Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CALLIE
If Gavin didn’t love Mom and Dad after the Dunleith Christmas Market, he probably started to once we made it back home, when they couldn’t stop praising his house or the rugged beauty of Scotland.
I wondered if all the compliments grated on Luna’s nerves after a Careful, or you might hurt England’s feelings comment, but she was laughing with the rest of us.
I’m pretty sure she was just as amused at the overabundance of praise.
Mom is sweet. Dad is stoic. Neither of them are generally what I would call effusive.
Which is suspicious.
But that was all yesterday. It could have been a product of how happy they were to be free of the airplane. Now I’m half-expecting to walk downstairs and find them restored to their natural states.
In a sense, that’s what I see when I push open the kitchen door. Mom’s in a borrowed apron, the faded green fabric broken in the middle with shamrocks and white lettering that says KISS THE IRISH COOK. Odd. Gavin is wearing a gray apron with dogs all over it, and they’re rolling out dough.
“Good morning, Cal,” Mom says. She has flour on her cheek and her brown hair is twisted back in a claw clip. Her white sleeves are pushed up on her forearms. “We’re getting gingerbread ready for houses. Don’t you think the kids will love that?”
“I was thinking we could have a competition for the adults,” Gavin says, cutting out a shape and laying it on a cookie sheet. “Make it interesting.”
Watching them work together shakes me for a second.
It seems so natural, I almost don’t know how to file this away.
What is Gavin? A friend? A would-be-something-more if he lived remotely closer?
Just disappointment, since he can’t be anything more?
The conflicting emotions are all swirled up inside me with force.
I have a hurricane in my body with no clear exit.
“Competitions are always fun,” I say.
Gavin cuts another piece of a house and lays it on a cookie sheet before sliding the tray in the oven. “We’ll need to come up with some fun prizes for the winners.”
“Or punishments for the losers?”
“Callie,” Mom says, laughing. “What are you talking about?”
“Running outside naked.”
“Good grief, no one’s doing that. It’s far too cold.”
“Okay, I’ll brainstorm. But first, food.” I open the fridge to pull out the milk. “We should invite your grandparents tonight, Gavin. If you think it’s something they’d enjoy.”
“I’ll ring them when I’m done here.” He holds my gaze a moment longer, the current of electricity humming between us.
I break it when I feel my mom’s attention, though. The last thing I need is her Spanish Inquisition, or to make her worry she’s losing her second kid to the UK.
My phone rings, so I pull it from my pocket to see Bekah’s name flashing across the screen. “Sorry, I should take this.” I push through the door into the empty living room and answer. “Hey, Beks.”
“I’m in love.”
A smile splits my face in half. “Things are going well for you, I guess.”
“No, like, I’m really, actually in love.”
“Well, I’d hope so. You guys have been together for a year now.” Snow starts to fall outside, so I watch the flakes land on the window and immediately melt.
Bekah draws in a breath. “We had a date last night to celebrate our one-year anniversary, actually.”
“Oh, right. Where did he take you? Somewhere really nice so you could debut those silver heels?”
“Yeah, I wore them.” Her voice is strained.
Something is off. I turn my back to the window and sit on the edge of the sofa. “What’s going on?”
“Cal, he proposed.”
I suck in a breath so quick I’m not sure it made it down the right pipe. “What did you say?”
“Yes.”
“Yes!? Oh my gosh! Bekah you’re engaged!? Why are we not screaming about this?”
“You’re okay with it?”
“Why wouldn’t I be anything but thrilled for you? This is amazing news!”
“I don’t know.” She lets out a breath, relieved. “Now you have to find a new roommate, which is such a headache.”
Oh, right. That wasn’t something I’d considered.
Part of me thought I’d live with Bekah until I graduated.
The future hadn’t been an issue because she’s a constant in it, for me.
Of course, she’ll remain a constant. Moving out—whenever that happens—and marriage, and eventually babies and new life stages won’t take Bekah out of my life.
I mean it when I say I’m thrilled for her.
Knowing someone as capable as Peter is going to be her life partner is even more satisfying, because she’s dealt with a lot of hardship over the years and struggled to manage her depression, and he’s a brilliant psychologist who knows what signs to watch for.
