"This is incredible." I said as soon as we got out of the cab from the airport. We just landed in Barbados, it was one of the most beautiful views I had ever seen in my life.
"Isn't it? I thought this was a good place to be. We get to be here for a whole week and a half." Jamie said, letting go of the two rolling suitcases and coming behind me to wrap his arms around my torso. He rested his head on my shoulder, holding one of his wrists around me as he squeezed lightly. "Let's go check in, pretty girl." He whispered after a couple moments of just enjoying the view.
We went inside the hotel and checked in, Jamie had booked this entire trip without telling me anything, so I had no idea where we were going, what we were doing, hell I barely knew when we had to be at the airport this morning. We were lead to little private houses along a pathway, both of us trying to sneak glances at the ocean every chance we got.
"There's something about this that feels so peaceful." I said as we passed by a couple houses with a 'do no disturb' sign on the door handles.
"I know, the pictures online do not do this place justice." He said, coming up to a room in the corner. The gentleman that was leading us to our 'house' for the week stopped in front of one, motioning for the key card which Jamie took out and handed it to him as he opened the door to a brightly lit room with what looked like the most comfortable and fluffy king sized bed.
"Is that a pool? Attached to the room?" I asked, looking towards what I expected to be just a patio. Instead there was a patio still with a small table and two chairs, but also a mini pool with a small waterfall, where there sat two lounge chairs at the entrance.
"Babe, I think that's a jacuzzi." Jamie replied, I looked up at him, my mouth gaped wide open.
"No way?" I practically yelled, dropping the carry on bag we split and running over to see. I could hear Jamie chuckling behind me a little bit, letting go of the two suit cases and following me to see what it was.
"Maybe not, maybe it's just a regular pool. But that's still super cool that it's just right in the room." He said. I turned away from the pool and walked over to the suit cases, dropping mine flat on the ground and unzipping it, looking for Jamie's favourite bikini, I knew I packed it right on top. I got changed quickly and walked over to the pool, sitting down on one of the lounge chairs. "That was fast, do you not want to go walking around the resort and go to the pool first?"
"Yeah, just gimme a second to bathe in this glory." I said, stretching my arms out and leaning my head back. I could hear Jamie's slides on the ground walking away from me, just walking around the room in general before going to the suit cases and dropping his flat on the floor too. I eventually stood up from my spot on one of the chairs, drying off a little bit with a towel sitting beside the pool and went into the room to find Jamie.
"Baby, look at this bathroom!" He yelled, it was almost like he knew I was looking for him. I followed the sound of his voice, stopping in the door way in awe at the room. There was one tall bathtub, but also two huge separate shower stalls on either side of the tub, along with two sinks and a toilet.
"Dang only one toilet." I said, looking around at the white and granite walls.
"Lame, that means we can't pee staring at each other." He replied, turning around from looking into one of the shower stalls and laughing.
"Yeah I think I'm happier with that." I said, laughing at him.
"Wanna go check out the resort?" He asked, slowly making a couple steps over to me, resting his hands on my hips, playing with the hip straps of my bikini with his finger tips. I rested my forehead on his chest, feeling his beating heart, I nodded against his shirt that he was unfortunately still wearing. "Let's go." His voice was soft and a little scratchy.
"I'm going to grab a shirt real quick." I said, going over to the suit case and grabbing a random t shirt to throw over my bikini top, seeing as it was super revealing and we now had out own pool, that was an our pool bikini.
"Booooo." Jamie said as he watched me throw the shirt over my head.
"Hey, you're the one wearing shorts and a shirt, I'm just wearing the bottoms out like this." I said, throwing my hands up in defence.
"Fair I guess, maybe I'll take the shirt off through our walk." He said, with a wink, and for some reason I could feel my cheeks heat up. There was no reason that just a simple wink from Jamie should make me blush, we've been together for three and a half years. "You're so pretty when you blush." He whispered, his voice felt like a breeze going through the open windows.
