Page 131 of Shattered

He had never been in love. Not really. He’d thought he’d been in love with Rebecca, but he was beginning to realize he’d never before understood what true love was. He knew he loved his mom and Millie, and probably Connor, too. But he somehow equated that love with sacrifice; it was the only word he had ever thought of that compared. He would hands-down sacrifice his life for his mom, Millie, and Connor. He knew that. And he now knew he would do that for Sam as well.

But with her it was so much more.

His mind didn’t immediately go to sacrifice or death as it did with anyone else when he tried to reason what it was between them.

It wasn't only that he would willingly die for her, when it came to Sam, he had decided he would gladly live for her.

And that was the difference.

She made him want to live.

He wanted to wake up every day and live for her.

Chapter 53 - Sam

The ride home was probably Sam’s most favorite drive of her life. She spent the entire two hours running through every one of her most favorite Taylor Swift songs. Most Callum liked, a few he loved, and a few more he scrunched up his nose at. He quickly changed his expression to a wide-eyed smile when Sam informed him that if he didn’t absolutely love every song then he could no longer kiss her.

When they pulled up in front of her house shortly after five, she paused, not wanting the weekend to finally come to an end. There was this irrational fear lingering over her that if he drove off, then their perfect little weekend would end and everything would go back to the way it was.

“I don’t want you to leave.” Her face was red with the admission.

“You could invite me inside?” Callum turned off the truck.

She raised her brow. “Last time I invited you inside, you–”

He quickly cut her off, “I promise not to turn that down this time.”

She kissed his lips then and jumped out of the truck to head inside. When she made it to the front door and noticed he was still sitting exactly where she left him, she quirked an eyebrow.

“Are you coming or not?”

He jumped out then and made it to the door before it shut behind her.

*******

The next few days were a wonderful, chaotic blur. The onlytimes she wasn’t with Callum were when she was in class or studying for final exams the following week. She also hadn’t taken a single bus ride that week. Before they went to sleep that first night, Callum asked her to send him her class schedule, and then proceeded to spend the following hour alternating his schedule at Topline and the tattoo parlor in order to be at every single class the second it was over to shuttle her to the next.

She finally understood Kristin’s constant need to be around Micah. At some point in the middle of the night, she’d decided she would be perfectly fine if Callum never left her side.

The four of them were alternating houses. Sometimes, if they stayed up late watching a movie or drinking, all four slept at the same house. Sometimes, Kristin and Micah would stay at her place while Sam and Callum stayed at his. At one point, Micah made a joke about the four of them finding two townhomes next to each other for the following year, if only to save money on gas. They soon all realized it wasn’t really a joke when each had started nodding their heads in agreement.

Her life was perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

She had no idea how she’d made it here, but she was glad she had.

******

Sam had one more hour left in her shift, but there was barely a soul in sight. Her last table had left thirty minutes before, and Jess had spent the time since telling Sam all the ways in which Gwen had stolen her heart.

When another twenty minutes went by and not a single person walked in, she packed up her stuff and headed to the back. Not everyone knew about her relationship with Callum, so when she made it to the office, she still politely knocked.

“Come in,” Callum called out from inside.

She slowly opened the door, walked in, and then quickly closed it behind her.

“Can I help you?” Callum asked, his back to her and without even looking up from the computer.

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