CHAPTER 32
Declan
I buckle Summer into the back of the plane where she can stretch out, and hand her a ginger ale and a barf bag.
“Just in case,” I tell her.
“It’s not natural to fly.”
“It’s not natural to do a lot of things, but it doesn’t mean I’m not good at it.”
I wink at her, and she blushes. Making Summer blush gives me a huge amount of satisfaction. Her blush looks good on her. Sweet like a peach.
Sweet like Summer.
I’m about to turn and go to the cockpit, when she grabs my arm. “But I still don’t know what I’m going to say to them! What do I say?”
“Just be yourself.”
“But I’m not myself. I’m married. To you. We have a certificate and rings and everything.”
“We won’t show them the document and we’re not wearing the rings, so that’s a start.”
“I don’t like to lie.”
“Then, we’ll tell them the truth. We'll tell them we’re married.”
Her eyes grow big and round, and her skin becomes blotchy. “No! They’ll be so angry and upset and won’t understand. I don’t even understand and I’m the one who’s coming back married! And a not-virgin! Do you think Phyllis will be able to tell that I’m different? That we’re different?”
I see it in her face. I hear it in her voice. And my heart breaks. I’m deliriously happy to be married to Summer, but I know where her angst is coming from—she really believes we shouldn’t have done it like this.
She’s probably right.
And it hurts that she’s embarrassed to go home married to me.
“Tell them you’ve got your period, and you need to get home in a hurry to put a heating pad on your cooter,” I tell her.
“I can’t tell them that! And since when do you use the term ‘cooter’?”
“You literally tell them that every month, Summer. And I’ve always been fond of ‘cooter.’”
“Everyone’s aware of that,” she says.
I laugh.
“The point is, your family will know I’m lying, since I’m not supposed to get my period for another two weeks.”
“Fine. But if my family’s really tracking your cycle that carefully, we got worse problems than getting married by Beyoncé.”
“What do I tell them?”
“That you need to work on your septic tank.”
She nods and takes a deep breath, letting it out in a huff. “Good one. That could work. I could focus on the septic tank. It does need work, so it’s not totally lying. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’m not looking at you like that,” I lie. I’m definitely looking at her like that. Like I want to kiss her. Like I need to kiss her. Like I want to push her back on the fold-out couch and make her cum three or six or nine more times before we go home.
“We can’t start up with that again, Declan,” she says, reading my mind. “I still think maybe we should put everything in reverse. Get an annulment. Figure out what normal people might do in this situation.”
“Not doing it,” I tell her. “No annulment. No going in reverse. Just moving forward, with a more standard approach, sure, why not? But no annulment.”
I’m surprised when I see tears fill her eyes. “Can we not talk about this now? I need some time to breathe. To think. All the rolling around and kissing and having sex so crazy that we end up breaking hotel furniture… I think it’s really messed up my brain.”
“Having that many orgasms in such a short time can cause hormonal changes,” I say.
She stares up at me like I’m an idiot. “You just made that up.”
“I did, but it sounds like it could be true.”
She isn’t amused.
“Hey, come on, Summer. In all seriousness, you can have all the time you want.” I smile at her. “We’ll talk more when we get home. I better head back to the cockpit and get us started.”
I turn to go.
She grabs my arm. “Wait!” She unlatches her seat belt and stands, ginger ale and barf bag in hand. “I need to sit with you up front. Am I allowed? Can I? I don’t want to be alone back here.”
“That’s the best news I’ve had all day.” And I don’t care what she says, I lean in and give her a kiss. Then I take her by the hand and bring her up the aisle to the front.
I get her buckled in and put her headset on, and then I hone in on the safety checklist. When all is a go, I establish communication with the tower. I look over to see her smiling at me. She’s trying to be brave.
I don’t think I’ve ever adored her more than at this moment.
“Ready?”
She nods.
“Then I need to focus for a bit.” I give her a wink and touch the switch to open the radio frequency. “Vegas tower, this is Phenom six-niner-Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot requesting takeoff from runway two-five right, departing northbound for Sweetbriar Municipal Airpark, climbing to 200.”
Soon, we taxi out to the runway and wait our turn to go home.
The flight is basically an up-and-down exercise, and it isn’t long before we’re getting ready to land.
I tell Summer that she would see the ranch if she’d just look out the window, but she shakes her head.
Her eyes have been shut the whole time. But she was willing to try, and I’m hopeful that she’ll apply the same courage to staying married to me.
We land and I offer her my arm as she steps down the aviation stairs. I remember myself and withdraw my arm, but then I feel her hand touch me.
“Thank you,” she says, grinning. She lets me walk with her down the steps. When we hit the tarmac, she lets out a sigh of relief. “I’m so happy to be home.”
It’s a good thing I told no one when we’d be landing, since neither of us is in the mood for company quite yet. I throw our bags in the Jeep I left parked in the hangar, and then turn to Summer.
“Up for a little ride before we head back?”
She raises her eyebrows at me.
“Motorcycle ride. How’s the Triumph sound?”
“Perfect.”
It’s a clear and windless day, but cold. I’ve got leather pants, gloves, and a jacket she can wear on the bike. I snap her into her helmet and then get myself protected in similar fashion.
I swing my leg over the bike, and Summer hops up behind me. I reach behind and grab both her thighs, pulling her in closer. Holy fuck do I enjoy the feeling of her legs hugging my hips. I start the engine.
She’s no stranger to riding with me. We do it a lot, especially in the summer, when we go into town for a movie or ice cream.
It’s kind of funny to think about how we’ve managed it all these years.
We hang out together on the regular, often when no one else is around.
And there have been hundreds of motorcycle rides like this one, her body pressed close to mine.
We’re two seriously stubborn people. We simply refused to acknowledge the truth of the situation, year after year. Summer’s still fighting it, even now.
I know it’s because of the bass-ackwards way this all went down. We were drunk out of our minds. We didn’t even know we’d done it. It was messed up and convoluted and unplanned.
And I’m so glad it happened. I love Summer. I know we’ll figure it out.
I exit the hangar, and we head out into the afternoon light.
“Go fast, Declan,” Summer whispers in my ear. “You know I love it when you go fast.”
Revving the throttle, we peel out in a scream and launch down the runway, then turn into a side road. It’s a couple hours before sunset, and the sun is low in the sky. I ride directly into the light, as if I’m daring to take on the sun itself.
That’s what it feels like right now.
It’s me against the sun.
It’s me against the world. Because somehow, I have to make Summer my own, permanently and officially. I have to convince her to stay married.
Life is so much better, richer, and sweeter with her in my life. And now that I’ve had a taste of all of her, I’ll never let her go.