"I love you." I said, looking him in the eyes, he was already looking down at me with the kind of smile that says everything you ever need to know. The crinkles by his eyes showed that he had been smiling for a while already.
"I love you most, my beautiful wife." He said, leaning down and softly pressing his lips to mine. I had almost forgotten, this place was so beautiful it slipped my mind why we were even here.
"Ready to go check it out?" I asked, pulling away only an inch or two.
"Yeah, let's go." He said, taking my hand in his and intertwining our fingers. We grabbed our phones, sliding them both into Jamie's pockets because I didn't have any, he grabbed a snapback and put it backwards on his head since he never leaves without one, as well as a room card and put that in his pockets too. "You know, if I keep carrying everything my shorts are going to fall off."
"I don't see that as being a bad thing." I said, shrugging my shoulders.
"You want everyone to see what I'm packing?" He asked as we closed the door behind us, he was smirking proudly.
"Doesn't matter to me, I'm very secure in this relationship." I said, trying to hold back a slight laugh.
"Yeah, you should be." He said, smiling down at me. We walked down the path, making little comments at all the little houses near by before getting to the pool which was pretty crowded, people jumping in and out, but happily no kids.
"Is this a kid free resort?" I asked Jamie, quietly.
"Yeah, pretty sure at least. I didn't look for one specifically. I just looked for the fanciest, nicest, most romantic, and best rated." He said, laughing just a little bit.
"That's a good way to find one." I replied. There was a bar by the pool so we decided to go get a drink whilst we were in the area anyways. Jamie ordered two pina coladas for us and they came out in no time, bartender definitely went a little heavy on the rum. We walked down another path to try and find the beach, it didn't take long to get down there. "Can you hold this for a second?" I asked Jamie, handing him my drink. He didn't verbally reply, just took the drink out of my hand. The wind was pretty strong down here with no buildings blocking it anymore so I pulled my scrunchie off of my wrist and tied my hair up.
"You should wear your hair up more often." Jamie said as he looked at me as if I was the sun.
"I feel like I look like an egg with my hair up." I said, laughing awkwardly a little bit.
"I don't think so, I think you look beautiful no matter what." He replied as he handed me the drink back.
"Well, thank you." I replied, I held back my eye roll just because I knew it would make him carry on. "The ocean looks so pretty." I said after a moment of silence, the entire time I could feel his eyes on me.
"It's gorgeous out here, I'm so glad we're here." He said. We walked down to the shore where the waves were crashing. It was a little surprising that even though it was so windy, the waves were pretty calm. We started walking along the shore, the stereotype of long walks along the beach. We both held our shoes in one hand with our drinks in the other. Jamie kept trying to kick the waves at my legs, laughing the whole time. The sun was slowly setting, the pink sky reflecting off the ocean and the light reflecting on Jamie's face.
"Can I have my phone?" I asked him after looking at the perfect view for a minute or two. He nodded and reached into his pocket, handing me my phone. I wasted no time and stepped a couple feet away, snapping a quick picture of Jamie walking in the ocean with the sunset in the background. I slid my phone back into Jamie's pocket, I was planning on posting it later but first I still needed to change my name on Instagram, part of me just wanting to do it to see his reaction to the change. We kept walking for another 20 minutes before deciding to turn around and head back.
"We could either find the restaurant or we could order room service." He said once opening the door.
"Let's find the menu and see what they have on room service, maybe just one more night of just us before needing to be around that many other people." I said, Jamie seemed very proud and happy with that answer, as he immediately moved around the room to find the room service menu they provided. We opened it and both found something we'd like so called and ordered. I took the t-shirt off that I had been wearing and sat on the edge of the pool, dangling my feet in.
"Oh hell yeah the shirts back off!" He exclaimed as he came outside. I laughed at him and he sat right beside me, his knee lightly touching mine to the point it almost tickled.
