Independence

  "Lynne," I said distractedly as I came down the hall and willed Beck to come out. I came out of the hall to see Lynne crying hysterically into Kyle's neck and him trying to soothe her. Caleb, in turn, was trying to calm her down as well. She was mumbling that she didn't mean to, that she was sorry.

  I went to her side, but didn't try to take her from Kyle. I knew that would be a bad idea. So I just touched her shoulder and tried to tell her that it was all right. Beck was fine and everything else would be, too.

  Soon.

  But of course, Beck's dramatic flair won out again as she stormed down the hallway with Ralph in tow. She glared at me and said, "Don't even bother asking if I'm OK. I'm am so far from OK with all of this! We're leaving. I refuse to stay here in this house with you and him!" She pointed at Caleb and then Lynne. "And her! I'm done. We'll stay in a motel or something until I think it's safe for us to go home."

  "Beck, please," I tried futilely.

  "No!" she screeched and jerked her arm away from my outreached hand. "No, Maggie."

  She never called me Maggie. This was bad. This was so bad.

  "I'm sorry," I said lamely.

  She scoffed. "Now you're sorry that you've lied and picked him over me?"

  "No," I answered truthfully and silently said goodbye to her. "I'm sorry that I hurt you."

  She would never understand Caleb and me. She would never be OK with what I could do. She would never get used to the fact that I was growing up and away from her and we couldn't be silly high school friends forever. Things changed. It hurt, but I didn't know what else to do at that point but to let her go since that was what she wanted.

  She once again slammed the door on her way out and I stood there as if waiting for something further to happen. It didn't.

  Caleb lifted my chin with his fingers. "I'm sorry."

  "If we were meant to still be friends, we would be, right?"

  He shrugged sadly. "Yeah. That doesn't make it suck any less. This is the reason that I keep Vic at a distance."

  I nodded and screwed my lips up. "It's a good plan."

  "I'm sorry," Lynne told me in a whisper. "I didn't mean to. I didn't know what I was doing."

  "It's OK, I promise. She was mad before you got here. It's better this way with Beck." I nodded to reassure myself more than anyone else that this was right. "It is."

  "I'm sor-"

  I effectively cut her off by pulling her to me. She was ridiculously tiny. "Remember what it felt like when we realized that things weren't…normal?" She nodded like a child. "Well, we had our significant and all the stuff going on in our minds to help us understand. Beck doesn't. She's human and I'll just have to accept that she's…never going to fit in my world anymore." I shook my head and refused to look at Caleb, who was pouring on the sympathy next to me. Kyle took Lynne's hand again, which didn't surprise me. She was still pretty upset and he would want to drawn that off of her with his touch. "But you ascended," I reminded her. "That's amazing, Lynne."

  "Yeah," she agreed and sniffed before looking up at Kyle. They both smiled slowly at the same time. "Yeah."

  I sighed. "Stay," Caleb and I both said at the same time. We all laughed. "Just stay the night. You may as well, now."

  "I'll go order some Chinese," Caleb said and kissed my forehead before sprinting to the phone.

  Twenty five minutes later, and a couple of stories about Gran and her inappropriateness down, the delivery arrived and we sat on Caleb's couch side-by-side and watched a movie.

  Of course it was a horror flick.

  No one cared that I was a chicken when it came to gore on the screen, but Caleb promised to keep me safe. It was so normal. We ate right out of the take-out boxes with our chopsticks. I had beef and broccoli, and shared with Caleb. He had General Tso's Chicken and shared with me, feeding me bites sweetly from his own chopsticks.

  I tried to remain calm and normal and serene until the movie was over, and laugh and let everyone think that I was fine.

  Kyle and Lynne retired to the guest room as soon as the movie was over and I blocked them out. Not only to give them privacy, but I didn't not want to be privy to their thoughts as they mutualized and that was exactly what they were going to do.

  So I told Caleb I wanted a bath and he rummaged through drawers to find a t-shirt and boxers for me. I took them in my hands. It was his Imagine Dragons shirt. I gave Caleb a smile as I went to the bathroom attached to his room and shut the door. He said he needed to make a few phone calls to his dad and his work, so he'd be busy for a while.

