Somebody Worth It Read online

  The man with the cart came over by us and took off the tops covering the food. Two pasta dishes were unveiled, my favorite chicken a la king, and the wine was poured. Brian and I thanked the man, and you could just tell he thoroughly enjoyed his job tonight, seeing two people so in love sitting at a romantic table for two with a water view. I don’t know how much Brian paid for this, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  I sipped my wine and listened to the waves. The wind blew through my hair, and I was so content with this evening.

  In between bites of food we shared small talk. I just enjoyed this date. I didn’t think anything from the rest of the trip could top this night.

  “So, I’m doing all this to bring you back to the days that I used to be a great husband.” He held his hand up, not letting me interrupt. “I know I haven’t been the greatest recently, but I’m trying to make up for it. You are my wife, and I’ll cherish that till the day we die. I should be doing these things more often, not just on vacation, and I will. I’ll reach over mountains and oceans to be better for you, babe. I love you.” He reached over the table and gestured for my hand.

  I grabbed his hand and squeezed it as a couple tears slid down my flushed cheeks. My heart ached for him. I wanted to know how he felt and by looking in his sweet eyes, he showed me exactly how he felt. This trip has been worth my while so far. It’s unusual for nothing to have gone wrong yet. It’s not how our relationship typically worked. But I was in a pure blissful state right then. My eyes couldn’t stop staring at him. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. It would take a lot for this night to be ruined and wipe my grin off.

  “I love you, too, baby. You have to know that you’re not the only one. We both have made mistakes. We’ve both been having it rough. We just need to find ourselves again, and I think you’ve done a great job at getting us to a starting point.” I wiggled my eyebrows, slapping a greedy grin across my face. The only thing I wanted was to wrap my arms around him and hold him forever. In this moment, it was tinted with the perfect amount of love. The perfect amount of want and need.

  Brian stood up from the table and made his way over to my side. He took my hand, helped me up, and led me over to the shoreline. Without him even speaking a word, music started. I looked around to both my sides and there stood a small cd player beside the man from earlier. He smiled and walked away, and I turned my head to Brian.

  “You just keep it coming, don’t you?” I playfully tapped his chest, giving him my Colgate smile. He slid his hand slowly from my ass, up the back of my dress, holding me firm to him as he started swaying with me to the beat of the slow song that played. I recognized the first few notes as the song started. It was our favorite country song. I lay my head on his chest and held him tight as we moved back and forth. He kissed the top of my head. We danced. We got lost in conversation while the waves crashed onto the beach around our feet. It was a surreal moment.

  “I have found the one I’ve always wanted,” He whispered into my ear.

  Tears sprang from my eyes. My heart picked up a pace, and I sniffled trying to contain my emotions. I placed my hands around his neck and brought him down for a sweet, slow kiss. My body mirrored his and left no space between us while we indulged in our kiss.

  “You’re everything…” he murmured in between kisses, “to me, baby.” He kissed me long, but soft.

  *~*

  Dinner on the beach was surreal I didn’t feel like it happened. It felt like I watched it in a movie or a dream. It was just so perfect and romantic, it set the night off great. Brian stepped up his game on being romantic after having been an ass before coming on this trip. We were connecting on such a deep level I wasn’t sure what was left in us. We toured around Tampa, and I was super excited that tonight we’re going to a sunset cruise. The raffle included three touring events, and this was one of them. There was a good chance we may see some dolphins, which had me practically jumping for joy in my seat. I absolutely loved them, from the cute tips of their noses to the wide flat tails. I could only hope I get to see one. We took a midnight walk last night, which ended up with even more romance back in the room. He ordered breakfast in bed, and that was a real treat. Brian and I have just been living in bliss. I wondered how long it would last.

  We were just about ready to head down to the pool. Swimming had always been a favorite of mine. I was on the swim team in high school, it was such a fun sport, and it kept me in great shape. It’s actually how I met Brian. He was at one of my meets, and I caught him with a group of his friends hanging around the pool. He had that gaze in his eyes that just immediately created butterflies in the pit of my stomach. His appearance just had me drunk on his looks. I’d just gotten over a break up, and he was the first thing I saw that caught my attention, his strong football physique. He had the broad, muscular shoulders and a toned chest. Long legs brought him to his five-foot-ten height. He was just my type, amazing sex on legs. It wasn’t long till we were together playfully shooting one liners back and forth. I could recall my favorite one from him till this day. It was “Are your legs tired? Because you’ve been running through my mind all day.” That was my favorite line, and I’ll never forget it. We were hopeless and soon in love. Then in little to no time we were pregnant and getting engaged, then married. How time flies.

  I held Brian’s hand as we walked into the elevator and made our way down. I couldn’t help but smile at the memories we made in there. I stepped out of the building and noticed the big white puffy clouds in the sky. I lay my towel on a chair and undressed down to my bikini. I wasn’t a size two, but I felt comfortable enough with my body to flaunt it. I lay on my stomach and Brian sat in the chair next to me, taking his shirt off to get in the pool. Admiring his chest and taking a second to take in that he was all mine. I returned my attention back to the sun tan lotion. I wanted to sun bathe a bit before I took a quick dip in the pool. The sun was just right, not too hot, but enough to make me tan.

