35. Georgia
The roosters wake me up before Derek has the chance to. I shoot up from my sleep, my eyes still closed, and cringe as I knock noggins with Derek.
“Dude…” I groan as the throbbing continues.
Derek chuckles, pain evident in his laugh as he hoists himself out of the bed and stretches. I watch as his muscles ripple, and my mouth waters at the sight.
After spending about an hour stargazing, the two of us called it a night and went to bed in the pool house, which is decorated to resemble a studio apartment with an outdoor patio for the pool, a grill, and a seating area.
The inside of the tiny house is decorated modernly, a complete contrast to the familial home-and-country rustic vibe of the rest of the property.
“Where’s Dels?” I ask as I get out of bed, still half asleep.
Derek grunts in answer and begins to fold the bed’s cover. I mimic him on the other side of the bed and fix it with him. Deli spent the night with her cousins in the main house.
He gives me a sly smile, finishing up his side of the bed before coming over and placing a kiss on my temple. “Hop in the shower, I’ll whip us up a quick breakfast.”
A quick breakfast, in the words of Derek Perez, turns out to be tamales—that’d been prepared by Lita last night and freshly squeezed orange juice. The two of us eat outside in a comfortable silence, watching as the sun rises.
We’re dressed in athletic wear. I was told we’d be going on a small hike and then heading into town, but when Derek began steering the golf cart toward the stable, I realized exactly why he insisted I wear those cowboy boots he’d bought me last week.
Out in the round pen, Lidia and Deli trot together on a white horse. The two of them are laughing and giggling, doing a small lap around the pen. Delilah’s hair is a mess of curls, her brown hair wild and untamed. She’s wearing a tiny riding suit and boots, obviously the work of her grandmother.
I chuckle as Deli waves at us. Her smile is bright and cheerful as she and Lidia come to a stop before us.
“Are you two riding Nora today? Emiliano told me that Felicity can go for a walk as well,” Lidia says, patting the mane of her horse as Derek nods.
He looks between his mother and the stables. “Yeah, I think we’ll take Nora out,” he says, shrugging before walking away to the stables.
Lidia looks between the two of us, a brow raised. “Have you ever ridden a horse before?”
I shake my head and lift my shoulders. I mean… How hard can it be to ride a horse? I’ve watched movies, and all they do is say “giddy up,” and the horse moves. When Derek comes back, Nora’s reins in hand, my stomach drops.
He gestures for me to mount the horse, and I take a step back, analyzing my situation.
Not only is Nora huge, but she’s also giving me a beady-eyed stare as if to say, “Mount me if you want to, bitch. I got something for you.” I scrunch my nose and shake my head.
“I don’t think I’m as advanced yet…”
Derek’s mom lets out a hearty laugh while Delilah giggles at my dismay.
“It’s okay, silly! You can ride with Papá.,” the four-year-old exclaims, gesturing to her father, who stands with an amused smirk on his face, watching me.
I shake my head once again as Nora takes a step toward me and blows out a chunk of air, chuffing at me.
“See, darlin’... Even little old Nora is ready for you to mount her so we can go for a ride.”
“Little old Nora” gives me a look that could kill… I hate to admit it, but I squeak. Not a big squeak per se… but the sound falls from my lips nonetheless.
Derek sighs, a small laugh escaping as he stalks toward me and lifts me up. I’m completely still as he walks me over to Nora, gently placing me on her black leather saddle.
Seconds later, he’s hauling his body atop her as well, mounting the horse with practiced ease. My body heats as he presses his chest to my back, leaning close to grab the reins.
“See, that wasn’t so hard,” he whispers into my ear.
I shiver as his lips graze the shell of my ear, and heat tinges my cheek as he commands Nora to move us. As we come to a slow trot, going around the pen, I speak up, turning my head slightly to him.
“This place is beautiful…” I say, gasping as I take in the beautiful landscape around us. I feel like I’m in a Hallmark movie as we trot slowly around the pen and Derek agrees quietly.
An idea comes to me in an instant. “I could see myself creating a line based on the ranch. Do you think your family would be okay with me taking pictures for inspiration?”
He agrees almost instantly, and we talk over the different clothing I could curate to represent not only his culture but his childhood on the ranch as well.
“You know, I’ve been meaning to talk to my godmom about helping you out… Maybe she can help out with that line?”
I nod with a small chuckle. “I highly doubt Tía Carmen wants to help with a clothing line…”
“Huh?”
I twist around to look at him, but when Nora begins to speed up, we focus our attention back on the horse.
By the time we’re done horseback riding, my legs are aching, and we’re hungry again. He leads me to the truck we took to the ranch and insists on showing me parts of the small town he grew up in on the outskirts of Houston.
We’re walking hand in hand on the sidewalk of many small shops when I walk straight into a girl, the both of us dropping our phones.
“Shit, girl, I’m so sorry!” we say in unison, laughing together as we reach to grab our phones. Handing her the sparkly white phone, I’m stunned when she looks up at me, giving me a dazzling smile.
The girl reminds me of a Barbie doll with glowing, deep brown skin, a poofy blowout that makes me jealous at how perfect it looks on her, and a smile that could steal the sun’s spot in the sky.
“Thank you, I’ve been walking around here not paying a lick of a—Perez? Derek Perez, is that you?” The model in front of me gasps, turning to Derek with a shocked smile as he chuckles nervously, scratching the back of his neck.
“Hey Soleil… are you back in town?” Derek asks, his brows shooting up as Soleil widens her eyes and looks away from him to me.
