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Callum jerked back, his chest heaving, his eyes trying to read the message in hers. They didn’t look like eyes that had bad news to impart. He backed away and grabbed Hailey by the arm, pulling her upright. ‘Say goodnight to Hailey, Tom. We have to go talk now.’
Hailey kissed Tom on the forehead, conscious of Callum’s hand in hers tugging at her gently, ‘Goodnight, Tom. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.’
‘Or get in my ears.’ He giggled.
‘Especially that.’ She laughed back, ruffling his hair.
Hailey had walked two paces out of the room when Callum jerked her into his arms and kissed her full on the mouth. She groaned against his lips, snaking her arms up around his neck and rubbing her hands over his velvety hair.
‘Please, tell me this is what I think it is and not your warped way of saying goodbye,’ he gasped, pulling away.
She smiled and nodded at him, her finger flattening the frown crinkling his forehead. ‘I love you, Callum. I’m so sorry it took me a while to get it.’
Callum laughed, not quite believing what was happening. ‘Well, it was definitely worth the wait.’ He swooped his head down to kiss her again.
‘No, wait.’ She laughed, pressing her fingers to his mouth. ‘I think we need to talk a little first.’
‘Really?’ He pouted, his hands travelling south over the rise of her delectable derrière. ‘Can’t we do that later?’
‘No.’ She smiled as she removed his hands from her butt.
They moved into the lounge room. ‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘I got home after talking to you and I realised I didn’t love him. Not any more. Not the way he needed me to.’
Callum sat on the lounge, his legs suddenly weak from relief. ‘It took you long enough.’
She grinned at him. ‘That’s why I was so confused, I think. It’d been bugging me why I wasn’t falling all over him. He was here and a year ago that had been all that I’d wanted so why wasn’t I leaping into his arms? Why was I holding back?’
‘And why was that?’
‘Because I was in love with you.’
Callum held out his hand and when she took it he pulled her down beside him, snuggling her close, kissing the top of her head. ‘Good answer. When did you know?’
Hailey thought back and smiled, locating the exact moment easily. ‘That night on the balcony when you were dancing with Tom after midnight.’
She sighed against his chest, rubbing her face into his shirt. ‘I think I was coming to the realisation the night we made love and then Paul showed up and everything got so messed up.’
They sat in silence for a few minutes, holding each other. ‘Where’s Paul now?’
‘I drove him to a hotel.’
‘How did he take the news?’
Hailey sat up. ‘Not well at first. But we had a long talk. He admitted he’s always blamed me for Eric’s death and could see that it was unfair and he and I would never have worked out. Eric had always been our glue.’
Callum cradled her face with his hands and ran his thumbs gently under her eyes where they’d been all red half an hour ago. ‘He upset you?’
Hailey placed a hand over his. ‘No. It was just sad, that’s all. Cathartic and emotional and…sad to close a chapter of my life that has been so turbulent. But I think he’s going to be OK. He confronted some things he’d been hiding from so, yeah, I think it’ll work out for him eventually.’
‘Are you OK?’ he asked gently.
She smiled. ‘I am now.’
Callum leaned forward and rained light kisses on her eyes, her nose, her cheeks and her mouth.
‘How do you feel about marrying me?’ he asked, pulling away from her lips reluctantly.
Hailey looked into his eyes, searching for any uncertainty. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course.’ He frowned down at her, sensing her hesitation. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
Hailey took a breath. ‘Because of Annie.’
‘Annie?’
‘I think you might still be in love with her and I’m not her, Callum. I’ve already been with one man who chose another woman over me and I don’t want to invest in this to discover that I’m never going to match up. A real woman I can compete with. I can’t compete with a ghost.’
‘Oh, no, no, no,’ Callum denied quickly, cupping her face in his palms and dropping kisses on her closed eyelids. ‘A piece of me is always going to belong to Annie, as I’m sure a piece of you is always going to belong to Paul. She’s Tom’s mother and I loved her deeply. But I’m not in love with Annie. My heart is too full of you. It yearns for you. It adores only you. You are the woman of my dreams. Annie was my past. You are my future.’
