Callum & Harper (Sleepless 1)

“Saturday,” I said, tucking Harper deeper into my side, she leaned slightly back to get a good view of my face and smiled.

“Saturday!” Cherry said, making everyone around her jump. “How are we going to throw a wedding in less than a week?!”

“Oh, we’re just going to the courthouse. It’s not a big deal,” Harper said warmly.

“Not a big deal! Just a minute, let me get the other girls over here.” She turned. “Kelly! Marty!” They were laughing while they came over to stand beside us.

“What’s up?” Kelly asked.

“Did you know that Harper and Callum are marrying this Saturday?”

“What? Why?” Marty asked.

“Because we just want to get it done and over with before school starts,” I said. Not a total lie.

“Done and over with?” Cherry asked, disgust evident on her face. “Wait a minute! Did you even get her a ring, baby?”

“Of course I did!”

Cherry grabbed Harper’s left hand and brought it toward her face. All three girls gasped loudly, cooing over how beautiful they found it.

“Well, at least you did that right,” Cherry teased. “Fine. We got our work cut out for us ladies.” And with that, she stepped between Mary and Kelly, linking arms and lead them to the kitchen.

“What in the world are they doing?” Harper asked before noticing Cherry stamp her foot near the end of the kitchen.

“Uh, I believe that foot tap is for you, Harper,” Charlie said, laughing.

Harper sighed but couldn’t hide her smile. I stared as Harper retreated to the lion’s den. She peered over her shoulder, waiting for me to intervene but I raised my hands and shook my head. She stuck her tongue at me but joined the girls in a giant laugh.

“Quite a big step from a few days ago,” Charlie said matter-of-factly.

“I know it seems like we’re rushing and in all honesty we are a bit.”

“A bit?” Charlie nearly yelled but his mile wide smile let me know he was only half-joking. “You’re not a stupid man, Callum. If you feel this is right for you than I trust you. We all trust you.”

His complete trust in me gave my stomach a sharp pain. I felt like we were duping them all and we were but it didn’t feel as dishonest as it really was. That scared me. I knew I should feel worse about it than I was but it felt natural to marry Harper, too natural.

o;Next!” We heard from a Hispanic woman behind a glass wall.

My feet felt heavy and I drug them to the counter.

“How can I help you?” She asked politely.

“Yes, we’d like to apply for a marriage license,” I said with a shaky voice, like she could see what a fraud I was.

“Alright, I need both of your driver’s licenses. Fill this out,” she said, sliding a single sheet of paper our direction. “It’s thirty-five dollars.”

Harper began to fill out our information as I pulled my wallet out to pay. The sections she had no idea what to put she left blank and I filled them out after handing over our cash. I got a kick out of the fact that she was memorizing all the information she didn’t already know.

“You’re middle name is Philip?”

The lady processing our application looked at us strangely, like ‘she didn’t know that already’? I couldn’t help but let the little part of my conscience that didn’t think this was a good idea come out screaming but it was brief and I stamped it back into its box. When I was done, I checked over our application and saw that Harper’s middle name was Lily. Beautiful, like her, I thought.

In less than fifteen minutes, we had a paper license that needed three days to be considered good in our hand, an appointment with a judge Saturday afternoon at three p.m., and a conscience full of tsk’s.

“So what now?” Harper asked, folding the license and placing it in the front pocket of her bag.

I took out my pocket watch and glanced at the time. Five fifteen.