“It means you keep our records for us; births, imprints, ascensions. And it seems you’ve got some catching up to do.” She took the long black and white feather in her hand and laid it across her palms. “This was the very first historian’s pen. This belonged to your Grandpa Ray as well. Everything in this book is written with this pen.” She gave it to him and he held it, as if testing the weight. “And now it’s yours. It’ll be your job to keep track of everything and your job to find a predecessor when you’re done with it all.”“Thank you, I’m honored, Gran,” Caleb said and his thoughts flashed to a time when he saw Grandpa Ray writing in it once when he was little.
Maria bounded around the corner and hid behind Caleb, peeking around him for her mom in her cute pink pajamas.
“I’m sorry Grandpa’s not here to give it to me,” Caleb said to Gran as he hugged Maria to his side.
“Me too, sugar,” Gran said and I saw her rub her wrist tattoo absentmindedly.
“But Grandpa Ray is here, Gran, right here,” Maria said and pointed to Gran’s heart and her own.
Gran smiled brightly and hugged her.
“You are so right, sugar. What would I do without you?”
“Um…be bored?”
Everyone laughed.
“You don’t know how true that statement is.”
~ Twenty Six ~
Unfortunately, we didn’t get much time with Maria because by this time, it was after midnight. So Jen carted her off to bed but I knew I’d see plenty of her in the week to come because she’d be going with us to the reunification.
It was hard, I could tell, for Kyle’s parents to move away from the new significants. It was like if they stopped looking at them, it would go away and be a dream. Eventually, Kyle coaxed them enough to tell them he was taking his significant to his room. They were tired and ready for sleep.
It was kind of funny watching Kyle tow Lynne up the stairs. Everyone looked high like they were drugged.
“Sleep tight, you two,” Gran called to them.
“That’s not all they’re gonna be doing,” Caleb muttered behind me and laughed when I elbowed his gut.
“Caleb Maxwell Jacobson!” she reprimanded. “For shame.”
“Maxwell?” I asked. “How did I not know your middle name?”
“There are still a few things you don’t know about me,” he muttered low in my neck. “But I actually take the time to look for these things, Maggie Camille Masters.”
I gasped.
“Not fair,” I muttered.
“Alright you two, that’s enough of that.” But then she looked at us closely. “Have you been being careful? You remember what I told you before about Aces getting pregnant the-“
“Gran,” Caleb protested and held a hand up. “We talked about this.”
“I’m just saying.”
“Bye, Gran.”
He scooped me up fireman style over his shoulder and carried me up the stairs with Peter and Rachel chuckling and Gran sputtering, scandalized once again.
When we passed Kyle’s door, we could hear them murmuring in there and Caleb chuckled at being right.
“You’re cute when you’re smug,” I said once he put me on the bed.
“Then I’m cute all the time.”
I laughed and covered my mouth, then groaned when he laid on top of me gently and began to kiss my neck.
“You’re not tired?” I asked.
“Not after all that, no. Are you?”
“A little.”
His mouth moved to ear and all my breath left me.
“You don’t sound very tired to me,” he said in a tone that told me exactly what he had up his sleeve.
“Caleb, we’re in your uncle’s house,” I chastised.
“Yeah, in our room, nobody’s going to come in. I’m ready to do this, Maggie.”
“I am too,” I realized. I was ready to Mutualize with my significant. I bit my lip. “Do you know exactly…what to do?”
He smiled genuinely and caressed my cheek bone with his thumb.
“Oh, yeah,” he whispered.
Then he kissed my mouth and let his hands drift down to grab my arms. He pushed them to the bed over my head and held them down gently as he continued to kiss me ardently.
Then we heard a knock at the door.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Caleb muttered against my lips. “What?” he said in aggravation and leaned back, pulling me up to sit by him.
The door swung open to reveal little Maria.
“I’m sorry. I’m scared.”
He softened and patted his lap. She slowly came and let him pull her up.
“What’s the matter, M? Where’s you mom?”
“She’s talking to Nana,” she explained. Nana was Rachel. “She was crying about something. But I heard Uncle Max talking about you getting shot with a gun. And someone shot at Maggie too.”
“But we’re fine. See?”
“I’m scared. Can I sleep with you?”
How could you refuse a face like that?
