Hot Blooded

by Lake, Jessica

  "Oh my God, Callum. Oh my God," I squeaked, trying not to fall over.

  It was surreal. I couldn't quite believe I was actually seeing what I was seeing - that it wasn't a movie or a YouTube video of someone else. Callum kissed my hand and shushed me. Then he pulled out a ring. As he held it up, the lights overhead focused on the stone and made it sparkle like a tiny fire.

  "Will you marry me, Lily Morgan?"

  Me. Someone was asking to marry me. Not just someone, either. Callum Cross. I was dumbfounded. Ecstatic, but dumbfounded. I stood there, smiling through tears of happiness, until Callum couldn't stand it anymore.

  "Lily!"

  "Yes. Callum, yes! Yes, I will marry you. Of course I will. Of course..."

  He stood up and swooped me up in his arms before I could finish. I buried my face in his sweaty shoulder as the sound of cheering came from his entourage, Pandora and the people who had stayed in the arena long enough to witness what had just happened.

  Callum kissed my ear, but he didn't let me go or put me down. When he did, finally, I felt like an ember, glowing with happiness.

  "Are you happy, beautiful Lily? I hope that wasn't too traumatic for you, but I thought it was best to put you in a situation where it would be almost impossible to say no."

  "Yes I'm happy!" I said, laughing and looking down at my ring. It was a simple, flawless diamond solitaire.

  "I considered something big and imperfect," Callum said, "but I reckon since you're already getting that in me I'd go for well-proportioned and perfect with the diamond."

  "It is perfect," I told him. I tilted my left hand back and forth under the lights and watched the diamond throw off rainbow sparks. "I love it, Callum. And I love you. I can't believe this. I can't believe you want to marry me!"

  "Of course I want to marry you, Lily. Any man who doesn't want to marry you is a damned idiot. And I knew I had to get in there before someone else did."

  Epilogue: Lily

  The next day, the day after he proposed to me in the boxing ring, Callum told me he had a surprise for me and that I was to pack a bag. Then he took me to the train station and refused to tell me where we were going until we got there. I read one of the stations signs after we disembarked.

  "Par?"

  "Par, yes. Cornwall. I've never been there either, but my mum has, and she's always talking about how beautiful it is."

  Callum had booked us a small stone cottage that sat alone on a high bluff, overlooking the Atlantic. It was the kind of sunny, cloudless day you rarely see in England, so we left our things - everything except two bottles of beer - in the cottage and immediately walked to the cliff. A rough footpath led down to a small, deserted sliver of golden sand.

  "Damn. This is beautiful," I said, breathing in the scent of the ocean and facing into the sun-warmed breeze. I looked at Callum. He, too, was admiring the view. Then he took my hand and we picked our way down the narrow path to the beach, not saying much, because there was simply too much to look at. When we got to the bottom I immediately set about kicking my shoes off. I sunk my toes into the sand with a shudder of pleasure, and Callum did the same. We lay down at the top of the beach, only a few feet from the water's edge, and opened our beers.

  "I feel like an idiot right now," Callum said, apropos of seemingly nothing.

  I looked up at him, shading my eyes from the sun with one hand. "What? Why? I think this was a brilliant idea. I can already feel myself slowing down from our London pace. Can't you feel it?"

  He sipped his beer and looked out over the sea, thinking. "Yeah, Lily. That's kind of why I feel like an idiot. I wasn't kidding when I told you I've never really been out of London - I haven't - not for anything but business. We couldn't afford to go to the seaside when I was a kid, so I just pretended I didn't really want to go. But look at this. This has been four hours away from me my entire life. I should have come sooner."

  "But you're here now, aren't you?" I leaned in close to him and kissed his neck.

  "Yeah, I am. And I'm happy to be here with you, Lily. There's a lot of places I want to go with you."

  "Are there? Where?"

  Callum turned to me and focused his aquamarine eyes on mine. It didn't matter what he said, because I knew that as long as I was with him, it didn't really matter where we were.

