Chapter 23: CALLAN

It was dark, and she had finally gone to bed. I’d been secretly watching her from my place in the shadows on the balcony of my bedroom for the last half hour.

She looked so lost and alone that it was a struggle not to go to her to offer comfort, but not yet. I closed my eyes against the need to go to her and called on all my strength to stay where I was.

I stood there for I don’t know how long, just watching her, my gaze never leaving her. Even in the scant glow of the moonlight, she was an open book. So sad and so beautiful it hurt. After she turned away from the window, I went inside to my cold lonely bed.

I didn’t sleep for shit that night and was up before the dawn when she came padding into the kitchen not long after.

“What’re you doing up so early, Kitten?” I’d stopped avoiding using the name since I’d already slipped once and let the cat out of the bag.

“I always wake up early; it comes from growing up on a farm, I guess.”