Ace Huxley's Daughter

27

If you'd have told me, a little over a month ago that I'd be spending the day after Ace Huxley's daughter's 21st birthday watching her read in a hotel bed somewhere in Eastern Germany, I'd have laughed. Hell. It was almost laughable now. We'd been roaming around Europe for 9 days now and she was completely different girl. Laughing harder than I'd ever seen, a permanent smile I wanted tattooing on the back of my hand so I could see it constantly.

I was texting her dad when she wasn't looking. Pictures of her so out of her head, living in the moment like he wanted me to. 'She's going to lean toward staying with her mum if she leaves right now Emerson.' He'd said 'Callie doesn't like risk anymore. She plays everything safe because it's been drilled into her. It's not her. She's in there somewhere. I thought Blake would pull that out of her but it looks like you've managed it easier than he ever would have. She needs to taste life properly and she can't do that when she thinks everyone is watching her. I think the longest she'd manage is 2 weeks. Take her. Pull the walls down and give her a reason to keep taking risks. You've made her smile more in 2 weeks than I've seen in the past 6 years.'

I've spent 3 weeks with no one else but Olive. If I thought she was fascinating before, now it was enchanting. I was starting to think she'd cast a spell on me when I first kissed her back in London. Fuck.

Holy shit.

"What you reading?" I broke the silence from where I was leaning against the wall. A finger came up from the book and I smiled. My entire body tingled with energy I'd never felt before and I wasn't exactly sure how to describe it. Even in a vest top with wet hair, head in a book I'd bought her in Cologne on our way back from Brussels. She looked up, green eyes I'd be seeing forever and another shock of that energy burst straight from my heart.

"The book you bought me." I walked across the room to her slowly, sinking in beside her and pulling her tiny frame into me. "You didn't have to Sonny."

"Shut up." I laughed. "Your birthday angel. I saw you wanting it."

"I have a copy at home."

"But not this copy. Not the first edition hard back. You don't have it in hardback." That shimmer in her eye was new. As bright as her eyes always had been, they were alive now. Every day I was finding a new colour in them. That sparkle, like a million stars in the night sky right here on earth, right in her eyes. The entire universe. That only showed up yesterday. I noticed it first thing in the morning and it stole my breath. I couldn't breathe. It took me at least 10 minutes before I could sing Happy Birthday to her and watch as her face flushed red.

Callie played with the new necklace hanging around her neck. A tiny pendant with bubbles inside. I knew the second I saw it she'd love it and the fact she hadn't taken it off yet was all the confirmation I needed that it meant as much to her as I wanted it to.

She was happy here. I could see it. The difference in here was astronomical. Compared to the girl who was walking around stadiums with a false smile on her lips. I think I'd smashed her worries out of the stratosphere. I'd obliterated them from her mind and she was free. Of everything. Just me and her against the world. That's all I wanted. Not even just now. Forever. I wanted her forever.

I wanted to wake up to grumpy Callie and kiss her until she forgets why she's mad. I want a house in the middle of nowhere with a dog and I want to come home from work to see her new pieces of whatever art she's been working on because she went back to university and restudied and got the right degree that she actually wanted. I want Christmas dinner with a fucking rock band around my table and I want her mother to try and speak to her the way she has been recently. I want her to try it in front of me when Callie isn't cutting her off. I want skinny dipping at 3am in some lake we shouldn't be in. I want to smoke some suspicious weed and count stars. I want to get wasted and stumble down streets with her only to hold her hair back as she throws up in the hotel toilet. I want hangovers and sunbathing and arguments over which road we need to take and no she can't have her 3rd Belgium waffle because she's going to make herself sick. I want a ring on her finger and for one of us to change our last name. I don't even want her to have my last name, fuck I'd take hers.

I want Callie.

"Read to me?" Gold. Today there was gold. A hint of freckles from the summer sun. "Please." I kissed her head, taking the book from her hand and turning to the bookmark and starting to read to her. She flipped the pages as minutes turned into hours and out entire day burned into a sunset. "I like listening to your voice." She pressed a hand under my top, laying it flat against my heart. "It vibrates in your chest and makes me feel all warm."

I was so in love with this girl I don't even care anymore if she destroys me. I would let her do it over and over and over again just to have her like this for one more day. Break me down to cells or atoms Callie. Melt my bones into goo. Ruin me. So, if one day I am forced to leave you, no other girl will ever be Olive Calliope Huxley.

"Thank you. For making me come on this trip." Eyes back on me as I closed the book slowly. "I needed it."

"Has it helped?" She blinked.

"You helped. Just having you around helps."

No one will ever be Olive.