One Sweet Day

by Elle Tyler

“Hitting below the belt isn’t allowed when I don’t have underwear on, Everly Anne.”

  She laughed quietly.

  We were silent for a moment as I smoothed conditioner through her hair.

  Softly, she said, “I missed you,” and leaned back so I could see her eyes.

  I kissed her temple and told her, “I missed you too, farfalla.”

  “What did you do with Nicholas?”

  “He made me run ten miles and then eat burgers and fries.”

  She laughed. “All while his wife was ripping her body parts off. Men have it so easy, Callum Andrew.”

  “You girls do it to yourselves. Think we give a shit if your legs are shaved or waxed? Think we can even tell the difference? Most of us would not give a fuck if you shaved at all. There is a beast that cannot be tamed in real men, Everly Anne.”

  She laughed harder. “Is that so?”

  “No. Let me rinse your hair so I can shave your legs butter-smooth, next. No stubbly girls in my bed. No ma’am.”

  She jabbed my ribs with her elbow.

  “Seriously, though, lean forward so I can rinse your hair, peach.”

  She curled under the faucet again, just like when I’d first found her. Everly laughed deep and long.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I can only see your unmentionables, Callum.”

  I sighed and pulled her back up. “And here I was, earlier, singing your praises about what a good girl you are.” I reached forward and adjusted the water temperature to run warmer.

  “It was in the middle,” she said. “Isn’t it warm enough?”

  “Normally it would be, but apparently Everly birds take long baths and quickly use up the hot water.”

  “I haven’t even shaved my legs,” she grumbled.

  “Then you better hurry up.”

  “Will you help?” she asked again.

  “As long as it’s not another attempt to trick me and stare at my unmentionables.”

  She laughed, her cheeks flushed. “Um... my bag is on the floor. I have a razor.”

  “I don’t normally do this, for your information.” I found her bag and then smoothed cream along her legs, trying to focus on my task and not the fact that she was completely naked, with my hands on her thighs.

  Everly replied, “Shaving legs or sharing a bath tub?”

  I did my best to find her eyes and avoid all the glory on the way up.

  “Both, Everly Anne.” I shaved long, steady strides carefully but quickly, needing this to be over as soon as possible.

  “You’re pretty good at it, for a rookie. I always cut myself like crazy.”

  I didn’t say anything. Focus. Focus.

  “Tell me something about you that isn’t part of your condition,” I said. “Something Logan and the class won’t know.”

  “Like what?”

  “Anything.”

  “Well, I always wanted to be a real Southern belle.” She sighed. “I’d sell both of your perfect unmentionables to be a belle.”

  I paused, unable to hold the razor steady as I laughed. “Don’t make jokes when I have a sharp object pressed to your skin, please.” I waved the razor at her.

  She smiled. “I trust you, Callum Andrew.”

  I shook my head and went back to her leg. “For the record, you’re a belle, Everly.”

  She put out her hands to stop me. I glanced between her and her leg.

  “What?” I asked nervously. “Did I cut you?”

  “No, see...? Now my joke is going to stink. A good zinger is all about timing.”

  “Oh,” I sighed. “Sorry, finish your joke.”

  “Does that mean you plan on ringing me?”

  I put the down razor and rinsed my hands so I could cup her cheeks.

  “I’ve told you that you’re beautiful, right?”

  “Once or twice,” she whispered. “Callum Andrew?”

  “Everly Anne?”

  “You know the one free day you wish for us to have?”

  “Today,” I said. “Yes.”

  “Well, does this day absolve our inconvenient reality?”

  I smiled at her, my hands still framing her face. “I believe it does. Yes.”

  “So,” she said seriously, “that would mean you’d be able to kiss me on the mouth, like it was serious, like it meant something?”

  I thumbed her cheeks. “I believe it would.”

  “Okay,” she nodded. “I wanted to be clear, that’s all.”

  “Of course. Clarification is everything.”

  The water was turning cold underneath me, and I went back to shaving her legs so we could climb out.

