Joy's Valentine (3 page)

Joy was suddenly quite aware of the fact she was naked. It wasn’t right to discuss such things while technically still basking in the afterglow of mind-blowing sex and butt naked. She shook her head and tried to escape into the bathroom behind him.

Eli grabbed her around the waist and kissed her roughly. “I’m sorry, love. I just started running my mouth and let it slip.”

“You can’t expect me to be okay with this, Eli!” Joy snapped wriggling until he released her. “You can’t sweep me away on a romantic weekend and then drop a ‘meet the parents’ scenario in the middle of it!” She stomped into the bathroom and slammed the door, for effect.

She stood with her back against the door staring into the filling tub which looked big enough to seat four comfortably. A thick layer of bubbles rose steadily toward the top. Joy closed her eyes and inhaled the lavender scent of the bath, her mind relaxed and began running through scenarios of how she could get out of meeting Eli’s family.

Joy could ‘take ill’ until Sunday, but that would kill the romance of Saturday, which was Valentine’s Day.

Maybe, she could protest and stand firm, insisting it was too soon for this and suggest they slow things down. Too late, for that…the time to suggest that was when they returned from Europe.

She could have backed off at that point, but now…that wasn’t an option. She could get out her credit card and buy a ticket home to Virginia and never speak to Eli again. Her heart sped up at the thought of leaving him. She quickly dismissed that idea.

Joy jumped when his soft knock interrupted her thoughts. “Love, I’m going to pick up dinner. Just enjoy your bath and we’ll sort this out later.”

She stubbornly refused to answer and felt a pang of guilt when he sighed. She waited to hear his footfalls going away from the door before she slipped into the tub.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this!” Joy snapped as they walked down the sidewalk the next day. They had just arrived at an outdoor shopping center. Eli unloaded a fistful of change into the meter as she spoke.

“I hardly talked you into this, you chewed me out for hours last night,” Eli said quickly.

“You deserve worse. You are so wrong for this.”

“I apologized over and over, are you really going to make me suffer on Valentine’s Day?”

Joy pushed her hair over her shoulder and smiled. “You’re suffering ends when mine does. I promise.”

“Look,” he said pointing just behind her, “there’s Victoria’s Secret, just like I promised.”

Joy turned around and smiled at the sign in the window advertising a sale of some sort. “It won’t do for us to join your family for lunch hauling a bag full of lingerie.”

“After lunch, then,” Eli said slipping his arm over her shoulder.

“You bet your ass, mister.”

Joy glanced around nervously as they approached Tony’s…the café where they were meeting their lunch mates. Sitting at an outdoor table was a small woman with dark hair streaked with gray and a young girl with raven hair sitting across from her. After a quick survey of the other diners, Joy decided those two must be Eli’s mother and sister.

She was right.

The girl turned and stood as they approached. Joy noticed she was tall, like her brother, but slender and slight where he was broad and bulky. She had wide green eyes and a gorgeous smile.

“Eli!” she squealed rushing into her brother’s embrace.

“Hey, Katie,” he whispered planting a kiss on her forehead…well, her bangs.

“You must be Joy!” Katie said, gathering her in a hug, too.

“It’s …uh-nice to meet you,” stammered Joy.

“Joy,” Eli said placing a hand on her lower back, “this is my little sister Katie.” He guided her toward the table where his mother now stood. “This is my mother Greta Dunn.”

Joy extended her hand to greet Greta and was surprised when the demure woman hugged her instead. “I’ve heard so much about you!”

“All good, I hope.”

Greta smiled and her round face wrinkled prettily. She set her hazel gaze on Joy’s face and nodded. “Better than good, actually; Eli has been raving about you for weeks.”

“Mom,” Eli mumbled under the pretense of getting her attention since he’d pulled out her chair. Joy noted he was blushing. His actual motive was probably to distract her from revealing anything too embarrassing.

He came around to pull out Joy’s chair, ducking his head to hide his red face.

Katie returned from notifying the maitre d’ that their entire party was present and ready for service. Eli pulled out her chair and finally took his own seat.

There was a tense moment of silence before Joy spoke, “I’ve never eaten here before.” She glanced at the menu in front of her. “Does anyone have any suggestions?”

“Calamari.”

“Angel hair.”

“Pizza.”

All three dishes were said in unison. Joy laughed. “Thanks.”

“You should really have the angel hair,” said Eli, “I know you’ll like it.”

Joy nodded but still perused the menu, just in case she spotted something more appetizing than pasta.

“So, Eli,” Katie said loudly. “How’s the weather back home? Is it starting to warm up?”

Eli sat straight in his chair and nodded. “It’s been in the mid-fifties most days.”

“Good,” said Katie, “I hate going back when there’s snow and ice. I’m always late for school when the weather’s bad.”

“That’s because you take your sweet time getting ready,” Greta said.

“It’s just so hard to get going when it’s cold,” Katie explained, “Plus, Mom cut me off from Starbucks.”

Joy laughed.

“What was I supposed to do?” said Greta, “You should have seen the bank statements; she spent more on caramel iced frappucinos than she did on clothes…two months in a row! That’s just too much caffeine for a growing girl.”

“She didn’t have to make me go cold turkey!” Katie balked.

“Trust me, when she went through withdrawals…both of us suffered!”

