Page 33 of Flights and Sights

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, glancing around like he was looking for someone. “I don’t know.”

Closing the gap between us, I pressed a quick kiss to his lips and slid my hands onto his waist. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. I’m going swimming. You can just watch, if you prefer.” With that, I released him, went to the tree, and unhooked the swing.

“You sure that thing is even safe?”

I laughed and nodded. “It’s safe. I’m confident.” With that, I positioned myself onto the swing and kicked off the bank. I soared out over the water and when the swing was at the peak of its arc, I released my grip and let myself fall into the water, splashing down hard and plunging under the surface.

I came up with a huge smile on my face, my heart racing from the exhilarating jump, and swam to shore before making my way to Callum. He grinned and shook his head, and I took the opportunity to pull him to me, holding my dripping body against his dry clothes and kissing him before he could protest. When I stepped back, there was a person-shaped outline on his shirt and I gave him another smile.

Cal sighed and shook his head. “Thanks,” he said dryly, pulling his shirt off.

“You getting in, then?”

He let out another sigh, but there was a smile teasing at his lips. “Fine.” He drew out the word like he was being put out, but the smile grew.

In just a few minutes, we were taking turns hurtling ourselves off the bank and into the river, laughing and splashing each other until the sun began to set in the distance. I couldn’t stop myself from discreetly checking out his body as we played in the water, noticing the lines of his muscles and the swell of his ass every time he got out of the water. Just looking at him made my stomach heat with lust. Eventually, we made our way back to shore and I hung the swing where it belonged before we sat at the water’s edge to catch our breath and dry off a little, looking off into the sunset.

“This was…” Cal started. “Better than I expected.”

I laughed. “Is that the best compliment you could come up with?”

He looked at his feet and chuckled, shaking his head. “Sorry. I had a great time. Thank you for bringing me here.” He reached over and laced our fingers together. “Honestly.”

“Hey, you brought me to your family reunion, so I brought you to my favorite place as a kid. It’s only fair.” My stomach tightened and I decided to make a move before I lost my nerve. I leaned in and kissed him, soft and quick, before pulling away.

When I looked at him, Cal’s face was flushed and he was looking at his feet, smiling widely. He was quiet for a few moments before he nodded and spoke. “Tell me about your family?”

My heart tightened in my chest but I nodded. I let silence hang between us for a long time before I spoke. “I’ve told you about my grandparents. My parents… aren’t in the picture. My mom never was, and my dad died when I was a kid. My dad’s brother, my uncle Paul took me in while he ran the meadery. That’s why I took it over when he was… ready to hand over the reins.”

“Where is your uncle now?”

I let out a shaky breath. “He lives north of here. He…” Another breath. “He had a car accident. That’s really why I took over. He survived, but he had a pretty severe brain injury. He can’t… He was in a coma for a few months after that. When he came out of it, he wasn’t the same.”

“God.” Callum reached over and put a hand on my knee. “I’m so sorry.”

I shook my head and waved away his apology, fighting the tears that threatened to spill. “It’s like he has dementia. He lives in a residential facility. He doesn’t remember a lot. I don’t see him much because he gets confused and agitated. The nurses say it’s better not to cause him more stress. Sometimes they call when he’s having a really bad episode and some of those times, hearing my voice helps him calm down. Like that night—”

“I remember,” he said quickly.

We sat in silence then for a few moments, listening to the bugs and the frogs, a lump in my throat from fighting the emotion. “Anyway, that’s why I don’t talk about my family much.”

He nodded and leaned his head against my shoulder, and we sat there quietly on the bank of the lake until the sun had set and the stars had come out, my mind filled with memories and sadness that warred with the happiness and peace I felt around Callum.

Chapter 16 - Callum

My article was approved quickly and released on the magazine’s website that Thursday, just a few days after I’d submitted it. My editor assured me it was slated to go live in the next print edition of Connection Monthly as well, but he wanted to get it out as soon as possible, which was why the website got first dibs.

Saturday morning, I awoke to a flood of notifications on my phone, from family, friends, and coworkers. They all said some variation of the same thing, congratulating me on my article about Celestial Cask. Confused, I closed my text messages and pulled up the Connection Monthly website. It was posted, that much was clear, but there was something unusual about the article. At the top of the page, there was an icon for a national news distributor, indicating the article had been picked up by that distributor and posted widely.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, trying to make sense of it, but before I could form a coherent thought, my phone rang. The number that lit up the screen was my boss’s.

“Hey, Gil,” I said amiably, scrambling to sit and trying to sound like I hadn’t just woken up.

“Sorry to call so early,” he said in greeting. His tone was hurried, clipped, as it usually was. “It’s late morning here on the East Coast. I waited as long as I could.”

“Not a problem. What’s going on?”

Gil cleared his throat. “Have you seen the article?”