The Moment She Knew (13 page)

“Really because he told me
he hasn’t seen it but maybe the dog ate it.” Connor rolled his eyes.

“He doesn’t have a dog,” Callie responded.

“I know!” Connor exclaimed.

“He really is just a mess
.” Callie laughed.

“So you fixed it?
I just can’t believe it.” Connor was in shock. He had brought it to a few places but they said the parts no longer existed to fix it. He always looked at it, he didn’t know why. He didn’t expect it to start working all of a sudden.

“And had it buffed. There aren’t too many
‘watch fixers’ but I found one about an hour away. He said it’s a great watch, that it just needed some tuning up and he had the parts.” He slipped off his current watch and replaced it with that one. “My mother gave it to my father on their wedding day; she said time would always be on their side. Or so I was told. I don’t know much about my parents but Amelia said this was left for me by my mother.” She remembered Reed saying time wasn’t on their side, she thought about their conversations a lot lately even though she hadn’t seen much of him. Connor thanked her and hugged her tight. “You really are something,” he whispered in her ear. She was just glad he liked his birthday gift. He pulled away from the hug to kiss her. After a moment he just stared at her and smiled.

“What?” She was smiling back.

“You. Just, you.”

Callie bit
her bottom lip.

“I want you to know how beautiful you are and how deeply I have fallen in love
with you, your heart, your mind, your soul. I can’t help but smile when I say your name or think of you. I still battle so many demons but when you’re around, they’re silent. I wished for you, you know. It was a couple years ago. I was going through something and I felt, lost. I needed someone to save me from myself. The moment I saw you walk through those red doors, my heart literally skipped a beat. I love who I am when I’m with you. I honestly have no idea how I lived life before you. I just want to say that I love you, that I need you and that I’m yours.” His eyes never left hers.

“Damn it. You
’re good.” They both chuckled.

“If we are going all mushy then I guess I should tell you that I have loved very few people in life and none of them come close to my feelings for you. That first night I met you, all the way home I thought about you. The next day when you sent me the text
message about the song we danced to, I know it sounds silly because I thought you were in New York and nothing would come of us, but all I could think about, all I was hoping, was that you weren’t in love with someone else. I really believe in happy endings for other people, but not for myself. The whole ‘fairytale’ ending wasn’t in my cards. But you Connor, you’re my once upon a time.” Callie looked into his eyes, she brought her hand up to touch his lips and gave him a gentle kiss. “Happy birthday Connor.”

Connor
exhaled deeply. “It’s a good thing I asked you to dance and won you over with my moves.” Callie laughed. “Speaking of my moves, on to birthday sex!” He said with his hands in the air. People at the vineyard turned in their direction. She laughed again, forcing his hands down as they headed home. On the car ride home all he focused on, was his watch. 

Chapter 18

A few nights later Callie was home alone. She was exhausted from the previous weeks of nonstop events. Connor was staying at Ryan’s apartment so he could catch up on work. Callie had a cup of tea and went straight to bed. Her thoughts drifted to Reed.

“Long time, no see.
Life treating you well?” Reed was walking towards her.

“Yea actually it is. Is this a different beach
? It looks familiar but not the one we visit normally.” Callie was looking around.

“
You have been here before. You are glowing, like you have maybe met someone?” Reed wasn’t up to date on Connor since it had been weeks since she talked to Reed last.

“Yea things with
Connor are turning out well. I sometimes think it isn’t real or think why out of everyone he loves me. It is still new, this whole dating thing, so we are taking it one day at a time.” Callie couldn’t help but smile when she mentioned Connor.

“That’s
good, things take time. It doesn’t happen overnight. The important thing is not to give up. If you want it, than you make it work. Life will be up and down. Life is not perfect; people are not perfect, just remember this. You will face a lot before you end up comfortable with your surroundings, just don’t give up, ok?”

“Ok got it. It’s weird you say this like you know it will happen to me. Or is it because you have been through this before?”
Reed looked young but was a man wise beyond his years. 

“Both
,” Reed said as Callie looked out into the water. She realized she was at the beach her and Connor walked to.

Callie woke up. She and Reed visited the
same places. She never had been to a place with Reed in her dreams that she went to in real life. She found it odd but maybe this was something new.

Chapter 19

“I don’t want to wear that dress again.” Callie had clothes tossed all around her bedroom.

“Why not
? I liked it on you.” Connor was laying on the couch with his head resting on a pillow.

“I don’t like any of these dresses
,” Callie yelled from the closet in her bedroom. Charlie jumped on the couch next to Connor.

“You have other dresses?”
Connor asked.

“
Yes Connor.” Callie sounded annoyed.

“
Well I’m sorry. You don’t strike me as the girly type that wears dresses.” Connor closed his eyes realizing what he said, after it already came out of his mouth. Callie flew in the living room in her bra, underwear, stopping to give Connor an evil eye. She was returning to the bedroom when Connor asked her to stand in front of him again. She did.

“What?” She swung her arms up.

“I’m just enjoying the view,” he smiled and continued to pet Charlie.

“Right now, I don’t like you.” She pointed at him with seriousness.

“Right now, I’m horny. You already have most of your clothes off. Just leave those heels on.” He gestured to the red high heels she was wearing. She cursed at him and returned to her bedroom desperately hoping something new would appear in her closet. 