I really couldn’t have picked a better man for my best friend.
“Who I am going to live with is such an inconsequential detail right now, Beks. I’m so happy for you. Does a Christmas engagement mean we’re also going to be planning a Christmas wedding?”
“That’s kind of what I had in mind,” she says. “Can’t you picture it? All deep green dresses and twinkle lights and red velvet accents? It would be so classy.”
“You could get away with doing it at the beginning of the month too if you want to celebrate your anniversary apart from Christmas every year.”
She draws in a short gasp. “You’re right.”
Luna rushes down the stairs, bouncing Oliver in her arms and blowing raspberries in his neck to his immense giggles.
“Is that who I think it is?” Bekah asks, and I immediately get a FaceTime request.
I answer it and find her sitting up in bed with orange lamplight on her face and no makeup. “I won’t be offended that I only got a phone call.”
“I want to see that baby,” she says. “Besides, I’m going to bed.”
“You know we live together. I see you like this every night.”
Bekah rolls her eyes. “Gimme.”
Luna carries Oliver toward the sofa and sits next to me, pushing herself into the frame. “Hey, Bekah! Ollie, say hi.”
He buries his face in her shoulder.
“He’s so cute,” she says.
“I want to see the ring,” I tell her.
“Ring?” Luna leans forward. “When did this happen?”
“Tonight!” Bekah turns her hand around and brings it close to the camera, but it’s too blurry to get a clear shot.
“Can’t really see it. Send a picture when we’re off, maybe,” I suggest.
“Okay.” She yawns. “I better go. Love you. And don’t forget your homework. Kiss that Scottish guy and report back, pronto, or I’m not letting you back in the apartment.”
A throat clears. Luna and I lift our heads in unison to find Gavin in his apron, standing at the kitchen door.
“Thanks for that, Beks.”
“What?” she asks. “Oh my…is he there? The phone is super loud right now, huh? Okay. Uh. Sorry, sir. That’s totally on me. Callie hasn’t talked about kissing you at all.”
My face flames. “Bye.”
I hit the end call button before she can say anything else that might incriminate me further. Gavin already knows about my depravity. No sense in enlightening him more.
Thick silence blankets the room for a beat before Oliver sits up. “Hungry.”
“Okay, baby, let’s go get some breakfast.” Luna sets him on the floor, where he immediately runs toward the kitchen, and she follows, stepping around Gavin.
“Good morning, sunshine!” Mom says as soon as they go into the kitchen, but the rest is swallowed up by the closing door and the blood pounding in my ears.
I stand up, swallowing against my dry throat. “She has old information.”
“Does she?” He lifts an eyebrow.
“I kind of gave up on that bucket list. The Christmas we have going on here has been wonderful in its own right.”
“Well, I can’t produce the stones for you. Not without an hour’s drive. I can take you to see that Scottish castle later if you’d like.”
“Really?”
“After I finish helping your mum with the gingerbread houses.”
A surge of affection blows through my chest, imagining him in the kitchen hanging out with Mom. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Och, I don’t mind. Gave me something to do while we waited for you lot to wake up.”
I smile, unable to hide the way I’m feeling about him. “This afternoon, then?”
“It’s a plan.”
Mom, Dad, and Luna decided to join our outing. We waited until lunch was over and snuck out while Rhys put Oliver down for his nap. It’s a snug fit in the Land Rover. I’m sandwiched between Mom and Luna in the back seat while Dad and Gavin talk in the front.
“Can you believe the mountains here?” Mom asks, looking through the window. “They’re just so majestic.”
Luna shoots me a look. “It’s an otherworldly beauty, for sure.”
“I can’t get over it.”
“We know,” I say.
Mom drags her gaze from the window. “I’m overdoing it again, aren’t I? Dad said I overdid it last night.”
Luna pushes against my shoulder, trying to lean closer. “What are you trying to do, anyway?”
“Make us look good.” Mom’s eyes cut to me and a sly smile curves her lips.
I look between them. “Oh my gosh, are you two in league together?”
“What did Luna do?” Mom asks.
“I don’t know, but it was something.”