  "Everywhere. I mean everywhere I haven't been. Which is...everywhere." He chuckled, but I could hear a sadness in his voice.

  "How about Canada?"

  "Of course Canada, Lily. I want to see the place that made you. I want to thank them for exporting such a fine specimen to rainy England to brighten the place up."

  We were quiet for a few minutes, listening to the sound of the gentle waves and drinking our beers.

  "Callum?"

  "Yeah?"

  "I don't want you to be sad, I-"

  "I'm not sad, Lily," he said, suddenly emphatic, "I'm not sad, because I'm with you. That's the truth. I may be a little thoughtful, but it definitely isn't sadness. I'm the luckiest motherfucker on the face of this Earth and I know it."

  "OK, good. I was just thinking of all the places we can go together. Don't people usually bring their kids to the seaside for a holiday?"

  Callum cocked an eyebrow at me. "Yes, they do."

  "Well then, we should remember this place. We should remember this beach. One day we can bring our kids here."

  The next thing I knew, Callum pulled me on top of him and held my head tightly against his chest.

  "I love you, Lily. I love you. I think this would be the perfect place to bring our kids. I'll tell them the story of how I proposed to their mother and she was so embarrassed she forgot to say yes."

  "I didn't forget," I said, laughing. "I was just slightly delayed in responding."

  We lay on the beach for hours, and we dozed off as the afternoon became a hazy early evening. When I woke up, the tide had gone out. Callum was down near the tideline, walking along beside it. He glanced up and waved when he saw I was awake.

  "How long have you been awake?" He ambled back up to where I was, his big, solid body blocking out the fading sunlight.

  "Not long, babe."

  He lay down in the warm sand next to me and I felt another wave of love crash over me as I looked at him.

  "I don't know what I did to deserve this," I told him.

  "What do you mean?" Callum asked, drawing shapes in the sand with one finger.

  "This. Today. The beach, the sunshine, the way I feel right now. You. Mostly you. I couldn’t have dreamed up a better man than you, Callum."

  He narrowed his eyes slightly. "Do you really mean that? Especially that last part?"

  "Of course I mean it. I mean it more than probably most of the things I've ever said. Why would you think otherwise? Why would I have said yes if I just thought you were completely meh?"

  He watched my face, as if looking for some hint of something I wasn't saying. "I don't know, Lily. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe we're together. We're so...different. You're so serious and focused, so interested in doing the right thing. And I'm-"

  "Callum, I'm no more interested in 'doing the right thing' than anyone. I joined the Met because police work was the only thing I thought I was good at. I wasn't good at relationships, I wasn't particularly good at making money. None of the traditional paths to 'making it' seemed open to me. I spent a lot of time feeling like a failure, you know? When I joined the Met and then when I actually did really well, it was the first time I ever felt proud of myself. It's not about being some morally upstanding citizen, it's just about doing something useful. Besides, I don't think you're unserious."

  "You don't? Ha, everyone else does."

  "I know. I actually think we're kind of similar that way, don't you? We both refuse to follow a path simply because it's the same one everyone else followed. I mean, not everyone else, I'm not trying to make it sound like we're two brave heroes, but we both recognized what we didn't want and then tried to live our lives according to that."r />
  He lay his head on my breasts and I ran my fingers through his cropped hair, enjoying the spikiness.

  "Yeah, Lily. The odd thing is it turns out maybe I did want some of those things. The things I thought I didn't want. It wasn't about the things, it was about who I had by my side for them, you know?"

  I giggled. "I know. Exactly. All those 'things'. Marriage, babies, I thought it was - not fake exactly, but something you did because your family wanted you to do it, not because it was the best thing to do. But I don't feel that way anymore. I met you and suddenly all I want is to be your wife."

  "Mmm. It is strange, isn't it? The first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning is you. It's not conscious, it's just where my brain goes. 'Is Lily happy?' 'Does Lily need anything?' I-"

  "Callum. Come on." I looked down at him. "Is that true?"

