nothing to protect you if you get in an accident.”
“We both wore helmets, he didn’t do anything crazy with me on the back. Honestly, who better to take me for a ride than Graydon? He loves motorcycles, and you should know he would never risk my life. Graydon could get hurt just as easily.”
She has a point. I’m so focused on what I can to do to protect her that I haven’t thought about the rest of us. One way to hurt Callie would be if one of us was killed or hurt.
“You’re right.”
“Damn straight, and don’t you forget it.” She smiles before she starts to laugh which causes me to laugh.
“You should really laugh and talk more. I love the sound of your voice.” I look away.
“I always felt like you shouldn’t say something unless it was important. There was no point for idle chit-chat for me. Max talks enough for the rest of us.”
“Well, that last part is true.” She chuckles. “I wouldn’t care what you wanted to talk about, just as long as you did.” Callie reached across the table, grabbing my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.
“Maybe I will do that, but only with you.”
“I’d like that.”
“Let's get this packed up.” In silence, we worked together to clear off the picnic table. I grabbed the basket, jogging back to my car, placing it in the trunk. Callie was headed my way before I held up my hands in a stop gesture. “Wait,” I said when I got close enough. I grab her hand, pulling toward the swings. “Sit.” She obeys. I stand behind her, putting my hand in the center of her back, giving her a slight push.
“I haven’t swung on a swing since I was a little girl.” I figured as much. “You know, I always felt like I was flying.”
“And now.”
“I still do but in a different way.”
“What way is that?” I ask as I stop her by gripping the chains. She tilts her head back meeting my gaze.
“The heart pounding, pulse racing, kind of flying,” she whispers.
I move my hand to her neck, holding her in place. I watch as her pupils dilate. Slowly, I lower my head; my eyes never leaving hers. My lips press onto hers, gently at first, but then more brutally. I softly squeeze her neck. The sound of her moan almost undoes me. We kiss a little longer before I pull away, releasing her. Both of us are breathing hard. This girl tests all my control. It takes a minute before either of us can speak. I’m lucky that her back is to me, so she doesn’t see just how much she affects me.
I clear my throat. “We should get going. I have one more place I want to take you before I have to get you back for your date with Zeke.” She simply nods her head. I can’t help the smirk that comes across my face. If this leaves her speechless, just you wait.
Callyn
Lucian’s other surprise was a trip to the bookstore. I could have spent hours in there, but we only stayed an hour. He ended up getting a couple of his favorite books for me. I can’t wait to read them, so we can talk. Oh, we can have a two-person book club. The best part about the trip was seeing Lucian come alive. The boy loves his books. He was practically dragging me around the store. I didn’t mind one bit. It was awesome seeing him so open, seeing his eyes light up. It was the best. That kiss...that kiss on the swing was something else. His kisses are like nothing else. The urge to submit to him is strong. I don’t feel that way with the others. There is a power lurking behind the quiet demeanor of his. I can’t wait to help unleash it.
I look at my phone and jump out of bed. I have less than thirty minutes to get ready for my date with Zeke. I grab a pair of jeans, a plain gray t-shirt, and my favorite black boots. I get dressed as fast as I can. I’m in the middle of brushing my hair when my aunt calls me.
“Callie, Zeke is here.” I quickly finish, putting my hair up in a ponytail. I swipe some Chapstick on my lips and head to the stairs.
There, standing at the bottom with a bouquet of flowers, is Zeke. His amazing gold eyes staring up at me with a smile on his face. I race down the stairs and throw myself at him. He stumbles but catches his footing, wrapping his arms around me. I don’t think, I just act, and I place my lips to his. I realize how much I missed him. I kept kissing him until I heard the click of a camera. I turn my head and see my aunt taking pictures.
“Aunt Dahlia,” I exclaim. “Could you have waited?”
“No. It was a perfect moment. Wait until you see the pictures. You’ll see what I’m talking about. Now, go and have fun.”
Zeke waits until my aunt leaves before he places me on my feet. He takes a step back and presents me with the flowers.
“Thank you,” I say as I take them. I bring the flowers to nose, taking a deep breath. “They smell so good.”
“I’m glad you like them.”
“I love them. Let's put them in water before we go.” He follows me to the kitchen, watching me as I put the flowers in a vase. “So, are you going to tell me what we’re doing?”
“Nope.” I shake my head.
“I just need to grab a jacket and we can get going.”
I grab the leather jacket I left on the back of the kitchen table chair. Zeke takes it and helps me into it. Grabbing my hand, he leads me the front door and out to his SUV, opening the passenger door. I get in and he closes it, walking to the driver side.
“Are you ready to have some fun?” he asks as he starts the vehicle and heads to our destination.
“Of course.”
“Good. I know we said this weekend we weren’t going to talk about the war or anything related to that, and I’m going to keep to that, but I just want to say Elder Harris has some information for us.”
“I hope that it’s good news because we can use more of that now.”
“I agree, but for tonight, it’s just me and you.” I look over at Zeke and smile.
“I can’t wait to see what you have planned. All you have been so amazing, and I’ve gotten to do a lot of things that I’ve never done before.”
“Well, the one thing that I can tell you is that you will be doing another first.”
“Oh, now I need to know. You can’t say something like that and not tell me.”
Zeke shakes his head. “Not going to happen, sweetheart.”
“Ugh. All of you are impossible.”
“We all love the look on your face and the excitement in your eyes when you get do something new.”
“I must have that look all the time then, since I didn’t get to do much.”
“Yeah, but that gives us the privilege of getting to experience it with you.”