Connor
laughed. He loved how she got all riled up. It was true; some woman just looked flat out sexy when they were pissed off. Her nostrils would flare and she would clench her jaw for a second but only for a second because then she would rotate biting and sucking on her bottom lip, oh those lips. Lastly those eyes, those beautiful blue eyes would widen and he could see the fire in them. Connor didn’t know if he loved her eyes or lips more. Both were dead giveaways to her mood, he had discovered that over the past few months.

“Well just pick one. We are going to be late
.” He looked at his father’s watch. He admired how she came up with this idea. He later found she had searched for a while, bringing the watch to every watch and jewelry shop, hoping someone had the parts to fix it. She finally found a place over an hour away. It was creative and genuinely thoughtful. He loved it. He loved her. He told his family about her and they were excited to meet her tonight. Callie was nervous about meeting them and that was a big part of her distraught mood.

“Ok how about this one?”
She walked out in a long sleeve black lace dress. Under the lace, the dress had a layer of nude silk fabric from the chest area to the hem near her thighs. There was a diamond shape opening at the back of her dress. The dress fell to mid-thigh and Callie wasn’t sure it was appropriate enough. She paired it with nude heels and a black clutch. She had makeup on that made her blue eyes pop. She let her hair down in its natural wave.

“Wow, I have never seen your hair like that, it’s
gorgeous. You look... just… hot damn woman you really are just, breathtaking,” he said as he held his heart.

He was one to speak. He stood in front of her wearing a dark beige suit, black button down shirt and a black tie. He could be in his jeans and converse sneakers or in a suit like he had on now, regardless he was beautiful.

She looked away. “Thank you. Are we ready?”

“Yes we are
.” He held out his arm for her to take.

Upon arriving at his parents’ house in Milford, Callie wondered the rest of his family would be like; all she had was her encounter with Devin to go by. She hoped his family liked her.

Callie’s jaw dropped when she saw his parents’ house. She should have known it would be amazing. “Wow. So your parents live here?” She didn’t mean for it to be a question. “Yes they do. Quinn is actually moving back in soon. She is done with her internship in the city.” Connor talked about Quinn and her love for art. She had gone to school for art therapy and wanted to open up her own studio. “That’s exciting to have her so close to you now.” Connor talked about how proud he was of her, he just wished he could see her more.

“
Well only for a couple weeks, then I’ll be back in the city.” They paused and looked at each other. They knew he would be moving back to New York but it didn’t sink in until he said it out loud. He would be gone by the end of November, when he was done with his lecture. The distance was too much for them to see each other on a regular basis. She wondered how this was going to work, but now wasn’t the time to figure it out. They could talk about it later.

They passed
a fence and drove down a gravel driveway, a ways down the house came into clear view. The four story house was a pale yellow color with big windows all around. It had a wraparound porch, a characteristic Callie loved in houses.

It was
end of October in New England, the air was chilly, she was glad she went with a dress with sleeves. Outside of the house people gathered around to greet one another. There seemed to be more people than she would have guessed attending this family dinner. It looked to be an actual party.

As they walked
up to the house, people stopped along the way to wish Connor a happy birthday, Callie took at the décor of the house. Many of the walls were either light or dark blue with white trim. He placed his hand on her back, leading her down the hallway and into the entertaining room. The room was big and inviting. The walls were a warm brown color with gold curtains hanging from the windows. In the center of the room stood a long mahogany table with matching chairs and a chandelier dispensed from above. Antique frames and furniture took up most of the room. People were standing around drinking while waiters were passing out appetizers.

“I thought this was going to be a small get together, not a party
,” she whispered to him.

“
You and I both,” he sighed with irritation.

“Reed
!” Someone shouted. Callie froze and looked around.

Connor
waved hello.

Callie
looked at him. Reed? People came up and shook his hand; some women came up and kissed his cheek. “Did they call you Reed?” She asked, hoping she misheard.

“Yea a few
people but mostly family call me Reed,” he said as he shook some hands.

“Why? Why do they call you that?”

“
When we, all my siblings, got adopted we knew our names because we were older. So our birth first and last name we kept and just added on Sterling. Like Dev, her birth name is Sara Devin, but her adoptive name became Sara Devin Sterling. We all go by our ‘middle names’ it’s weird I know, but it’s just what we started doing when we were younger.”

“So your birth name is
Connor Reed and they call you Reed?” Callie asked. She was shocked because it wasn’t a common first name but she could see it being a common last name.

“Yea, is that a problem?”
He laughed. “You can still call me Connor, I like the way you say my name,” he said and winked. More people approached him. He was trying not to get annoyed.

A woman approached him; she just stared at an arm’s length
, shaking her head, looking at him in a loving way. The woman gave him a kiss on the cheek and embraced their hug with a sign of contentment. As she hugged him, immediately Callie knew it was his mother.

“You are so close now and yet you don’t visit
.” She was a beautiful woman. She had salt and pepper hair that she kept in a short bob. Standing at about 5’4’’ in her cream snake skin Louboutin pumps. She wore a cream colored knee length fitted dress but her turquoise statement necklace gave her outfit a nice pop. She was a woman with style.

“I have been a bit busy
. I’m sorry,” he offered his apologies.

“I see
,” she said smiling at Callie.

“
Callie this is my mother, Amelia... and that man over there is my father, Mason.” Mason came over and gave his son a firm handshake and a hug. “It’s been too long buddy.” Mason had dark brown hair with some gray mixed in. He wasn’t a tall man; Connor had a few inches on him. He wore gold wire frame glasses. He had the ‘professor’ look to him.

“It’s lovely to meet you both, you have a beautiful home
,” Callie said as she looked around.