  She asked shyly, “Did you like your first time, Callum?”

  Eyes on her leg only. “Sex is different for men, Everly. There’s not really ‘bad’ sex. If it’s sex, it’s good sex.”

  “It never means anything? Not ever?”

  I glanced at her. The picture of innocence; so eager for knowledge.

  “Sure it could. I’m only saying it doesn’t have to mean something in order for us to enjoy sex.”

  “Has it ever meant anything to you?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “Oh.”

  I rinsed her legs and then wrapped her in my robe. Everly watched as I washed quickly, ridding myself of sweat from my run with Nick. She handed me a towel but wouldn’t let me take it, tugging on it playfully.

  “You don’t want to test me in a game of naked tug of war, Everly Anne.”

  “No?” She tugged the towel again. “How do you know what I want? You’re not the one who can see the future.”

  I pulled her hard with the towel on purpose, so she would trip, and caught her before she even had a chance to fall. “That’s it.” I swung her over my shoulder and carried her to my bed, laying her down, face full of hair, laughing, as I went for her sensitive ribs.

  “Isn’t this better, topolina?” I whispered, kissing her neck. “Doesn’t this feel better than worrying—this one free day?”

  “Don’t try to win this game with your mouth on my neck.” She laughed.

  I pulled back, staring at her in the glow of the afternoon sun. Her eyes were bright, shining, and all for me.

  “Then where should I put my mouth to win, Everly Anne? Tell me.”

  Our foreheads touched.

  She breathed sweetly against my lips as I waited.

  “Where, farfalla?”

  Her hands framed my face as she whispered, “You don’t know how much you scare me, Callum Andrew.”

  “You don’t know how much I want to kiss you and prove there’s nothing to fear.”

  “My heart wants to believe you.”

  “Then close your eyes, and let me talk to your heart.”

  Slowly she closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and allowed me her lips. I kissed her softly once.

  “The sweetness of you, Everly Anne Brighton.” I kissed her deeper, parting her lips with mine. “Do you believe me yet?” I kissed her again, pressing into her, naked below me. “Do you feel how much I adore you? How much I crave you, yet?”

  She kissed me back, running her soft fingers along my shoulders. “I feel,” she whispered between breaths. “I feel, Callum Andrew.”

  I pulled back for a moment to soothe her cheeks with soft caresses of my fingers. As I stared down to her, I said, “I will never again be able to look at you in class. Understand?”

  She smiled, but her eyes burned. “There’s no inconvenient realities today. Shush with that nonsense. My heart was trying to hear you.”

  So we lay on top of the covers and kissed and shivered, and I didn’t ask why she didn’t want to cuddle close or crawl underneath, where it was warm.

  “I don’t know what to do,” she whispered as I laid her hand on my bare chest.

  “You don’t have to do anything.”

  She looked away. “I’m a little scared.”

  I rolled to my back.

  “I don’t know if that’s a compl
iment or the truth.” I smiled.

  She turned pink. “Callum. Andrew.”

  “What? Humor is a good tension breaker.”

  She fell silent, and I closed my eyes, letting her have a moment to think. But with my eyes closed, I felt that same comfort come over me whenever she was near. My body was being dragged down toward sleep. I felt the drift, just as I felt her lips on my chest, her hair softly whispering across my stomach.

  She looked down to me and said, “Your kiss feels like fireworks.”

  I sat up and instantly tasted her lips again. Everly wasn’t as shy as before. I pulled her onto my lap; so out of line, so needful of her. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and returned soft kisses. Too soft. Too innocent.

  “I need to feel,” she whispered. “You don’t understand how much.”

  “I do, topolina.” I kissed along her throat. “I understand so very, very much.”

  Everly pulled me down as she eased on to her back. I tried to rest on my palms, framing her head, to keep distance between us, but it was futile as she ran her hands along my back to my ribs, hipbones...

  I didn’t need to graduate at the top of my class to guess where she was heading...

  A mantra of, “I can’t take this girl out of lust. I can’t ruin her with my neediness” ran through my mind as I felt her hand slip lower, lower...