I turn to look out the window. My life was hard before I met the guys, but it has changed so much since then that it’s almost hard to believe. I hate thinking about it, and for the most part, I don’t but sometimes, like now, it pops up.
“Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah, just thinking about how much my life has changed. I don’t know how I would have survived if I didn’t meet you and the others.”
“Lucky, for us.”
More like lucky for me. I stare out the window, watching the now familiar scenery go by as we head out of town. The rest of the car ride is silent, but it doesn’t take us long to get where we're going. We pull up to a Go-Kart and mini golf course.
“Oh. My. God.” I start bouncing in my seat.
“I take it that you like it.”
“This is awesome!”
“Once the weather warms up some more, they’ll open the outside course, but the inside one is where all the fun is at. Just you wait.”
Zeke
Callie has no idea what awaits her inside. She’s so excited that she doesn’t even wait for me to open her door. Instead, I see her waiting outside my door.
“Come on slowpoke.” Her excitement is infectious. I quickly get out of the car, grabbing her hand and leading her inside.
“Holy. Shit.”
Everything is neon colors. There are black lights and strobe lights everywhere. The place is divided into three sections, go-kart, mini golf, and paintball. There is a small area off to the side of the paintball where they house the paint drum. We’re going to do everything. I figured we start with the mini golf, then the go-kart, paintball, then finally the paint drum. That has to be my favorite part of the whole thing.
“Okay, so which are we doing?”
“Don’t you mean which are we doing first?”
“Wait, we’re doing more than one?”
“We’re doing all of them.” She squeals, jumping into my arms.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Callie places a kiss on my cheek. “So, which are we doing first?”
“Mini golf.”
“Then lead the way.”
We get in line, I pay for the round of golf, and we pick our ball color. It takes her a couple of holes before she starts to get the hang of it, but I ended up winning. Callie takes it graciously. I don’t even think she cares if she wins, she’s just having fun.
“Can we go on the go-karts next?”
“Anything you want.”
“Yay!” She grabs my arm and drags me over. “This may be the one thing that I can actually beat you in.”
Okay, I take back my earlier statement. “Do you care to place a wager on it then?”
“Okay, if I win I get kiss.”
“And if I win? What do I get?”
“What would you like?”
“Another date.”
“Deal.”
“I think we should seal this with a kiss.” Callie rolls her eyes but stands up on her tiptoes.
“Just a peck, because I want a real kiss when I beat you on that track,” she whispers against my lips before placing a quick kiss. Before I know it, she’s taking off toward one of the carts. “Last one at the end is a rotten egg,” she yells. The little minx is cheating.
“Hey, wait up.” I take off after her. Just as I’m getting in my kart, I see her take off. Awe, hell.
Callyn
Hell yeah I cheated. I mean, I’m sure I could have beaten him fair and square, but I want to kiss him, and he’s still getting another date anyways. I push the pedal down as far as it would go, taking the turns sharply. I know I have a few feet lead over Zeke. The course isn’t long, and the finish line is just up ahead. I’m going as fast as I can, but I will the kart to go faster. I swear it feels like the kart actually does. I start to giggle; my ponytail whipping in the wind behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a go-kart has almost caught up to me. I look over and see that it’s Zeke.
How did he catch up to me? I had too far of a lead. There’s no way he caught up to me that fast. Come on, come on, come on. Go faster. I look back over to Zeke. He has this smug smile on his face. Next thing I know, he’s ahead of me, crossing the finish line first. We both bring our karts to a stop. I cross my arms and pout. I should have won. He shouldn’t have beaten me.
“Aww, come on Callie, don’t be a sore loser.”
“How did you beat me? I was too far ahead. There is no way you should have been able to catch up.”
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and you drive like Graydon.” I scoff. “Well, you do.” He holds out his hand waiting to help me out of the kart. I sigh and take his proffered hand. Once I step out of the kart, he pulls my body into his, wrapping his arms around me. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. Don’t start off going pedal to the metal. When you take your turns, it’s going to take you longer to correct yourself.” File that away for next time. “Now, about that date you owe me. You and me next Saturday afternoon. I figured we stay in and watch a movie.”
“Do I get cuddles?”
“All the cuddles you can handle.”
Hm. Just Zeke and I snuggled together. Oh, the possibilities. “That sounds wonderful.”
“And because you’re cute and you agreed to my date, how about if I give you your part of our deal… a kiss.” He leans down and captures my lips with his. The kiss is just as sweet as he is.
Zeke
“Hey, can you two lovebirds take that off the track, you’re holding everyone up.” Callie pulls back enough to look up at me, she giggles and smiles.
“Come on. There is one more thing I want you to try here.” I take her hand and lead her to the paint drum. “You’re gonna want to take your jacket off for this.” She shrugs off her jacket, handing it to me. “Okay, now you’re going to take the drumsticks and when the music starts playing beat the sticks in the center of the drum in front of you.” She nods. This is going to be fun.
Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” starts playing. She couldn’t have gotten a better song. I take my phone out of my pocket, pulling up the camera. The first hit on the drum splashes paint in the air, landing in various places on her. I capture the shocked expression on her face. Callie looks at me and gives me this big beautiful smile. It lights up her whole face. She couldn’t have looked more gorgeous if she tried.
Callie really starts getting into it, jumping around, hitting the drum to the beat. I start to record her. Later on, I’m going to edit the video and put part of it in slow-mo. It’s going to look amazing. The song ends, and Callie places the drumsticks on the drum, walking over to me with the biggest smile on her face.
“You have no idea how much I want to hug you right now.” I open my arms. I’m not bothered by the paint one bit. It gives her all she needs, and in the next second, she is in my arms. Right where she is supposed to be.