eHoneymoon

by Bonnie R. Paulson

  I set an ice bucket on the nightstand beside her in case she needed to throw up again and I went back to the beach to retrieve the table and food. She wasn’t feeling well, but I couldn’t let the food go to waste.

  Packing everything back into the room, I put away all the different items and settled in to take care of Kayla. If she had the flu, it was nothing to treat lightly. I flipped on the television and kept the volume low, every once in a while glancing at her to make sure she was still breathing.

  Her long lashes rested in the shadows beneath her eyes and I felt bad for deceiving her.

  I picked up a shrimp kebab and leaned over as I took a bite.

  The double-ding of the app on my phone was probably going to drive me nuts before the end of the honeymoon. I would blame any irritability on the nagging about tasks and checking in. Just thinking of the way I’d had to check in on my location with the app made me scowl. Checking in had been an ordeal since I couldn’t figure out how to turn on my Wi-Fi at the plane and I was running out of time to get my location logged. I’d accidentally set the wrong time for arrival by a day.

  Swiping the screen, I squinted tiredly at the phone. The anxiety of the last few days and weeks was getting to me and Kayla’s anticlimactic arrival had left me unsure what was going to happen.

  A list of tasks that we needed to complete blinked at me. They weren’t that extensive and just encouraged us to spend time together which I liked. A selfie at the moment wasn’t exactly possible. Unless...

  I edged over to the side of the bed and angled the phone to see both of us. I grinned at the pallor of Kayla’s skin – not because she was sick but because she was going to kill me for taking a picture of her like that. Maybe that would redirect her anger from my lies.

  If I didn’t care so much about the outcome of our “honeymoon”, I wouldn’t try so hard.

  But I needed her. This was my last chance.

  Chapter 9

  KAYLA

  The next two days passed in a crazy whirlwind of fatigue, nausea, fever, trips to the bathroom, throwing up, and I’m not sure what else. Only the apocalypse of all viruses would attack me on my honeymoon.

  I had to be hallucinating. I kept seeing Dylan – like the first night I’d been there. I think I saw him turn around, but I had to throw up too bad so I’d run before I could get a good look. I couldn’t be sure.

  Maybe my “husband” looked like Dylan.

  I woke up, sleeping in a clean bed, dressed in my favorite pajamas and I only mildly ached. Mostly my stomach felt like I’d done ten-thousand sit-ups, but there was weakness in the rest of my muscles as well.

  Had Dylan changed my clothes? Visions from the last two days swarmed my mind, buzzing around with an insistent demand to be remembered. It was him. I hadn’t made it up. Dylan was there. Had he followed me? No, wait. He left before me. He hadn’t said where he was going. Maybe he had rescued me from my husband.

  I didn’t have a memory of that guy. Just his back.

  The slider opened, and Dylan walked inside. I blinked at the light from the curtain being pushed aside. What was happening?

  “Morning. How are you feeling?” Dylan’s kind eyes perused me and I was grateful to see him.

  I sighed, sinking into the pillows. I hadn’t realized how tense I’d been until I relaxed. “What happened? I’m supposed to meet my husband here. Have you seen him?” I licked my dry lips and tried to push myself to a sitting position.

  Dylan rushed to my side and helped me sit up. His touch was soft and comforting but also made me more than aware of my pajamas and his swimsuit and thin t-shirt.

  “He left.” Dylan studied me with somber eyes, his lips drawn down in a frown.

  My gaze flew to his face. Was I relieved or offended? “What?” My match had seen me and hated me on site. Or maybe when he found out I was sick, he ran away. I knew it was too good to be true.

  “I’m just kidding. He didn’t leave. It’s me. Kayla, you’re married to me.” He said it with a laugh but I could see that he was nervous, too. And he should be.

  “Wait. That’s not possible. Your name isn’t Sheldon Anderson. It’s Dylan Drake.” The memory from when we opened the company about five years ago and he had signed his name as Sheldon flashed in my mind. No matter, his last name was still Drake.

