Chapter 1
Trey
Present Day
Anything could happen at a county fair.
Luckily, most things were fairly innocuous, like getting an upset stomach from eating too much fried food or getting foot blisters.
For Trey Schuster, it usually meant a good time, especially if the day was spent with his wife, Cat. With her around, he didn’t even mind the blazing Southern California heat, tummy aches, or sore feet. With her missing, though, it made the whole excursion pitiful.
“Where’s Cat?” his brother, John, asked while handing Trey the extra fair ticket he got from his job at city hall.
John’s four-year-old daughter, Megan, rode on his broad shoulders while her slightly older sister, Bethany, excitedly jumped up and down at the appearance of Uncle Trey.
John, a divorced dad with a full beard and weathered baseball cap, was three years older than Trey, who was thirty.
“You’re getting too tall, kid. Maybe we can find a magic bean stand here at the fair and stunt your growth a little,” Trey said while lifting Bethany into a huge hug and blowing a raspberry into her cheek, causing her to squeal in delight.
“Trey,” his brother tried again. “Is Cat coming?”
He gave his brother a casual glance while setting the kid back on the ground. “Oh. No. She has some…work things to catch up on.” It was a convenient excuse he employed a lot lately.
His brother eyed him in suspicion, having already heard this cover story before. “Whatever you’ve done, just say it was your fault and apologize. Trust me. You do not want to jump back into the dating scene. It’s rough out there.”
“What have you done to Aunt Cat?” Bethany asked while taking Trey’s hand and swinging it back and forth.
He smothered a grumble because he wasn’t in the mood to get into it.
Besides, Trey had already apologized a hundred times at this point.
And who wanted to have a serious conversation about the state of his marriage between a funnel cake vendor and a stand selling giant inflatable hammers? He already felt like a clown.
His brother, though, lacked tact and replied to his daughter, “Beth, honey, it pains me to tell you this, but your Uncle Trey doesn’t always make the wisest decisions. If he was, he’d get his shi—uh, stuff figured out.”
Whether this was true or not didn’t matter. It still bothered him. “Everything is fine.”
John shook his head. “Beg for forgiveness and treat her to something special. I’m telling you. If you don’t, someone else will.”
His brother's words hit him in the gut. The problem was Trey had already done as his brother suggested—Well, he’d at least begged for forgiveness ever since the affair accusation had flown from his mouth.
It had been a reckless mistake born out of frustration on his part.
Even though Cat had responded to his apology with Forget it at the time, it was clear she wasn’t planning on getting selective amnesia anytime soon.
But, perhaps, his brother was right. He hadn’t made enough of an effort to treat his wife to something special.
The problem was there wasn’t much money left after all the bills were paid.
Living in Southern California on the combined income of a substitute teacher (him) and a fundraising manager for a non-profit organization (her) meant their belts had always been tight due to student loans and everyday life.
And while he frequently told himself he needed to get serious and get his full teacher’s license, he kept putting it off because he enjoyed bouncing around to different classes.
But the fact of the matter was that things were and would always be tough even if he did get his license.
In fact, their two-bedroom apartment was shared with another couple, Cat’s cousin and her boyfriend, making their situation even more tense during a fight.
When it came to treating his wife, he’d have to get creative.
That’s when he saw the booth.
A bright orange banner, advertising a raffle for a free four-day, three-night stay at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun, revealed itself when a large group of fairgoers parted like the Red Sea.
The young woman working the booth waved him over as though a mythical siren.
Trey barely heard his brother asking him where he was going.
“Is this really a giveaway for a free vacation?” he asked, excitement buzzing in his gut at the lucky coincidence of it all.
“It sure is,” the woman responded, flipping her long shiny ponytail off her shoulder. “It’s for two people. And the resort is four-star rated. All you have to do is fill out this form on my tablet. Simple.”
“What are you doing?” John asked. “Don’t just give some random company your information. You’re going to end up on a bunch of spam lists.”
“Look, give me a little credit.” As much as Trey wanted the chance to win a free, surprise vacation for Cat, he wasn’t about to do it without some kind of due diligence. “What company is doing this?”
“Oh, um, it’s right here.” The woman pointed to a spot on the form. “It’s . They’re doing it in connection with the fair. I’m told they’re going to select something like forty winners.”
He didn’t know the exact mathematical percentage of being picked, but forty must mean the odds were great. He might have a significant shot here. Being able to bring home good news like this had to buy him a little forgiveness and was worth the risk of ending up on a dreaded spam list.
“This is partially your doing,” Trey told John as he filled in his basic information.
“What? How is this my doing? Did I tell you to enter random raffles?”
“You said I needed to treat Cat, and this vacation will definitely treat her.”
“Yeah, I didn’t mean something that’s a long shot. I meant to treat her to a fancy dinner or flowers or something.”
“We don’t have the money for something like that.
Besides, this vacation would be all-inclusive, and I’m pretty sure that means it includes food, so this is even better.
It’s like four day dates and three night dates.
” Trey had never had a vacation like this and wasn’t sure if all-inclusive actually meant food was included, but he hoped all the same.
“Sure, fine, whatever. You’re not going to win. And the provider is called Vacations4Fun? That doesn’t sound sus to you?”
“Daddy, I want ice cream,” Bethany said, pulling on one of his hands impatiently.
“Just a second, honey. Your uncle is in the middle of making another bad decision.”
“See?” Trey replied. “I bet it was that negative attitude that got you—Wait a minute. Why is this form asking me to select a range of my yearly income?”
The woman twirled the end of her ponytail as she appeared to consider the question. “Oh. Well, um, I think it’s because they want to make sure all the winners actually deserve the prize and aren’t people who are already wealthy and can afford it.”