  "Yes, it's true. Why do you look so surprised? You've just spent five minutes explaining that you had the same reaction."

  I laughed softly. "Oh, I know. It's just what my brain does. Something's going well? You feel happy? Better think about all the ways in which that could go wrong."

  Callum pulled my t-shirt down a little and kissed me just below the collarbone. "Well you should tell your brain to shut the fuck up, Lily."

  "I know. I'm trying! I think I need to eat something."

  "Are you hungry? I saw a fish place near the station. We could go get fish and chips and take it back to the room. Then spend the night giving each other vinegar kisses."

  "Sounds good to me," I replied, trying to sit up. Callum playfully held me down, though.

  "Can we just stay here for five more minutes?"

  I caught his eye. "Sure we can."

  "I was just thinking, we should both take a good look around. At the beach and the sea and the cliffs and the sunset. And each other. A proper look."

  "OK," I said, following his lead and looking out towards the ocean, "and why are we doing this?"

  The sun had almost dipped below the horizon. When Callum looked back at me the fading rays caught the blue of his eyes, as if lighting them up just for me.

  "Because I want us both to remember this afternoon for the rest of our lives. We're going to tell our kids about this, Lily. That time we went to the seaside before we got married, before we had them, and lay on the beach all afternoon before eating fish and chips for supper. I want to get the details right when I tell them. I want to tell them you were wearing your white skirt and that your hair smelled of the ocean."

  Callum didn't even get to finish before my eyes welled up. He didn't have to ask me what was wrong, either, because he knew nothing was wrong. He knew my tears were due to happiness, to love. He kissed them off my cheeks, smiling, and nuzzled his way up under my hair to my ear so he could whisper to me.

  "And I'm going to tell them that their mother was the most beautiful thing I ever saw, Lily."

  We stayed on the beach until the sun had fully set, the last rays of light streaking orange and gold across the sky. Then Callum helped me to my feet and we walked hand-in-hand up the stony little path that led us to the fish and chip shop and to the rest of our lives.

  Thank you so much for reading! As a bonus, I am including the first two chapters of my previous novel 'Cade: Fire And Ice.'

  Excerpt from 'Cade: Fire And Ice':

  Chapter 1: Ellie

  The first time I saw Cade Parker I was in twelfth grade history class, staring out the window at a monochrome fall day and fighting the urge to fall asleep. He walked in with our teacher, Mr. Small, and woke me up instantly.

  I'd seen cute boys before. Hell, it was high school, I had a new (and consistently unrequited) crush every month. So it wasn't just Cade's classic jock good looks that perked me up, although they didn't hurt. Six foot four at eighteen years old and already sporting the kind of broad, muscular build usually seen on men who have long left their teenaged years behind, he was striking in a way that made the blood quicken in my veins. I wasn't the only one who noticed it, either. The entire feeling in the room changed when Cade walked in, towering over our teacher and wearing a cocky little half-smile on his face. Katy Grebling and her clique of popular girls immediately started whispering excitedly behind me and the boys, well, they sensed the presence of an alpha male just as quickly as the girls did.

  "Class, this is Cade Parker. He's, uh, he's transferred to North Falls Senior Secondary while he plays hockey for the Ice Wings. I hope you all make him feel welcome."

  The Ice Wings. One of the top junior hockey teams in the whole country and the sole reason for anyone to move to North Falls. With players consistently drafted by the NHL and a coach as famous for his outsized personality as he was for producing future stars, well-off hockey parents from all over the USA fought to get their sons onto the team. Cade Parker certainly looked the part, right down to his shaggy hockey hair and his almost cartoonishly enormous hands.

  And what did Cade Parker do when asked to find a seat? He glanced over the room and took a seat next to the biggest social outcast of the class of 2005. Poor, plain Ellie Hesketh with her wild mop of tangled brown hair and her shrinking demeanor. Me.

