by Brynne Asher
Confused by his strange question, I ask, “Tell you what?”
“That your birthday is Sunday. Were you not going to mention it to me?”
“How did you find out about my birthday?” I look back to the fire.
“Babe, I found out a lot of things about you the day I cuffed and patted you down. Which by the way, I wasn’t supposed to do,” he informs.
This last bit of information made me sit up straight, turn, and put my hand to his chest. “What? You weren’t supposed to pat me down?”
“No.”
“Then why did you?”
“Because I couldn’t help myself, but don’t worry. I’ve never done it before,” he goes on to enlighten me.
“You’re unbelievable,” I exclaim, turning back around to snuggle in again.
He chuckles and shrugs. “I know. You’re not gonna turn me in, now are you?”
“Maybe,” I lie.
“Well, I might have to cuff you again,” he says and I’m not sure if he’s teasing or not. But he keeps going so I don’t have a chance to find out. “But I’ve known your birthday from the get-go. Do you have plans?”
“No, I haven’t thought about it much.” My mom was great at birthdays, always made a big deal over it, even when I was older. And it wasn’t just about presents, but she just found ways to make it special each year. My aunts have picked up the slack the last few years with gusto, but it’s still not the same.
“Can you get away? Clear your schedule Friday through Monday?” he asks.
“Why?” I’ve never been good with surprises.
“I want to take you somewhere for your birthday. Your family can have you another time. I’m sure you can find someone to watch Mia.”
“You’re not going to tell me where we’re going?”
“No.” Again, with the simple answer.
“Well, I don’t know, it’s already Wednesday. I’ll have to move some things around on my projects.” The thought of going somewhere with Jude makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, especially that he wants to do this for me for my birthday. I turn to look up at him again. “Okay, but you have to give me a hint.”
“No.” He smiles and leans down to kiss me quick. “What did you make for dinner? It smells good.”
“Chili.”
“Do you eat salad with chili?”
Throwing his word back at him, but with more attitude, I answer with a fierce, “No.”
He laughs. “Good.”
Rolling my eyes, I get up. “Let’s bring it out here, we can eat by the fire.”
Smacking my ass lightly as he gets up behind me, he returns, “Sounds good to me.”
Not wanting to encourage him too much, I lead the way to the kitchen shaking my head at the same time wondering where Jude is going to take me for my birthday. Then I realize I really don’t care because I get to go somewhere with Jude and that thought warms me all over.
“Hey sugar, what’s up?” Jude greets me over the phone.
“Well, I want to let you know I’m on my way to the hospital. Sophia went into labor this afternoon. Her first delivery was almost twelve hours and then her second only took two. I’m figuring she’ll pop this one out in record time and I want to be there. I’m going to wait with Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Tony and whoever else congregates.”
Jude hesitates for a beat. “Okay. Maybe I’ll head up after work if you’re still there. Keep me posted.”
I frown into the windshield of my car as I make my way through the parking garage of the hospital. Jude sounds funny. And so far, I’ve heard Jude sound lots of different ways, but never funny.
“Okay.”
“If it works out, we’ll grab something to eat on the way home.” He’s back to his normal self again. Maybe he was just distracted.
“Yeah, I’d love that. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
It takes me a freaking year, but I finally find the floor of the birthing center in the huge maze that is the hospital. Do they want people to get lost in this place? I finally walk into the waiting room and Lizzie jumps up immediately shrieking, “It should be any minute. I can’t believe they made us wait to find out with this one!”
Lanny and Sophia have two boys and want to be surprised with this one. I say I’m not good with surprises, but does it really matter when God creates something so perfect just for you? I don’t blame them for wanting to be surprised.
I barely get a chance to greet the Carpino clan when Lanny walks in wearing a huge smile and announces, “It’s a girl. She’s perfect and Sophia’s on top of the world. Everything went great.”