She gives me a dazzling smile. “I am, and who are you? You’re not from around these parts—I would know.”
Nodding, I smile. “I’m not. Derek here has decided to take me on a small trip around town. How do you two know one—”
Before I can finish my sentence, a voice chuffs from behind me. “Parks.”
Soleil’s face shifts in an instant; the once-happy persona she’d been wearing is replaced by a scowl as she eyes the newcomer.
“Perez,” she breathes the name out with an eye roll.
Emiliano stands at my shoulder, a scowl on his face as he and she share an angry look before he backs down.
I raise my brows at the exchange and turn to Derek, who shakes his head, mouthing, “They have history,” before pulling me away from the two.
We walk throughout the small-town square and shops, picking up different gifts and clothing items for his family and my potential clothing line. It’s a day full of laughter and photos between the two of us that we don’t even notice when the sky begins to set.
Derek’s phone buzzing is all the reminder we need as he talks to his mom, and soon enough, we find ourselves back on the ranch and getting dressed for dinner tonight.
I was told to dress in my “fancy clothes,” seeing as everyone in the family will be at dinner tonight. Derek wanted to cook for the family, but when he learned it would be his grandma, aunt, and mother cooking tonight, he immediately conceded his request.
I grin at myself in the mirror, twirling as I take in the yellow dress that I created for my separate clothing line.
When I created it, I imagined Delilah wearing the dress as an adult wearing a tiny crown.
I feel like a princess as I twirl yet again, only to stop when I realize that I haven’t zipped myself in completely.
“Oh my…” I curse, clutching my chest as the dress slips, and immediately call out for Derek to help me.
He’s in the room in an instant, his eyes searching for me before softening when he finds me in the mirror, struggling to keep my dress up.
“Need help?” he asks slowly, stalking toward me. Our eyes remain locked on one another through the mirror as he approaches. He smells like fresh soap and warm masculine cologne. I shudder as his cold fingers dance over my bare skin, tracing down to where the zipper is stopped at my mid back.
He moves his hand from my back to my stomach, flexing his fingers on my abdomen, sending a flutter through me and distracting me as the other cups around my throat. Tendrils of electricity shock through my body as he tilts my jaw to the side, planting slow kisses on my neck and jaw.
I groan when his lips land on mine, kissing me deeply. When he pulls away from me, Derek has successfully put me into a stupor, wishing his lips were still on mine as he zips the dress up.
Through the mirror, he looks me over with a hungry gaze and kisses the side of my head.
“Stunning.”
I’m on cloud freaking 1,000,000,000 as we walk hand in hand into the main house.
Delilah’s been staying in the main house since she wants to have sleepovers with her cousins.
The precious girl is dressed head-to-toe in yellow, her dress a miniature replica of my own, designed and tailored for her by me.
I grin at the small tiara on her head and kiss it.
“Mamá, we’re matching!” Deli squeals, gesturing between the two of us with a bright smile.
I mimic her expression, nodding. “I know, Deli Belly, I had a nice long talk with the designer, and she made us matching dresses!”
Delilah and I do small twirls and take pictures as the rest of the family arrives and gets ready for dinner.
Delilah, Derek, and I take our seats directly across from Lidia and her sister Carmen, and we dig in almost immediately. Elena and I are chatting when something Lidia does catches my eye. I pause in our conversation and look at her quickly before doing a double take.
“Your necklace is stunning; it matches your outfit perfectly!” I compliment my mother-in-law as she blushes, her fingers toying with the diamonds decorating her neck.
She waves me off, clearly happy to receive the compliment, and smiles. “Thank you, the outfit and necklace are custom-made by my friend Eden.”
My brows hike up, and the air beside me grows tense as Derek stops eating and I tilt my head at his mother.
Signature poison black dress, crystal-embellished wrists… If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that this was a designer I’m familiar with… My favorite designer.
“Eden? Like Eden Marlowe?” I ask, but I know that can’t be possible, so I take a bite of my food, chuckling a bit at the absurd question.
Eden Marlowe is an icon in the fashion industry. Hell, she’s my role model. Yeah, it still stings that I was rejected from her internship, but I know how competitive it is. There’s no way in hell that this outfit is custom-made by her.
No way in hell…
“Are there any other Edens in the fashion industry? She’s my best friend—Derek’s godmother. She was supposed to be here, but—”
The food in my mouth tastes rotten, and the air is sucked out of the room as I slowly swallow down her words. My body begins trembling, muscles aching to run out of here as my head slowly turns to Derek.
His eyes are wide and his shoulders stiff as he looks everywhere but at me.
Eden Marlowe is his godmother?
I try to gulp. I try to regain my breath and breathe, but I can’t.
Fuck, I married him, and he couldn’t even tell me this?
The whole reason I agreed to marry him was so that he could get his inheritance, and I would get my footing in the fashion industry.
I thought we told one another everything…
Was I blind to what's truly been in front of me this entire time? The way he’d help me with my line and had a deep interest in what I said that night at the bar in Vegas…
Was it all just some ploy? Hell, I was rejected from his godmother’s internship...
The least he could’ve said was that he knew her.
I look stupid.
I went on and on about how much of an inspiration she was to me, and she probably changed his fucking diapers.
I don’t register my words, or even my movements, until the cool air of the Texas night hits my skin. All the air in the world seems to get lodged in my lungs, and I feel suffocated.
This is too much… too painful.
Who the fuck did I marry?
1 Ay Dios - Oh, Lord