"Your turn." I said, eyeing up his chest and torso that were still covered. He smiled an over exaggerating smile and crossed his arms over each other, grabbing ahold of the bottom of his shirt to lift it over his head. "Fuck you're hot." I said as soon as I could see a little bit of skin. He threw his shirt onto the floor into the room. He just looked me in the eye for a moment, then lifting a hand and putting it on my jawline, leaning in and kissing me. It was somewhere between a hungry and loving and passionate kiss, whatever he wanted out of it I was happy to do. He stepped down so he was now standing in the pool, and grabbed my waist, lifting me up and setting me to stand in the pool as well. We weren't far from the wall of the pool, but he stood in front of me and took a step forward, making me take one back so that I could feel the cold tile on my skin. He put his hands back on my jawline and leaned back down to kiss me.
"Food won't be here for another twenty minutes or so." He said against my lips. There was something different in his voice that I had never quite heard before Whatever it was it really turned me on, and I knew that was exactly what he was trying to do.
"Okay, and?" I asked, tilting my head to the side with a smirk. He moved one hand from my jaw and slid it down to my hips, slowly moving it to the inside. I breathed in sharply and a little shaky.
"You want me to stop?" He asked, his breath now hot on my neck and he started lightly sucking. My hand instinctively moved to the back of his head, pulling him closer.
"No, never. Please don't stop." I said, he had barely started anything and I was already begging, how weak am I?
"I'll never stop." He whispered, now moving his fingers in a slow, circular motion on my heat, I could feel my knees getting weaker with every movement.
"Jamie," I whimpered. Now I'm whimpering? What is wrong with me today? He moved his head away from my neck and came back to kiss me, while simultaneously moving my bikini out of his way and inserting a finger. I gasped and let out a small moan just as his lips hit mine. I let out a small moan with every movement he made.
"Wanna take this to the bed or just do it here?" He asked, barely moving away from my lips.
"That'll take too long." I said.
"Good point." He replied, sliding off his swim trunks. He didn't say anything else, just in one swift motion lifted me up a little bit and inserted himself in me. We both let out a moan as he thrusted in and out, getting faster and faster. I tilted my head back as my breathing got heavier and every moan felt more like a gasp for air. "You're so fucking hot."
"You're hot." I replied, I could barely think straight, all I could do is repeat him. I could feel myself getting closer, along with him twitching inside of me. I pulled him closer, using my grip on his hair to get higher, as he pulled out all of a sudden and moaned loudly.
"I love you so goddamn much." He said, leaning in and kissing me hard.
"I love you the absolute most." I replied.
"Are you okay?" He asked after a moment of us both catching our breath.
"Yeah, I'm good. My legs hurt." I said, letting out a little laugh. His lips curled into a smile and he wrapped his arms around my neck and I looped mine around his torso, hugging him tight.
"Let's sit you down then, pretty girl." He said. He lifted me up and set me on the edge of the pool and pushed himself out of the pool, sitting beside me for a minute.
"Do you think the food's here yet?" I asked after a moment.
"I don't know, I feel like we would've heard it if they knocked." He said, standing up and grabbing a towel to dry himself off as he walked to the front door. I followed him, slowly but surely, doing the same thing.
"I don't know about you but I definitely would not have heard that, I was a little focused on something else." I said as we made it to the door. Jamie turned to look at me and shook his head, laughing out a little bit.
"Good point." He said, opening the door. Lo and behold the food was indeed there. Jamie grabbed both covered plates and brought them inside, sitting them at the table on the patio beside the pool. "Alright, here we go." We sat in basically silence whilst we ate, it had been a long day and neither one of us really ate much so we were pretty hungry.
"There's a fire dancer show tonight by the pool, did you wanna go?" I asked once we finished.
"Yeah sure, either that or we just hang out in here for the night so I think that would be a cool thing to see instead." We stayed in the room until it was time to get ready for the show. We eventually got dressed and headed over for the night. There was a lot of other people in the chairs they had put out, so we sat near the back.