  “Everly Anne,” I whispered, taking her hands into mine, trying to reassure her she hadn’t done anything wrong—hell, she couldn’t possibly be doing anything more right. But I failed.

  Her eyes grew shy, and she quickly pushed me up.

  “I’m sorry,” she said breathlessly.

  I thumbed her cheek. “You didn’t do anything wrong. We just have to slow down for a minute or else that inner beast I warned you about will take over.”

  She nodded silently.

  Softly, I kissed her. “Does that feel good, farfalla?”

  She nodded. I kissed her again.

  “You mean something,” I vowed. “Understand?”

  She kissed me back. “I trust you, Callum.”

  “Do you?”

  “More than anyone,” she whispered.

  She let me explore her in warm breaths and soft kisses. My lips adored her hipbones and navel. My fingers trailed along her sides and kissed her goosebumps. I marveled at how ticklish she was. I breathed along her throat. My hands ghosted along her breasts. Goose-bumps rose just like tickling her side; her tiny, pink, nipples grew taut, enticing my mouth.

  “You’re so beautiful, Everly Anne.” I surrounded her with my lips, and she breathed out. “You have no idea how much I want you.”

  “Callum,” she hummed as I palmed her breast. “Slow down.”

  I slid my hand to her hip. “I’m sorry. I’ll stop.”

  She shook her head, taking my hand and putting it back on her breast. “I mean go slower. You feel so good, but you have to go slow or I miss the feeling.”

  “Miss?” I wondered.

  She blinked. “I can’t feel everything like you can. Like other girls get to appreciate. Your warmth. How you smell. Some of your touching. I have less senses. I have to pay more attention. It’s easier if you go slower.”

  I nodded. “But this all feels good, right?”

  She put her hand on my face. “Fireworks.”

  ***

  Everly elected to “eat” dinner in the privacy of my room rather than with my family. I told a lie about the sun and too much fresh air so I could join her sans Marta’s never-ending list of what I should do. I ate most of my food, but her full plate rested on the dresser as she flipped through the channels.

  “I don’t like eating alone,” I admitted. “It’s depressing, topolina.”

  Everly looked back at me from the foot of my bed. “I’m not very hungry. Sorry.”

  “No? I would have thought your lips would be starved after all the work they did earlier.”

  She glanced at me with a shy smile. As I ate my dinner, I stared at her hair falling down the center of her back. After a moment, she turned around.

  The television forgotten, a pair of hazel eyes focused solely on me. “I have anxiety about eating... Sometimes full-on panic attacks. Making it into a big deal doesn’t help.”

  I stayed quiet and allowed her truth to stew until it settled. “That’s not the whole story, though, is it?”

  “You tell me. You’re the doc in training.”

  I shoved my plate aside and scooted closer. In the dim glow of my bedroom, Everly felt exposed. No hiding. No cloak of the classroom games. And if I had to sink just to swim, I would’ve drowned to find out her truth.

  “I’m all out of guesses,” I said, “and you’ve promised to give it to me straight.”

  I reached for her hands, and she let me trace over her map of scars. I was a little lost in lines and wonder as she whispered, “Do you want to see them all?”

  “Only if you want to show them to me.”

  “I’d have to take all my clothes off. Again.”

  My eyes lifted to see her face, but she was focused on my hands. “Have you completely stopped caring about your father killing me?”

  She cracked a brief smile. “It’s actually part of my daily routine to make sure I haven’t hurt myself, so it’d be perfectly acceptable, seeing as how you’re a doctor.”

  “So this is strictly for self-preservation,” I mused. “Eight.” I stood and reached for her hand. “You come up with terrific cover stories.”

  “Eight what?” she asked.

  “Oh, nothing.”

  Tatum interrupted by banging eloquently on my door while shouting, “Fireworks in five, lovebirds! Put your dick away, Cal, and come down stairs!”

  I shook my head, laughing, “We’ll be right down.”

  Everly looked up at me. “I guess getting naked will have to wait.”