John snorted beside him and said, “Yeah, sure, they are. I’m telling you, you’re going to end up on a list. I’m just trying to protect you since Cat isn’t here to do it.”
Trey’s mind was set because he didn’t need to be protected, especially from a vacation raffle.
Companies did raffles all the time as a PR thing.
Plus, the woman’s reasoning about making sure the winners deserved it made sense to him.
If anyone was worthy of a vacation, it was definitely him and Cat.
He had to win. He absolutely had to because his marriage needed to be rescued, and this was a surefire way to fix it.
Arriving home later that night, he found Cat already asleep, curled on her side of the bed, facing the wall.
He wanted to wake her, talk to her, have some fun conversation like they’d had in the before times, or, at the very least, mold his body around hers and press his face to her neck.
This last option was too much to resist. After taking a shower, he slid between the cool sheets, carefully scooting nearer and draping his arm around her middle.
Trey breathed her in, filling his lungs to their capacity with her sweet vanilla scent.
His wife was pretty with a delicate, petite bone structure and shoulder-length warm brown, wavy hair that she frequently swept back on the sides, holding the strands in place with a clip or two.
His favorite thing to do at the end of a long day was to remove any clips, sink his fingers into her hair, and pull her into a deep kiss.
Her hair and those beautiful, expressive eyes, the color of warm cinnamon, were some of the first things he noticed about her.
Catalina Rosario blushed easily, laughed fully, and had electricity firing through her veins.
She once told him she was used to being overlooked, underestimated, and maybe it was because she had a family full of firecrackers.
She found it easy to get lost in the mix.
But she had captured his attention the first moment he’d spotted her.
Except these days, she’d rather remove the hair clips herself, skipping the whole kissing part altogether.
She gave him nothing but the bare minimum.
For someone who still adored the woman he married, it was a hard way to live.
He yearned for her, grasping for anything.
He pulled her against himself, pressing a soft kiss to her neck.
In a sleep groan, she said, “Stop. It’s too hot,” and used her shoulder to push him away, scooching closer to the edge of the bed. It was a crushing way to end the day, and he’d forgotten all about the raffle by this point.
A week later, he received a surprising call from an unknown local number.
“Hi. May I please speak with Trey Schuster?”
“This is he.”
The woman’s voice automatically switched to something perkier. “Mr. Schuster. Hi. My name is Sasha. Congratulations! You’ve been picked as one of our winners for the Cancun vacation getaway from Vacations4Fun.”
“You’re kidding!” He could hardly believe it.
His brother was going to feel foolish for doubting him, and Trey couldn’t wait to share the news with Cat.
His mind was so occupied with planning the big vacation reveal he’d do later, he wasn’t paying attention to the woman who was currently holding a one-sided phone conversation with him.
“So the trip must either be taken from August third through seventh or from August fourteenth to the eighteenth. Which one would work better for you, Mr. Schuster?”
“Oh, uh. I have to choose right now?” While he remained on school break for the summer, Cat hadn’t had a real vacation from her job in the last three years because there was always a reason why she couldn’t. Getting her to commit would take work.
“You don’t have to pick right now, but you’ll need to decide soon since available spots are filling up fast. I can give you a callback number to use.”
Not being pushed into making a decision at this moment made things better, but having only two options to choose from would make the situation hard. “Why does it have to be those dates?” A free vacation should be a free vacation.
“As I mentioned, these are the dates reserved by Vacations4Fun, in exchange for attending the presentation. If you will not be able to attend, we’ll have to give the spot to another person on our list,” the woman replied.
“Presentation?”
“Yes, Mr. Schuster, as I said before, it’s like a timeshare presentation. We want the opportunity to show you what a company like Mankind…uh, Vacations4Fun can offer someone like you and your significant other and the unique position you’re in.”
Trey had to ponder this for a moment because he didn’t quite understand her meaning. “Oh, like people in need of a vacation?”
She laughed. “Yes, exactly. And all we ask is that you at least listen. You’ll still have plenty of opportunity to enjoy your vacation and reap the benefits of an all-inclusive resort.”
“And all-inclusive includes food, right?”
“Yes, the resort will provide food and drinks.”
This was all he needed to hear. If there was anyone who could benefit from a relaxing, tropical vacation with free food, it was Cat.
She didn’t eat breakfast most days while rushing out the door to beat traffic.
If she hadn’t been so overworked, maybe he wouldn’t have accidentally caused the rift between them in the first place.
Even if this was part of a timeshare thing (oh God, telling Cat this part already made him cringe) it might all be worth it in the end.
But as much as he tried to talk it up later, explaining how this vacation was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Cat listened to his exciting news without much of a reaction.
It was worse than he had anticipated, especially when she interrupted to say, “You want me to take time off from work in order to go to a sales pitch?”
“Come on, Cat. You’re looking at this all wrong. We can still have a lot of fun.”
“Uh-huh. Right.” Based on her flat expression, Cat wasn’t in the mood for fun, at least not with him.
He didn’t know what else to do and figured Vacations4Fun would give their spots away to some other lucky-in-love couple. Except the next day he received a text message from her while she’d been at work.
Okay. Fine. I’ll take the sales pitch vacation.
His sandwich, made from discounted ham and cheap bread, nearly fell out of his hand.
Really?!?!?!?! A slight feeling of hope lit inside his chest. Perhaps she had spent time thinking the whole situation over and realized a vacation would be good for them, good for their marriage.
Yes. Work is making me take the time off. Whatever.
Oh. Her decision had nothing to do with him at all.
After a brief moment of dejection, Trey pushed his feelings aside. Regardless, she had said yes and at this point in the game he didn’t care what the reason was. He’d have to do what he could to take advantage of the opportunity.
And that was exactly what he was going to do in order to save their marriage.