  So I blocked Caleb, hoped he didn't notice because he was on the phone, and I took that opportunity as I sank down into the hot, bubbly water of his huge garden tub to break loose. To break loose over my friend. My friend who had been with me through everything. Who was spoiled and carefree and shallow, but mine. The girl who was angry with me because I hadn't told her about my momChad drama and she was a glutton for it. A glutton for drama and mayhem and gossip.

  But when I needed her to be my friend most, to look past anything else and just look at me, she walked out without looking back.

  And right now, I was breaking down with hurt and loss. First, I thought I lost her when she went missing and now, she walked out and I lost her again.

  I leaned my head back, the white bubbles up to my chin, and let the tears come. The steam made the air thick, so I sniffed more than I would at a normal cry-session. I let my arms float beside me and stared at the pretty glass ceiling of the beautiful bathroom.

  My body grew tenser with every breath, and the shakes of my chest got worse with every minute.

  I barely heard the door click open as Caleb came inside. I sat up, taking my knees to my chest and knew there was no way to hide my cry-face. "Did you finish your calls?" I tried for nonchalance.

  "I haven't called the center yet, but I talked to Dad. I've got it under control. Don't worry about it."

  I nodded. "Well, go call the center. I'm fine."

  He took his phone out of his pocket and placed it on the counter. Then his wallet followed soundlessly. With bare feet, pants, and shirt he climbed into the tub behind me.

  "Caleb, what are you doing?" I asked, though I knew.

  I knew exactly what he was doing.

  He pulled me by my arms for me to rest in between his legs as he settled into the back of the tub. The water rose almost to the rim. I decided to let him do what he came in here to do and sank into his chest, turning a little on my side, letting my fingers hook in the collar of his soaked shirt.

  He pressed his lips to my temple and spoke firmly. "It's not her fault, babe. She just doesn't understand. She'll never really understand, but she'll come around one day."

  "But aren't you glad that she's gone?" I asked and felt my breaths shudder to hold back the sob. "As the Champion, aren't you supposed to keep the Ace secrets safe, not pass them around to your girlfriend's friends?"

  "Fiancé," he corrected. "And yes, that's my job now, but when it comes to you, I'll do anything you asked me to. I'll break any law, any rule, any sanction if it meant that you were happy."

  I sniffed. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to have to do that for me, but she…"

  "Shhh," he calmed, running his hands up and down my arms in the water. "Shhh."

  His calm and warmth soaked into me and I pushed everything else away but us in that tub. I let all my anger and sadness blow through me. I cried while Caleb held me tight and I soon calmed. It was hard to stay upset with Caleb's calm keeping me from it, but I was grateful.

  "You're crazy, getting in the tub with your clothes on," I admonished softly and laughed. "But thank you. I'm sorry you couldn't make your call."

  "There are things more important." He kissed my temple. "Besides, I'd have to call the manager because the center is closed. It's kinda late anyway. I'll call her tomorrow. It'll be fine."

  I saw the woman in his mind. She was an older, very pretty, but slightly heavyset black woman about Gran's age who ran Caleb's main
office when he was away. I winced. He'd been away since he met me. I was wreaking havoc on his life, wasn't I?

  I looked up to see his scowl as he listened to my inner monologue. I smiled and touched his cheek. "There's no one else I'd rather be wreaking havoc on."

  He laughed in a rumble and growled, "You're daggum right." Then he sobered as he looked down at me. He rubbed my nose with his and stayed close. "Better?"

  "As better as I can be."

  He nodded. I leaned forward, pulling him to me with my hand on his face, and kissed him, solid and good. We stayed like that until the water turned cold.

  Chapter 8

  Caleb

  I woke to the tune of Maggie's heartbeat going nuts.

  I jerked up and pulled the covers back a bit to inspect her. I turned her to face me and finally saw what she was dreaming about. I sighed.

  She was dreaming about walking down the aisle and seeing my bare feet. And she had a gorgeous grin on her face.

