B00BR2BOUU EBOK (10 page)

“Why? Don’t you want to
answer the door like this?”

I giggled, “No, Bryce Edward Clark,
put me down now.” I pursed my lips at him briefly. “Just a minute.” I called
out as innocently as possible. He surrendered and let me go. I dashed to the
bathroom leaving him in his naked glory, and evidence of our fornicating
scattered throughout the room.

***

We ate our dinner on the
balcony next to the pool, the temperature was still quite humid, and apart from
the horrid winged devils that are mosquitos, it was lovely. I decided, I
enjoyed watching him eat too. Maybe it had something to do with his tongue
moving in and out of his mouth, or the way he licked his lips when some sauce
or juices escaped. Whatever it was, I now relished it.

“Do I have something on my
face?” He asked, amused.

“Do you want something on
your face?” I offered while raising my eyebrow, and still in a teasing mood.
Sadly, my phone started ringing, disturbing my new challenge. I dashed to the
bedroom to retrieve it, and the irritation I’d felt disappeared when I realised
who it was.

“Hello, little man.”

“Hi, Mum.”

“I missed you this morning
while you were out on the tractor.”

“Yeah, Poppa and I had to
move some hay bales for the cattle.” He loved helping his Poppa do things on
the farm.

“Good work, my little farmer.
So, how was the drive to Nanny and Poppa’s yesterday?” I figured I’d find out
if he had picked up on anything.

“Yeah, all right, except Dad
was in a bad mood.”

“Oh, was he? Did he say why?”
He better not have.

“No, he just didn’t want to
talk to us much, so I played my DS and Charlotte listened to the iPod.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Hey Mum, I saw you on TV
with Mr Clark. You looked very pretty, and you looked like you were married. Is
that why Dad is mad?”
Oh Shit, um what do I say?

“No, I don’t think so mate.”
Crap,
change the subject.
“Hey, Mr Clark said he will take you for a ride in the
Crow soon, if you’d like?”
Oh Alexis, of all the things you could have said
you chose that.

“Yeah? Sick, how soon?”
Ah,
fuck.

“Maybe next week. Okay, sweetheart,
it’s getting late. Is Charlotte still awake?”

“No, she’s already in bed.”

“Okay, I love you ratbag,
have a nice sleep okay? I’ll speak to you in a couple of days.”

“Okay Mum, love you too. Bye.”
My chest panged as I hung up. He wasn’t stupid and had already pieced a few
things together. How was I going to explain to my children that Mummy and Daddy
were breaking up? How was I going to explain to Nate in a way that he wouldn’t
hate his father or me for that matter? I sat there momentarily with my head in
my hands.
What am I going to do?
The thought of having to explain any of
this, without actually explaining it, was just too much. I couldn’t even
attempt to figure it out right now, so I walked back out to the balcony.

“Nate?” Bryce asked.

“Yeah,” I responded. “He
knows something is wrong.”

“He’s a smart kid, Alexis.
I’m guessing he takes after you.”

“Sometimes too smart.” I sat
down and put my head back into my hands. “What have I done?”

“There’s nothing you can do
right now, so stop torturing yourself.” He sounded angry, so I looked up, a
little shocked and offended by his tone. “I don’t like seeing you do this to
yourself, you have done nothing wrong. None of this is your fault, Alexis. So
give yourself a fucking break.” He got up and started clearing the plates from
dinner. At first I didn’t know what to think, everything was going so well, and
now I had pissed him off.

“Here, I’ll do that.” I
started picking up the rest of the dishes. I seriously felt quite lazy, I
hadn’t done a single thing since the Sunday night I drove into his garage
resembling a Panda.

“No, I’ve got it.” He stacked
them all up and went inside.
Shit, well done Alexis. You’ve pissed him off with
your constant worrying, lulling and toing and froing. He has organised this
dream getaway for us both, has thought of absolutely everything right down to a
single rose, and all you have done is feel sorry for yourself. You’re a selfish
bitch, no wonder he is shitty.
I watched him angrily move about in the
kitchen, I felt awful.
I need to make it up to him, what can I do?