  “At least until the fireworks end,” I said. “Don’t want too much beautiful happening all at once.”

  “Is this how you wooed Amelia into your bed all those years ago?” She asked as we walked downstairs.

  “Nope. Half bottle of Jack wooed Amelia into my bed.”

  “A threesome. Nice.”

  “More like a onesome. She spent most of the night throwing up. I’m shocked she even remembers.”

  “She looks at you like she really remembers.”

  “Truscott looks at you like you’re every star in the sky,” I retorted. “Does that mean anything?”

  “He’s dying, and I’ve promised him my heart. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory.”

  “No,” I argued as we followed everyone down to the beach. “It’s different. Do you feel like that about him? Do you like him beyond wanting to help him? You can be honest. It’d be an honor to have my heart broken by The Girl with Southern-Belle-Soft Lips.”

  “You mean does he give me a thousand butterflies in my stomach when I’m around him?” We found a spot to sit in the sand.

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  She sat close to me, closer than I’d expected, hip to hip, side to side.

  “No.” Everly turned her head, leaving our faces only a breath apart. “But this gives me a thousand butterflies, Callum Andrew.” Softer, “And kissing you on our one free day gives me a million more.”

  I leaned down to kiss her softly.

  “Still like fireworks?” I whispered.

  “This show has more competition that it will ever know.”

  ***

  By the time the show ended, my house had fallen quiet. Noelle followed her friends to a party, and Tatum and Nick hid themselves in the guest room for what little alone time they each got together—as he was in the army and always gone, and she was a nurse and always on call. Marta took care of my father, and then it was just Everly and me. We sat under the stars with our feet in the pool, listening to the ocean’s chant.

  “Is it cold?” she asked.

  My foot swirled the water. “It feels good to me. I’m not cold.”
/>   “If I snuck under that waterfall, would you follow me?” She nodded to the side of the pool where water sheeted from a cliff of rocks.

  A kiss dabbed innocently on her shoulder was my only reply.

  Everly pushed off the side of the pool and swam, fully clothed, until she vanished behind the waterfall. I pulled off my shirt and swam to her until both of us were tucked inside a rock cocoon, veiled by the sheet of water. And inside this too-close little hole in the world, everything heightened. Her hair swirled in slow motion as she waded. Long skinny arms almost touched me at every pass. Hazel glowed from the underwater lighting. Wet skin shimmered from the darkness.

  I was never more alive. I watched everything all at once.

  She sunk beneath the water and left her clothing at the bottom. Her eyes never looked at me as she twisted and swam for the large rock behind us. She just pulled herself up and sat there. I folded my arms on a smaller rock and watched.

  “I was right.”

  Everly finally looked at me. “About what?”

  “You look like a lost mermaid.”

  She smiled and pushed her long peach hair forward to cover her breasts. “Better?”

  I shook my head in awe. “If I caught you, I’d never set you free.”

  She looked down to her body. “What about all the ugly scars? Bruises?”

  I swam closer and twisted to show a long scar along my side. “I had to have my appendix taken out when I was ten. Do you think it’s hideous?”

  “Callum.” She sounded defeated. “My scars and bruises are never-ending. They’re everywhere. All people do is stare at me, if I dress normally. Once this woman started shouting at Timothy. Called him every dirty name she could summon, because she thought I was being abused. And then there are the endless questions. You …” She almost laughed. “That scar does not mar your body in any sort of way. I bet Amelia saw it and thought it was an incredible turn-on.”

  I looked up at her. “I just told you I thought you were beautiful. Didn’t you hear me?”

  “Well, you’d be the only one.”

  “So there have been other men you’ve taken beneath a waterfall to strip for?”

  She looked away, and I thought she was upset, but when she turned back, she had the ghost of a smile on her face. “Of course not.”

  I reached my hands out for hers. “Come down here.” Everly slid back into the water, and I sunk down to her eye level. She was so close. She was too far. I moved my hands to her wrists and tugged her toward me. “Still have butterflies?”