Innocence of Love (24 page)

****

Delighted he’d spent some time with his son, what a remarkable moment. He really could not take his eyes of his boy, his double, his son. The very young man that him and Sophie created together and she…he didn’t wish to think that way, he couldn’t or he would end up torturing himself again. The fact remained he was in contact with Sabastian, and they were now sharing quality time together, okay, it might only be a few hours, but enough to ease his heart for the time being while they both get use to the idea of knowing one another.

They visited the park where he sat talking to Sabastian about what he enjoyed the most, typical young boy loves his technology, but Caroline and Mike were strict pleasing Calvin.

He climbed out his car overwhelmed, happy, it had been a good day a part from the little hiccup with Sophie, but he guessed it was time to give up and let go. He could no-longer waste his time chasing her when it was clear she had no interest in him whatsoever. Yet, he’d been certain the night in the hospital where she fell asleep on him meant more, much more. Why would she allow him to stay if there had not been something else? No, he had made a clear decision on the drive back home he would keep in contact with Sabastian and end his misery in pursuing Sophie, as much as it hurt his heart.

He flicked his fingers through his gelled hair while he scrunched up his nose needing to let go to the most precious person in his life. There had been one benefit of meeting Sophie he found out about Sabastian and that was unconditional. He’s a great young man and very proud of what Caroline and Mike had done with him. He had nothing to fear, Sophie had been right there was no-way he would even think about disrupting his life.

He made his way into the back entrance to the hall thinking about heading to his room to get freshened up for his night out in York celebrating his best friend’s birthday. Calvin had thought about nothing but of all the bad memories of ten years ago. What he resented, how that night in the barn had turned into a living hell for Sophie. Those thoughts were to be wiped away, forgotten and move on.

He had plans to smarten up and get ready. With Ross’s parents attending the meal, he had no plans to drink too much, due to him travelling back to London tomorrow. He wished he would start getting the train home and back again, it would make life easier and without contending with busy motorways, not only that he could also catch up on any work that needed to be done, or check his schedule getting ahead of himself.

He stepped inside the hall with the windows wide open, allowing the wonderful Yorkshire air to invade. A linger of fresh bread, cakes, betting his mum had been baking again. His mum loved spending her spare time baking such exquisite cakes.

Calvin followed the smell into the main kitchen to find his mum, with flour, sugar, and baking trays all over the place, the place looked like it had been flour bombed.

“Hi there, enjoying yourself?” he mocked, seeing small fairy cakes on the rack cooling down he went to pitch one still piping hot, but he didn’t care. He took a bite burning his mouth, however, worth the taste with the texture so soft, tasting the vanilla extracts.

“Hello, Calvin,” she sang turning around with her apron covered in flour and her hair sticky. “How was Sabastian?” she asked when he immediately reached into his shorts pocket to retrieve his phone. He walked around the island to be closer to his mum. His mouth full with cake. He stood beside his mum getting as close as he could before getting covered in flour and other ingredients. He swiped his finger across the phone screen, to show her a picture, he’d promised to get her of Sabastian. In fact the picture was off father and son, they looked great.

“Ah, look at him, he’s exactly like you…my goodness, he’s your double when you were that age and even now…look at his bobbly dazzler eyes,” she said nudging Calvin.

“Yeah, gorgeous like his father,” he remarked chuckling.

“Was it good?” She asked while he continued to show her the pictures.

“Brilliant, he’s a great boy and doing so well. They’re planning on visiting London during the school holidays and I told them to get in touch. I would love to spend a day with my son.” He smiled.

“Good. I’m so pleased for you, seems to be working out perfectly. However, you had a guest while you were out,” she announced when he started making his way to the other side of the island to go to his room to take a shower.

“Oh, right.”

“Sophie,” she told him.

His heart sunk into the pit of his stomach. Shocked, he stared at her wide eyed not believing what he heard her say. “She wanted me to tell you she called here.”

“Is that it,” he managed to say gulping heavy.

“Yes and asked me to tell you. She looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders,” his mum added while measuring out the flour.

“How did she get here?” he asked, curious trying to figure out why she came to the hall.

“Her father brought her. She is staying at her dad’s, I presume?”

“Yes…and he brought her here…for what?” he asked mystified.

“I have no idea, Calvin. They came and went. She looked disappointed that you weren’t here, but when I reminded her about Sabastian, she remembered you mentioning something,” his mum added.

“Yeah, I bumped into her briefly at the pub. I made the excuse that I needed Caroline’s number to call her for contact with Sabastian,” he told her. “Well, either way. I’m going to freshen up and get ready to head out to the city for Ross’s birthday, it’s a shame you and dad cannot make it,” he thought to say aware they both have some function tomorrow and wanted to be fresh.

“I’m sure we can make it up to Ross. What you going to do about Sophie?” she questioned turning to gaze at him.

He scrunched up his nose, unsure what he was meant to do, or why she’d even visited. “I’ll contact her at some time.”

“Okay. Well you have a good time, and send our love to all.” She then carried on with her baking.

Calvin walked through the hall, making his way upstairs to his room, trying not to think about the reason why Sophie had been to the hall looking for him. He bet she had visited to tell him off again about something else he hadn’t done right.

His phone sounded. He glanced to see who was calling, Veronica. He sighed, not being in the mood to deal with her. He swiped his finger across the screen to ignore her.

Stood under the shower head, having the warm water cascading over him, trying to figure out what it was Sophie had come to the hall for. There was nothing for her to target him for this time, unless she didn’t like the fact he was seeing Sabastian, but that was Sabastian’s choice not hers. His head rattled trying to think about what she was after or what did she have to say. He started becoming paranoid, thinking there was something else to complete madness of their relationship, something further had unearthed and he was about to be shot down.

