13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Michael

"Mom! What are you doing here?" Turning to face my mother, blinding smile plastered across my face, I tried not to wince at the asinine question.

My mom tilted her head and gave me a narrow-eyed look. One I had seen far too many times in my life. Usually when I was trying to pull a fast one on her. Not that that was what I was doing now. While I'd had every intention of seeing my parents when I had decided to come home, I hadn't really factored them into my thoughts after Callum had bound us together with his wayward spell.

"I live here, Michael," she reminded me slowly, her lips pursed, as she gave me the once over. "You, however, can barely be bothered to show your face for a holiday. Let alone a random Tuesday. "

This time I couldn't stop the tiny wince that crossed my face. It was true. Even when I did my obligatory holiday family time, I left shortly after the festivities. There was always work that I needed to do, always multiple cases that needed my attention.

Standing there in front of my mom, who was silently questioning, my mind went completely blank on how to respond to her question. "Uh…um…I…we…"

"It's my fault," Callum interrupted my nonsensical sputtering. "We're…dating. We're…ah…on a date."

Watching my mom's eyes grow comically big, I was sure we now wore matching expressions. Swiveling my head to shoot Callum a questioning look, he shrugged. His expression telling me he clearly had just blurted out the first thing he could think of and that I hadn't been doing any better.

Mom blinked a couple of times, several emotions crossing her face at once, none of which I could accurately pinpoint to let me know what she was thinking. She leaned to the side, so she could see past me to where Callum stood behind me. Her matching blue eyes gave him a thorough once over, before she broke into a smile. Holding out her hand, she introduced herself.

"Hello, I'm Jessica Endicott, Michael's mom. It's lovely to meet one of my son's boyfriends," giving me side-eye, she added, "I do believe you are the first one, in fact."

"I'm sure that's not true," I mumbled, knowing it very much was true.

Callum took Mom's hand in his for a quick shake, "Hi, I'm Callum Turner. No relation to the restaurant." He pointed to the storefront we were converging in front of.

"Well, that's disappointing," Mom joked, "I'd love to get some kind of friends and family discount. My friends and I love eating here. In fact, we just came from dinner and were doing some window shopping. I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted my son." Turning her attention to me, she smirked, "Shouldn't you be in Boston, holed up in your office or something?"

"Wow, Mom," was the best retort I could muster, lame as it was. "I had some vacation time and decided to use it. Callum and I don't get to see a lot of each other, so I decided to surprise him today." Well, that lie just slid off my tongue like butter. If there was a place in hell for people that lied to their moms, I was going there.

Narrowed blue eyes met mine, and we had a little stare off. It was high school all over again, and I fought to not squirm under her all-seeing, all-knowing gaze. "Your dad had lunch with Harry yesterday and he didn't mention it."

Trying not to be annoyed that my dad and my boss frequently met for lunch, where I was a topic of conversation, I rolled my eyes. "It was a spur of the moment thing. I was planning to come see you and Dad while I was in town." Not a complete lie.

"Splendid," her smile was back, though I could tell she thought something was up and I wasn't being completely truthful. Because she always knew . My sister, Melody, had the same magical power with her kids too, and I guessed it was a mom thing. "We'll expect you and Callum for dinner, let's say Thursday night? We have a new chef and he is simply amazing. I'll have him prepare one of your favorites."

Balking, I said, "We might be busy–"

"We'd love to," Callum cut in, and I swiveled my head to stare at him wide eyed and slack jawed.

Mom clapped her hands in glee, giving me a look like she'd just won some game I hadn't even known we were playing. "Splendid! Michael's father will be so surprised and happy to meet you, Callum." With a pointed look, she turned to me, her eyes shining. "Thursday night, Michael. Seven."

I guess we were having dinner Thursday with my parents then, because I knew that tone and I wasn't about to say one more word. Even at thirty years old, I knew when to keep my mouth shut when my mom told me to do something. And Callum had just jumped right in there and been all Of course we can have dinner with you. We'd love to. We are absolutely free.

"Callum, it was lovely meeting you." She gave him another warm smile. "I'm looking forward to getting to know you better."

"It was nice meeting you too, Mrs. Endicott," Callum politely responded .

Mom waved a hand in the air, "Oh, please, it's Jessica or Jess. None of that Mrs. Endicott nonsense. We'll see you boys on Thursday." She gave me one more thoughtful look, before leaving us standing alone on the street.

The tour attendees had all dispersed, even the ones that had held Macy up. She was patiently waiting to the side, then converged onto Callum when my mom was no longer in sight. Smacking him on his arm, she hissed, "You two are dating? You could have told me the truth instead of coming up with that lame story about a spell gone wrong."

Callum rubbed his arm, wincing. "Ow! And that wasn't a story! I did mess up a spell and bind us together. We can't get more than ten feet apart. I just said that because it was the first thing that popped into my head. It's… complicated."

"We're kind of dating." Because I had originally asked him out to dinner, even if our plans had changed. I wasn't sure if tonight technically counted as a first date, but I had enjoyed myself. "This is our first date."

