Marriage (Red, White &) Blues (Unexpectedly Married #2)

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

“ W hat would you say to spending the night with me?” Blake asked, which— what ? I stumbled over my feet. He caught me, keeping me upright.

Evasive maneuvers. Evasive maneuvers. “I spend every night with you,” I replied.

He shook his head. “I mean naked.”

Oh— hello . He wasn’t about to let me naive myself out of this one. I mean, I wanted to get all kinds of naked with the man, but my life wasn’t as simple as that.

“Never mind,” he said. “I can see from the look on your face that you aren’t down with that.”

I held his hand as we walked through St. Michael’s Cave. “It’s not that I’m not down with it. Please don’t think that. It’s just…” I sighed. “I have some hang-ups that I really need to work through before we go there.”

“Hang-ups?”

“Yeah…” I sighed again. “And for me to be comfortable enough, I need you to really like me.”

“Done.”

“What?”

“Done. I do really like you.”

“But—”

He spun me into his arms. “We wait, then,” he replied right before he pressed his lips to mine, his mouth slightly open, which took the kiss to another level.

“Please don’t give up on me,” I said low because caves echoed.

“You get what we’re building here, right?”

“I know what I’d like to be building.”

“Glory—we’ve spent every day for the last month together. We share hotels and sleep in the same bed. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that constitutes you being my girlfriend. I don’t take that lightly. So, if you need more time, okay. I can wait. You are that important to me.”

“Wow,” I said kind of breathily because that was an amazing thing to say. “You aren’t trying to swoon me out of my pants, are you?”

“That’s a thing?”

“It certainly could be.”

“Well, then I’ll swoon you out of your pants when you’re good and ready. Until then, I’m happy just to be with you, Gloria Kowalski.”

“You’re an amazing man, Blake Parker. How were you not taken?”

He tilted my chin up to look into my eyes. “Oh, I’m completely taken by a gorgeous redhead with a Latin name but Irish and Polish roots.” After searching my face for a moment, probably to gauge where I was at, he romance novel kissed me again. The deep, turn me into a mound of putty on two legs kind of kiss that I knew deep down in my soul, I’d never forget, not for the rest of my life.

Then he got us moving again.

I loved everything about Gibraltar. After the tunnel, we took in some of the outdoor markets, which reminded me of the day I’d met Blake in Paris. We picked out our seafood and they cooked it for us right there—clams, oysters and these giant sardines that had been plucked from the ocean earlier that day. Then we meandered through the alleys, eventually finding ourselves standing in a long line for a stall that sold pastries. The most popular item seemed to be a fried dough coated in sugar called “borrachuelos,” at least according to the number of times I heard it uttered to the proprietor by other customers.

“I want that,” I told Blake.

“Oh, you’ll love them,” the woman in front of us craned her neck to say. On the shorter side, and with a few more curves than me, she had very kind eyes. The man next to her stood with his arm draped around her shoulders. Taller than her, working a dad bod, and gazing down at her like he couldn’t believe his luck to be standing in the line with this woman. Love shown in his eyes. “This is the best place to buy them, too. We make it a point to stop here whenever we get to Gibraltar.”

She spoke with an English accent. I wasn’t sophisticated enough to be able to tell where in England they haled from, but it was definitely different than Jory and Kerensa’s.

“Do you come here a lot?” I asked.

“It’s a wonderful port. John and I”—I took it that John was the man next to her—“travel a great deal. We find ourselves here frequently. Right now, we’re taking a cruise to Ghana.”

“Ghana?” Blake asked, and I saw that twinkle in his eye. Something was brewing in that head of his. “I never thought about going to Ghana.”

“Oh, you should,” she said. “It’s beautiful down there. As long as you stay in certain areas, it’s safe. We’ve been a couple of times.”

The line moved up and they placed their order for borrachuelos. My stomach grumbled, even though we’d eaten from several stalls. But the smell of fried dough and sugar permeated the air.

