Chris POV
We spend our last day in Savannah doing little touristy type things. We eat at a popular restaurant that's been showcased on the Food Network. We take a trolley ride that shows us where scenes from some Hollywood movies were made as well.
It's late afternoon when Daphne says she wants to show me where she grew up. We drive about ten miles outside of downtown to a rural area. Homes are no longer sitting on top of one another but at least 1-2 acres each. She directs me down a side road that turns into a dirt road. Another two miles down and she points off to the left. "There. That's where I grew up."
I put the truck in park. I take in the yellow two story home with black shutters. I now understand Daphne's insistence on a porch when I see a wrap around porch going all around the house. There's a large Weeping Willow tree in the backyard. A tire swing hangs off another tree in the front yard.
"Is it the same as when you moved to Nassau?" I ask.
"Somewhat. There use to be two Fir trees, one on each side of the driveway. Daddy planted them when Ollie and I were 5. They had grown so tall and wide by the time we moved. I guess the new owners didn't like them as much as we did," she tells me. "Oh! And over there is the Gardenia bush we planted in memory of my dad's parents when they passed. The blooms were always gorgeous and fragrant," she points to the opposite end of the house from where the truck sits.
"Is the tire swing new or here before?"
The slightest smile plays upon her lips as she tells me a memory. "Daddy hung it for my fourth birthday. I spent so much time on it just swinging or reading a book. It was also where I had my first kiss."
"Oh really," I say inquisitively. "Tell me about it." I turn in the truck to face her better.
Daphne takes a small breath as her eyes light up in wonder. "See that blue house," she says pointing down the road a bit. I nod my head. "Jeremiah Matthews lived there. We went to school together. His sister, Sadie, and I were best friends. One day we decided to play wedding day. Obviously Sadie couldn't be the bride with her brother being the groom, so..." she points back to herself. "I was seven, Jeremiah was 8."
"Daphne Marie Evans. Are you telling me that you were originally Daphne Matthews?" I say playfully.
She laughs sheepishly. "For a whole week at least. Then a new neighbor moved in and I became chopped liver. So you see, my ability, or lack there of, to keep a guy interested started at a very young age."
"You kept the interest of one and that's all that matters." I jump out of the truck and urge her to join me. "What are you doing now?" I take her hand and walk her towards the tire swing. "Chris, people live here."
"There's no cars so chances are no one is home. Come on," I tell her. We reach the swing and I help her climb into it. I gently push her. Her eyes dance the same way I imagine they did as a small child.
"I bet you were a shy child," I say to my bride.
"To an extent. I had certain friends that I could be crazy with and others that made me feel like I couldn't be myself. That's probably why I've been so guarded even as an adult," she reveals.
I continue to listen to her tell me of her childhood. The family events that took place here. Memories of heartache are the ones that tug at my heart the most. "Puberty was a very awkward time for me. It first started for me around ten. I was the tallest girl in my class, super skinny and extremely lanky. Obviously not so much now. I got glasses in fourth grade too which just added to it. Boys were cruel," she tells me as a frown takes over. "I remember sitting here and crying for hours when daddy said we were moving. This was all I ever knew, it scared me. The day we moved I stayed right here until mom told me we had to go."
The
I stop the tire from swinging and pull it towards me. "I hope this changes the last memory you have of this swing." I dip my body down and capture her lips with mine. When I pull away I notice her frown is gone. "Definitely. You may not have been my first kiss, but you will be my last."
~~~
Daphne's POV
Chris tells me he's set an alarm for Tuesday morning since we need to head out by seven. "So, should we get a full nights sleep because of driving or can we sleep along the way?" Yes, I'm still trying to coerce him into giving me more hints.
It looks like this time it may work as I can see his thoughts turning in his head. "There will be an opportunity for sleeping during the day tomorrow," he says as he's packing away items that won't be needed until our next stop.
"For both of us, or just one of us?" I ask hoping for a little more information.
"Daphne, I promise by this time tomorrow you'll know the whole plan. Just give me one more day, please?" He says walking towards me.
"Fine," I say rolling my eyes. "You knew I was impatient before you married me."
"And annoyingly stubborn. And kind. And loving. And gorgeous," he tells me with a smirk.
"What's your point?" I ask.
"I love you for it," he simply says grabbing me by the waist and carrying me to the bed.
~~~
The alarm goes off at 5:30 but when I open my eyes I see that Chris is already in the bathroom combing through his wet hair. "Why are you already up?" I groan, missing him next to me.
"Too excited to sleep," he says.
"Well then we could've done something else," I say mischievously.
He looks back at me through the reflection in the mirror. "I tried. You kicked me," he tells me, dead serious.
"I did not!" I shout in complete disbelief.