  It didn't matter that there wasn't going to be an aisle to walk down, I grinned back at my sleeping girl and scooted out gently so as not to wake her. The sun was barely peeking through the curtains, but I wanted to get up and get ready. I had big plans for us, and Maggie, though she didn't know it yet, had a big night with Gran and Mom.

  Wedding stuff.

  I was worried that Maggie would feel overwhelmed and not ready for it all, but from the look on her face just now, I guess that worry was unfounded. So I went to shave. I wanted to last night, but after we lazed in the tub forever, I just wanted to go to bed, hold my girl, and forget everything else.

  Of course Kyle and Lynne in the next room were having none of that. Maggie slept peacefully in my arms, but I was worried about her and couldn't fall asleep. Therefore, I was forced to listen to those two and their freaky-deakyness for what seemed like forever. Lynne was a giggler, I'll tell you that. And Kyle, well…

  Just gross.

  "I see you had an interesting night."

  I turned to look at her as I pulled my shirt over my head. She was all sprawled on the bed like she belonged there. God, did she ever belong there. She smiled. "You're dressed already?"

  "Yep. Get up, gorgeous. I've got plans for us."

  "Oh, yeah?"

  "Mmhmm." I swooped in, hovering over her on my arms, and kissed her easily. She combed out my hair with her fingers.

  "You need a haircut."

  "I thought you liked the shag?"

  "I love it, but it's going a little overboard, surfer boy." Her mouth grinned. "Besides, don’t you want to look amazing for our wedding photos?" I stilled and waited. She just continued to smile up at me like she had no secrets at all. Finally she laughed. "I know you're planning to hand me over to your mom and Gran tonight. You did manage to fall asleep for a few minutes last night and I felt like being nosy."

  I felt my smirk. "You little sneak."

  "Mmhmm," she agreed and ran her hand through my hair again. "I'll get dressed."

  "Did you see everything?" I asked her softly. "Did you see where we're going?"

  Her brow scrunched in confusion. "No. Where else are we going?"

  "Get dressed. I'm glad we washed your clothes last night before bed. We should, uh," I started and waited a breath, "bring some of your stuff here."

  She tried not to think about the house I was supposed to buy for her, but she couldn't help herself. I saw the struggle in her and glanced her way to see her with her knees drawn up as she chewed on her thumb nail. There was a little smile sitting on her lips. Her hair was tussled and it hadn't escaped my notice that she hadn't even tried to fix it at all when she woke. She was that comfortable with me, here, in my home.

  It made me grin like a fool.

  "I love that grin," she confessed and tilted her head a bit. "What does that mean?" she asked, pointing to my shirt. "What's with all the ducks?"

  "You don't know?"

  She shook her head. "And what's with the pink duck?"

  "I'm not telling."

  She laughed and I soaked it up like a sponge.

  When we emerged from the bedroom, Kyle and Lynne were just coming out, too. I avoided eye contact and asked Kyle how he got here. He said he drove my truck since I had his Dad's car. I told him I was taking the truck back and we were leaving. I tossed him my keys. He tossed me mine and hovered them in the air using his ability just out of my reach. I lifted an annoyed eyebrow at him. I heard Kyle's chuckle as I jumped to grab them, but I just grabbed Maggie's hand and towed her out the door, yelling for Kyle to lock up when they left.

  Maggie giggled all the way down the steps from my apartment at me, but I just kept on going. I dialed the center to see who was there. I told her I was on the way and she said she'd be waiting. "Thanks, Honey," I told her and hung up. Maggie gave me a 'What the?' look, but I blocked her from my mind and fought to keep a straight face.

  "So, this is your truck," she said coyly. She drew her finger down the front end. "Does she have a name, too? I'm surprised Lola puts up with you cheating on her like this."

  "Ha. Ha." I grinned and opened her door. "As a matter of fact, she does have a name." I took Maggie's hand and helped her into the side door. Even I had to admit, it was a big truck. "And Marlana isn't jealous. She knows how to share."