“What do you think?” Blake asked out of the blue.

“About?”

“You and me heading to Ghana? I’ve never been to Africa before. I’d love to experience it the first time with you.”

“I…” How new and unexpected. And the more I thought about it, the more it made sense for us to take a chance and travel to Ghana. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

The next thing I knew, with our borrachuelos in hand, we found out what we had to do to catch a boat to Ghana and Blake made it happen.

Just like that.

Our room was gorgeous. We were literally in a floating hotel. Blake and I stood on the deck watching as the massive ship moved out of port. We waved goodbye to Gibraltar, along with the others on board. The people on the mainland grew smaller and smaller the farther out to sea we traveled. The placid water made for a perfect sendoff.

I found an empty lounge chair facing the open ocean and sat down, closing my eyes momentarily to take in the feel of the wind against my skin and the scent of seawater. When I opened my eyes, Blake had dropped into the chair next to me.

“Have you talked to your mother?” he asked. “I’ve noticed that she’s called several times.”

“I’m just not ready.”

“Glory—the woman made a mistake, but she’s still your mother. At least give her the chance to explain.”

Shrugging, I cast my gaze back out to the sea. “Maybe.”

“Okay, what about your friends? I know I’ve seen the names Penelope and Sierra pop up on your screen multiple times. Did they really do anything bad enough to be cut out of your life completely? You said Penelope is a newlywed and Sierra made some friends at work…”

“They only want to talk to me now because I’m on this awesome adventure.”

“ Or ,” he started, with emphasis, “they enjoy your company and miss you since you’ve been gone. I know I’d miss you if we weren’t sitting on an incredible boat together.”

“But they?—”

He pressed a finger to my mouth to stop me. “Sweetheart, I know things have happened in your life, but you have to start trusting people.”

“I trust you .”

“That’s because I’m here with you right now and haven’t screwed up. What happens if I screw up somehow? I’m not perfect?—”

“You’re pretty perfect,” I teased.

“Glory, I’m serious. Will you cut me out of your life if I make a mistake?”

I got what he was saying. It was just… trusting people didn’t come easily for me, so when I did put my trust in someone, they had a lot farther to fall. “Would you feel better if I called Pen?”

She frequently got laid by her incredibly hot new husband. It wasn’t like she’d hidden a boyfriend from me for a year after I’d rearranged my whole life so she wouldn’t be alone, or went out with new friends to see movies that she and I had already planned to see together.

He kissed the side of my head and smiled. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

Blake stood from the chair to go check out a riveting game of shuffleboard happening a few feet away, giving me privacy but not abandoning me. I could totally fall in love with this man. I think I might’ve already started.

Pulling my phone from the pocket of my pink, cotton shorts, I pressed Penelope’s contact. There was a time difference. I thought she might’ve been seven hours behind us. That sounded right. Okay, so I had to use my fingers to determine what time it was in Detroit and found that it should’ve been about lunchtime right now.

“Gloria?” she said into the phone.

“Hi, Pen, how are you?”

“Good, but worried about you. Why haven’t you answered anyone’s calls?” Rustling sounded in the background, as if she were getting comfortable.

“It’d be easier to tell you that Blake’s been occupying all my time, but I wouldn’t throw him under the bus like that. He’s been after me to call you back.”

“Blake? Is that the hottie who keeps showing up in your photos?”

“He is,” I said and I couldn’t keep the smile from my voice. “Most of the adventures I’ve been on have been because of him. Like, we’re on a cruise ship headed for Ghana right now.”

“Ghana?” Her voice rose in surprise. “Are you kidding me?”

“I am not . We were at an outdoor market in Gibraltar and met these people who were taking a cruise to Ghana and he was like, ‘You want to go?’ Of course, I want to go. How many times do people like us get to visit Ghana in our lives?”

“I’ve never been,” she replied.

“I’ll send pictures. Maybe you can talk that wonderful husband of yours into going sometime.”

