“Cal curled his fingers around mine and raised my left hand to the brownish flower. There was a callus on his thumb that should have been irritating against my skin.”

“Cal's fingers tightened on mine, and my heart thumped in response. The library felt very quiet and very still around us. "You'll feel it.”

“The sparks faded, but Cal didn't take his hand off mine.”

“He ran his thumb over my lower lip, sending a flurry of sparks through me. "Good-bye, Sophie." -Cal”

“Cal shrugged. "That's one word for it. I'm not all that thrilled with it either."I pushed the covers off and got out of bed, making sure my nightshirt didn't ride up. "Cal, I already have to deal with an angry dad today. Please don't pull some macho "bethrothed" thing on top of it, okay?"He caught my wrirst. "I'm not. And it's not you I'm pissed at. It's them. They shouldn't have taken you there."His hand was warm on my skin.”

“Cal had been waiting for us at the pond. When he’d seen me, he’d given me a barely perceptible nod, which was the Cal version of waving his hands over his head and yelling, “Hey, Sophie!”

“Of course, once I'd wrapped my mind around the fact that it was Cal and not Archer standing in my bedroom, it dawned on me that Cal was standing in my bedroom."Hey," I breathed, hoping my hair wasn't a huge tangled mess, even though I was ninety-nine percent sure that it was. I mean, I could see it out of my peripheral vision."Hey.""You're,um,in my room.""I am.""Is that allowed?""Well,we are engaged," Cal deadpanned.I squinted at him, shoving big handfuls of my hair away from my face. I had no idea if that was supposed to be a joke or not. You could never tell with Cal."Did you want to watch me sleep or something? Because if that's the case, this engagement is so broken."Cal's lips quirked in what might have been a smile. "Do you have a smart-ass reply for everything?"If at all possible,yeah.”