Page 11 of Marriage (Red, White &) Blues

“Done.”

“What?”

“Done. I doreallylike you.”

“But—”

He spun me into his arms. “We wait, then,” he replied right before he pressed his lips to mine, his mouth slightly open, which took the kiss to another level.

“Please don’t give up on me,” I said low because caves echoed.

“You get what we’re building here, right?”

“I know what I’d like to be building.”

“Glory—we’ve spent every day for the last month together. We share hotels and sleep in the same bed. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that constitutes you being my girlfriend. I don’t take that lightly. So, if you need more time, okay. I can wait. You are that important to me.”

“Wow,” I said kind of breathily because that was an amazing thing to say. “You aren’t trying to swoon me out of my pants, are you?”

“That’s a thing?”

“It certainly could be.”

“Well, then I’ll swoon you out of your pants when you’re good and ready. Until then, I’m happy just to be with you, Gloria Kowalski.”

“You’re an amazing man, Blake Parker. How were you not taken?”

He tilted my chin up to look into my eyes. “Oh, I’m completely taken by a gorgeous redhead with a Latin name but Irish and Polish roots.” After searching my face for a moment, probably to gauge where I was at, heromance novelkissed me again. The deep,turn me into a mound of putty on two legskind of kiss that I knew deep down in my soul, I’d never forget, not for the rest of my life.

Then he got us moving again.

I loved everything about Gibraltar. After the tunnel, we took in some of the outdoor markets, which reminded me of theday I’d met Blake in Paris. We picked out our seafood and they cooked it for us right there—clams, oysters and these giant sardines that had been plucked from the ocean earlier that day. Then we meandered through the alleys, eventually finding ourselves standing in a long line for a stall that sold pastries. The most popular item seemed to be a fried dough coated in sugar called “borrachuelos,” at least according to the number of times I heard it uttered to the proprietor by other customers.

“I want that,” I told Blake.

“Oh, you’ll love them,” the woman in front of us craned her neck to say. On the shorter side, and with a few more curves than me, she had very kind eyes. The man next to her stood with his arm draped around her shoulders. Taller than her, working a dad bod, and gazing down at her like he couldn’t believe his luck to be standing in the line withthiswoman. Love shown in his eyes. “This is the best place to buy them, too. We make it a point to stop here whenever we get to Gibraltar.”

She spoke with an English accent. I wasn’t sophisticated enough to be able to tell where in England they haled from, but it was definitely different than Jory and Kerensa’s.

“Do you come here a lot?” I asked.

“It’s a wonderful port. John and I”—I took it that John was the man next to her—“travel a great deal. We find ourselves here frequently. Right now, we’re taking a cruise to Ghana.”

“Ghana?” Blake asked, and I saw that twinkle in his eye. Something was brewing in that head of his. “I never thought about going to Ghana.”

“Oh, you should,” she said. “It’s beautiful down there. As long as you stay in certain areas, it’s safe. We’ve been a couple of times.”

The line moved up and they placed their order for borrachuelos. My stomach grumbled, even though we’d eatenfrom several stalls. But the smell of fried dough and sugar permeated the air.

“What do you think?” Blake asked out of the blue.

“About?”

“You and me heading to Ghana? I’ve never been to Africa before. I’d love to experience it the first time with you.”

“I…” How new and unexpected. And the more I thought about it, the more it made sense for us to take a chance and travel to Ghana. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

The next thing I knew, with our borrachuelos in hand, we found out what we had to do to catch a boat to Ghana and Blake made it happen.

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