Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Victor and I kept our hands linked together for most of the evening, dancing, laughing, and kissing as a married couple and enjoying the attention of our friends and townspeople. As the night grew longer, Carmela came up beside me and tapped my shoulder. I turned into her as she wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug.
“The limo is here,” she said. “It’s time for you to get out of here and go enjoy your husband.”
“Limo?” I asked. “I thought we were just going back to my place.”
I turned and saw the grin on Victor’s face as he shook his head.
“No,” he said. “I have something much better than that planned.”
“Are we going somewhere?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Yup,” he said.
“But I don’t have anything packed!” I protested.
“I packed it for you,” Carmela said, laughing. “I snuck over to your place this morning and packed a couple extra bags on top of what Victor packed for you. It’s all waiting in the limo.”
“How… what?” I said, shocked. “Where are we going?”
“Well,” Victor said, “I always thought I should take you somewhere very specific, but parts of it should remain a bit of a surprise until we get there. But let’s just say that the limo is taking us to an airport, and that we will be boarding a plane to a location that is far away.”
“And gorgeous,” Carmela said, then sidled closer in a near whisper. “I saw some of the pictures on the website when Mark let it slip. Girl, you are going to love this. It’s going to be amazing!”
“Where is it?” I said, clawing at her as she giggled and shook her head.
“Nu uh,” she said. “I am not ruining the surprise!”
With that, Victor took my hand, and we spirited away, slipping out while the rest of the guests were busy dancing to eighties music and getting in the limo.
“At least this means I get a few minutes alone with you,” I said, curling up in Victor’s arms. He pulled me tight to his chest and kissed the top of my head.
“Yes, it does,” he said. “Though by the end of the week, you might be sick of me already.”
“Week?” I asked. “We’re going to be gone a week?”
“Well, one doesn’t fly all the way to Scotland to spend a weekend, do they?” he asked.
I didn’t know what to say. My jaw had dropped, and I couldn’t believe what I just heard.
“We’re going to Scotland?” I finally managed.
“Going to Scotland is just the beginning. I have a surprise for you there that is going to blow you away.”
“I don’t even care,” I said, beaming. “I get to go to Scotland with my husband. That is a sentence I never thought I would be able to say.”
“Well, now you get to say it as much as you want,” he said. “Would you like to practice it a few times over a glass of champagne?”
“I think I would, husband,” I laughed.
Victor poured us each a glass, and we clinked them together before settling back in the seats.
“How long until we get to the airport?” I asked.
“Probably a good hour,” he said. “We have some time.”
“Oh, really?” I asked. “An hour?”
Before I could say anything else, a partition lifted up between the front and back seats, blocking out the view from one to the other. Just before it passed by the reflection of the driver in his rear-view mirror, he smiled and winked.
29
VICTOR
As the car stopped at the sprawling estate, I could barely contain my excitement. Melanie had slept almost the entire way from Aberdeen in the car, her head on my shoulder as I instructed the driver on where to go and he took off through the serene and gorgeous countryside. For the first time in a long time, I felt a peaceful joy that I could barely even comprehend, much less put words to.
Years of being married to Sarah had beaten me down to the point where even when I was somewhat happy, there was an underlying worry, a tension that I couldn’t get rid of. Anxiety would creep in and make me tense, even in the best of times. I thought that was just how life was. How I was. That the happiest I would ever be wasn’t really all that happy.
But as the car wound through the Scottish countryside, heading to the castle that I was going to surprise the new wife that slept on my shoulder with, I was happy. Truly, happy. No anxiety. No worry.
“We’re here,” I said softly.
“Hmm?” Melanie said, sitting up and blinking a few times. “We’re where?”
“Home,” I said. “For the next week anyway.”
“Wait,” she said, looking around, out of the windows and at the castle itself. “All I see is a castle.”
“Exactly.”
She looked back at me and then out of the window and then back again. Her mouth fell open, and her face was screwed up in genuine confusion, and I chuckled to myself.