Steal My Breath (Elixir 1)

The love I have for her expands. The fact she knows Sean loves bananas as much as he does shows how hard she’s worked to get to know him and gain his affection. Then to find a healthier dessert for him just takes the whole gesture to a new level.

Reaching for her, I bring her close and press my lips to her forehead. I hold her there for a long few moments before saying, “Thank you.”

&nbs

p; She embraces me. “I’m just glad to have found something he’s keen to eat.”

I shift back so I can look her in the eyes. “No, thank you for loving my son.”

A smile touches her lips and I know my words mean everything to her. “How could I not? He’s part of you and I love every single part of you.”

My response to Mrs Harper today flashes through my mind. I love Callie’s beauty, but it’s her heart I want to hold onto for eternity.

It’s Callie’s heart and soul that make her the most beautiful woman I know.

27

Callie

It’s amazing to me how someone can become everything to you in the blink of an eye. How you can go from knowing nothing about them to knowing so many intricacies you never imagined existed before. Like how I now know that when Luke sleeps, he has this tendency to bite his lip; and how he has this OCD habit of stacking cutlery in the dishwasher in groups with forks all together and so forth; and how when he drives, he weaves in and out of the traffic in an effort to reach his destination faster.

We’ve been together for four months now. Luke’s the first person I’ve shared every single piece of my soul with. I’ve held nothing back—not my fears, my vulnerabilities and certainly not my faults. He knows them all and he loves me fiercely because of them.

I love him just as fiercely. For the amazing man he is, as much as the vulnerable man he’s become since having his life ripped out from under him.

It’s on a Friday afternoon, late November, that I begin to wonder about love. It’s just a whisper of wonder at first, but it quickly progresses into full-blown uncertainty. Is love ever really extinguished or do the embers glow forever, just waiting for the right moment to rekindle a fire that once burnt brightly? Is it possible to fall back in love with someone after you’ve stopped loving them?

Luke calls me just before four. “Baby, I’ve got a huge problem for tomorrow and I need your help to fix it.” Luke never sounds stressed, but he kinda does right now.

I balance the phone between my ear and my shoulder while I finish typing up an article for next week’s paper. “Sure. What’s up?”

He starts to speak again, but the sounds of his bar muffle his words.

“Luke, I can’t hear you over the noise in the background. Are you really busy this afternoon?” He doesn’t usually start to get busy until after five on a Friday.

“Fuck,” he mutters. A minute passes before he says, “Is this better? I’m in the office.”

“Much better. Now, what’s up?”

“The woman rang about Sean’s party tomorrow. They’ve double-booked the party room, which means one party can’t go ahead. Because we booked it last, it’s Sean’s.”

I sit forward in my seat. “That sucks.”

“It’s a fucking pain in the ass, is what it is. If I wasn’t stuck at work all night, I’d have the time to come up with something else and let the parents know. That’s where you come in.”

“Oh, shit, you want me to come up with an alternative for a five-year-old’s party? Luke, I am no mother. These kinds of things are not my forte. I can ring around parents no worries, but to make plans and execute them isn’t something I think you really want me doing.”

“Callie, you’re amazing with Sean. And trust me, I have no clue on this kind of thing either. It was only because Glenda suggested that party venue that it was going to take place there. If it had been up to me, he would have been running around the park with his friends and some cake.”

I consider what he’s said and realise he’s right. Surely Google will have ideas for me. “Okay, I’ll figure something out.”

“Thank you. The list of kids coming and their parents’ phone numbers is on the fridge. I can try and find someone to do my shift tonight, but I’m fairly sure no one’s available at this late notice.” His relief is clear when he thanks me, so I decide to take this weight off his shoulders completely.

“No, don’t do that. I’ll take care of this. It’s not a problem. You just focus on work and let me focus on Sean tonight.”

I hear the breath he exhales. “I love you.”

“Love you, too, but I better go now so I can get cracking on this.” My mind is already spinning ahead trying to figure out party ideas. Pinterest is looking like a good option right about now. They have stacks of ideas on there.