He doesn’t reply. His eyes go to my fingers still wrapped in his. “Why don’t you start thinking of the kind of welcome you’re going to give me when I do get to Barbados.”
“I’ll give you the tourist treatment. Show you the sights.”
His eyes drop down to my body. “I know the sights I want to see, and I don’t have to fly miles and miles to see them.”
That makes me chuckle. “You have a one-track mind.”
“You make me unable to think of anything else.”
“I hate that I have to go now.”
“I hate that I have to let you.”
I swallow, and as if on cue, my phone starts to ring. It’s my mother.
“I love you,” I tell Landon again, pressing my lips to his, before reaching for the door handle.
He grips my arms as he kisses me back properly before letting me go. “I love you too. Call me when you land.”
“HAVEN’T you been getting enough sleep?” My mother asks after the plane takes off. .
I blink at her, blushing as my thoughts go back to last night, and the lovemaking that had lasted through the night and the early hours of the morning. I’d started dozing as soon as I got on the plane.
“It’s been kinda stressful settling into a new job,” I lie, not meeting her eyes. I’m grateful when she faces aunt Jacie and they go back to their wedding talk.
I finally wake up just before we land. Nana has arranged a car to take us to the hotel, a sprawling resort on the beach where the wedding will taking place. As soon as we unpack and freshen up, we head for her house, the hired car driving smoothly through the quaint cobblestone streets.
Nana’s house is a sprawling bungalow in an ancient, but beautiful and quiet part of town. The compound is airy and full of fruit trees, but inside the house, it smells like wood polish and old books, and there are many books, ranging from fiction to history, which Nana used to teach at the University before she retired. There are also stacks and stacks of old copies of all the magazine issues in which Aunt Jacie ever appeared.
Nana wheels her mechanized wheelchair to the front porch but gets up to hug Laurie and me.
“Look how beautiful you two have grown,” she says. She has a sweet, lilting accent, almost like poetry. “Where is Dylan?”
“He has exams,” I explain, “He’ll be here with Brett on Friday.”
“Ah, Brett.” She grins at Laurie. “Congratulations again, my dear. He is a fine young man.”
She turns her attention to the parents and we go inside to the large living room. Soon, Aunt Jacie’s brother Ferdi arrives with his daughters, Berry and Tamia, who are a few years older than Laurie and me. They bring their children, who soon finish their lunch and start tearing around the house with that energy that children always seem to have.
They finally drag us outside to watch them climb trees. We leave the older generation in the living room and go to sit on the front porch, drinking cold glasses of fruit punch and keeping an eye on the children while we talk about the wedding, our bridesmaid dresses, men, and honeymoon plans.
“Where are you going?” Berry asks. She is the more vivacious of the two and she talks as fast as a runaway train.
“Venice,” Laurie replies. “Dad and Uncle Trent’s wedding gift.”
“Lucky you,” Berry says, and we start to talk about trips abroad and dream destinations. Tamia spent her honeymoon in Paris and Berry in Dubai, and we go on about the advantages of the beautiful cities. They soon turn to me to ask me where I would like to spend my honeymoon.
I laugh nervously. ‘I’m not even engaged.”
“But according to Laurie you have a guy who’s crazy about you,” Tamia’s voice is whisper soft. “It probably won’t be long now.”
“Ha!” I exclaim, just as my phone rings. I can’t hide my smile when I see that it’s Landon. I get up to answer it, ignoring the meaningful looks from the girls. I’m glad to hear his voice, even though we’ve already spoken once since I landed.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” He sounds tired. “I just wanted to hear your voice.”
“I miss you too.”