Something in the Way You Move [O'J]

Part 15

Jessie's POV

After twenty minutes or so, the delivery guy comes and knocks at the door. Danny answers and takes the food from him and sets it in the kitchen before paying him. I ask him, "Should we wake Callie up? She's dozed off."

"Has she? I was wondering why she was so quiet," he replies. He walks over to her and kneels down next to her. He whispers something to her and strokes her cheek with his thumb. She stirs, but rolls over instead of waking up. Danny looks at me and says quietly, "She's not waking up. Let's just let her sleep for now." I get a blanket from his room and drape it over her. She shifts a bit and curls up into a fetal position, clutching the blanket loosely with her hands. We both smile at her---she's so innocent when she sleeps---before getting up and going into the kitchen to eat.

"So, Callie's grown on you, then?" I ask Danny as we eat.

"Yeah, she has," he says.

"Would you ever think of adopting her?" I question curiously.

He stays silent for a few minutes, playing with some rice on his plate, before he responds, "Well, I would, but she's a missing person...by law I can't until she's either put up for adoption again or her guardians release her to me. If I were to adopt her, I'd have to figure out a way to prove that her current guardians aren't fit to care for her and then I'd have to go through the whole legal process with her...I don't know if she'd want to go through that."

"But she trusts you! Surely she'd know you'd take good care of her?"

"She's known me for three days, Jess, and for the first day and a half or so she wouldn't let me near her, much less talk to her."

"You think she doesn't trust you?"

"No, I don't think she trusts me."

"Why would she tell you about her past? Why would she play games with you? Why would she let you help her with her hair? Why would she be sleeping in your flat if she didn't trust you?"

He shrugs and sighs. "I don't know."

"Would she have called you a bloody jackeen if she thought you were going to lash out at her? No, she wouldn't have. She knew you wouldn't hurt her; that's why she said it as if it were no big deal."

"Alright, fine, so she trusts me somewhat! It's not like I can just adopt her because she trusts me!"

"You think she doesn't love you?"

"Not really, no..."

"Okay, well, it's still early for that to happen. But it's clear that you love her."

"'Love' is a strong word..." he says carefully after a minute or so.

"True, but you're not denying it," I tell him, reaching across the table and grabbing his hand. He snaps his head up and stares at me with his beautiful eyes. He smiles and says, "No, I'm not denying it. I probably never will."

I laugh quietly and we get up to clear our plates. Afterwards, we walk back into the living room, where Callie's still curled up on the couch. I notice her feet poking out from under the blanket and nudge Danny. "She's still got her shoes on."

He grins and says, "Perhaps we should fix that?" I nod and we sneak over to the couch. We both carefully try to un-tie her sneakers, a challenge since her knots are excellent. I manage to un-tie my sneaker before pushing him out of the way and un-tying the other one. I tug them off her feet. He may be dexterous, but since he doesn't have long nails, he's crap at un-tying tight knots. We set them on the floor and I ask him, "Does she sleep in her socks or not?"