  “Yeah, that’s my first name. I used my mom’s maiden name.” He chewed on the full curve of his bottom lip and I realized he had taken a seat by me on the bed and somehow we had gotten to only inches away from each other.

  “Oh, wow. I forgot that. It’s been forever since I thought of your first name as Sheldon. I thought you said you hated your first name.” I was trying hard to piece everything together but it was difficult when I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. I was still weak from being sick and there were a lot of holes in what had happened the last couple days.

  “I know. I do hate my first name. But when I signed up for the ClickandWed.com program a few months ago, I didn’t want to use my real name. I didn’t want anyone to be able to check me out or make a decision based on the information they found. What if they found out about you?” He adjusted himself so that we faced each other on the bed.

  I pulled the blanket up over my lap. What would they find out about me? I dug my fingers into the soft blanket.

  “You hid something from me. A pretty big something. We can’t be married. You knew we were matched and you didn’t say anything. You’ve known for a while.” I was trying to work myself up into anger. Except I didn’t get mad easy and Dylan knew that. It took a lot for my temper to get worked up and even though he lied to me, I knew why he had done it. I wouldn’t have come, if I’d known I was matched to him. We’d known it was a possibility.

  I just hadn’t realized Dylan would actually push to make it happen. Plus, I was really tired and it was hard to be mad at my best friend.

  My silence must have unnerved him. He reached out and twisted a chunk of my hair between his strong fingers. His soft, deep voice made everything around us fade. He sucked me into his dark gaze as he watched me. “Are you mad?”

  Licking my lips, I flicked my gaze between him and the door. I was suddenly overcome with the need to escape. “I want to be upset with you, but I can’t. It’s you... and you helped me while I was sick.” I shrugged, stretching my legs a little bit, nudging him from beneath the blanket. He stayed where he was and didn’t take the hint.

  “It’s me.” He said it with a hint of despondency and released my gaze, dropping my hair at the same time.

  Had I hurt his feelings? I slowed down. What had I said? “Well yeah, it’s you. If it had been someone else, I think I would be really upset. Thankfully, it’s you. Isn’t that a good thing?” I looked at my hands and then glanced up at his face. “And... I think I threw up on your hands. It’s hard to be mad at you when you are taking care of me and I threw up on your hands.”

  He widened his eyes. “You remember doing that?”

  My answering grin must’ve told him what he needed to hear. He wrapped his arms around me and started to tickle me.

  A couple of weeks in paradise with my best friend didn’t seem like that big of a deal.

  Chapter 10

  DYLAN

  Keeping my focus couldn’t be more difficult when she looked all soft and cuddly in the large bed.

  While I was relieved she wasn’t mad, I expected her righteous anger. She had every right to be upset and demand that I leave. If I’d been thinking through what I was doing, I wouldn’t have banked on Kayla’s anger. She didn’t get mad which was good for me as her best friend but sucked for me as her business partner. I was the one who got upset at late shipments or unpaid invoices. She just rolled with it.

  I loved her easy-going nature with most things, but this wasn’t a business mistake. This was something different, bigger. I took the matter very critically. If I was in her shoes, I would’ve been mad as a bobcat in a tub of water. So, why wasn’t she mad? I was confused and a little
worried that maybe she wasn’t taking me seriously.

  “Why aren’t you mad? I lied to you.” I didn’t want to go any further and give her reasons to be mad at me, but I needed to know why she wasn’t. My insecurities reared inside me and I didn’t want to choke on them as I talked with her.

  “I don’t have any reason to be mad at you. You probably meant this as a prank. It wouldn’t be the first time you played a joke on me.” She rolled her eyes and cuddled further back into the pillows. Her color was coming back and I wanted to reach out and trace the ceramic smoothness of her skin.

  I furrowed my brow. “I’ve never played pranks on you.” What was she talking about? Had she hallucinated while she’d been sick?