“Oh, I don’t have to talk him into anything,” she teased. We both giggled. Then she sobered. “I’m sorry for whatever I did to make you keep your distance. You’re such an important person in my life. I miss you so much. And?—”

“I felt left out,” I admitted, though I hated to do it.

“You what?”

“Felt left out. You had Ant. Sierra started hanging out with friends from work. My mom got a boyfriend. None of that included me. It sounds so ridiculous now that I say it out loud, but it just felt like everyone was moving on in life without me.”

“Gloria Kowalski, you are always a part of my life. From the day I pulled my head out of my ass and called you to be my bridesmaid forward, you’re in it. I’ll admit, Ant and I get caught up in the fun parts of being newlyweds, but there’s still that other hour a day to fill.” She was being cheeky. “Tell me, have you partaken in the horizontal refreshment with your fine gentleman?”

Oh, my god. I burst out a laugh. “ What ?”

“You know, ground your corn, rode St. George, shook the sheets?”

“Where do you come up with these?”

“I have more. Give a girl a green gown, do the deed of darkness, grope for trout in a peculiar river?—”

“Stop, stop ,” I ordered, laughing even harder. “Seriously, how do you come up with these?”

“Ant found me a sex euphemism a day calendar for my desk at a novelty shop. He figured the families would blow a gasket if they ever saw it, and he was all about that reaction.”

“I love your husband, Pen.”

“Not down with sharing,” she teased.

“I’ll amend. I love your husband for you .” See what I did there? Skirting the issue of sex. Just because Blake and I hadn’t made the beast with two backs yet and I didn’t really want to talk about why.

“Pen?” Ant’s voice spoke up in the background. “It’s lunchtime and I’m hungry… for my wife .” He must’ve been working from home today.

“You better let me go,” I said. “The way to a man’s heart is through his libido.”

We both laughed and before she hung up, she said, “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

“Okay,” I breathed because I felt that deep. She cared. She cared, but I’d been stupid, keeping her at arm’s length.

After shoving my phone back in my pocket, I pushed up off the chair to join Blake, who spun me into his arms the moment he saw me and danced us around the deck, even though there wasn’t any music.

I threw my head back, laughing like a maniac. “What are you doing?” I asked, still laughing.

“A beautiful woman approaches you, you dance with her,” he said and it was official: This man was too good to be true.

“There’s a name for men like you.”

“Suave. Debonaire. Classy.”

I bit my lip before spilling, “Cinnamon Roll.”

His face fell for a moment when he hit me with a “ really? ” face but shook it off to ask, “Do you like cinnamon rolls?”

“Love ’em,” I replied.

He showed me that dimple. “Good.”

“Good? Why good?”

“Oh, because I’m going to enjoy being eaten by you.” I could not believe he’d said that with a such a straight face.

“You did not.” I slapped his chest softly, laughing though my embarrassment. Blake caught my hand bringing it up to his lips to press a kiss to my knuckles and my heart tried to explode out of my chest. Thank the universe that he couldn’t see how fast it beat. I wanted that. I wanted all of it, but if we got naked and he thought I was bad in bed, there’d be no coming back from that. Ever. I wasn’t even catholic, but I’d join a convent to never have to find myself in that position again. Blake thinking that would ruin me for life. I knew it. I knew it as sure as I was standing here. Still, I kept the smile plastered to my face because he’d ask me what was wrong and I couldn’t lie to him, didn’t want to.

“You’re smiling. Phone call go well?”

“It did.” Change of subject. Oh, you wonderful man. “Thank you for pushing me to do that.”

He abruptly stopped us dancing, still holding me close, and looked deeply into my eyes. “You’re an amazing woman, Glory.”

Blake leaned in, ready to kiss me, when someone scored at shuffleboard and the crowd cheered, and a man stumbled into us. Blake held on to keep us together, but we pitched forward, falling into a woman and that man. We ended up in a pile on the deck and Blake and I absolutely lost it. I’m talking tears in our eyes , couldn’t catch a breath kind of hysterical laughter that had people scooting away from us.