How the hell can love hurt so much, especially when its innocence?

He sat on his couch, thoughts racing around his head, unable to remover Sophie from his thoughts. He just cannot understand why on earth she’d visited the hall. A towel wrapped around his waist, unsure if she wanted him to act on her visit or was he just to let it go, forget about her? He ached not knowing what would be the right thing to do.

His phone sounded again guessing it was Veronica calling him again, deliberately ignoring it. He stood and headed to his closet to get dressed, putting on a smart pair of black trousers, and a dark purple shirt. He tucked the shirt inside his pants to then put his black socks followed by his polished black shoes. He splashed his aftershave on, Lacoste. He walked to the full-bodied mirror for him to check he looked reasonably good. He stared into his own eyes, the pit of his stomach tender. He sighed needing to stop thinking so hard, he needed to go out and enjoy the evening, being the main reason why he made the trip.

He grabbed his car keys from the coffee table and phone. He swiped his finger across the screen to see who he had missed the previous call off…Sophie. He froze to the spot, not believing she still had his number…How did she have his number? Then again he could hardly argue he still had her number stored. He swallowed hard wondering if something had happened to Sabastian maybe that had been the reason for her possibly contacting him, then again, when she visited the hall earlier he was with him, that didn’t make sense. He chewed his lower lip, not being able to think clearly. Annoyance filled him. There was only one thing for him to do…

Calvin charged out the hall, stopping to give his mum a kiss on her cheek, still busy baking the fondant arrangements were stunning, she even made Turkish Delights. His mum was so clever. He was sure they were meant to be going out soon themselves, but he wasn’t going to ask. He couldn’t delay his evening more than it already had. He jumped in his car taking to the narrow lanes back to the village.

Calvin was a man on a serious mission.

****

She had tried calling him, but Calvin wasn’t answering his phone. Then it dawned on her, she had made a promise to delete his number. However, she had kept it, well in case anything happened to Sabastian, truthfully any excuse to keep his number…even if when she strolled through her contacts and came across his she froze, and then after a few moments would continue. Sophie hoped one day she would be able to move on from Calvin…it was clear he wanted nothing to do with her. She called him again at one last attempt, it just rang.

Sophie sighed needing to understand the way she had behaved had been unacceptable. Calvin wasn’t interested in her.

Feeding Kacey from her while drinking water, she urgently needed to stop thinking about Calvin before her head exploded and she lost full momentum of her life. Nevertheless, what struck her was what Ross told her, it stalked her head, whooshing around and around, without stopping.

“Grrr, stop it,” she growled with Kacey came off her breast and started crying. “Sorry, baby. Please don’t get involved with men, they are nothing but damn trouble. But then, maybe you will not be as stupid with men as I have been,” she mentioned holding her daughter’s tiny hand. She peered down at her precious little girl, loving the fact she was a mum, loving the responsibility.

A gentle knock sounded at her door. She watched the door being opened to see her father popping his head around the door. A smile dominated his face.

“You have a visitor.”

“Who?” she asked, baffled.

“Calvin.”

Sophie widened her eyes. She hitched her breath, thankfully she had just finished feeding Kacey and placed her delicately up to her shoulder to wind her. She carefully carried her daughter downstairs. A severe knot filled her tummy. Pleased Calvin had come to see her, but on the other hand a bag of nerves.   

She arrived to the bottom of the staircase to discover Calvin stood smart, hot, dashing, sexy and snatched her breath.

“Hi,” he spoke in a deep voice.

“Hi,” she replied back, unsure what else to say. Actually, there were many things she wanted to say, but the words were permitted to come out her mouth.

He stood glaring at her. Bile filled her throat, wishing she didn’t feel so anxious, but she did and there was no escaping him now.

“Would you like me to take Kacey, Sophie?” her dad suggested.

She turned her head to the right to glance at her dad, forgetting for a spilt second she held her.

“Would you?”

Her father approached and with great care she handed her daughter over to him. She found herself standing before Calvin, feeling a fool. Wishing she hadn’t bothered going to great lengths to contact him, but the truth was she knew the truth about ten years ago and had to act on that information.

“You visited the hall and called me…twice,” he highlighted.

“Yeah erm…would you mind if we head into the garden, feels stuffy in here,” she indicated like the walls were caving in on her.

She took the lead, walking to the rear of the house while her father went into the dining room to sit in front of the large screen and watch whatever with her daughter.

She scratched her head, disturbed, unsure how on earth she would approach the situation. She had no idea whether Ross had mentioned his visit earlier explaining the truth or not. Sophie stepped out the house, the cool wind instantly blowing through her hair while the sun blazed down. Calvin was only feet behind her. She walked over to the shade needing to be able to see his reactions or annoyance, unsure which would come first.

She kept her back toward him not wishing him to see her nerves taking over. A large lump dominated her throat. She breathed heavy.

“Is everything okay with Sabastian?” she heard him ask stood behind her.

Stunned, she turned around to look at him. “Is he okay, you saw him earlier?” she trembled concerned.

“Sorry, I thought that was the reason you were calling and needed to see me,” he declared with his eyes fully engaged on hers.

“Oh no…he’s fine,” she mocked. “Sorry to have worried you. No…I needed to talk to you about something else that is troubling me,” she informed him making that sound worse than what it really was.

“Oh, right,” he added, lowering his tone, clearly anxious.

“About ten years ago.” Calvin closed his eyes. She bet his stomach churned to the thought.