  An audible murmur of surprise rippled over the classroom at his seating choice but Cade didn't seem to notice. I felt him looking at me expectantly as he sat down but I didn't - couldn't - meet his gaze or show any outward acknowledgement of his presence at all. High school boys - especially popular ones - can be surprisingly dense when it comes to social hierarchies. It was a luxury I myself could not afford. Katy Grebling, undisputed queen of North Falls Senior Secondary and leader of a tight group of girls who wore a lot of pastel cashmere and drove sporty, expensive cars, was two seats behind me. I knew as sure as I knew the sun was going to rise in the east the next morning that her claim to the handsome, hockey-playing new boy was staked the minute he'd walked into the room. I also knew, having been on the receiving end of some of her beat-downs, that she had absolutely no qualms about defending her territory. So I didn't look back at Cade Porter when he sat down next to me. Instead, I spent the rest of class acutely aware of his physical presence next to me, barely able to breathe and young and naive enough not to fully understand why.

  When class ended and everyone began gathering their things, he introduced himself simply and with the total confidence of a person who has never experienced social ostracism.

  "Hey. I'm Cade."

  I could feel numerous pairs of eyes boring into me, waiting for my response.

  "I'm Ellie," I mumbled, jamming my tattered notebook into my equally tattered backpack.

  "What?"

  Oh God. He had no idea what he was getting me into.

  "I'm Ellie." I spoke louder and clearer that time but I kept my eyes on the ground, afraid to look up.

  I knew he was about to keep talking and believe me, it isn't that I didn't want to talk to Cade - I did. There was also a strange little instinct to turn towards him and press my face into the warm expanse of his chest until my nose was full of the scent of him and Katy Grebling and her minions melted away into the background. It was all out of the question anyway - the talking or the face-to-chest nuzzling. So before Cade could say anything else I scooped up my bag and scuttled out of the classroom like a frightened mouse, praying that I hadn't pissed Katy off too much.

  My avoidance tactics didn't work. Katy and three other girls were waiting for me at the school gates at four o'clock, a full forty-five minutes after the final bell of the day. I tried to walk past them quietly but Katy sauntered into my path and blocked me with her body.

  "What's up, Ellie?"

  Her voice was dripping with malice. The anticipatory adrenaline running through my body had me shaking hard. Was I afraid of the ass-kicking I knew was coming? Yes. As frequent as they were and had been throughout my school years, getting beaten up isn't really something a person gets used to. But I was more afraid of my mother's reaction if I came home with bloodied clothes again. Katy Grebling was one thing. My drun
ken, enraged mother was quite another.

  "Nothing."

  "What?"

  Just like I had with Cade, I raised my voice just enough to be heard.

  "Nothing."

  "You got wet panties over the new guy, huh?"

  There was no response to that question, so I didn't give one. One of the other girls with Katy, a brunette with a perfect little ski-jump nose, stepped forward and shoved me hard enough to almost knock me over.

  "Answer me, bitch. Did you, or did you not cream your cheap little Wal-Mart panties over Cade Parker?"

  Every time it happened I tried not to cry and every time I failed. It wasn't even the physical pain, it was the humiliation. The absolute knowledge that I wasn't going to put up a fight and that whatever it was Katy felt like dealing out, I was going to take. The hot tears stung my eyes and I tightened my body in resigned expectation of the next blow. It didn't come. When I straightened up to see what was going on I spotted Cade walking towards us, looking down at his phone. Katy and her friends had also seen him. When he finally looked up it was me he focused on, smiling broadly.

  "Hey, Ellie."

  "Hi Cade," I replied, swallowing hard and trying not to look too obvious as I tried to blink away the tears. It didn't work - he instantly noticed something was up.

  "Is something wrong?"

  I swear I almost started properly bawling right then and there. The concern in his voice was so real - and so unfamiliar. I wanted so badly to answer him, but I knew I couldn't. Katy herself stepped in before I could even speak, wrapping one of her arms around my shoulder and pulling me close enough to smell her sweet, vanilla-tinged perfume.

  "Nothing's wrong, Cade. Ellie's just having a bad day. Aren't you, Ellie?"