Ask me if I cared.

The cruise had fancy dinners, but as neither he nor I had packed anything fancy to wear, we opted to dine in the pub instead once I finally pulled him from the deck. He liked the smell of the sea air.

Oh, and the pub had karaoke. The room got to hear me break out my best Gaga and Queen. Blake joined me for Queen because Freddie Mercury I was not, which meant I needed a partner on “Bohemian Rhapsody.” He ate a pub burger with homemade steak fries while I enjoyed the braised corned beef and cabbage.

We took in the hot tub later that evening and ended the first day on the ship vegging out by watching movies.

Our next couple of days went by in a pretty similar vein, with only a few minor adjustments thrown in. And the next thing I knew, we’d docked in Ghana.

Once we disembarked, we found out that the country had safety warnings for tourists. A man stood with a sign to bring us back to the resort Blake had booked us in. Normally, resorts weren’t our thing, but we felt like it was the safest option until we got the lay of the land. But honestly, after a couple of days of resort life, we had a meeting of the minds and decided to head out.

After much discussion on where our next adventure would take us, Blake and I booked a flight to the Serengeti. Who wouldn’t want to go on a safari?

The small plane took off. I squeezed Blake’s hand until his fingers turned white. Smaller planes like this always made me nervous. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth, Gloria.

“You okay, sweetheart?”

“Small planes—not so much.”

“Do you want to drive?”

I vigorously shook my head. “Safety warnings. I’ll be okay once we land.”

“Glory, I promise if I thought it wasn’t safe, we wouldn’t be here now.”

To ease my mind, he flipped open his backpack, fishing around inside until he found his earbuds fitting one into his ear and then fitting one into mine before pulling his tablet out too. He powered it up, clicking on a movie he’d save to it. Mean Girls .

“When did you?” I asked, so caught up in the excitement that I failed to finish my sentence.

He shrugged. “When you told me it was your favorite movie of all time. The original— not ‘that horrid remake they did last year.’” He chuckled while using air quotes to remind me of what I’d told him during that long train ride from Denmark to Portugal. “I had to see this work of pure comic genius for myself, given you love it so much.”

This man. This wonderful man. I continued to hold his hand but with Blake next to me and my favorite movie cued up, I was able to settle for the duration of the flight.

Of course, once we landed, I felt incredibly stupid for having been such a baby about it.

We followed the group of passengers off the small tarmac, through the terminal to wait for our ride at the bus stop with our other fellow travelers heading for the lodges. He held his arm out to me. “Ms. Kowalski, would you like to join me on an adventure?”

“That I would, Mr. Parker,” I replied as I took his arm and he helped me up the tall step to get onto the bus. Once we’d found seats, it felt so real then that I almost couldn’t contain my excitement. Rather than shout the roof off like a damned fool, I squeezed his arm a little tighter and gushed, “We’re going on safari!”

His smile just about undid me. “We certainly are.” The door shut and the bus jutted forward as it started to move. Without his firm grip around my arm, I would have landed in some poor man’s lap. Moving was precarious at best until we made it to our seats.

We were the only two to get off at our lodge and I kid not, it looked like thatched-roof huts. Yes, it had amenities like a pool, but huts .

I snapped off so many pictures that I figured I’d have to pay to upgrade my cloud storage. Given the heat of the morning already, after checking into our room, Blake and I changed into swimsuits and headed out for the pool.

“Can you believe this is our life?” I asked him, still amazed by it myself.

“It’s a pretty great life,” he replied as he hooked his finger into the cleavage of my suit to draw me in for a kiss. Yes, I sighed. Again. Blake had that effect on me. “I thought I’d give us today to acclimate, but tomorrow, I booked us with a private guide.”

My heart leapt and I launched myself at him. “You didn’t!”

