Page 36 of Sunflower

He groaned at the buzzing of his phone and blindly swung a hand out to swipe at it on the bedside table. We’d changed position during the night; he’d rolled onto his back, and I was draped over him, my leg nestled comfortably between his, enough that I could feel his morning wood against my leg, and I was more than positive he could feel mine against his hip.

“Morning,” I murmured before nuzzling my forehead into his chest.

He tensed for a moment before he shifted slightly underneath me. “Mo lus na gréine?”

I chuckled softly against him before lifting my head and resting my chin on his chest so I could look at him. “One of these days, you’re going to have to tell me what that means.”

A look of shock and awe came over his face as he took me in. “It wasn’t a dream?”

I shook my head. “Did you want it to be?”

“God, no.” The widest smile I’d ever seen him give me graced his face as he lifted a hand to cup my cheek. “My sunflower.”

Utterly confused as to what he was saying, I felt myself frown. “What?”

He chuckled, threading his fingers through the mess of my hair. “My sunflower,” he repeated. “It’s whatmo lus na gréinemeans.”

Keeping my chin on his chest, I tipped my head to the side. “You’ve been calling me a sunflower all this time?”

He smiled and nodded happily. “Not justasunflower.Mysunflower.”

“Whatever for?” This didn’t clear things up for me like I think he thought his explanation would.

His eyes softened. “Remember the first day we met? You were carrying a gigantic bouquet of sunflowers through the door. I asked if I should call you Joey or—”

“Or if you should call me Sunflower,” I finished for him as the memory of that day came back to me. “I remember.”

“Then I had the vision.” He smiled, still gently running his fingers through my hair. “I called youmo lus na gréinein the vision and you smiled at me with such love when I said it.” He pressed his lips together in a poor attempt to stifle his smile. “I couldn’t stop myself from calling you that from that point on.”

The warmth I felt from his explanation filled me quicker than I thought possible. I felt myself smile softly at him and let my fingertips dance lightly across his chest. “What made you change your mind about explaining it to me?”

He let out half a laugh, his cheeks pinking. “I told myself that I’d explain it the first time you asked after we’d made love.”

I felt a wide grin take over my face. “And here we are.”

His flush eased. “And here we are.” His eyes widened, and he looked at his bedside table before shuffling out from underneath me to reach the top drawer and rummage around in it. “I also said I’d give this to you when I explained.”

Wondering what he was doing, I sat up and crossed my legs before throwing the sheet over my lap.

When he rolled back over, he held his hand out to me, a small black box that looked a little worn around the edges in his palm. I peered at it curiously.

“This is yours.” He held it carefully in front of me. “It’s waited a long time for you.”

Tentatively, I reached for the little black box and opened it. Inside was a simple medallion, the type that would fit on a charm bracelet or necklace.

Engraved on it was a sunflower.

“Oh, Callum. It’s gorgeous.” I felt my eyes well as I let my finger slide gently along the edge.

“Look at the back.”

I looked up at him to see him nod in encouragement, a shine to his eyes that led me to think he was just as emotional as I was. I carefully lifted the medallion out of the box and flipped it over. On the back were the wordsdo mo lus na gréine,and underneath that was the date we’d first met.

“It saysfor my sunflower,” Callum said gently, his fingers gliding gently along my knee. “Look at the date on the receipt.”

I gripped the medallion in my hand like the precious gift that it was and looked in the little black box again. Folded neatly in the box's lid was a gift receipt. I carefully unfolded it and choked on an overwhelming sense of emotion when I saw the date.

A week after we’d first met.

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