'Why not? It would be fantastic,' Calem says and smiles at me. I can't help but admire his beautiful masculine smile.
Megan looks at me and smiles. I think she is glad that I am spending time with Calem. We do not spend much time with her, as I am mostly with Calem, but I am sure that she is interested how we are with Calem and what we talk about. All right, when he leaves tomorrow, I will have plenty of time to talk with my sister and to tell her everything about these two days.
The breakfast is delicious, or maybe it seems so because of Calem sitting next to me. He keeps looking at me and being gentle. This entire thing is so pleasant and so interesting, yet a bit scary. Yes, I am scared that I will miss him a lot when he leaves the castle tomorrow, and I have no idea when I will be able to see him again in the future. I must speak with Megan about this; maybe she will know how to make my strange fears go away.
I finish eating and look at Calem. It seems like has finished long ago and is just waiting for me.
'Shall we go?' I ask him.
'Whenever you say,' he replies, getting up. I also get up, and we leave the dining-room together. I walk down the corridor towards the exit of the castle.
'We shall go and see the flower garden now,' I announce.
'Aren't we going to see the tower?' He asks me.
'It will better in the evening, when the sky is full of stars,' I reply. I can already imagine us in the tower, watching the night sky. It will be so romantic.
'You seem to be an excellent planner,' Calem says, as we open the door of the castle and get out.
I merely smile. We start walking, and by each step that we take, I feel more and more attached to him. I turn to look at him, as we walk across the yard, and then my foot gets caught on a small rock. I almost fall down with a small gasp. The next moment I feel his arms wrapping around me, holding me tightly, keeping me from contacting with the ground. Instant reaction. I immediately feel warmth and the sense of security that I like so much. He raises me up until I am in the standing position again. For one more second, his arms are around me, but then he lets go.
'Oh, thank you, Calem,' I mumble, still dizzy from what just happened.
'You are welcome,' he says. 'I will never let you fall down. I will always be there for you…' he adds in a barely audible whisper.
Those last words, I am sure, he did not intend me to hear, as he said them almost in a whisper. But the fact that I heard, made everything different. He used the word 'always', and it went through my ears like a bullet. Always… In the case when he is leaving tomorrow, and does not know when he will see me again. Always?
The flower park is as beautiful as it always has been. A bit far from there, the men are training. Sloan is not with them this time. There is no one near the flower park. I am alone here with Calem.
'You look like a flower, too,' he says, as I pick one flower and start rotating it slowly between my fingers.
'Thank you, but I am not like a flower from the inside. I can be rather rude,' I say, smiling slyly.
'I know. You have the spirit of a warrior, I have told you that already,' he replies. 'And that is what attracts me most of all.'
'I feel so good, really,' I say. 'I really do not know how to feel when I think about you leaving tomorrow.'
He does not say anything – he merely stands there and gets interested in a bee on a flower. Oh, maybe I should not have said that. Now he probably feels bad. When will I learn to think before speaking?
'Well, in the end, everything happens for a reason,' I add, not knowing what else to say, just to keep the conversation going.
'Everything happens for a reason,' he repeats, emphasizing each word, as if understanding a new meaning for that sentence.
'Would you like to see the pantry? And the barn?'
'Of course,' he replies. 'I told you, I want to see everything here, especially if the person who is showing me all of that is such a beautiful and lovely woman as you.'
As we walk towards the barn, my hand slightly touches his. I do not touch him intentionally, but the touch is as pleasant as it was when he held me while I was falling down. I smile – I will have many things to remember when he is gone.