A/N: Short filler chapter. Thank you all so much for reading though. I never imagined this story would be as popular as it is!
As always, let me know what you think with a comment or a vote! Cheers! 💚💚💚
Daniel
Maeve told me to head up and grab our bags while she went to grab the car that was apparently part of this special surprise. I followed her rules, calling for a bellboy to help me get everything downstairs. Taking a moment, I looked around the room. While I spent plenty of time in various hotel rooms around the world, the skyline of Las Vegas and this room would be forever ingrained in my memories. Leaving a hotel felt weird for the first time ever, but the idea that soon I would be home with my wife was motivation to finally say goodbye to the loft and head downstairs.
That's where the next surprise was waiting. In the general pick up area, Maeve was standing there leaning against a car Daniel had only seen in old movies. The candy blue thunderbird was something out of an old war movie, but with her leaning against it it looked like a dream. She smiled widely behind her sunglasses as I approached.
"Wow, what a beaut..." He said as he looked at the inside of the car where her phone sat on the passenger seat and nothing else.
"Me or the car?" She chuckled. Maeve smirked as I looked at her.
"I think you know the answer to that." I stared at her and made sure to convey my thoughts. She only winked at me before opening the trunk.
After some serious maneuvering to get all of our things into the car, having to give in and put some of the things we could in the back seat, she stood at the back of the car with me. Again we were far too close for friends, but at the moment I didn't care.
"I believe you're holding something of mine Mr. Ricciardo." She held her hand out as her right hip leaned against the car.
"Oh, I know. I'm honestly a little hurt that you didn't ask for it sooner." I smiled as I pulled the necklace over my head that had both of our rings on it.
She had her left hand out as I took the ring off the necklace. I couldn't help myself as I slid the ring over her finger. She smiled up at me as I did so, my eyes moving to her face as soon as the ring was situated where it belongs. To my absolute surprise, she reached out for the other ring before grabbing my left hand.
"You know, I planned this whole thing for you," She smiled softly as she slid the ring on my finger,"For you, and only you because you've said up and down how much you wanted to do something. We have 5 days to get to Austin and it seems this is going to be our accidental honeymoon." She tapped her finger on my knuckles before placing her hands at her side.
"Oh yeah? That seems fortuitous." There was a smile on my face that hers matched I'm sure.
"Very. Ready?" She nodded towards the car and I only nodded.
She moved to the driver's side first and I wanted to protest. The car was beautiful and this would've been the perfect time to drive it.
"Don't worry, you'll be doing most of the driving, I'm just gonna get us to the first stop and then it's all yours. Sound good?" I smiled, loving that she knew exactly what I was thinking.
"Alright. Let's get to it then."
She hopped in the car, buckling just the lap belt that was available. After waiting for me to do the same, she pulled out of the valet area. With the top down, the autumn air of Nevada made it very clear what time of year it was. I was chilly, but she only drove about an hour and a half until we were over the border to the south and in Arizona. We were next to the highway called I-40 in a place called Kingman when she pulled into a truck stop and parked to get gas. I stayed in the car, retrieving my jacket from my backpack in the back seat while she started the fueling process. Then she was on my side of the car, leaning on her elbows into the car and smirking at me.
"So, can you guess where we are?" She waited as I looked around.
"Arizona?" She looked surprised, but I quickly realized it was sarcastic.
"Don't laugh at me! I'm not American!" I laughed as she shrugged.
"This is Kingman. If you go that way," She pointed down the highway," A few exits down is SR 66, famously known as route 66. Some of the original route is still left here until the other side of the state."
My eyebrows furrowed as I stared at her incredulously. I had said for years how I wanted to do the cross country trip on Route 66. It was all American and it was plenty of people's dreams. On top of that, we were in a dream car doing it. A car from the time that originally would've driven on this magical road.
"You're fucking incredible, you know that?" I leaned up, to be eye level with her as she smiled.
"I know, but I love it when you tell me." She giggled, clearly proud of herself.
Taking a moment to look around, I couldn't help myself from giving her a kiss. She really was perfect, the love of my life and now my wife. It was something we'd probably have to talk about more later, but for now we were relishing in it. I personally will enjoy this moment and these memories far more than I would have before, not that it wouldn't have been an enjoyable trip.
"I'll tell you every day for the rest of your life," I told her as I pulled back," Mrs. Ricciardo." That brought a smile to both our faces as I placed my left hand over hers on the car door's edge.