Chris nods his head at me. "Yes, you did. I valued my life too much so I got up and took a cold shower instead," he laughs out.
"You're lying," I say still not believing him.
He saunters over to me in just his boxers and lifts his leg onto the bed. Pointing to a mark on his shin he say, "that's where your heel hit me when I started nuzzling your neck."
"So you quit trying after one kick? Where's your persistence, Evans?"
He narrows his eyes at me and turns to the side. There's another mark under his ribs. "That's from your elbow when I put my hand on your thigh."
I'm slightly mortified now. "I'm so sorry," I say with a half laugh and half cry. "I'm awake now," I say as I sit up on my knees and go over in front of where he stands beside the bed. I let my hands roam his chest as my nose nuzzles just under his jaw. He steps back away from me and I almost fall off of the bed at the loss of contact.
"Now you can take a cold shower," he laughs at me as he returns to the bathroom.
~~~
Since Chris had gotten up early we were on the road by 6:30 after making a stop for the necessities: gas and coffee. I notice the interstate sign has us returning south back towards Jacksonville. "Are we stopping back home first?"
"Not exactly," he tells me.
I contemplate going back to sleep but not knowing how long I have I decide I better not. Instead I open up my social media from my phone and decide to post a couple of photos from our adventure the day before.
I choose the selfie I took while Chris was pushing me on the tire swing along with a couple of images Rene sent me from the wedding day. I laugh out loud when I realize she snapped a photo of his expression when he realized my garter was at my calf.
"What are you doing over there?" Chris asks eyeing my reaction.
"Laughing at you, my love," I tell him. I show him the image on my phone only to be met by his own howl of laughter.
"That's quite the face, Evans," I joke with him.
"What can I say? I was really looking forward to getting a reaction from you but instead you schooled me," he admits.
"A reaction from me, huh? What were you planning mister?" I ask genuinely curious.
"Guess you'll never know now," he sasses me.
"Ok, so definitely flying," I gather as we pull into Jacksonville International Airport two hours later. I look over at Chris as he pulls the truck into long term parking.
"Your inference skills are on point," he chuckles.
"Well I do just teach kindergarten so the more obvious the better," I sass back.
He unloads the luggage and locks up the truck before we move to the shuttle station. I take a moment to look him over. He's wearing just a simple white t-shirt and some athletic pants with his baseball cap. He looks so comfortable, like he's ready to just cuddle up and watch a movie. My mind begins to wander about what all the clothes hide. I can feel the heat rise in my cheeks as I think to myself that every bit of him is mine. Mine to love, admire, enjoy. I'm starting to hope this flight is a short one.
The shuttle takes us right up to the main entrance of the airport. Chris walks over to the kiosk to check us in and hands over our luggage. He's still keeping me secluded from learning where we're headed.
"Alright," he starts after we go through security, "we've got an hour until boarding. Want anything?"
I spot the Cinnabon shop and immediately my mouth waters. "Let's go," Chris says with his hand on the small of my back. We decide on a box of four and split one for now.
"How long is the flight? Should I run and grab a book or magazines?" I ask him.
He tells me it's a handful of hours so I pull him into the small bookstore adjacent to the Starbucks. We grab a couple of magazines and some snacks. Checking his watch Chris tells me it's time to move to our gate.
As we reach the gate I look up at the board behind the attendant to see the words Los Angeles. I turn, wide eyed, at the man who is squeezing my hand. "LA?" I question. He purses his lips and nods. "LA," he says.
I'm confused. I don't exactly know how he thinks that LA is on my list of places to visit. Disneyland, yes, but a honeymoon in LA... Maybe he's thrown in more of what he likes considering he's from a large busy city.
'Stop being selfish, Daphne,' I tell myself.
I do my best to hide my confusion, that is slightly laced with disappointment, as they call our boarding group. Chris leads me by holding my hand, giving the attendant our tickets. I'm surprised to see that he has gotten us first class seats. When will this man stop surprising me?
Chris gives me the window seat and then settles into the aisle seat. "Well, what do you think?" He asks me directly following takeoff.
"I'm excited," I say hoping that I'm hiding my emotions well enough to not pose anymore questions.
Chris POV
My insides are shaking from the laughter I'm holding back. I know Daphne is perplexed by a flight to LA. "You may want to tell your face that you're excited."
She looks back at me with sad eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm just confused."
"Why are you confused? I thought you'd like to see California and shop Beverly Hills," I say straighfaced. The face she gives me in return is asking 'do you even know me?!' I'm chewing the inside of my cheek in an attempt to not crack a smile.
