Epilogue
Rowan
When Daddy and I got married, we didn’t have our honeymoon right away.
Between some cases he was on and my work commitments, it wasn’t possible.
We basically had a choice of either settling for a short weekend getaway and calling it good or waiting even longer to get married until we could both arrange time off together.
We didn’t like the sound of either one of those and decided to postpone the honeymoon until everything fell into place.
Both of us had friends who warned us against it.
They said that it always sounded like a good idea, the logical one, but that couples who didn’t have a honeymoon tend to never quite manage to go on one.
That was probably true for a lot of people, but not us.
We figured out the right time and booked our flights that day.
I was glad we didn’t listen because we were both packing for our dream honeymoon.
We were going to New Zealand—somewhere I’d always wanted to explore.
We had a list a mile long of all the places we would go and activities we’d do.
If we made a dent in it, I’d be impressed.
I had a strong suspicion we were going to spend a lot of time in the hot springs and enjoying the fabulous cuisine.
Getting to New Zealand wasn’t for the weak. It was a long flight. Well, multiple flights. The trip there alone was going to take over twenty-four hours. I was glad we took three solid weeks. Those first and last couple of days were going to be rough.
I went back and forth on whether I should check a large suitcase or try to bring a carry-on and a personal item.
I wasn’t worried about the cost of checking the luggage—it came with our tickets, with Daddy spoiling me with first-class upgrades.
I couldn’t even imagine how many frequent flyer miles that took.
And no, it didn’t cost extra, but with that many plane changes, I didn’t want to lose anything.
Our stops weren’t in the same country, and I wasn’t sure how a lost piece of luggage would work in those cases.
Our first stop was California and then we moved on to two different stops in Australia before getting to New Zealand.
There were a lot of opportunities for that suitcase to get misplaced.
“I need you to decide for me, Daddy.”
He leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “Done. Now, let me finish packing, and you go rest. You’ve had a long week at work.”
It had been longer than long. My boss had no problem with me taking an extended vacation as long as all the work still got done, which sounded like I wasn’t really getting a vacation to begin with. I just was front-loading my work, but whatever. Somehow, I managed to make it happen.
Pretty soon, I was going to be on a plane, and I refused to give my job any room in my head rent free.
“I think you have too much to bring.” It all felt important at the time but now, I wasn’t so sure.
Summit had barely started to organize the bag, and it was nearly full.
“How about this?” he said, taking in all the items he was expected to be putting in my suitcase. “You don’t take anything that matters, and then we can buy anything you might need when we’re there.”
“But I might want some little clothes.” And they mattered. “We’re gonna play when we’re gone, right, Daddy?”
“Oh, we’re definitely going to play. But some of the coolest little clothes are from a couple of Australian companies, so grabbing them there means all new adorableness.”
How had I not known this? I thought he’d been exaggerating about their awesomeness. Based on the websites, I was going to have trouble deciding which clothing I wanted long before I had to worry about any of this drama.
Knowing there were viable options there made packing so much easier.
If my khakis got lost, no one cared. If I needed to buy new socks, I’d never miss the old ones.
It was the ideal solution. We both packed light, thinking that we might want to bring some things back, and now that I knew about some of these companies, I was definitely bringing stuff back.
Once I decided everything was in there, I zipped the bag up and rolled it to the door. “Look at that. I’m done a day early.”
“You are. You deserve a reward.” Daddy always had the best rewards.
“A reward, Daddy? Whatever could a little like me want?” I tapped the side of my cheek.
“You want me to tap your cheek?”
“That’s where I want your lips.”
He brushed a sweet kiss against my skin.
“Is that a reward?”
“No.” I was too tired to think about any of this. I tapped my lips. “And this one too.”
“I see how it is.” Smiling, he brushed those lips again with mine. The slow, sensual kiss left me breathless, hard, and willing to beg for more.
“Daddy, are you packed?”
“My suitcase is by the recliner.”
“Perfect.” I grabbed his arm and started pulling him toward our bedroom. “Because you’ve been a very good boy, being ready already, I think it’s only fair you get a reward.”
He didn’t wait for me to ask anything else about my reward, instead scooping me up and carrying me to bed.