“Alright,” Caleb sighed and stood throwing her on the bed making her laugh. “Hop under the covers.”
“Yay!” she squealed.
He turned to me and pulled me close to him.
“We are going to finish this if it’s the last thing I do,” he growled and I giggled.
“Agreed.”
“Alright, scoot over, Maria. You can sleep next to Maggie, ok?”
“Ok.”
Caleb spooned behind me and fell asleep pretty quick for someone who had claimed not to be tired. Maria snuggled into my chest facing me. I smiled at the feeling of being completely surrounded, literally, by the people I loved.
In the morning I woke first. I slid out from between them both and bumbled my way into the kitchen to find it empty which surprised me. Usually Rachel was up cooking something yummy and with this many people in the house, you’d think there’d be one person awake. The clock said it was 6:55. That probably explained it. I decided maybe I should contribute for once.I pulled out a bag of grits and two packs of bacon. How hard could it be, right?
Fifteen minutes later, I had burned grits to the bottom of the pan and had a plate of undercooked bacon with a few black pieces thrown in on top. I felt like an utter failure.
That’s where Caleb found me.
“Something smells…oh.” He tried not to laugh, I’ll give him credit for that, but he didn’t last long. I gave him a sulky look. “Ahh, it’s ok. Cooking isn’t everyone’s forte.”
“I think boiling grits and making bacon is pretty basic,” I muttered.
He wrapped his arms around me from behind. His hair was still slightly wet and I figured he’d grabbed a shower.
“It’s fine. We’ll just grab something on the way to your dad’s.”
“But what kind of wife am I going to make if I can’t even make bacon.”
I felt him still behind me. I hadn’t even realized what I’d said. He turned me slowly in his arms and looked at my face closely.
“What are you saying, Maggie?” he asked with hope and eagerness lacing his voice.
I sighed and gave in with a little smile. I’d known what I was going to say when he asked me every since that day when he almost asked me on the beach.
“I’m saying yes.”
“Saying yes to what,” he said with a little grin.
“Well, you were going to ask me to marry you, weren’t you?”
He pulled me to him and lifted me from the floor, knocking the spatula and plate to the floor in the process. He laughed and squeezed me.
“Yes, I was. Oh my…Maggie, I love you.” He pulled back but didn’t put me down. “Really, you want to marry me?”
“More than anything,” I responded.
He kissed me and laughed at the same time. It was a feeling like nothing else to have put that smile on his face. They must have heard the plate fall because Rachel and Peter made their way in to see what was up.
“What happened?” Peter asked clearly confused about the situation as he looked at the mess on the floor.
“Maggie said yes,” Caleb explained through a massive grin but didn’t take his eyes off mine.
They knew exactly what he was talking about. They rushed us with grins that matched Caleb’s.
“Oh, Maggie,” Rachel squealed with tears on her cheeks. She cried more often than any other mother I’ve ever met. Then I thought of my own mother. She’d never see me married. I pushed that away and focused on the now. “Honey, I’m so happy for you.”
“Me too,” I said truthfully as I heard Peter congratulating Caleb. Then he turned to me and hugged me just like my own father would. I wondered how my dad would take the news.
“You proposed over a plate of burned bacon?” Rachel asked and looked around in laughter. “Caleb, honey, we need to work on your timing skills.”
Everyone laughed, neither Caleb nor I refuted her explanation. He’d actually proposed to me on the beach, even though he never finished the words. In my mind, that would always be how he asked me to marry him. Caleb nodded at my words and then sobered a bit.
“I’ve got something for you. Come on.”
I followed him to his suitcase in the room. He pulled a small box out and twirled it in his fingers.
“Our kind doesn’t do engagement rings. Rings are really sacred thing for us-“
“Your mom told me.”
“Oh. You talked to my mom about the rings?”
“And the wedding.”
“Oh.” He seemed to like that a lot. “I was going to tell you about it but you were so freaked out about the marriage thing I thought I’d just wait.” I nodded my head in agreement. “OK. Well, then, as I was saying, I don’t have a ring for you. I can get you one if you want but you don’t really seem like the big rock type to me.” I bit my lip to tell him he was right. “I bought this, a while back. I wanted to be ready for when I could finally ask you, so…”