to open up and move beyond the pain.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. What if the scars were so deep that they were all I could see? All I could feel?
“Tell me a story, Caleb.”
“All right, but let’s get you under these covers first.”
We settled under the blanket, facing each other, and he wrapped his arms around me. He was quiet for a moment, but the silence was comfortable between us. Warm. Caleb was so warm. I hadn’t realized how cold I was until he came into my life.
“All right, I’ll tell you a story,” he began, tucking my right leg between his and wrapping my arm securely around his waist. “Once upon a time there was a handsome caterpillar—”
“A handsome caterpillar?” I laughed.
“Shh. This handsome caterpillar had everything in life he could wish for. Green leaves to eat all day, green branches and green grass to crawl on, green skies and green friends he could enjoy. And then he started to notice that everything was green. Different shades of green, but all around him was green just the same.”
“Even the sun?”
“Even the sun. He started to question: Is this all that life has to offer? He started to feel dissatisfied. He survived, but he never really lived. Soon, he felt green was suffocating him. Green was his prison. Green to him was black; it was darkness. So he crawled through the green world, searching without knowing what he was looking for.”
I looked up at him when he didn’t continue. “What was he searching for?”
“Color.” He looked in my eyes. “You’re my color, Red.”
My heart was in my throat. His eyes were intense, pulling me in.
“And so,” he murmured, snuggling closer and resting his chin on top of my head. “The caterpillar found his butterfly. She was so lovely, so colorful, and so full of life. Her beauty and love filled his heart to bursting every day of their lives. And they lived happily ever after.”
My lids felt heavy and I sighed against him, comforted by his familiar scent and warmth.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you. Sleep,” he whispered.
I did. I slept with no nightmares tainting my dreams.
I woke up with Caleb’s arm across my chest and his legs tangled up in mine. He had kicked the covers to the floor. He was lying on his stomach, his head turned toward me. The sun was on his face, but it didn’t wake him.
I never had the opportunity to look at him without him knowing, so I just stared. The soft morning light bathed his lightly tanned skin, making it glow. His white T-shirt was hiked up and his sweats rode very low, revealing the lighter skin on his lower back that was usually covered. His bronze hair was mussed and covered his forehead. I smoothed it away and noticed his lashes.
How could a guy have long lashes like that?
I reached out my finger to trace the shape of his nose, then the square of his jaw. His skin had a light sprinkling of stubble, tickling me as I caressed his face.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes. My hand froze, and I stopped breathing.
His eyes, already twinkling, told me he had been awake all along. He knew I had been staring at him, touching him.
“Good morning,” he said, his voice rough from sleep. “I dreamed of you.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Caleb
Why did Dad have to drag us to small towns every weekend? Why couldn’t we just go to McDonald’s—or better yet, Dairy Queen?
I slumped on the stone bench in front of a big, old garage, kicking my feet, which barely reached the ground. There was a forest out back that reminded me of that horror movie The Blair Witch Project I’d seen with Ben the week before… Ben, my older brother who wasn’t with us this time. I sighed.
My dad had disappeared inside. What if he died in there? What if there was an ax murderer inside?
I snorted. That was only in the movies. Things like that didn’t happen in real life, did they? But if they did, that would be pretty cool. I could be a detective who strapped guns underneath my long, black coat to hide them.