Page 29 of Sunflower

“Is that why you don’t want to tell Erin?”

He nodded again. “She’d freak. I’m sure she’ll find out at some point, but I’m not going out of my way to tell her.”

“And you think I’m going to get recruited for this as well?” I was astonished he’d think I’d accept to be a part of it all, that I could be as secretive as he was pointing out. “I’m nobody. Nothing. I don’t understand.”

Callum stood from his swing and moved to crouch in front of me, his palms holding my thighs to stop me from drifting, focusing hard on me with those gorgeous, enormous hazel eyes. “You’re notnothing, Joey. You’reeverything. And not just to me. What you did tonight? You helped save a man’s life. You stopped his wife from collapsing into hysterics. That wasn’t me. That was allyou.”

His intensity shook me enough to break some tears loose in my eyes. No one had ever been that adamant about anything I’d done, that sure about who I was as a person. I sniffed, trying to stop myself from getting even more emotional than I already was.

He gripped my thighs, his fingers digging through my dark jeans and into my flesh. “George was okay with me asking you on a date tonight, because he wanted to use it as your job interview. And you passed with flying colors,mo lus na gréine. You’ve got a job working with us when you’re ready. You could even start tomorrow if you wanted to.”

His words shocked me and raised even more questions. I opened my mouth to ask them when Callum fell onto his knees between mine and lifted his hands to hold my cheeks.

“I wanted to ask you out on a date tonight, because I wantyou. Even before the vision I had of us years ago, I was attracted to you. Don’t you understand? I left home when I did…” His face crumpled, eyes crinkling as he fought back his feelings.

Without conscious thought, my hands lifted to mirror his pose, cupping his face and gently wiping my thumbs across the tops of his cheeks in a caring gesture, urging him silently to continue, imploring him to tell me more.

“I stayed away from home as long as I did because I didn’t trust myself around you back then. I felt the beginnings of attraction to you before the vision, but after...” He shook his head, tears finally slipping free. “I tried to fight it during dinner,but it was too hard. I knew I was going to fail, so I left. I wanted so badly to stay and get to know you, but I had to leave,mo lus na gréine. There was no choice. Not until now. Not until you were old enough to choose me like I chose you. Like I will always choose you.”

Feeling my own tears track down my cheeks, I surged forward, my lips meeting his for the first time.

And then I immediately reared back when a deafening crack of lightning boomed above us, flaring the playground with light for half a second before heavy sheets of rain began falling.

Chapter Eleven

Joey

Iglaredatthesky, swearing out loud for ruining what was the beginning of a perfectly good first kiss.

The sky answered my curse with a loud rumble of thunder arcing from one side of the sky to the other.

Running his fingers through his already drenched hair, Callum threw his head back and roared with laughter. When he brought his eyes back to meet mine, they were filled with pure delight. “Come on,mo lus na gréine. We can’t stay here. Let’s head back.” He took my hand in his, tugged me to my feet, then started to run.

He was still laughing, and I couldn’t help but join him; the ridiculousness of our night finally catching up with me. My emotions were charged higher than I’d ever been, but I feltfree. For the first time in an incredibly long time, I was havingfun, even if I was shivering from getting soaked by the sudden downpour.

It only took us a few minutes to race back to my SUV. I unlocked the car remotely on our approach, and we dove in, immediately shutting the doors behind us. I looked out the windscreen and could barely see anything further than two feet in front of us. “Fuck. It’s c-coming down really hard, isn’t it?”

Callum stared out the passenger side window, then the back window. “I p-parked over there,” he said, pointing behind us before he frowned. “I think. C-can’t see shit out there at the m-moment.”

I giggled and swiveled in my seat to see where he was pointing, turning more towards him than I had been when I dove into the car. God, I wasgiggling. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d giggled. Laughed? Sure. Chuckled? Easy. Chortled? All the damn time. Butgiggling?I never giggled.

Being here, locked in my car with Callum while the heavens poured down around us, made giggling feel like it was the best, possibly only, response to what was essentially the epitome of a date gone absurdly wrong.

It certainly caused Callum to laugh again.

Feeling a cold shiver run through me, I reached for the scratchy wool blanket that I had lying on my back seat. “Sh-shake that out for me, p-please?” I asked him, handing the blanket to him before fidgeting with my keys to get the heat on. We wouldn’t be going anywhere with this rain, but at least we could try to warm up while we waited the storm out.

My hands were shaking so badly from the cold that it took me three attempts to get the heat started. When I cursed at slipping the second time, Callum reached over to steady my hand. He was shaking just as badly, but he braced his elbow against the dash to minimize the tremors.

Once the heat finally kicked in, he tugged me over to the passenger seat, settling me over his thick thighs in a straddle. He wrapped the blanket around me before tucking the edges inbehind him. He wrapped my hands in his and rubbed them all together to get us warmed up quicker.

I felt a violent shiver run through him, enough for him to frown in concentration. Water continued to drip from the tendrils of his hair onto his drenched sweater. He was absolutely soaked to the bone, but his entire focus was on me and how to get me warmed up.

“C-Callum,” I stammered, watching him work. He let go of my hands and rubbed my upper arms, giving no indication that he’d heard me. I let my hands rest lightly on his chest. “H-hey. It’s o-okay.”

He grimaced, his lips thinning out. “G-gotta get you w-warm. You’re t-too w-wet.”

“S-so are y-you,” I pointed out. I let go of him and tried to wrench my jacket off. It wasn’t doing anything except keeping me wet. “O-off. C-clothes off.”

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