  She wiggled her fingers at me and laughed. “Yeah, remember all those flowers on Valentine’s Day and you signed the notes ‘Be My Valentine’? How about the times when you left me little notes saying ‘I love you’. You always give me little compliments that make me feel better. You’re awesome like that. I know some of those were jokes and you generally meant them or you felt pity for me cause I wasn’t with anyone.” She arched a delicate eyebrow and pointed my way. “This wouldn’t be the first time you tried to make me feel better about myself.”

  I blinked at her multiple times, trying to take in she thought my attempts at romance and kind gestures were jokes. Finally I was able to speak after the initial shock wore off. “Those were never jokes or pity emotions. I’m actually surprised. I...” I didn’t even have a coherent thought to add to the conversation. Of course, the fact that I was always grinning at her and winking at her probably gave things a more jovial bend than I intended. I leaned forward and put my head in my hands. “I’ve never played pranks on you, Kayla.”

  “What’s the matter? I thought you just did this to get me here on a holiday like you said we needed.” She leaned forward and rubbed my back. The contact jarred me as my nerves were heightened. Her touch, for the first time, wasn’t welcome. “I’m sorry. I know you weren’t joking with me. I hoped you were, but...” She sighed. “I’m not stupid. I know... I just... I don’t this for us.”

  “I think you’re too generous with how you view people. You don’t actually look for the ulterior motive. You take everything at face value. That’s not always the smartest thing to do, Kayla.” My words were muffled because I still couldn’t lift my head up. I felt like all my efforts over the last sixteen years had just slapped me in the face. She’d never seen them for what they were which meant I had to fit sixteen years’ worth of love and devotion into the next two weeks. She didn’t really see what she meant to me. How could she? If she didn’t, she’d never say or act the way that she was.

  That kind of a task was daunting and one I wasn’t sure I was capable of undertaking.

  I lifted my head and avoided looking at her as I inspected my hands, spreading them and turning them over. Silence fell around us, and I finally glanced at her to see that her eyes were downcast and she seemed crestfallen.

  “What’s wrong?” It was my turn to console her. No matter what, I only ever wanted her to be happy.

  Her cheeks pinked and she twisted her lips to the side as if she was embarrassed. “I was looking forward to meeting my match. I was really hoping for some romance, you know that part of my life is rather dry. Plus, the chance to try for something I couldn’t walk away from whenever I wanted to would’ve been really nice. One of those things where the decision was already made for me. I know that’s pathetic.” She lifted her shoulder and crossed her arms. “The only reason I agreed to try that online marriage like you suggested was because no normal relationship has ever worked out for me.” She forced a laugh and played with a chunk of her hair.

  Kayla didn’t want my personal opinion on why her relationships didn’t work out. When you constantly pushed people away, it made it hard to make things work. I recognized my luck that she hadn’t pushed me away like the men she shoved from her life. She even kept other women at bay.

  I considered her, resting one elbow on my knee and my other hand back on the bed.

  Finally, the words burst from me as if my heart had control and my mind wasn’t allowed to work anymore. “Give me a try. Let’s do this. We were matched by the computer you were hoping would match us. If nothing else, we can take a holiday. We’ve worked so hard. We deserve it.” I clenched my jaw shut after the words fell from a mouth. Would she take my suggestion? What would she do?

  She looked at me, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Why would that type of suggestion make her sad? “We can’t. Dylan, you know we can’t.” I’d heard all of her excuses for why she couldn’t be with men, and I’d heard more than enough of why we couldn’t between her and me. But nothing made sense.

  “Why?” My desperation was beginning to strangle me. I had two weeks and I had already lost two because of her flu. So twelve days. I had twelve days to get her to see how perfect we were for each other. I don’t think desperate accurately described the way I was feeling.

  “Because this is too important.” She moved her hand between us, back and forth – me then her, me then her. “What we have. I won’t jeopardize it. You know I don’t commit well.” She half laughed. “I had to take the two week option over six months.” Her tone was lighthearted but the shadows in her eyes had taken on a sad and melancholic hue.

  Resigned, I put on my let’s be best friends smile and sat up. She wasn’t feeling well enough for me to continue pushing. “Well, we’ve already paid for both the ClickandWed contract as well as the trip. Let’s check out some of the sites and, if nothing else, write off everything as a tax deduction. There’s a zip line in Poipu I want to check into for our next feature. If we like it, we might be able to get one up before July.”