Eli shook his head and Joy couldn’t help but laugh. They ordered and Joy was halfway through her angel hair when she made the decision Eli was no longer in trouble. His family was warm and fun. She was actually glad she’d met them. They talked about serious and non-consequential things and teased each other mercilessly.

Katie explained how she cut her school year in half. “We own a house in Rosemary Beach,” she said around a bite of pizza. “So, I go to school there from August until February. I finish the year at my school in New York. We stay with Uncle Jon in the Hamptons for a few weeks during the summer, and then we come back here.”

“Doesn’t that make it hard to have friends?” Joy asked in wonder.

“Not really,” Katie said with a shrug. “I’ve got two sets of friends and it’s not like we ever lose contact. We e-mail, face-time, and text each other the whole time I’m away.”

“Can’t fall behind in high school gossip,” Eli teased.

Katie stuck her tongue out at him and took another bite of her slice.

Greta sat back in her chair and sighed. “I believe that most of her friends think she splits her time between two divorced parents. They don’t realize her mother is a snowbird.”

“What’s a snowbird?” Joy asked.

“It’s a person of retirement age who relocates according to the weather. They live up north, but when it starts to get cold they come down to Florida. Then they go back up north when it starts to get too hot here,” Eli explained.

“Oh. That makes more sense than shoveling driveways. Maybe I should become a snowbird. The weather here is amazing. I’m in short-sleeves in February!”

Her three lunch companions laughed.

“You two should stay at our house tonight,” Katie suggested after her mother ordered a cup of coffee.

“On Valentine’s Day?” Eli said raising his eyebrows. “I don’t want to have a sleep over at my mom’s on Valentine’s Day.”

“We’re not going to be there,
narisch
!” Greta said laughing.

“I promised Aunt Pauline that we’d stay at her place in Seaside before we leave. When we get out of here, we’re going straight to her place. The airport taxi is picking us up from there in the morning. You’ll have the whole place to yourself. It’s right on the beach, and very romantic.” The last sentence was directed to Joy.

She blushed and looked at Eli. “Well, maybe one night.”

“Wonderful!” Greta exclaimed. “The housekeeping service cleaned the house yesterday. I just have to call them and tell them to do it again on Monday!”

Eli paid the bill and after many hugs, kisses, fussing, and goodbyes, Joy and Eli went down the sidewalk toward Victoria’s Secret while the other two headed in the opposite direction toward the valet.

Eli spread a blanket over the white sand and stepped back. Everything was perfect. A bottle of champagne was chilling in a tin bucket with two flutes.  He shoved the bucket into the sand beside the blanket. 

“Eli?” Joy called from the back of the house. He could just make out her figure as she stepped off the steps.

“Right here!” he answered waving.

He met her halfway, lifting her off the ground and into a slow romantic kiss. “So, how am I doing so far?” he whispered.

Eli left a trail of chocolate kisses from the dining room to the bathroom where a candlelit tub awaited Joy. He’d told her to enjoy it while he got the last surprise ready and meet him on the beach when she was done.

“Wonderful,” Joy admitted.

Eli smiled. Joy wore a pair of thin white linen pants and a pale purple camisole he’d picked out earlier that day. Her feet were bare and her dark hair spilled around her shoulders in soft curls. He took a moment to thank the heavens for a perfectly timed full moon that let him appreciate her beauty even after ten at night.

“This way,” he said setting her down and taking her hand. He led her to the blanket and waited until she’d sat down to do the same. He poured their champagne and the two of them watched the waves lull onto the shore.

“The sky here is so beautiful,” Joy mused after a long, companionable silence.

“I know,” said Eli, “there are no neon lights to compete with the stars. It’s like you can see every star in the sky.”

“Twice,” Joy said, “They’re reflected in the water.”

Eli was suddenly struck by the fact that while he’d fully intended on taking his girl away on a romantic weekend, he hadn’t really expected it to go this well. Somewhere in the back of his mind, his logic had been telling him that this relationship was just too good. There had to be a flaw somewhere.

They’d both been caught up in the romance they’d shared over Christmas, so it wasn’t surprising that they’d gotten along so well in Europe. However, when he agreed they should stay together a while longer, he assumed they would soon tire of each other and with the romance gone, the everyday mundane would take the polish off their relationship. It didn’t happen. Whether they were at a fancy dinner out or in sweats on the couch, the two of them got along wonderfully.

That’s why he’d jumped at the opportunity to take a quick trip to Florida.

It had actually been a sort of test. He wanted to see if Joy would react as his past girlfriends had. After being flown to the resort town and taken to an upscale shopping center, the others had practically led him around by his credit cards. Joy, however, had simply wanted to replace the panties he couldn’t seem to stop tearing off her. Then, she wanted to leave. She didn’t visit Anne Klein or Saks or Vivian Lee. She’d only stopped in a small boutique store on the way back to the car in order to buy some pants that weren’t as heavy as the jeans she’d brought with her. Eli had slipped the sales girl his credit card while Joy wasn’t looking to prevent her from paying for anything herself.

She’d even given him an exasperated look when the girl refused her card and informed her everything had already been paid for.

“Let me have that,” he whispered taking her champagne and placing the flute in the ice bucket.

She seemed not to notice, just continued staring up at the sky.

“Joy?”

She startled out of her stargazing by Eli’s deep voice. “Huh?”

“I have something for you.”

“You shouldn’t have!” Joy said automatically, “you’ve already spent so much money on me. It’s…”