He, of course, caught me with one hand on my waist and one on my butt. “If this is the reaction I get, I’ll even book private guide runs to the grocery store.”

How was it possible that the middle-class, scholarship girl from Detroit ended up with such an amazing man?

“What? What’s that look?” he asked.

“I was just thinking how lucky I am to have met you.”

“Glory…” He paused as if considering his next words, but then he went for it. And oh, was I glad he did. “You know I’m falling for you, right?”

I thought a tear might’ve rolled down my cheek. “You know I’m falling for you, too, right?”

“Well, I was hoping you’d say that,” he said, but then Blake did something else incredible. Sure, he kissed me—we just had a ‘ kiss me ’ moment—but he didn’t go at me hot and heavy. Rather, he shifted me so that I sat next to him and he wrapped his arm around my waist. I rested my head on his shoulder and we silently looked out onto the plains of dirt and brush until we witnessed real live elephants gathering at the private watering hole maybe one hundred feet from where we sat and I sort of lost my mind. And by sort of, I mean I shot my head up from his shoulder, grasped his bicep in a death grip, and shook him.

“ Elephants !” I whisper-freaked so as not to scare them and start an elephant stampede that led to the killing of the other guests and the staff. That would be bad. But Blake didn’t seem to mind. He laughed at my antics while continuing to watch the pachyderms drink and hose themselves down with water.

“This is amazing,” he said with awe in his voice. “When I set out on this trip, I never imagined that I’d not only meet the woman of my dreams, but we’d end up in Africa together watching wild elephants bathe.”

At those words, I stopped freaking out about the animals and settled back in, resting my head against his bicep again. I was the woman of his dreams? Hell yeah, I was the woman of his dreams.

Even though we made some pretty serious declarations, he never pushed for more.

The next morning, we woke up early, showered, and dressed. While I showered, Blake called in our room service order. The cart they rolled to our door held this traditional Maasai porridge made of corn, water, milk, and sugar. The kitchen made it a little thicker for the foreigners as compared to how the Maasai would eat it so it came to us in more of a Cream of Wheat consistency. They served melon, scrambled eggs, and toast on the side. I loved it.

Once finished, we walked outside to wait for our guide. He didn’t make us wait long. He rolled the open-air Land Cruiser to a stop right in front of us and climbed out wearing a huge smile that immediately put me at ease. Not that I’d been nervous before, but he just presented himself as someone I knew right away, we were going to like.

“I am Moses Juma.” He introduced himself with his hand outstretched to Blake first. “Mr. Parker, I presume?”

“Yes. Please, call me ‘Blake,’ though. This”—Blake squeezed his arm around my shoulders—“is my girlfriend, Gloria.”

Hearing Blake introduce me as his girlfriend after what we’d shared yesterday—my heart almost couldn’t take it. But I didn’t have time to dwell on that as our guide for the next three days, Moses Juma, then held his hand out to me to shake. He had a firm handshake, but the softest skin, which didn’t really make sense, considering his job. He stood maybe three inches taller than Blake and had broad shoulders and this gorgeous dark skin that matched his eyes. The man had heartbreaker written all over him.

“You are a very lucky man to have such a beautiful woman by your side,” he replied. And between these two men, I was in danger of getting a big head.

“Thank you,” I replied, smiling back at him. Well, both men. Blake slid my backpack off me and helped me into the Land Cruiser before sliding his own bag off his back and taking the seat next to me. Once we were buckled in, Moses got us moving.

“There are rules for your safety,” he said while keeping his eyes on the road laid out before us. “You stay in the car at all times. If we encounter large cats, we will engage the windows for your protection. Never try to feed the animals. That is prohibited here. No littering. No smoking. And if you find yourself in need of a restroom, just ask me to find a bush and I will get you to where you need to go. Most importantly, listen to your guide. I’ve been doing this for fifteen years. If you listen to me, I promise you will return home safely from the adventure of your life.”

“Seems fair,” Blake said.

“Absolutely,” I said to both of them.