"What time is it?" I asked as I rolled over in the bed, seeing Jamie already awake and scrolling quietly through his phone.
"It is 10:30am." He replied.
"How long have you been up?"
"About an hour, I didn't want to wake you up." He hadn't looked away from his phone yet.
"Did you not go to breakfast?"
"Why so many questions this soon after waking up?" He asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Sorry." I simply said and laid on my back staring at the ceiling.
"No, I didn't go to breakfast, I'm not hungry. Are you?" He asked after another few minutes of silence. I had turned back around with my back facing him and pulled out my phone from the charger.
"No, I'm not." I don't know why he seems mad at me this early. He knows that he can wake me up if he's up and wants to do something. That's always been a thing with us, we agreed very early on we can always wake the other up if we want to do something. There was another silence, Jamie stood up from the bed with a huff and went into the washroom, turning on the shower. I don't know what I did. I sighed and stood up from the bed, walking into the washroom as he was getting undressed. "Hey, did I do something?" I asked him, leaning up against the door frame.
"No, why do you think that?" He asked.
"I don't know, something just seems wrong, you seem mad at me." I said, looking down at the floor, my toes curling and uncurling. I never liked having this conversation. Not that it made me uncomfortable, but it made me nervous. Like I was walking on broken glass and I could feel the shards digging into the bottom of my feet.
"I'm not necessarily happy, but I'm not mad."
"Talk to me, why are you not happy?" I asked.
"Last night, when we went to that beach party, I walked away to the washroom and when I came back I saw you talking to some guy, it looked pretty flirty to me." He said, now also looking down at the marble floor.
"He asked what I was doing alone, and I explained to him that I wasn't, that my brand new husband was going to be back any minute." I started, not really smiling but not frowning anymore either. I kind of loved it when he was jealous. "He continued to say that he didn't see you anywhere, so I asked where he was from, he said Edmonton, so I asked him if he followed the NHL." I could see Jamie look up with his eyes, not moving his head still.
"Continue."
"He said he loved the NHL, he's Canadian after all. So I asked him what his favourite teams were, and he said Edmonton and Anaheim. I was a little confused as to why Anaheim when he's from Edmonton but didn't question it, only telling him that you play for the Ducks, to which he asked who you were which was in great timing because I saw you coming so I simply pointed to you. He immediately wanted your autograph, which I told him no because he was trying to flirt with your wife." I said, my smile switching to a smirk.
"Really?" Jamie asked, his head now moving up and a hopeful smile starting to take the frown's place.
"Yes, and then he walked away since he was upset. I didn't even get his name." I said, as I looked over at him there was now an evident blush on his cheeks.
"Well now I seem like an idiot." He said.
"Why?" I asked him.
"I should've just talked to you instead of over thinking it and getting upset." He said, slowly taking a couple steps towards me.
"It's okay, I would probably react the same way." I said. "Plus, you're hot when you're jealous."
"Am I now?" He asked, touching a hand on my hip.
"You are, very much so." I replied, looking up to meet his eyes' gaze.
"Maybe I should get jealous a little more often then."
"No." I said.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't want anyone flirting with me other than you." I told him, wrapping both arms around his shoulders and pulling him in as close as I could. "How's your shoulder feeling lately anyway? Are you pushing yourself too hard too soon?" I hadn't forgotten about the injury, but it's easier for it to slip your mind during the off season when there isn't any pressure on it.
"It's good, I have good movement, I can use it just fine, I feel good it feels good. You don't have to worry about me, Mrs. Drysdale." He said, moving his head closer and closer to me, only an inch apart.
"I have morning breath. But I do worry about you all the time, Mr. Drysdale." I replied.
"Yeah, so do I. Now, come get ready for the day so we can go to the beach." He said, kissing me lightly and quickly before letting go of my hips and turning for the shower.
"Why would you not shower later once we're out of the salt water?" I asked him. He stopped basically mid-stride into the shower stall and froze before turning back to look at me.
