Callum & Harper (Sleepless 1)

“Callum?” Harper whispered, startling me.

I removed my arm from my eyes and looked at her. She shifted and rolled over on her side, propping herself up on her elbow. I followed her lead, doing the same.

“Yes?” I asked her beautifully moonlit face.

She didn’t say another word, just slid over to my side of the bed and wrapped her arms around my bare chest, fitting her head underneath my chin. I didn’t want to think about how well her body fit next to mine but I couldn’t help it.

After an hour of just holding one another, Harper spoke. “I’m glad I married you,” she said before drifting off into a deep slumber.

“I’m glad I married you too, Harper,” I whispered into her hair, “because I’m in love with you.” But she didn’t hear, gone into a dream.

Chapter Twelve

Sunburn

Callum

“Dude, your hair is getting ridiculously long,” Harper teased, running her hands through it, sending a shiver of warmth down my spine and my eyes rolling to the back of my head.

“Think I should cut it?” I asked drunk on her touch, lounging next to her on the sofa, otherwise known as ‘Callum’s bed’.

The microwave beeped and Harper jumped up, tripping over the step into our kitchen as it was so dark. The smell of popcorn wafted its way into our little living room. She came back with it in a giant bowl along with two bottled waters.

“I wanted soda,” I said, furrowing my brows.

She sighed but shoved her shoulder into mine as she sat. “I know that but you’ve already had four today. I’m vetoing a fifth.”

“Fine,” I sang not wanting to admit how much I still loved that she looked after me.

“And no way,” she said.

“No way, what?”

“No.” She cleared her throat, staring into the bowl. “I don’t think you should cut it.”

For two years, Harper and I had been playing the ultimate game of cat and mouse. Now, I know what you’re thinking. ‘I thought they were only going to marry for a year, then annul, divorce, whatever.’ Well, truthfully, we liked being ‘fake married’ or as I like to secretly call it, ‘faking that my marriage isn’t real’. Also, unfortunately John Bell was only sentenced to a year in prison and had been released six months prior. Though, he’d yet to find us, I wasn’t going to leave her defenseless while we were in school, so we decided that we’d stay married until the end of the school year. That was partly by design. I wasn’t ready to leave her yet. I didn’t want to.

We didn’t need any more grants starting our sophomore year and had become completely independent. We belonged to no one. We owed no one. We were each other’s family. This was it for me. There were things that had been happening lately that made me think this was also it for her.

“Your hair is getting long as well, Harper,” I stated, unsure how to tell her that I loved it as long as it’d become.

“Do you like it?” She asked me, turning away from the screen.

“As a matter a fact, I love it,” I said honestly. It reached her elbows now in long, loose coppery waves, like when we’d first met. She’d cut it after we’d married just under her shoulders.

“Thank you. How’s Krantz treating you this semester?” She asked.

“Like crap as always,” I admitted, making her laugh.

“I told you not to take him for Bio-Chem. Everyone and their dog knows not to take Krantz, even journalism majors,” she winked.

“Yeah, well I told you, I didn’t have a choice. The only other option was when you were already off and I didn’t want to have a conflicting schedule.”

“Yeah, yeah. I think you just like torturing yourself.” You have no idea.

A scary part of the film came flashing across the screen, making Harper scream and jump in my lap. She grasped my shoulders and pulled herself into me closely making my heart leap to my throat.

“Sorry,” she whispered, scurrying off me quickly, a blush creeping across her gorgeous neck. I’d wished the scene had lasted longer just so she could have stayed in my arms.