  I shut the door, but could still hear Maggie's laughter as I walked around to my side. I hopped up inside and actually felt a sigh of relief. It had been forever since I'd driven my truck. Maggie had never even been in it. I glanced over to see her watching me. One of her feet was up in the seat under her and her head was tilted to the side.

  My mouth said, "You are so gorgeous."

  She smiled and looked down at her shoe, then back to me. "You're so good at that."

  I grabbed her around the thigh and dragged her to me. "What's that?"

  She lifted her hand and let her fingers smooth down the side of my face. She sucked on her bottom lip, but still managed to smile. The girl had no idea how gorgeous and sexy something so simple could be. And then she said, "You're so good at making me feel like I'm the only girl in the world."

  I chuckled softly. "Didn't you know? You are."

  She closed her eyes and pressed her nose to mine. "That sounds like good wedding vows to me."

  "You'll get to read my vows soon enough. You've still got them, right?"

  "Right in the obsidian box you gave them to me in." She leaned back just far enough to give me a look. "Really, that was just mean. You can't give a girl your vows and tell her not to read them." I just shrugged smugly. "I'm supposed to write my vows to you, too, right?" she asked nervously.

  "Yeah, but we don't read them out loud at the wedding." She gave me a curious look. "The vows are for us. We read them, by ourselves, the night before the wedding. No one else hears or sees them."

  "So what are we going to say at the wedding?"

  "We won't say anything." I felt myself grin. "It's not a traditional wedding, Maggie. The wedding is, from what I've been told, a showering of blessings. The wedding isn't for us to pledge our love for each other, I think it's pretty obvious that imprinted couples love each other. And it's blaringly obvious that you're head over heels for me." She giggled. "It's for our family to give us the best start possible by being there on our first day as a real couple."

  "That sounds beautiful. Your mom, she…" A picture played in Maggie's head from when Mom showed her wedding day. "She showed me their wedding day with everyone surrounding them." She looked me straight in the eye. "I can't wait." She grinned gorgeously. "Caleb, I can't wait. Let's get married tomorrow."

  I laughed and cupped her cheek. "I can't believe you went from finding the idea of marrying me ridiculous to begging me."

  "I'm begging," she whispered. "I've waited long enough to start my life."

  I nodded, feeling those words to my bones. "We'll tell them tonight that we want to have the dedication this weekend."

  "Well, you are the boss now."

  "Technically, you are," I
countered.

  "I'll let you be boss for the day," she said cheekily, and laughed when I grinned in challenge.

  "Stop distracting me, gorgeous. I'm trying to take you somewhere."

  She laced her arm through mine and leaned her head against my shoulder. "Take me anywhere."

  My veins practically sighed inside of me. I kept a hand stuck between her thighs and put the truck in reverse, cursing Kyle for his horrible parking job. I put us in forward. Her mind was a peaceful haze of all sorts of things, but the most important thing to me right then was the fact that she was willing and eager to go anywhere I wanted to take her. She didn't need to know where it was, or why we were going there, she was just happy to be with me.

  After we drove for a while, I pulled into the parking lot and barely suppressed my grin. This was it. My girl was here and I was about to lay all of my cards on the table. I kissed her forehead and hoped that I had her pegged as well as I thought I did.

  I parked in the back of the lot and opened the door, pulling her out my side of the truck. Her eyes held a curious suspicion, but she never said a word. When I swung the door to the community center open, I felt it when her understanding hit her.

  She turned to look at me just as I was bulldozed right in the guts by eighty five pounds of sixth grader. "Caleb!"

  That alerted everyone to our presence. I looked around the faces and most of them were kids I'd seen before, but a few new ones hung back, unaware of who I was.

  "Caleb!"

  I turned and smiled. "Honey, hey."

  Maggie scoffed and laughed. "This is Honey?"

  "This is my Honey," I joked and accepted Honey's kiss on my cheek.

  The older woman laughed. "Don't get cheeky, Caleb."

  "How's everybody doing?" I asked. They all answered at once, jumping up and down and trying to get my attention.

  Then one question was louder than the rest. "Who's she?"