"Shut up with your logic." He said and turned the shower off.
"You love me." I said, turning on my heels and going back into the room, finding a bikini to wear at the beach today.
"I do, very much." Jamie followed me out into the room and put on his swim trunks, he bought a purple pair that matched one of my bikini's, so once I saw that was the one he put on I had to dig to find the matching set. "Don't we look cute?" He asked as we were both changed. I laughed at him and we grabbed everything we would need at the beach, bringing a book each as well as our AirPods, water bottles, and sunscreen and put it all into a bag.
"Anywhere you want to sit in particular?" I asked as we made it down to the beach, walking along the chairs, most of them unoccupied, so we had a pretty good choice. Jamie picked a spot and we put everything down, claiming it as ours for the day. We walked out to the water hand in hand, swimming around for a little bit, cooling off from the sun that was already beating down on us.
"Sky, come here!" Jamie called from a few feet away from me as I floated in the crystal clear water. I started to swim over to him to see what he was looking at on the ocean floor.
"What's up?" I asked.
"There's a starfish on the ground." He said, looking at me with stars in his own eyes. I could barely look away from him, transfixed with the look in his eyes as he stared into the water. "Baby, you have to look at it to see it." He said, once he looked up and noticed I hadn't even looked into the water yet. I nodded and looked down to see exactly what he was excited about, it was a pretty huge starfish. I don't know how big they get usually but it seemed to be almost twenty inches in size. I dunked fully underwater to look at it a little better, and as soon as I did there was a sea turtle passing by a few feet in the distance. Jamie had followed suit, so I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed ahead for him to see it too. "Can you do my a huge favour?" He asked once we came up for air.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Can you grab one of our phones and take a picture of me holding it?" He asked. I nodded excitedly, it's not very often that it's his idea for a picture of him, so I went and got the phone as fast as I could, coming back and snapping a couple pictures of him underwater from his torso and below, holding the starfish with a big smile. He set the starfish down gently back into the water once I had finished.
"These are really cute, baby." I said, showing him the photos that he looked so happy in. I ran back and put the phone back away, coming back to him and jumping on his back into the water.
"What are you doing?" He asked, laughing and putting a supporting hand underneath my bum to keep me up. I slung my arms over his shoulders, just letting them dangle over his front. Jamie slowly started to bend down into the water, starting to soak me again.
"Jamie!" I exclaimed as he fully dunked the both of us under the salt water. I wanted to laugh but didn't want the water to fill my lungs. He let go of me and I somehow rolled off of him, coming up for a breath of air.
"What? What are you laughing at?" He asked, looking at me and running a hand over his wet hair to keep it down.
"You." I said, smiling at him.
"You're laughing at me?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm laughing at you." I replied to him. He tilted his head and smirked.
"I think you should take that back."
"Why?"
"Because then I'm just going to do this." He said and threw an arm over the back of my shoulder, and pushed me into the water, I could hear the muffled laugh from the surface. He started swimming away from me a little bit, in which I followed behind, trying to stay under the water as best as possible so he didn't see me, but with it being as clear as it was, it's pretty hard to hide from him. I made my way up to the surface, not even realizing that we've gotten a little far out from the shore. "We should make our way back, maybe sit for a little bit." Jamie said once we both died our laughter down a little bit. I didn't respond, just started swimming in circles around him as he stood. "What are you doing?" He laughed out.
"Just getting some exercise." I said, barely look up at him.
"Are you a shark now?"
"No, I'm a duck." I replied, making him laugh heartily. I knew it would, I knew he loved it when I said I was a duck too, which is true. I may not wear the gear and the jersey, but I still wear the crest on my credentials, I still work for the team.
