Cruising with the Blakemores

by Olivia Gaines

  Dora smiled at him. “That’s nice. Can we go shopping? I need to replace these towels?”

  “Anything you want, sweetheart,” he told her as he helped her out to the vehicles.

  Saxton looked at Mateo. “It ends here. I stay away from you, and you stay away from us. Understood.”

  Mateo nodded as Saxton untied him and left him to face the scorn of his men.

  Home sweet home...

  Saxton sat in the oversized tub in their bathroom, his head resting against the cool tiles as he began to consider the life he and his wife led. It wasn’t as if anything was broken, but a few items were not properly seated. One of those items was him.

  He had taken the desk job two years ago to be transferred to the first open position in the Dallas office. Agent Roget knew that, even with only 40% vision in his left eye, he could still do some surveillance work, which still put him in the field in some capacity. His mother would always ask him when he came home from school, “Saxton, what did you learn today?”

  That was the question he was asking himself about the cruise. The cruise was forcing him to take a new look at life. The first thing he had to think about were his friendships. Like Rentería, he had no friends. Roget was his boss and the closest thing he had to a friend. His life was very similar to the cartel leader – he trusted no one. It saddened him to think about how the man had to manipulate them in order to take a vacation. Oddly enough, if he had just straight asked, both he and Odessa would have said no. Because his wife, much like himself, also trusted no one. Least of all Victorio Rentería, who turned out to be an actual friend.

  Secondly, he learned that his mother-in-law was one of the best interrogators in CIA history. They studied her techniques at Langley, and before she retired, she had often given lectures. He knew she had retired early, but Saxton always thought Dora was a former schoolteacher. He laughed as he squeezed the rubber ducky in the tub. She schooled people all right. She schooled Mateo really well.

  And last but not least, after spending a week with Odessa’s family, he realized he missed his own. He had never really been fair to his parents and wanted no part of the family business. The laughter came harder now causing ripples in the tub. It doesn’t really matter what you want in life, it always ends up with the kids emulating the parents. Odessa is a spitfire image of her mother. He, a spitting image of Bobby Ray Blakemore. Saxton felt he’d let his father down, but starting today he would rectify it and make their relationship better.

  He pulled the drain on the tub and stood up, bending to clean the sides of the tub as the water drained out. Odessa came around the corner to see him bent over, his butt facing her and all of his parts dangling and she could not help herself. “Oh my Gherrrrrrrrd!”

  Saxton jumped, turned and nearly fell. He was okay, but his rubber ducky’s little face was smashed in. “Look what you made me do to Plucky,” he said with down turned lips.

  “You named the duck Plucky?”

  “Yes, he helps me relax,” he told her as he stepped out to accept the towel she gave him. He held the towel and looked at her. They both looked at the towel and burst into laughter.

  “It has been a hell of a two weeks and I am tired. I just want to get in my bed and sleep for the next three days,” he told her as he briskly dried himself and slipped into a T-shirt and a pair of boxers.

  Odessa followed him to the bedroom and sat on the side of the bed as he climbed in. He leaned back, his arm behind his head on the pillow. “I need to go home for a few days.”

  “Is everything okay, Saxton? Your parents? Belva? Connard?”

  He noticed that she didn’t ask, so he volunteered the information. “Grandma Patsy is okay, too. I just need to go and connect. But first, I need some sleep.”

  She absently rubbed her hand across the covers on top of his leg. “Yes, you may want to try and get as much as you can. Pretty soon, that is all going to be over.”

  “What? Is someone else trying to kill us?”

  She smiled at him with a big grin. “No, I went to the doctor today.”

  Saxton sprang up in the bed. “Everything okay?”

  “Yes, and I will need to go shopping, real soon,” she told him, knowing the word shopping would throw him off and shut him down. Saxton Blakemore hated shopping. He also hated dancing. He did, however, like children.

  “You are going to have to come with me, because now I am buying for three. Or would that be four, if I included you?”

  He was still sitting up in the bed, his eyes blinking furiously. He asked the question again, “Odessa, are you pregnant?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Seriously? I’m going to be a dad?”

  She held up two fingers. “Two birds, one egg, I guess, or vice versus. They heard two heartbeats.”

  Saxton couldn’t help himself, “Oh my Gherrrrrrrrd!”

  Her eyes were wide. “I know, right? Me and you... parents. What if it is one of each, a boy and a girl?”

  “Or two girls,” he grinned. “Or two boys. Either way, I don’t care. I am very happy about this. Wait until my parents hear the news. Your parents, too...”

  He pulled her down on the bed and kissed her hard. “Wow. We are going to be parents.”

  It was hard for her to believe as well. Saxton held her close, resting his head upon her shoulder as he turned off the light. “Tomorrow we go shopping!” he said as he caressed her hip. “Tonight, we sleep. Say Goodnight, Mrs. Blakemore.”

  “Goodnight, Saxton. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, baby,” he told her. It seemed that within minutes he was out. Odessa was not. She lay in bed, wide awake with a million things running through her head all at the same time vying for space in her already cramped gray matter. Money solved nothing. Mateo had plenty yet his only pleasure was in torturing others. Victorio Rentería had plenty, yet he had no friends. The man had to trick them just so he could have someone to go on vacation with. The main thing that was roaming through her mind was I am going to be a mother.

  Odessa wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Maybe it was a character flaw to no immediately be elated with the news, but it went along with other things that gave her pause. One of which, was how she felt about her new brother-in-law, Dwight. Several times she had seen something in his eyes that said he wasn’t who he pretended to be. Her sister, Ryanne, had married the worst kind of man – a man of questionable character.

  It was an uneasy feeling as she tried to settle into the bed and get some sleep, but she understood something. Odessa calculated the odds on that anomalous something. Something everyone else in her family was going to have to find out the hard way, especially her sister. Dwight was moving her away from her family.

  The driftwood was going to transform into a snake.

  -Fin-

  Special Acknowledgements...

  Many if not most of the locations in the stories are real and places that Hubby and I have visited. This time, I want to share some of the photos with you.

  Figure 1 The large rocks that were broken off from a piece of coral in Bathesheba’s Soup Bowl.

  Figure 2Yeah, Hubby was pretty disappointed when he saw the vehicle and that we would be riding in the back instead of him driving it.

  Figure 3Me on my ATV in St. Maarten

  And no, there are no pictures of the nudie beach. Sorry.

  Did you enjoy this story?

  Great, I have another ready for your reading pleasure, but get a tissue. You are going to need it for Santa’s Big Helper.

  Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy the blessings of the season.

  -Olivia

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  Olivia Gaines, Cruising with the Blakemores