I open up a magazine and look at it aimlessly in an effort to keep myself from spilling the rest of my plan. From the corner of my eye I see Daphne's leg bouncing up and down, a good indicator that she's upset or anxious. I gently put my hand on her leg to soothe her but she's taking it as me asking her to stop. Time to get her mind off of the LA factor.
"Want to join me in the bathroom? You could join the Mile High Club," I ask with a wiggle of my brows.
"Me join the Mile High Club? That must mean you're already a member," she cracks back.
Damn. That backfired. "Actually I'm not," I assure her. "But it's something we could have together."
"I can see the headline now: Kindergarten teacher caught in compromising position at 10,000 feet," she says.
This didn't quite go the way I hoped. I knew she'd turn me down but I thought it would give her a little laugh.
"Why don't you try and sleep," I say changing tactics. "You've got at least four hours." And the more she sleeps the less time I'll have to dodge her disappointment because at this point I'm moments away from blowing the surprise just to see her face light up.
I start up the inflight movie option as Daphne snuggles into my side. The attendant offers us a blanket and I pull it over Daphne.
It takes about thirty minutes but her breathing evens out and her body relaxes. I place a sweet, innocent kiss on the top of her head and lay my own head back and close my eyes.
Around two hours later I hear a rustling sound that pulls me from my sleep. I no longer feel Daphne against my side but open my eyes to see her fumbling with a bag of chips.
"Sorry," she says. "I was hungry." Giving me an apologetic smile she offers the bag to me. I take one and shove it in my mouth. "Oh my gosh!" She exclaims. "I know what you look like now!"
"I'm sorry, what? What do I look like?" I ask.
"Broad shoulders, thin waist. You're a Dorito!" She says as she hold up one of the chips in front of her. Her laugh is so hard that she snorts. It's the best sound I've heard all day.
I hang my head but a smile creeps across my face. "I love you," I say tasting her lips with mine.
"Love you more," she says as she pulls my face closer to her.
For the next five minutes we have a good old fashioned make out session, uncaring of anyone around us, until we hear someone clearing their throat. The attendant asks if we'd like a drink.
"Sorry. We're on our honeymoon," I tell her hoping that gives us a small reprieve from judgement.
"That's wonderful," she says as she pours Daphne a ginger ale. "Is Los Angeles your final destination?"
Crap. Come on! I see Daphne looking at me quizzically. I try to get the attendant to read my mind as I'm nicely asking her to stop talking. Thankfully she gets the hint and goes back to pushing the drink cart as I hear a huff come from Daphne.
"You're enjoying this too much," she tells me.
"Soon love, soon," I say as I go back to kissing her.
This time we are brought back to reality by the speaker telling us we are starting our descent into LA. Daphne starts cleaning up and repacking her carry on.
Once we disembark from the plane I walk her towards the luggage pick up. After about fifteen minutes we have all three bags. As we head to the exit she points out a man holding a sign with EVANS written across it.
"Seriously?" Daphne asks nodding over to the gentleman.
"Yep," I state simply as I approach the man.
We follow the suited man out to the curb where he opens the door to a limousine. He takes the luggage from me as I usher Daphne inside. The driver closes the door behind me.
After making sure the privacy partition is up I pull Daphne onto my lap, my hands tangling in her hair as I bring her lips to mine forcefully. She moans into my mouth as her body instinctively rocks against me. My hands wander over her thighs and up her skirt. I snap my head back away from her suddenly.
"Daphne Marie Jeffries Evans," I state. "You're not wearing underwear?"
"Nope," she says with a devilish smirk as she slides off of my lap and back into her seat.
"What are you doing? Why'd you leave?" I ask flustered.
"You can have me when you tell me the rest of your plan," she says matter of factly.
My eyes narrow and I'm suddenly very thankful I'm not wearing jeans. "So you did that on purpose then?"
"Two can play this game, babe," she says.
We sit there for the next thirty minutes waiting to see who will budge first. As much as I don't want this limo ride to go to waste I will not be the first to break. Daphne even tosses her bare legs over my lap, teasing me. I just absentmindedly rub her legs with my hand, on occasion letting it go higher under her skirt. I try to reach higher but she just moves my hand away. I can't help but chuckle.
Right as I'm about to lose it and reveal the surprise the car stops and the driver opens the door. I step out first, offering Daphne my hand. As she steps out her jaw goes slack and her hands cover her mouth.
Looking around she notices the cruise ships in the water. "A cruise?" She exclaims. I nod my head with a wide smile, thankful I've managed to keep my mouth shut until now.
I grab all of the luggage before we walk into the port for check in. "Where are we going? I don't think I even care! This is so exciting!"
We check in and are ushered over for a photo before we walk onto the boat. Daphne leans into my side as I put my arm around her waist. I lean down right before the photographer snaps, "Hawaii."
Click.