My entire family descends on him with hugs, kisses, and congratulations. Lizzy is crying, anxious to get in to see her oldest daughter and newest grandchild. Lanny pauses, looks at my Pop and addss, “We want to name her Isabella, Gil, if that’s okay with you.”
I turn to my Pop who is standing to my right and I move to put my arms around him. Isabella was my Gram’s name. He hugs me back but looks to Lanny. “Bella would’ve loved that.”
Lanny gives him a head lift before turning to get back to Sophia and baby Isabella.
“You should have seen my Pop when Lanny told him they wanted to name her after my Gram. It was so sweet.” I reminisce over the last few hours.
Jude got to the hospital and we both went in to visit Isabella and Sophia. Jude even held Isabella and I thought I was going to melt. She’s so tiny with a full head of dark hair like Sophia’s and very dark blue eyes that will likely turn dark brown like her brothers. Then Jude and I stopped at Dante Pizzeria for a woodfire pizza. I was finishing my beer and watching teenagers play a game of Bocce on the indoor court.
“I’m sure that made your Pop happy, babe.” He downs the last swallow of his ice tea and announces, “Finish up, Gabby. We’ve got a stop to make on the way home.”
“Where are we going?”
He sits back and assesses me, like he’s trying to make a decision. Not looking happy, he crosses his arms on his chest while frowning and finally says, “I cannot believe I’m going to do this, but I’m going to take you shopping. You can consider it an early birthday present.”
My face breaks into an enormous smile and I exclaim, “You’re taking me shopping? Where are we going?”
Closing his eyes and shaking his head like he can’t believe he just did what he did, he gets up from his seat. “Come on. You’ll find out when we get there.”
With that, he takes my hand pulls me out of my favorite pizza place to take me surprise shopping.
Thirty minutes later, my brows are pulled together and I’m frowning. I look down at my feet where Jude is crouched while lacing up shoes that I am ab-so-lute-ly not going to wear.
“Um…Jude?” I call down to him. “I don’t want to seem … well … ungrateful or anything, but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind when you said you’d take me shopping.” He keeps messing with my feet, checking the heel, pressing on my big toe like I’m a three-year-old trying on shoes. “I was thinking more along the lines of Banana Republic. You know, White House Black Market has the best jeans of any store, hands down, and they even have great shoes so you don’t have to go anywhere else. It’s like a one-stop-shop.”
Jude ignores my rant. “How do these feel?”
“They feel clunky.”
“They’re supposed to be.”
“Why would I want clunky shoes?”
“You’re gonna need them.”
Okay.
Enough is enough.
I’ve got to lay it out for him, even if I do sound ungrateful. But new fears are bubbling up inside of me and I can’t take it anymore. Fears that I know are irrational, but I’m going to overflow with them any minute now. “I know we haven’t known each other that long. I mean, it seems like a long time because of everything we’ve gone through, but maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you know me.”
He looks up at me from his crouch, one knee to the floor and one up with his forearm resting on
it. Of course, he grins up at me.
“I just really need to let you know that I am not the,” I use my fingers to make air quotes, “camping kind of girl. You said you’re taking me away for four days, and that means three nights. Four days and three nights could really fly by in a five-star hotel, but I also think four days and three nights could seem like an eternity in a tent. I need you to know that I’m the kind of girl that requires at least one shower a day, an indoor bathroom, and coffee. And not coffee from a campfire. Coffee from a coffeemaker that plugs into the wall requiring electricity. With real creamer that needs to be refrigerated. And not in a cooler. I’ve already done a little shopping for my surprise birthday weekend getaway and I’m warning you now, I won’t be able to wear any of it if you take me camping.” I finish up my schpeel with my nose wrinkled shaking my head.
