THE STARS ARE BEAUTIFUL - WATTYS AWARD NEW ADULT WINNER 2019

Callum | Chapter 23

HER LIFE REST IN THE ATTIC from my childhood. And our future rested in my ability to act as if she didn't matter.

My days at work started to consist of asking Cecily the Cute Girl all of those questions I'd never wanted to ask. I paraded her around places I knew people from work would see us, like to Noelle's café, where she told me all about the humdrum details that comprised her life. I smiled at her every time we passed one another in the hallway at work. I talked about her with the nurses and asked more questions like, "Where would be a great place to take a girl I like on a romantic date?"

According to the hospital, we were a thing.

According to Dr. Brighton, I had no interest in finding out what had happened to his daughter.

According to me I was following my plan.

And according to Everly—she was right—the best way to manipulate people you were at the mercy of was to learn their point of weakness and use it against them.

For Brighton, that point was becoming his greatest fear. I was now the man who only had interest in an anomaly, and when it became too much work, too close to home, I'd bolted like a coward.

And Everly fulfilled her role. She became the girl I'd warned him about—too caged up, plus bright enough to figure out how to flee.

But to believe that this had been orchestrated and achieved so simply wasn't allowed. I wasn't that naïve.

So when the police showed up at my house two weeks after Everly Anne Brighton went missing, I wasn't surprised. But what preceded that event was a permanent game-changer.

We had been so careful to follow routine and never falter, but while I was banking on everyone's weakness in order to win, what I hadn't banked on was the strength of a lonely woman who wondered too many nights about the ghosts from the past, as her husband slept at her side, dreaming of another woman he couldn't shake from his memory.

And when you have nothing to lose, threats are pointless.

I wasn't watching or listening to the happenings of my house, as I had all the days before, because I was too focused on a girl with a sad yellow scarf.

"It was a big day in knitting club." She waved her hand to the cutout paper dolls she had assembled on the chaise. "We made you a scarf to keep you warm and to keep me sane from boredom."

I smiled. "I didn't know they allowed anyone under ninety to join such clubs."

"How do you know I'm not ninety?"

I took the gift from her. "Because I pay sixty-five dollars annually for my optometrist to report I have perfect vision."

"Does he charge to make sure how well you see souls, Callum?"

"Souls?" I laughed.

"How do you know my physical form is the same age as my spiritual being? I might be ninety in spirit."

I had to look away or else I'd bring her back to the hospital with me. There would be no denying that she lingered in a smile I couldn't erase.

But she took it all wrong. "You don't have to wear it. I was just bored."

"No," I said, "I love it. I... I miss you. That's all. I'm tired, too. That doesn't help my mood any."

She slid slowly across my lap until she was settled with her knees at my hips, arms around my shoulders. We sat on the floor of the attic and kissed with abandon. It felt as if I had never touched her before. As if my memory was trying to claw its way back to Everly and hold on with all its might.