Chapter 25
Everything in Between
? Easy to Love - Kyle Schuesler
Callie
After returning home from another shift at the library, I realize two things all at once: it smells like us, and it’s beginning to feel an awful lot like home.
I hang my keys on the hook by the door, and my attention snags on two pairs of tiny pink cowboy boots lined up beside Jaxon’s worn ones.
I follow the sound of giggles to the living room, and the sight before me stops me in my tracks.
Jaxon is hovering over a giggling Gracie as he tickles her senseless while Emmy Lou hangs off his neck in some kind of ineffectual defense of her sister.
Jaxon’s smile stretches across his whole face, his eyes crinkling at the corners beneath the skewed glasses perched precariously on the tip of his nose. He’s never been more beautiful.
A fleeting image of an older Jaxon, hair greying at his temples, and a little girl with emerald eyes flashes across my vision, but it’s gone before I can grab hold of it. It’s just as well; thoughts like that are far too dangerous.
In one fluid motion, he whips his arm behind him and flips Emmy onto her back, depositing her gently beside her sister. She lets out peals of laughter as he continues to tickle them both.
“Stop stop stop,” Emmy pleads.
He pauses and smiles expectantly. “What do you say, Emmy Lou?”
“Uncle Jaxy is the bestest uncle in the whole world,” Emmy says, the words rushing out of her in a frenzy.
He helps her to her feet. “Don’t you forget it.”
Gracie crawls away, headed straight for Atticus, who’s perched in the armchair.
“Hold on, Gracie girl,” Jax says, his tone gentle but firm.
She looks back at him, brow furrowed. “Kiki,” she says, pointing one chubby finger.
He hoists her into his arms. “Big Kiki. We have to be very gentle, ok?”
She makes grabby hands toward Atticus, and Jaxon lowers to his knees. He takes a treat from his pocket and places it in her open palm, then he helps her offer it to Atty.
Atticus sniffs at the tiny hand and carefully takes the treat from her. She giggles as the whiskers tickle her palm. “Again!”
I wasn’t sure how he’d react to kids, having never been around them before, but he’s tender and subdued with her. My heart squeezes at the sight.
Jaxon helps her feed him another one, and then he smooths her hand down Atticus’s neck. “Don’t pull, Gracie Mae. Long soft strokes in the direction of his fur. Like this.”
With her hand beneath his, they pet Atticus until the big baby rolls onto his back in complete submission.
“He likes belly rubs, too,” I say.
Jaxon’s gaze snaps to mine. The air grows heavy and charged as his blinding smile is now directed squarely at me. “I didn’t hear you come in,” he says, his voice low and resonant.
“I’m not surprised. You were a bit busy playing tickle monster.”
Atticus impatiently nudges at Gracie’s hand. She flattens her palm along his belly in strokes just like Jaxon taught her.
“You just made a new best friend,” I tell her. “He’s never gonna let you go now.”
Gracie smiles shyly. She’s a little slower to open up to me than Emmy was. In her defense, she’s often napping when I’m around.
Emmy skips across the room and cranes her neck to look up at me. “I like your big kitty.”
I squat down to her level and smile. “Yeah? You can come visit him any time you want.”
“Yay!” She throws her arms around my neck, knocking me on my ass.
“Boundaries, Emmy Lou,” Jaxon says. “You need to ask before you give hugs.”
“That’s the rule for strangers, but Miss Callie’s not a stranger. She’s your girl.”
His girl. Where did she come up with that? Did he say something?
Emmy releases me from her grip, and I stand, straightening my clothes. I’m not sure what to say, so I wait for Jaxon to correct her.
When it becomes clear he’ll be doing no such thing, I interject. “Your uncle Jax and I are just friends.”
“Nuh uh. You’re Uncle Jaxy’s girl.” She whirls around to face him. “Right?”
Jaxon’s eyes flick to me, and his lips tip up at one side. The way he’s looking at me sends a flood of warmth from the tips of my toes all the way up to my cheeks. I’m sure I look like a ripened tomato.
“I’d like her to be,” he says.
I can’t decide if I should be mad that he’s using his nieces to manipulate the situation, or excited by the prospect of finally belonging to someone. I’ve never been anyone’s anything before. Never thought it was something I wanted until this very moment.
“What do you say, Bluebird? Should we make this official?”
Jaxon
I swear I didn’t coach Emmy into anything, but fuck if I’m not thrilled she instigated this. Never thought I’d be excited at the prospect of calling someone my girlfriend. I feel like a damn teenager again. I’d much rather skip to the husband and wife titles, but I promised I’d take things slow.
Callie’s mouth quirks up at one side. “What’s in it for me?”
“The unique privilege of calling me your boyfriend.”
She scrunches her nose, and I can tell there’s a sassy retort on the tip of her tongue. Before she can get it out, I charge at her. She darts away laughing, but not fast enough.
I catch her around the waist and pull her against me. “Here’s the problem. You already feel like mine, and if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I don’t give up until I get what I want.”
Wrapping her arms around my neck, she lets out an unsteady breath. Her fingers tangle in my hair, and I melt. Being touched by Callie Cooper is a real privilege.
“And what do you want?” she asks.
My heart beats erratically in my chest as I bring my lips next to her ear. “It’s a lot. You really wanna know?”
“Tell me.”
“For now, I want to call you my girlfriend. And when you’re ready, I want my ring on your finger and my last name attached to your first. I want the happily ever that comes after, and everything that happens in between.”
Callie pulls back, gazing at me earnestly. Every heartbeat without a response fills me with dread. She’s slipping right through my fingers, and I’m helpless.
She opens her mouth to speak but hesitates, biting down on the inside of her cheek.
I swipe my knuckles along her jaw. “Talk to me.”
“I’m scared. I don’t know how to do any of this.” She presses one palm flat against my chest. “I’ve never had a partner. I’ve never loved anyone. Never…”
Each second that passes feels like an eternity.
My thoughts stray to a million possibilities, each one more heartbreaking than the last. After a quiet exhalation, she says four words that simultaneously shatter my heart and fortify my resolve.
“I’ve never been loved.”
Her quiet confession floors me, not simply because I’ve never met anyone more worthy of love than this woman in my arms, but because of the sincerity in her eyes when she says it. She truly believes that nobody has ever loved her, and perhaps that nobody ever will.
I close my eyes and suck in a lungful of air. “In just three months, you’ve given me everything I’ve denied myself for more than a decade, and you did it all without even trying. You don’t have to know how to be mine because you already are.”
Her fingers twist in the hair at my nape. “Ok.”
“Yeah?”
A smile spreads across her face, and she nods.
I take her lips in a passionate kiss, dipping her backward.
She shoves hard against my chest and motions somewhere behind me. “Not in front of the kids.”
I follow the gesture and see Emmy and Gracie far too preoccupied to give a shit what we’re doing. Atticus is flopped over Emmy’s lap while Gracie places a tiara on his head.
“I almost forgot they were here.”
She swats playfully at my chest. “Some babysitter you are.”
I kiss her temple. “They’re fine. Atticus is babysitting.”
She cranes her neck to peer around me. “Aww. I think he’s in love.”
My smile falters, something foreign stirring in my chest, like some hidden piece coming back to life after being buried for a long time. Light catches in her mood ring eyes, and I can’t help but hope this exact shade of blue means she’s happy.
My knuckles trace the delicate slope of her jaw. “Yeah, I think I might be.”