Luna sits back in her seat.
Mom reaches over me and tugs on Luna’s arm to bring her close again. “Tell me.”
“I might have dragged my feet on Callie’s arrival day so she could spend some extra time here alone,” she whispers.
My dramatic gasp is only half-authentic. I’d suspected as much, but to know she really did prioritize matchmaking over seeing me stung a little. “How could you?”
“I’ve met him before, remember?” Her eyes slide to Gavin.
Gosh, I’m glad Dad is talking so loudly. There’s no way Gavin’s picking up on all of this.
“You guys are perfect for each other,” Luna continues.
“Scotland,” I say. “UCLA. Four and a half more years…almost five.”
“The rest of your life,” Mom cuts in. “Doesn’t that factor in?”
I swivel hard, giving her a stare. “You’re not serious. You’ve already lost one kid to the UK.”
She shrugs. “Exactly.”
“You guys aren’t making any sense.”
“My selfish motives don’t make sense to you?” Luna asks.
I give her a pointed stare. “You, I perfectly understand.”
“We’re here,” Gavin says, interrupting. “You’ll want to look out the right, then you’ll see it come into view.”
We all lean to look through Luna’s window where a dark stone castle is nestled in the trees up on a rise. The roof is missing and the walls are jagged and broken. A lone tower rises on one side while parts of the others show a clear outline of what it once was.
Gavin pulls off the road and down a bumpy road, parking on the side.
We all file out and walk toward the castle, taking in the beauty of the structure and surrounding landscape.
It’s undescribable. I snap photos of it to send to Bekah, but they don’t capture the grandeur of the valley or the moody brilliance of the ruins.
“It’s hard to express through a snap, isn’t it?” Gavin asks.
“None of these angles really capture it.”
“Do you want me to take one of you?”
“Sure.” I hand him my phone and step closer to him so I can have the whole castle in the background. When I look for my family to see if they’ll jump in with me, they’re nowhere to be seen. They must have walked around the back. I pose, he takes it, then he hands back my phone. “Selfie?”
Gavin wrinkles his nose. “I’ve never been very good at those.”
“I’ll take it. Just smile.”
His chest presses against my back, and I get a heavy whiff of his sandalwood and amber, making me feel all warm and lean into him more.
“Say cheese,” I tell him.
“No. Instead, you say Nollaig Chridheil.”
I hit the picture button just as he says that, snapping a photo of Gavin speaking and me looking utterly confused.
“What did you say?”
“Nollaig Chridheil. It means Merry Christmas in Gaelic.”
I twist my neck enough to see into his blue eyes. It’s truly incredible how many things he remembers from my bucket list when I only shared it with him once. Two turtle doves, three french hens, and an entire army of lords are leaping around in my stomach right now.
“Nollick Tree-ill.”
Gavin suppresses a laugh, which I feel against my back. “Noll-ack Chree-al,” he says, slowing it down for me.
“Nollaig Chridheil,” I try again.
“You’ve got it. Shall we try again?”
I say it three more times, and Gavin only has to correct my Chridheil once. My cheeks hurt from smiling so hard. I lift my phone, the camera open, and realize I’ve been recording that entire thing. I turn off the video, switch it back to camera, and frame us with the castle in the background.
“Ready?” I ask.
“Aye.”
“Nollaig Chridheil,” we say together as I snap the picture.
I step away and take a photo of the castle with the moody sky. “Bucket list, check.”
He nods to my phone. “Will you send that to me?”
“Of course.” I find the picture and put it into a new message, then hand him the phone so he can put in his phone number.
“You have to come see this!” Luna yells from the open doorway.
I lift my hand and give her a thumbs up. “On our way!”
Gavin hands back my phone and we start toward the castle, our feet getting lost in the snow as we walk across the field.
I inhale the cold, sharp air. “Thanks for that.”
He looks at me, his blue eyes saying something I can’t quite read.
If I was really reaching, I’d imagine they were telling me he has feelings for me and doesn’t want me to leave Scotland, that he wants to see where things could go and also we should make out.
But I’m probably layering in my own desires there.
He just says, “Of course, Callie. This is what mates are for.”