"You know you're gonna have to change your board now..." She chuckled as she stood up, a reference to the three letters that denoted me on the time sheets.
"No way," I countered as I opened the door," I had it first. You can have D-I-C" She rolled her eyes as I laughed and pulled myself from the car.
"Oh great, married and my husband won't even share with me..." Wrapping my arms around her in a short hug, she pushed me back.
"Wait, DIC? Wouldn't it be MRI?" That made me raise an eyebrow at her.
"Well it could be, or we could hyphenate our names." I reminded her as my arms stayed around her.
"No, I'm plenty happy taking yours. You're the one that said you wanted to remove all of my past in favor of our bright future or something sappy like that." She kissed my cheek before moving to get in the seat I had been sitting in.
"I did say that, but this can and will be a longer conversation." She just shrugged as she sat in the car.
"Let's not let the little things get in the way of the honeymoon, Daniel. I'm already moving in with you and we do everything together as is. We're the perfect couple." She let me close the door for her.
"You could say that," The cheeky smile on my face replaced the innuendos I wanted to say," Now, are you gonna be the one with the map or should I be mapping us somewhere?"
Maeve picked up her phone and I watched as she went through a few different apps. One was for weather and another was for maps. Finally, there was one for a hotel chain I'm guessing we were staying at.
"Well, It looks like there's rain on our route so we should put the roof on, but I'll navigate for you when you're ready. I already have a late dinner scheduled in Flagstaff."
That was the start of our five day trip. Maeve had planned every single piece of the trip to our stops, what we would eat, where we would stay, and even a few picture spots that we knew we needed for memories. There were things I had only seen in pictures online, but she knew them well being from here. This trip felt like it was for her just as much as it had been for me.
The first night, we were in this vintage cabin that had been restored to the nines. It was homey and perfect. She had ordered in a small stock of groceries, including marshmallows for the fireplace. It was like we had a mini cabin get away without being gone forever. The next morning, she made us both breakfast before we headed out for our adventure of the day.
She took us into the woods for a grand hike. There were beautiful peaks and an ice cave she took me to in the morning before we grabbed a quick lunch. Maeve had us on the road again and at the next pretty cabin in the woods that night. We grilled and did some work that we had neglected for the upcoming race even though neither of us wanted to look at strategy guides or track maps when we were supposed to be enjoying our time together. The team would be upset if we hadn't though.
Saturday we drove into New Mexico, stopping at a place I had never heard of that was off the route we had planned. Bandera Ice Caves and Volcano park. We hiked around and explored most of the afternoon before having to continue on. She found the cutest little motel, restored in all its glory to what it had been like in 1939 when it opened. It was kitschy, but my god was it perfect. The dweeb had booked us the special suite. We wasted no time relaxing our sore bodies in the vintage claw foot tub. That was a moment we took to go through some photos we had taken so far on our trip. Picking and choosing our favorites before turning in for another night of driving.
Sunday was a free for all day. All she told me was to drive to Amarillo. Then out of nowhere she points at something and tells me to pull off the road. To my surprise, there were ten cars buried in the dirt of the Texas desert, hood in the ground and tail to the sky. Maeve explained to me that they had been here for years and people sign them all the time. One to always be prepared, she had a metallic sharpie ready to go.
M+D
Headfirst and Fearlessly in love and life
Just married
We kissed and sat at the back of the car we had signed, taking photos and just talking about anything and everything that came to mind. Even as the sun set, we stayed, enjoying our time and making memories. These were things that I loved, the spontaneity and timing to make this all perfect. Even as we drove our last day on Monday into Austin, she still had planned a whole night out on the town before we had to work on Tuesday.
She took me line dancing. There was great food and even better hangs as she had some friends in town. While we couldn't be together publicly, she never made me feel like I was missing out. I hoped she felt the same, or rather I knew that now. Because her first response after we had been married wasn't to try and have it annulled, it was to kiss me and say how happy she was. How happy we both were was exemplified in the last few days on our trip.
Now we just had to bide our time, figure out when it was best to tell everyone. We had a bigger and longer conversation ahead of us too. While being married was literally all fun and games, this had serious tax and life implications that we needed to work out. Plus, we needed to file for marriage in other places to get her moved in with me. That could all be done next time we had a few days off, hopefully soon...