Jude stands, towering over me, even in these clunky shoes I plan on refusing to wear. He puts his hand up to cup my jaw and says softly, “Babe, don’t worry. I had you pegged as not the,” and he holds up his other hand to mock me with air quotes, “camping kind of girl the minute I had my hands on you, patting you down in that sweet skirt and those sexy heels. We’re not going to a five-star hotel, but we aren’t gonna be sleeping in a tent either. I can promise you something in between where you can go the bathroom indoors, take as many showers a day as you want—hopefully with me—and you will have coffee made from electricity. I’ve been living with you for weeks—do you think I’m gonna take you somewhere for your birthday where you won’t be happy?”
My frown turns upside down. “I’m sorry. But you can’t blame me, I just had to make sure.” Then I go on to complain about the shoes, “But Jude, I do not wear high tops. Like, at all. I absolutely will not wear these shoes.”
“You need the ankle support.”
“Nope. Not wearing them.”
He sighs and turns to the clerk who works in the Cabela's shoe department. “Do you have the Merrell’s in her size in a low top?”
The older guy, donning a bushy beard with bushier hair, looking like he could live in the mountain displays at Cabela's, laughs at us. “Sure, I’ll check.”
I add quickly, “I’d like the ones with pink trim, please.” Jude looks down at me with furrowed brows this time. “What? It is my birthday—do I not get to the pick the color?”
After Jude gives the approval of my low top Merrell clunky shoes for my surprise trip he drags me over to the women’s clothing and, as quick as a bunny, finds what he’s looking for. He rips a North Face black down vest off the hanger and holds it out for me to try on. Raising an eyebrow at him, I turn, move around him, grab a hot pink one in my size and put it on. Smiling up at him, I say, “It matches my new shoes.”
Shaking his head, he hangs up the black vest and with my box of clunky shoes tucked under his arm, he herds me to the check out. My first shopping experience at Cabela’s took all of twenty minutes. And most of that time was spent me telling him I wasn’t the camping kind of girl. I can’t even get out of the produce section at the grocery store in twenty minutes, for heaven’s sake.
“The next time you tell me you want to take me shopping, Jude, I’ll know to brace for the experience,” I say conversationally holding his hand on the way to the car. “I can’t imagine the pain you endured shopping with me for carpet. I now know what a sacrifice that was for you.”
“Anything for you, Gabby,” he says looking down at me as he opens my car door.
“Thank you for my new stuff.” I fit myself to him beside his truck. I smile big and add, “And thank you for not making me sleep in a tent this weekend.”
“You’re welcome. I can’t wait for to tomorrow.”
“Me too, but I’ve got to go home and finish packing. I have to bring a little of everything since I don’t know where we’re going.”
He kisses me quick and says, “Sounds good, sugar. Let’s go.”
And he takes me home with my new clunky shoes and puffy pink vest.
“You know it’s really hard to pack when I don’t know where I’m going. Can you please give me a tiny clue?” I yell from my bedroom while I stand in front of my bed with my suitcase laid out in front of me overloaded with clothes for every occasion. I hear Jude making his way to me with Mia prancing after him.
When he gets to my room, he proceeds to move me out of the way and starts digging through my neatly folded clothes. “Hey. That took me a long time.”
He removes a super cute short flowy tunic I wear with leggings, two pairs of jeans with bling on the pockets, a cowl neck sweater with fringe on the neck, three semi dressy tops, a pair of strappy black heels and leopard print flats, tossing them all aside. He continues to dig through my suitcase but all of a sudden stills. He brings his hand up slowly holding my new Victoria’s Secret midnight blue nightie that is sheer under the bust that has matching lace panties.
He lets it fall holding it by the straps and I complain, “That was supposed to be a surprise.”
His only response is to drop it back into the suitcase muttering, “You can bring that.”
Then he turns walking to my closet and I fold my arms across my chest to wait on him. He returns with a huge stack of sweats, t-shirts, plain jeans, my winter running leggings and a couple pairs of lounge pants.
“Here,” he thrusts it into my arms. “You might want all of this.”
“What if we go somewhere dressy? I’ll have nothing to wear,” I protest.
