Page 20 of My One
When we walked into the room, I fell in love. In one room was a loveseat, a couch, a small table for two, and a desk. A king-size bed and Jacuzzi tub were in another room. This time, there would be no pushing beds together, and no falling through the crack. There would be more bath time and stretching out on the bed while we went to all of my dream destinations. We even had our own balcony, a balcony I could picture myself reading on each morning with a cup of coffee, my husband across from me, and the sea breeze blowing in my hair.
“Is this real life?” I beamed, twirling around and not believing where we were. It was surreal.
Avery tipped the guy, and after the steward left, he walked over to me. “Yes, baby, it is.”
I threw my arms around his neck. “This totally beats Disney.”
He grinned. “Yeah, I’d say so.”
I kissed him.
I kissed him hard.
I loved this man with everything in me. He was my prince, and I was his princess. I didn’t need the castle—even the one at Disney—to feel like I was living a fairytale because I was. Together we’d build our own empire. It may be just him and me forever, or we might someday have the family we both wanted. Time would tell. We had the rest of our lives.
“While I want to test out the bed in the next room, I read that we need to go get our tender tickets early for the private island,” Avery stated against my lips.
I pulled back. “What else can we do there?”
“Tan, swim, snorkel, jet ski. Let’s go see.”
We left our cabin and went in search of the excursion booth. Once we found it, we grabbed our passes for the private island, and we booked a swim with pigs.
Yes, pigs.
I’d seen it on TV, but I never thought I’d be in the Caribbean swimming with pigs myself. The swim would only last for a fraction of the time, and Avery and I decided the rest of the time we’d soak up some sun and just enjoy the private island. Like on the cruise, all the food would be included. What more could I ask for? In Jamaica, we’d zip-line and take in the historic town. In the Grand Caymans, we’d swim with stingrays. Since we weren’t going to be long in Cozumel before taking the trip back to Florida, we decided to play it by ear. Plus, the ship had so much to offer, including an Aqua Park with five multi-story waterslides, shows, the spa, a rock wall to climb, miniature golf and so much more. We could also walk the plank while doing a ropes course, which I had to admit sounded scary. Of course, we’d be strapped to a harness and couldn’t fall in, but it was high up and made my heart race a little as I thought about doing it.
By the time we made it back to our room, our bags had been delivered, the ship had left Florida, and it was time to get ready for our scheduled dinner time. “You know, we could skip dinner and just go to dessert.” Avery wiggled his eyebrows at me suggestively.
I chuckled. “We have all day at sea tomorrow. I’m sure a lot of that time will be spent right there.” I pointed at the king-size bed.
He wrapped me in his arms. “Maybe I should have booked us a cabin in the snow and made it so we were snowed in for a week.”
I shook my head slightly and laughed. “First of all, you can’t justmakeus get snowed in. Second of all, we have snow at home. I need a tan.”
“You going to tan naked on our balcony?” He smirked.
I looked over at it. It was secluded as far as I could tell, especially when we were in the middle of the ocean. “Maybe.” I bit my lip.
He groaned, looking at my mouth. I knew biting my lip turned him on. “Then I don’t think you’ll get much of a tan.”
“There’s always the upper deck.”
“No, no. You can lay out there naked.” Avery pointed at our balcony. “I’ll just enjoy the view.”
A slow smile spread across my face. “Or you could join me, and we could kill two birds with one stone.”
He grinned. “Nowthatsounds like a plan.”
The ship pulled into the port at eight the next morning, and a tender boat took us from the ship to the island. The sun was already hot as our feet hit the exclusive property, and it was what I’d always imagined an island would look like. Palm trees were everywhere, and white, sandy beaches butted against turquoise water. It was heaven. Avery and I stopped to take a picture near a giant rock that had the island’s name on it before we took a speedboat to a different island to swim with the pigs. We were led up a wooden dock to tables where we had to listen to a safety briefing. Apparently, pigs were smarter than dogs—I had no idea. But the instructor stated as such, reminding us that pigs have hard hooves and we have soft feet and to be careful while feeding them because they might step on our feet and it would hurt.
“Excited?” Avery asked as we started to walk toward the sand. We’d stripped down to our swimsuits and put our belongings into a locker.
“Um, yeah. How could I not be? Who would have ever thought that we’d be in the Bahamas swimming with and feeding pigs? This is amazing.”
He grinned. “It is pretty cool, huh?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but stopped when I saw a giant pink pig walking toward us. It was clear that these animals were used to people swimming with them and feeding them chunks of apples on a stick. The pig sniffed me as we stopped walking and then looked up at me and smiled.