An idea popped into my head.
It wasn’t a grand gesture like he was capable of, but it was an idea, and a
good one. I got up and headed to the bedroom. I opened the free standing
wardrobe.
Excellent!
I grabbed the blanket and put it on the bed, then
headed to the bathroom and snatched up the candles that were placed around the
bath.
I need these and some matches. Shit, I need matches.
I walked back
into the kitchen where Bryce was finishing up. He looked at me strangely, but
didn’t say anything.

“Excuse me.” I slipped past
him.
The cupboard under the sink: good place to start.
I crouched down
and opened it, but there were no matches.
Shit. Crap. Balls. I need matches
or this won’t work
.
Dorothy, yes, surely she’ll have some.
I stood
back up, walked past him again and went back to the bedroom. I scooped up the
blanket and candles then headed out the door. “I’ll be back in a minute.” I shut
it and took off.
Please don’t follow
.

I made a quick getaway to the
Reception office and opened the door. Dorothy was sitting behind the counter.

“Hello, Mrs. Clark.”

I smiled at the sound of it
again. “Actually, Dorothy, we aren’t married.”

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, I
thought you were on your honeymoon. You both look like honeymooners.”
We are
acting like it too!

“That’s okay. Look, I was
wondering if you could help me. I want to set up a romantic picnic out near the
helipad. You see, Mr. Clark is a keen astronomer and seeing as it is an
incredibly clear night tonight, I was hoping to surprise him with a bit of stargazing.”

She smiled, which then turned
into a sneaky grin. “Ah, yes. I almost certainly can help you.” She looked at
my items. “No, they won’t do, come with me.” Dorothy led me out the back of
reception and into a store room. She grabbed a large flat trolley then dragged
out two sunlounge mattresses and placed them on top. “Put your blanket on here
too.” I did what I was told. “Okay, just in here we have some heavy-duty big
pillar candles, in case of a black out.” She opened the box and pulled out six
enormous cylinder candles. “And over here are the binoculars.”
Oh, even
better.

“Excellent, thank you. Oh, I
need matches too.”

“Yes, not a problem.” I
followed as she pushed the trolley out of the room. “Wait here just a minute
Mrs Cla...” She stopped and looked at me for an alternative.

“Alexis, you can call me
Alexis.”

“I’ll be back in a second
Alexis.” She sounded very excited, I think she liked the whole organising a
‘mission’ thing. I liked the thought of it too. It felt nice being able to do
something for him for a change. Dorothy returned to the room with a box of
matches, a bottle of champagne, and a bowl of strawberries. “Here you go.”

“Oh, Dorothy, this is just
wonderful, thank you.”

“Take this flashlight,
Alexis. I know just the place to set up your picnic.” I followed her out past
the helipad, and down a small mound, stopping at just the perfect spot. She
helped me set up the candles in a large circle, then we dragged the mattresses
into position.

“Thank you so much, Dorothy,
I can’t tell you how much this means to me. He is going to love it.” I looked
at our handy work again, satisfied with our efforts.

“You’re welcome my dear, anything
for young love. Now, when you are done, give me a buzz and I’ll come and pack
it up for you.” She touched my shoulder and headed back up the mound. I surveyed
the area and it was perfect, the sunlounge mattresses now looked like a bed
surrounded by a circle of candles, the champagne, and strawberries were in an
ice bucket, the binoculars were neatly placed in the middle of the bed, and
most importantly, the stars were out and shining brightly. I clapped my hands
and headed toward the tee-pee. When I opened the door, he was sitting on the
edge of the bed looking as pale as a ghost. He shot up, and at first, I thought
something terrible had happened.

“What’s wrong Bryce? Are you okay?”
I walked up to him, and waited for an answer I may not have wanted to hear.

“Alexis, where have you
been?” He was well and truly traumatised.

“I...I...I told you I’d be
back in a minute.”