"That you are." He said, shaking his head. I started to get dizzy before too long and stood up with him. I wrapped my arms around his torso and hugged him tightly. "Ready to go sit down for a little bit?" I nodded against his bare and wet chest, seeing the little droplets of drying water on his chest, the sun reflecting on them making the water look like sparkles. He took hold of my hand and started leading me back to our chairs we had claimed maybe an hour earlier, both of us drying off just a little bit before sitting down and kicking our legs out. I wanted to get a tan, I hadn't managed to get any colour at all recently. Even living in California, or being up at the cottage in the sun the whole time, I was still just as pale as a ghost.
"What are you reading?" I asked as he pulled out his book from our shared bag.
"I started the Dune book, not sure how much I like it yet, but I'll power through it." Jamie wasn't a huge reader but he definitely did it to relax every once in a while. There was always a book on his bedside table, and he almost always had one on the go. Even though it usually took a while to get through because he would forget about it, or was too tired to read, or would just rather scroll through his phone. "What one do you have?"
"I started If He Had Been With Me, and I'm in love with it so far." I said.
"Never heard of it."
"Honestly I kept seeing it on TikTok, people kept saying that it was going to play with your emotions and break your heart and I got curious, so we'll see how this goes." I said, I was a fast reader, and it wasn't a huge book, that's why I brought a bunch with us.
"I've gotta get you a Kindle or something, you read so much." He said. "You'll be done that by the end of the day, or at the earliest tomorrow morning." He wasn't wrong. I was definitely more of the reader between the two of us. I read a couple chapters every night before bed, in my free time I read a lot too, it's always been my favourite way to relax. So yeah, he's probably not wrong that I'd be finished the book within the day. (spoiler ahead im sorry - if you haven't read it yet and want to skip to the end of the chapter)
"What the fuck was that?" Jamie asked. It was the next morning and we were on the beach again, I didn't end up finishing the book yesterday, I was super close but then we got hungry for dinner and...distracted with other things. I threw the book into the sand and cupped my hand over my mouth, tears threatening to spill out of my eyelids.
"That did not just happen." I whispered, very muffled by my fingers covering my face.
"What are you talking about? What happened?" He asked, I could tell by his voice that he was worried.
"He died." Was all I could get out.
"Who died? What are you talking about?"
"Finny, he died." I said, now straight up crying.
"Who's Finny?" He asked, swinging his legs over to the side of the chair he was sitting in and sitting up straight and reaching a hand out to rest on my knee.
"One of the main characters. He died. In a car accident." I said, crying so hard I was struggling to breathe. "I don't know what's happening I've never cried at a book before." I said, now letting out a small laugh at how ridiculous I was being.
"Oh, baby, it's okay." He said, now laughing a little bit with me. He stood up and gave me a gentle kiss on my forehead before walking over to where the book landed in the sand. He dusted it off and handed it to me. "Do you want to finish it? You've only got a couple pages left." He said. I nodded and opened the book back up to where I was, continuing to read on, even though ti was kind of hard with my tears blurring my vision. I could hear Jamie laughing at me every time I wiped my eyes. I closed the book one more time, this time at the very end of the book, and threw it one more time. I wanted to scream.
"She was pregnant?" I basically yelled, a couple other people on the beach looking at me and laughing a little bit as they watched the book fly out of my hands.
"What?" He asked, still laughing and not sure what to make of the situation. "Baby, are you okay? This isn't normal."
"This is completely normal, Jamie. Remember what I told you yesterday? It was supposed to play with you emotions and here we are. I can't breathe. That was the saddest thing I've ever read in my entire life." I said.
"Skyler, I'm sure it'll be fine, it's just a book. You're ridiculous." He said, still shaking his head and laughing at me.
"Hey, you're the one who married me." I said, laughing a little bit again too. "Good thing I brought the second book."
"You mean I'm going have to deal with this a second time?" He asked.
"Yep, and apparently the second one is worse, so be prepared."
"Great, my wife is reading a sad romance book on our honeymoon." He said, throwing his legs back up on the chair and shaking his head as he took a sip of his drink and opened Dune back up as I started reading again.