  “Stay together?” She bit her lip, worried.

  “Well, we need to wait out the two weeks to get our deposits back. We also need to do whatever tasks the app decides to send us. Most of the hotels are full, so we’ll be hard pressed to get a room. Plus, why pay extra when we’ll just be together most of the time, anyway?” I offered a comforting smile. Why was she making a big deal out of something that normally wouldn’t be anything but second nature between us?

  “We need a selfie.” She wrinkled her nose as she reached up tussled her hair as if the mention of pictures meant she had to fix the way she looked. She couldn’t look anymore gorgeous. I wished I could make her see that.

  I grinned all-knowingly. “I took one last night and sent it in to the app.”

  Her nostrils flared as she took in a deep breath and glared at me. She spoke in what I hoped was a joking tone. “Oh, lovely. I can’t wait to see what that one looks like.” Could she be more upset with me over the picture than us? What if she wanted to be with me, just as much as I did, but she was held back by her past? I could hope. Oh, man, I could hope.

  “Let’s do it.” I wasn’t going to get wrapped up in her joking. She liked to do that, push me away when I tried to get an answer to something serious. She and I were better matched than she knew. Since we already had sixteen years between us, a marriage would be like going home.

  She bit her lip again and watched me. “Promise you won’t try anything?”

  I arched an eyebrow at her as if she was issuing me a challenge. “Anything?”

  “Anything to try to make us be... married. I don’t want to lose us.” She was clear and trying to make sure that there were no loopholes.

  I had to be clear as well. Subtlety was not going to win many points in the next two weeks.

  “Sorry, Kayla, girl. I’m not promising anything.” I grinned at her stricken expression and she couldn’t tell if I was joking or not.

  I only had two weeks before I could lose everything. I’m not sure how much of my smile was sincere.

  Chapter 11

  KAYLA

  Two weeks with Dylan romancing me... I didn’t think I would be able to fight that.

  He was my constant. We would never be able to work as a couple. He wa
s too nice. I liked my boys bad and spontaneous. Dylan didn’t have a spontaneous bone in his body. Everything had to be scheduled and figured out, and while it drove me nuts, I relied on him. He was the foundation of our company. He was the foundation for my sanity. If something went wrong with him, who would I have to fall back on?

  If we got into a romance together, I could pretty much guarantee I would push him away at some point. It’s what I did. Pretending guys were the ones who chose to leave was my failsafe. If I made them leave, then it wasn’t a big deal when they left. I was okay with it because I’d decided I didn’t want them around anymore, like when they got too close or hit a level of intimacy I wasn’t ready for. Most of them weren’t fans of my relationship with Dylan. Another reason to kick them to the curb.

  A guy that was too close was one who could hurt me. I wouldn’t tolerate that kind of pain.

  Dylan was as close as I could possibly allow and I didn’t want to lose that by adding the complications of the heart.

  A break did sound appealing and we were already in Hawaii. A collection of the positives drowned out the negatives. There was only one bed but he’d offered to sleep on the floor, so my arguments were null and void. I was still weak enough from the bug I didn’t want to fight about anything. I gave in and the small glimpse of triumph in his eyes frightened and exhilarated me at the same time.

  Dylan got me up and out of bed to go to the beach for a swim.

  As if I was solar powered, I relished the warmth of the sun. I was still too weak to go swimming or to fight any rip tides so I stayed on the beach. Signs up warning of Box Jelly Fish and Portuguese Man-of-War marred the view until we moved further onto the sand, closer to the water. I sat on a towel with my legs drawn up and a book resting on my lap. The umbrella Dylan had set up protected me from the burning power of the sun. I poked my toes out of the shade, still warmed by the comforting breeze off the water. I couldn’t focus on my book with Dylan dipping in and out of the slight waves. He was very distracting looking with a muscular chest and the back of a runner. I may or may not have drifted in and out of sleep.