“I didn’t hear you, and you
left your phone, I didn’t know where you had gone or if you were coming back.”
If
I was coming back? We are in the middle of the freaking desert. Where would I
go?

“Why wouldn’t I come back?”
There was something tormenting him, that was obvious, and for some reason he
had it in his head I was going to leave him. “Bryce, how many times have I told
you? I’m not going anywhere.” He pulled me to him and held me tighter than ever
before, I looked up and the colour started to return to his cheeks.

“Hunny, I’m so sorry, I’m
sorry I snapped at you before. I thought you’d gotten upset and just left.”

“Oh, Bryce, no. You had every
right to snap. You have been so amazing, organising this incredible escape for
the two of us, pampering me, and giving me everything I need, and I go and ruin
it by sulking, whinging and feeling sorry for myself. I’m sorry. I wanted to
make it up to you, so I organised a surprise.” He pulled away and looked at me
stunned.

“A surprise?”

“Yes, come on.” I grabbed his
hand, and we headed out the door.

***

There was not a cloud in the
sky, nor was there a breeze, the conditions for my stargazing picnic were
perfect.

“Okay, close your eyes.”

“Alexis, wait...”

“Bryce, just shut up, and
close your eyes.” He did as he was told, so I grabbed his arm and slowly led
him down the mound. “No peaking, now stand here. Don’t move and don’t open your
eyes until I say so.” I let go then positioned myself in the middle of the makeshift
bed. “Okay you can open them.” It took a second for his eyes to adjust to what
was in front of him. He blinked a few times then realised what this little
candlelit circle in the middle of the desert was “I know it’s not your amazing
observatory, but the sky doesn’t get any better than this. So, I was hoping you
could teach me a little of what’s up there.” He shook his head at me, stepped
into the circle and dropped to his knees.

“Alexis, I love you. Marry
me.”

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Um, yeah can’t quite do
that right now!
I touched his face,
and giggled at his request.

“Bryce, you seem to have
forgotten that I am already married.”

“Minor details my love. Don’t
worry about them.” He took both my hands in his. “I will propose to you
properly one day, trust me. But until I do, I want you to promise that no
matter what we come up against that you will one day walk down the aisle with
me.” He was obviously pleased with my surprise, but he also seemed anxious. The
confident man I had fallen in love with had all of a sudden become unsure of
himself and us.

“Bryce, you need to just come
out and tell me what you are afraid of.” He fell back on the mattress, and put
his arm out for me to rest upon.

“I’m afraid of losing you.”

I shuffled over and placed my
head where he had indicated.

“You won’t if you are honest
and upfront with me, I’ve already been with a man who took that for granted. I
will not make that same mistake again.”

He squeezed my arm. “So, Ms.
Summ... Sorry, Ms. Sexyarse.”

“You can’t call me that.” I
rolled my eyes at him.

“Yes, I can, Ms. Sexyarse.”

“No, you can’t. It’s all
right, Summers is just a name. I was being silly before and sulking. I’m
stronger than that. Anyway at this point in time it is my name and will remain
my name until I change it.”

“Very well, Ms. Summers. So,
do you know of any constellations?”
Um, apart from the Southern Cross, no.
They twinkle, Madonna has a ‘Lucky’ one, and you can wish upon a shooting one,
but that’s as far as my knowledge of stars go.

“I know those ones over there
are called the Southern Cross.” I pointed to the left and quite low near the
horizon.

“It is also known as Crux Ms
Summers, and is the smallest of 88 constellations.”
Ooooo, he sounds very
sexy when he is Mr Teacher Clark.

I put on my best schoolgirl
voice. “Very interesting, Mr. Clark. And those two really bright ones near
Crux, what are they called Sir?”

He leaned up on his elbow and
smirked down at me. “You really are quite cute Alexis.” He touched my face and
kissed me softly.

“Oh, I’ve never been kissed
by my teacher before, how naughty of you. Is that the end of my lesson, Sir?”