Page 57 of Shattered

“What have you been doing all morning?”

“Studying.”

He smirked. “Exactly. Take a break, get your shoes, and meet me outside. Please.”

“Callum,” she dragged out his name.

“Yes, that’s me,” he replied with a smirk and she groaned in annoyance.

But she knew there was no more fight left in her, and in truth she really did want to spend time with him. She took a deep breath and stepped behind the door to slip on some shoes. “So, where’s the entrance?”

“How do you not know? Haven’t y’all lived here for a while?”

“Well, yeah. But I haven’t ever been down to it.”

“Jesus.” He furrowed his brow. “You live right by the river and you’ve never had the urge to just go down there and relax?”

“I don’t really have time for relaxing,” she said as they made their way off the porch.

He turned to the right. “It’s got to be this way. I came from the other direction and didn’t see it back there.”

Sam promptly reached in her pocket to pull out her phone. Callum abruptly stopped her.

“No fucking way are you going to look up a map.”

Her eyebrows peaked with a mixture of confusion and surprise. “How did you know I was going to look for a map?”

“Because you’re you and that is the exact opposite of spontaneous.”

“What if we don’t find it and then we wander around all day?”

“Has anyone ever told you that it’s not always about the destination but the journey?”

“That sounds oddly poetic.”

Callum smiled.

They walked in comfortable silence, only making it another block before the entrance came into view.

Within another few steps, they were surrounded by trees. The rustling of leaves above them drowned out the noises of the city and the canopy above provided a gentle shade from the afternoon sun. She turned when she noticed Callum no longer in step beside her and found him intently examining a bird’s nest with a few eggs resting inside.

“Don’t touch it. Your scent will scare the mom away,” she whispered as she wrapped her fingers around his arm and pulled him forward.

“I won’t,” he promised, smiling. She started to let go, but he quickly shifted his hand to clasp hers.

She stalled for just a moment as her eyes took in their joined hands.

“Sorry.” He let go of her. “I didn’t mean to–”

“No.” She quickly reached back out and intertwined her fingers within his. “It’s okay.”

She had held a few guys' hands before. That she was sure of. But they’d meant nothing; teenage boys she had used to try to make Christian jealous. This was something much more than that. She swore she felt her fingertips tingle each time he squeezed just a little bit.

It wasn’t a long walk. They could still make out the entrance to the path by the time they made it to the river. She wasn’t sure why she had never come here before, especially when it took all of five minutes to get here.

“It’s crazy to think this is just outside the city. I feel like we are in a completely different state.”

“Come on. There should be a dock over the water at some point with a bench.” He pulled her along, causing their steps to fall back into line.

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