Page 28 of Sunflower

“Why me?” A sudden sadness filled me at the thought that I’d been a pawn in their game. Callum could have gone there alone. He hadn’t needed me. Unless… “You needed me for my EpiPen.” I turned to face him, beyond hurt at the thought that I’d been used. And by someone I had begun to really like. Frustratingly, I was getting flashbacks to my time with Amelia. “That’s all I was there for, wasn’t it?”

Callum’s eyes widened and he shook his head violently from side to side. “No! I asked you on a date, because I wanted to. I want you, not your medication.You.” He reached over the space that divided us and took my hand in his, pulling both of our swings closer together. “I didn’t know that we’d need an EpiPen tonight. George could only see that Matthew was clawing at histhroat. His instructions were quite clear—stop Matthew from choking. That’s all I had been prepared to do.”

“But he wasn’t choking…”

“No. You heard him—the noises he made didn’t sound right for someone who was choking on food. I didn’t know until I had my hands on him that he was having an allergic reaction.That’swhen I called for your EpiPen. If I’d known before then, I would have asked you for it when we were rushing to them.”

My twisted-up insides slowly started to unwind and settle. “You said that you needed me.”

He let out a frustrated sigh. “I thought you could help calm Christine while I worked on Matthew. If you hadn’t been there, I was going to get one of the staff to help me.”

Running my fingers through my hair, I thought about what he said. It made a lot of sense, but I still felt uneasy. “WhywasI there? If you could have done all of that on your own, why did you ask me on a date tonight? Why risk Matthew’s safety like that? I could have panicked and caused you to lose focus on what you should have been doing. Matthew could have died, because I was there.”

Callum smiled. “I knew you wouldn’t panic. You’re stronger than you know,mo lus na gréine. I ran the idea of asking you along tonight by George, and he fully supported it.”

Shaking my head, I gave Callum some serious side-eye but softened the look with a grin. “One of these days, I’m going to find out what you keep calling me.”

He laughed, throwing his head back in amusement. “One of these days, I just might tell you.”

I smirked, already knowing the answer to the question I was going to ask. “But not today?”

Still facing the sky and laughing, he shook his head. “Nope. Not today.”

Letting out an obnoxiously loud sigh so he would know I wasn’t truly upset with him, I refocused. “Why did George support me being there?”

Callum’s laughter drifted away on the breeze that had started to pick up. He shifted in his seat to cautiously look at me. “The answer to that question lies with things that you said you didn’t want to know about. Have you changed your mind?”

I took a deep breath and looked away from him as I let it out slowly. “I’m beginning to think that it would be in my best interest to know more. Especially if you’re going to keep taking me on dates that end up with someone’s life in the balance.”

His face lit up. “You want to go on more dates with me?” he asked, his voice so full of hope it almost hurt.

“Well, I’d prefer it if people’s lives weren’t in danger, but yes, I would like to go on more dates with you.”

If his face had lit up before, it positively glowed now. His smile could have been seen from space, it was so wide.

“That doesn’t mean that we’re getting married, Callum.” At this point, I felt almost like it was a given, but he’d said we still had free will even with the futures he’d seen. “I’m nineteen. I’m not getting married now. Good God.”

He laughed again, pure joy radiating from his being. “Of course we’re not getting marriednow. We need to go on lots of dates before we get that far. Lots and lotsand lotsof dates.”

I chuckled at his unbridled enthusiasm. “Oh my God, Callum, stop! Going on dates doesnotmean we’re going to get married!”

His smug smile made me laugh even more as he grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. “Yes, we are,mo lus na gréine. I’ve seen it. No static, full color, high-definition, IMAX quality. I don’t know how we get there, but I know that’s where we end up.”

“Enough, you idiot!” Still laughing, I shook my head at him. “Tell me more about why George supported me being there tonight.”

Callum let his smug smile fade just a tad, but his eyes kept sparkling with amusement. “He’s known about my vision of us for a while now and has focused on you once or twice to see if he can get more clarity on what I’ll be doing in the future. George saw you get approached by a US agent, but there were different outcomes based on our relationship.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

He chewed on his lip nervously, thinking about how to respond. “Let’s just say that your meeting goes better the more you know about what I do for a job.”

I felt my eyebrows rise so far that they nearly met my hairline. “Is that why you’re being so candid with me now?”

He nodded. “Normally, I wouldn’t be telling you much of what I do because of the secrecy of it all. Even if we were married. That’s why your dad doesn’t know everything about what Mam did before she met him.”

“Dad doesn’t know?” I thought back to all the interactions I’d seen him have with Erin. “He knows about her powers.”

“Yes, but he doesn’t know what she used those powers for.” He paused and caught my eyes, boring into them to make sure that I fully understood what he was saying. “What I do, Joey? It can be very dangerous. Not just for me, but for my loved ones. You can’t tell anyone what I do for a living. Including your dad.”

---