He grins at me. “Don’t worry, we won’t go anywhere dressy.” Then he turns to leave the room.
I proceed to repack and hang all of my nice stuff back up.
About an hour later, I’m lying in bed reading on my Kindle while listening to Jude close down my house. I can’t concentrate on my book thinking about my surprise trip tomorrow. Jude comes in, puts Mia on the bed with me. “Be right back.” I hear him brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed.
He comes in and climbs in bed with me, I look over to him and try to clarify our plans. “We’re leaving at eight? Leaving the house at eight, not having to be somewhere else to leave at eight, right?”
“You really do have an issue with surprises, don’t you? Yes, we will leave here at eight, drop Mia off with Emma and be where we need to be when we need to be there. You need to relax.”
“It’s hard to relax when I don’t know where I’m going.”
He scoots himself down in the bed, takes my kindle out of my hands and tosses it to the foot. Then he yanks me down so I’m facing him, his hand comes behind my knee pulling it up and over his hip.
“Do I need to make you relax, Gabby?” he whispers against the skin under my ear.
“Maybe,” I whine, but this feels good. He’s got his hand on my ass pulling me in tight to him and he still has his mouth on my neck.
“Alright, let’s relax you,” he whispers and his hand dips into the back of my panties. His head comes up to kiss me deep and rolls me to my back. “Don’t worry about this weekend, it’ll be great, trust me.”
“Okay,” I give in and weave my fingers into his hair kissing him back. He does all kinds of things to relax me and I fall asleep tucked into Jude. And instead of worrying about my surprise birthday weekend, I fall asleep looking forward to it.
Chapter Sixteen
Surprises
Jude throws it in park and turns to look at me. “Ready?”
“What are we doing here?”
A couple of things have confused me this morning.
I know I packed heavy, I added more stuff after Jude left the room because as much as I trust him, a guy never knows how much a girl is going to need on a weekend getaway. Besides, I don’t know what I’d be in the mood to wear, so my suitcase is big and heavy. When Jude loaded the car, he hefted in my ginormous suitcase followed by his gym bag. Not a gym bag big enough for say, football or hockey equipment, but a gym bag big enough for your stuff to play a pick-up game of basketball. Minus the ball.
When I asked him about his l
ack of provisions for the weekend, he simply said, “Don’t worry. I’ve got everything I need.” This made me wonder if he plans on spending the whole four days and three nights in bed. Not that this would be a terrible thing, but the suspense of the surprise is starting to drive me a little batty.
We proceed to drop Mia off with all of her stuff, which when you get right down to it, her bag was bigger than Jude’s. Then we stopped by some office building that held multiple businesses inside and Jude said, “I’ve gotta run in and get something, stay here.” Before I could ask what in the hell he was doing, he was gone.
And now is now and we are here. Jude looks at me. “Come on, we need to get going.”
He gets out of the truck, opens the back door, drags out my mammoth suitcase and his light as a feather gym bag. I get out and meet him at the front of his truck as he’s beeping the locks.
I semi repeat myself, “Why are we here?”
“We’re flying.”
“But,” I look around at the tiny airstrip that they call an airport and continue, “these are really little planes.”
One side of his mouth turns up at me as he replies, “But they’re still planes.”
He heads into a small building lugging my suitcase and I have to skip to keep up. He holds the door for me and we enter a little office space. The whole place is decorated with plane models and pictures of all sorts of planes—new and old. Jude starts talking to the attendant behind the desk, showing him all kinds of papers, ID and finally handing him a credit card.
Holy shit.
It’s all coming together.
“Wait,” I shout softly. “Are you flying the plane?”
Giving me the half-grin. “Yeah.”
“Do you know how to fly these planes?”
I mean, flying planes isn’t exactly like driving cars, right? Aren’t they all different? He flew fighter jets while doing scary stuff, it can’t be the same as flying these little planes, can it?