Page 37 of Sunflower

“I didn’t know when I was going to be able to give this to you,mo lus na gréine, but I knew one day you’d hold it in your hands.” Sitting up in front of me, his eyes met mine, a single tear tracking down his cheek, but he made no move to dash it away, preferring to cup my cheek. “Just like you hold my heart.”

The tears that I was barely holding back fell from my eyes. “Callum…”

“You’re myanamchara, Joey.”

My ears pricked at hearing the name that our restaurant reservation had been under. I tilted my head in question, leaning more into his palm as I did so.

“Soulmate,mo lus na gréine.” He leaned forward enough to rest his forehead against mine. “Anamcharameanssoulmate.”

Keeping hold of my precious gift in one hand, I let the little black box fall from the other, reaching up to grasp his nape, and closed the distance between us to kiss him, softly and sweetly. Before we got too carried away, I pulled back ever so slightly to grin at him. “Guess we should officially tell our parents that we’re together.”

The beaming smile he gave back to me lit the room up with joy before he pushed me backwards so he could scramble over me to kiss me. “Guess we should.”

Chapter Fourteen

Joey

Callum’sphoneblastedavery familiar tune as we were getting into his car to go to our parents.

“Wait. Is that the Avengers theme song?” I asked him with a raised eyebrow and a sly grin, pausing at the open door to his car. Was Callum aMarvelfan? There was so much I didn’t know about him, but was quickly discovering that I needed to know.

A groan mixed with a wry chuckle was my immediate response. “Sorry,mo lus na gréine. I need to take this.” He leaned one elbow against the door whilst he swiped to answer his phone. “Hey George.”

Even from the other side of the car, I could hear a raised voice through Callum’s speaker. I grimaced at the tone, supremely thankful that I wasn’t on the receiving end of George’s angry tirade.

“I know, but—” Callum tried to interject before wiping his hand down his cheek at the failed attempt when George kept shouting at him. “I’m aware, but—”

I couldn’t help but snicker. Figuring this call might take some time, I lowered myself into the car seat, shut the door and grabbed my own phone out to play with whilst I waited for Callum to be done.

“George—” said Callum, once more trying to break the tirade his boss was on. He tapped his fingers against the hood of the car before dropping into the driver’s seat next to me with a sigh, shutting the door behind him. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.George!”

Chuckling more, I put my phone down when a disgruntled pause gave Callum the chance to say what he needed to.

“I’m still with him.” Callum glanced at me and grinned.

After the ear-bashing Callum had just been given, the silence on the other side of the phone was almost deafening.

Laughing silently, I motioned for Callum to put the phone on speaker, which he did.

“Well, fuck me sideways, Callum. You could have led with that,” the gruff British voice bemoaned before I had a chance to say anything.

“Hi George. This is Joey. Nice to meet you.”

A notable pause, before, “I’m on speaker, aren’t I?”

There was no way I could withhold my laughter any longer, which of course set Callum off too. “Yes sir, you are.”

“Well, shit.”

Remarkably, he no longer sounded like he was angry at us, but I thought it might be best to apologize anyway, even though both Callum and I were struggling to reign in our laughter. “Sorry, sir.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, my boy,” came the response, a trickle of humor lacing through his words. “Happy Thanksgiving to you.”

“And to you, sir.”

“Hm, I can already tell I’m going to like you. Callum, take note.Thisis how you speak to your elders.” There was a rustle of paperon the other end of the line, like he was settling or clearing his desk. “Calling me sir. I like this very much.”

I laughed as Callum rolled his eyes.

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