2. Salinger
2
SALINGER
P eople say that your honeymoon is supposed to be the best time in your relationship. However, Mandy and I are not off to a good start.
The yacht left the island at one in the morning after a party that honestly went on way too late, especially considering that all the kids are used to East Coast time.
Though I’m happy and mildly tipsy, Mandy seems irritable, and I don’t even try to initiate anything because she might bite my hand off.
“Mimosa?” a server offers the next morning at breakfast on the upper deck.
“Just orange juice for me,” Mandy says. “I overdid it last night.”
The server hands her a glass.
So maybe that’s it? That has to be it, right ?
Many seems to perk up after brunch. “It’s beautiful out here.” She leans against the railing. “I’ve always wanted to take a boat ride up the coast.”
Sure, most other billionaires would take their yacht to the Caribbean or the Mediterranean for the photo ops, but I prefer the Pacific Ocean. The whale watching, the dramatic landscape, the blue-green water, the gray, moody, cloudy skies. This is what Mandy said she wanted, too, but maybe she actually did want the azure oceans and white, sandy beaches and palm trees.
It’s too late now. The yacht is sailing up the coast to Alaska and back. It’s the first vacation I’ve taken in probably forever.
Maybe for our anniversary. I stare down at the ring on my hand, still hardly able to believe it is real and she’s my wife.
In the distance, humpback whales breach as they migrate to new feeding grounds.
“Wow,” Mandy breathes. The wind whips her hair in her face.
The yacht lurches ever so slightly.
I tuck her under my arm. “You’re not seasick or anything, are you?”
She scowls, and I kiss her nose.
“Nope. No nausea.” There’s an odd look on her face.
“You know…” I let my hand drift down the crop top she’s wearing. “Since you’ve made an honest man out of me, how do you feel about getting started on our family?”
“Great.”
“That sounds a little sarcastic.”
She wraps her arms around me. “I mean, I definitely want a bab y with you, Salinger. Lots of kids. All the kids. Don’t make that face—you have five brothers.”
“Five too many.”
“Plus all your half siblings.”
“All probably need to be put on a spaceship off this planet.”
“We could have twins!”
“Please god, no. There are several sets of twins in my family, and they are all weird.”
“I like Archer.”
“Archer’s a psycho.” I lift her up easily in my arms.
I’m kissing her as I carry her into the master bedroom on the yacht. I kick the door closed behind us then shrug off my board shorts.
Mandy pulls off the sheer crop top and wiggles out of her loose pants, then she’s in front of me in a skimpy white bikini.