“No?”
She tapped her hands on the railing, pushed her lips to one side. The smile lingered, but she hesitated. “Have you ever had fudge from Mackinac Island? Walked through the streets of Helen, Georgia in their downtown that looks like a Bavarian Village during Oktoberfest?”
“Uh. No.”
“I want to do that. Go to those places. The small towns and hidden gems. I want to go primitive camping in the Rockies, where I have to sleep with one hand fisting a can of bear repellent spray, go glacier sliding in August. I want to go sand dune sliding in Michigan.”
She turned to me, eyes wide with wonder, and asked, “Did you know Michigan has a lake that they say is as blue as the Caribbean? Or that you can go to real-life cattle ranches in Wyoming or Montana and spend a week learning what it’s like to be a ranch hand? Those are the places I want to go.”
Her tone was wistful.
My dick was hard as a rock.
How had she made all of that sound like the most exciting vacation ever and we didn’t even leave the United States?
“Why Michigan?” I asked, clearing my throat, trying to will my dick to soften before she noticed. Who got a hard-on over talking about flyover states in the Midwest?
“Coincidental.” She laughed, shook her head, and turned back to the gondola ride. “You think it’s lame, probably.”
I wanted to tick off every single list of places she’d ever considered visiting and experience it all with her, just to see that look on her face over and over again.
11
Gabby
“You want to primitive camp in the Rockies. How do you feel about getting there by this?”
He spun his laptop and on the screen, a Mercedes van longer than any van I’d ever seen appeared in a matte, dark gray.
“What is this?”
“A camper. Sleeps four. But not much longer than a Suburban, so should be easy to handle through the mountains. We can stay in hotels, or campsites when we want, or just park this baby somewhere on the road.”
“Um…” I was lost. Completely. “What are you talking about?”
“Your bucket list of places to see.”
He flipped back the laptop without looking at me and might have taken my heart with him.
How had he…
“I told you? About that?”
He tapped a pen to paper next to him. “Hiking Antelope Canyon. The Delicate Arch Trail in Moab. Glacier sliding and camping in the Rockies, a week of wrangling cattle in Montana… I found some places to stop on the way to Michigan where there are the sand dunes, Torch Lake is what that beautiful lake you mentioned is called. Looks incredible, by the way, and from there we can head up to Mackinac Island.”
He glanced up, pen stilled, while my heart leaped into my throat.
“I told you.”
“When we stood watching people go by on the gondola rides,” he confirmed as if we’d been planning this trip for a year. He slid a notebook in my direction where I’d frozen as soon as I entered the kitchen. On it, a list of at least a dozen places I’d always wanted to see. “There are a few, like Antelope Canyon out of the way unless we hit it on the way back after Georgia, but we could maybe do it. What did I miss?”
My eyes burned. Beneath the list he made, he had them laid out in order moving from west to east, so we could start here and then travel across the country.
And beneath the locations? Length of stays. Driving distance to each, ideas on whether to camp or hotel stays. He’d thrown in an Amish Village tour in Iowa, a ferry that took you from Wisconsin across Lake Michigan, avoiding Chicago altogether.
“When did you do all this?”
“I remembered what you said while I was working out earlier.”
“How long have you been awake?” I didn’t see him before I went swimming and I had no idea where his gym was. I hadn’t seen one while I’d tried touring the home a bit more but given the fact there were multiple floors and more than one staircase, it was totally possible I hadn’t seen it.
Then I’d showered, and I’d come back to the kitchen to find something to eat for lunch.
He officially rocked my world.
“I woke up at nine or so, headed straight to the pool house where the gym is.”
The pool house, of course. I hadn’t considered taking a peek in there.
“It’s more of a guest house and gym, not that I need the extra guest rooms, but I like to have it.”
“It’s only two,” I said stupidly, checking the time on the microwave behind him. “That’s only a few hours for you to plan all this.”
“Yeah, well… they’re just ideas.” His head dipped and he worried his bottom lip with his teeth. A move that made my stomach warm and twist. “Do you not want to do this?”
I wanted to take this trip with everything I had. But with Joey? How could I take my dream trip with my dream guy and not throw myself all over him?
“I see,” he said and he might as well have dropped a bomb of disappointment onto the table. “I get it.”
“No.” I grabbed his hand, startled at the heat in his skin and how quickly it heated my own. “I want to do this. I’m surprised, is all. You did so much, so fast.”
“Yeah? You in?”
I laughed. His grin widened and he joined me. “Are you asking if I’m in on my own vacation plans? Yeah, Joey. I’d love to go on this trip.”
“Good.” He nodded his head toward the seat next to him. “Then get your ass over here and help me out with where you want to stay so I can start making reservations.”
“Campsites as much as possible,” I said without thought, no hesitation. I could stay in a hotel anywhere, but it was summer. Most areas would be warm enough.
“Then camping it is.”
“Are you sure?” I knew his life. His home alone was well over a millions-dollar mansion. I could handle hotels, ritzy ones, even. Heck, there might be nights I’d kill someone for a hot shower if we did this.
“Hell yeah.” He grinned, and it was so handsome, so sexy, without a hint of placating me, I almost threw my arms around him and kissed him.
“Why?”
I couldn’t believe this. He was taking all my ideas and thoughts and dreams and planning them. Mom would like this. Someone who actually made plans.
“It sounds like a blast.”
He made it sound like the most thrilling adventure ever. Problem was… “No, I mean, why would you want to do this? With me?”
His dark eyes turned molten. The pen in his hand tapped a wild beat on the table. Almost as frenetic as my heart was racing as he peered at me. The tip of his tongue appeared, swiped along his lip and I imagined that tongue, that slow caress of it against parts of me that shivered at the thought.
Oh God. A cross country travel trip with this man? I might not survive.
“Because you’re my wife, and the next few days might not be easy, but it’s the least I can give you for giving this marriage an actual shot with me.”
“Joey—” He stole my breath. My sense. Pretty sure the only thing beating inside me was primal. The need to kiss him. Touch him. Press my lips to his and kiss away the nerves sparking in his eyes so he didn’t realize…