Callum pushed his glasses up, his green eyes troubled. "I know you said it, about this being a date, I just didn't think you meant it?"

Shrugging, I nodded. "Why wouldn't I mean it? I told you I still wanted to take you on a date, despite the whole–" glancing around to see if anyone was close enough to hear us or care, I lowered my voice, "spell thing. I'm counting this as our first date." Firmly, I nodded my head, "It counts. We're counting it."

Macy handed Callum his share of the tips, observing, "You two are weird, yet oddly cute together. Michael, I hope you weren't too bored during the tour."

Shaking my head, I smiled. "Not at all. It was really interesting and informative. And fun. Makes me wish I had paid attention more in school to our town's history."

She seemed pleased by my praise. "Well, I'm happy you had fun. I'm going home now. Callum, thank you for your help tonight. Text me and let me know how the rest of your date, non-date turns out."

Then we were standing there alone–well, as alone as you could be on a busy Salem street still overrun with tourists–just staring at each other, neither of us speaking. Callum was frowning, a strange look on his face.

Taking his hand, because holding his hand in mine was my new favorite thing, I leaned into him. The need to kiss him was overwhelming, and I wanted to wipe that slightly sad look off his face.

Before our lips could meet, Callum took a step back, holding up a hand to stop me. "Not here. I don't want our first kiss to be in the middle of the street."

He looked down, his cheeks blooming with the soft rose of his easy blush. Peeking up at me through his dark lashes, he smirked, "And I don't put out on the first date, Mr. Endicott, thank you very much. "

Reaching for him, I pulled him flush against me. It didn't slip my notice that all our parts just seemed to slide into all the right places easily. No pokes or prods, just a smooth glide against one another, everything exactly where it should fit. "It's just a kiss, Callum. No one said anything about putting out."

My tone was teasing, and I had been joking, but I realized I also…wasn't. Me, Michael Endicott, king of the one-night stands, and fun fuck boys, didn't want that from Callum. Don't get me wrong, I totally wanted it from Callum, but for the first time in my life, I wanted more.

For the first time, I wanted all the things. The dating, the soft, teasing jokes that were just between the two of us. The hand holding–fuck yes, ALL the hand holding. The first kiss that we would both remember for the rest of our lives. And one day, I wanted to know what it felt like to slide my hard cock inside of Callum's tight hole. To taste him, feel him, hear the sounds he made when I touched him. See the face he made when he came.

I wanted everything, and more, and I wanted it all with Callum.

The realization startled me. It was a completely new and foreign concept in my life. And it made absolutely no sense. We hadn't even known each other for twenty-four hours. It was the most ludicrous thing to even think about a future with him .

People didn't fall in love this quickly. Did they?

Was that what I was feeling? Was I in love? Surely not. It had just been an extremely stressful couple of days, I was hungry and tired, and Callum had been a steady anchor to hold on to.

Yet, with his body against mine, fitting together like we had been made for each other, him looking up at me through the lenses of his glasses with those green eyes of his, his pink lips softly parted, I knew I was just trying to talk myself into making some sense of the perplexing rabbit hole my mind had gone down.

"Have you bewitched me?" I whispered hoarsely, my eyes fixed on his lips, which were just right there. Looking plump and waiting.

Callum blinked slowly, like a cat, his lips curving up into a close-lipped smile. "I think we both know what a disaster that would be if I even tried."

"I want to kiss you."

"I know," his tongue poked out and licked his bottom lip enticingly, "but not here. Not like this. I know this sounds silly, but I want it to be…special. Meaningful. I'm not trying to tease you or be difficult."

He wasn't. I knew that. I could see it in his eyes, feel it in his body. Didn't make the need go away, though.

My stomach grumbled loudly, interrupting whatever the hell was happening between us, and we both snickered. "Our pizza awaits. "

Callum stepped back, out of my arms, and nothing had ever felt more wrong than that did. Grabbing his hand in mine, his fingers instantly grasped mine tightly, giving a short squeeze. "Walk me home?" he inquired, an impish grin teasing his lips.

"As if I could do anything else. This better be good pizza," I warned him, as we headed in the direction of our waiting dinner. "Though honestly, I'm so hungry it could taste like cardboard and I wouldn't care."

"It's good," he assured me, swinging our arms with each step we took.

"Callum?"

"Hmmm?" he glanced over, his eyes shining.

"No taking advantage of me tonight," my smile was mischievous, but I made my tone serious. "Since we're going to have to share a bed. I'm gonna need you to keep your hands to yourself."

He cocked one dark brow above the rim of his glasses. "Oh, did I forget to tell you? You're sleeping on the floor. I told you I don't put out on the first date."

"The fuck I am." There was no way in hell that was happening.

Callum threw his head back, laughing loudly, the sound warming every part of my body, and soon my laughter joined his. My cheeks actually ached from smiling and laughing so much today.

I couldn't remember ever laughing so much with someone or enjoying their company as much as I had Callum's.

All the things that filled my life, that I deemed more important than family or having a serious relationship, had faded into the background today. And I hadn't missed them.

This man–this witch–had me spellbound and this was one spell I didn't want anyone to break.