  “Hey, don’t take too long soaking up the rays, sunshine. I need to be the only one making you sore later.” He threw his towel playfully over my body. The next sound I heard was his body cannon balling into the water with a big splash to prove it. I turned my head and made sure to give him a smirk before I rested back down on the chair again.

  My cell phone rang, and I noticed it was Kate.

  “Hey, sweet baby girl.” I answered.

  “Mom, is it okay if Ben comes over to study? Grandma says no unless you approve. Please, Mom!” She begged with all her might. Her voice even got extra sweet. She must think I’m clueless. In a sense, I wanted to give her what she wanted because she wasn’t too happy about us moving out of the house and had taken it hard after finding out about the news.

  “Door open, no exceptions. Why don’t you all study in the family room? It has fewer boxes than everywhere else and more room for you guys. I’ll text Grandma and let her know I said it was okay, as long as the doors stay open.” My voice was stern.

  Lord this child was in for the talk soon if she was going to keep this boy around. I thought it might even be a Daddy talk.

  “Thanks, Mom. Are you and Dad having fun? Are you going to bring me something home, like a souvenir?” She giggled. Knowing very well she didn’t care if we were having fun or not, she was taking well advantage of us being gone I’m sure.

  “We’re having fun, yes. Don’t start with the gifts, Kate, your birthday is coming soon. I have to go, were going for a swim. Be good, you hear me, Katherine?” I said in my full out mom voice.

  “I will, promise. Love you!” she yelled.

  “Love you, too.” I laughed and ended the call. I turned my head, and Brian was conversing with two women in the pool. It didn’t look suspicious or anything, but a jealous nerve stroked deep within me. It was time to go for that swim. I got up off the lounge chair and made my way to the stairs. I slowly walked in, trying to get used to the temperature. It wasn’t cold, but it was chilly. It felt great considering it was ninety-five degrees
outside today, fairly warm for this time of year. I dunked my whole body in to get used to it, swam over to my husband, and slid a protective arm around his waist, looking over at the women before him. If looks could kill, this bitch would be dead. My plastered fake smile was poisonous and clearly ruined whatever pleasant conversation the three of them seemed to have, and that was just fine with me. In fact, it filled me with an immature sense of pride and joy. What could I say? I didn’t share well with others.

  “Hey, babe, these ladies are from Illinois, not far from us!” He grabbed my hands sensing my jealously. “Small world, right?”

  I looked at them and then back to him. “Small world. I’m Millie, Brian’s wife.” I extended my hand to them. I might have a mischievous grin smacked across my face, breaking up the party. I clearly wasn’t attending till now.

  “Nice to meet you, Millie, I’m Beth and this is my friend, Chelsea. We’re here with our husbands. They’re enjoying the weight room right now.” She giggled, looking back and forth between the two of them, like they had an inside joke I wasn’t a part of.

  The women were beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but they were almost Barbie beautiful. Something I didn’t think I was that comfortable pulling off. I was blown away by their looks and panged a touch of jealously in me. Her friend Chelsea grinned at me and said hi. We participated in some small talk, and they invited us out dancing tomorrow night. I thought it was a fantastic idea. Well, not for them, but for getting Brian to dance with me again. The beach was a rare occurrence and getting him around people to dance, was a whole other story. It would put a top on our last night in Florida before we had to head home. Tonight was the sunset cruise, and I’m sure we’d head back to the hotel afterwards to just relax.

  The ladies shuffled out of the pool one by one after we exchanged details about tomorrow night’s dancing affair. Brian didn’t seem as excited as me, but he was excited to be able to drink and watch me dance. Hell, that was the only way he danced, with alcohol in his system. That might explain last night, I thought, then silently laughed to myself. We headed back upstairs to change before our cruise.

  “Honey, you ready to go?” I yelled outside of the bathroom. I dressed myself in another cute orange sundress. I added a thin sweater, since the sun was setting I figured it would be a little cooler on the water. That breeze some nights could chill your bones.

  “Yeah, be out in a second,” he yelled and seconds later stepped out of the bathroom. Wow. He looked sexy as hell. His tall, slim figure looked amazing in his khaki shorts, white t-shirt with a button down shirt. He spiked his hair back, and his brown eyes shimmered in the light. The feeling in my gut told me to step forward and kiss him and let him feel how much I wanted him at that moment. But, I knew we had a cruise to get to. The thought was nice for a second.

  He gave me that look, like he would keep me here all night and ditch our plans, but that wasn’t going to happen. We came here to do some things other than fuck each other’s brains out. As much as I was enjoying that, I knew all good things come to an end at some point. I’m just waiting on Brian to go back to normal like he usually does.

  We made our way to the creaking dock. The seagulls flew above us chirping and the wind rustled in the palm trees. Knowing I was going to watch the sunset with my husband was relaxing. He paid for the tickets at the booth with the prepaid card we got from the trip we won, and the captain introduced himself. He looked to be no older than me in my early thirties, and he took us aboard. There was a small gap between the water and boat. Brian grabbed my hand to help me over and took the chance to pull me against his chest and plant a sweet kiss on my mouth. We held hands while he walked to take our seats towards the front of the boat. The captain awarded us a special treat while he told us we were the only ones that grabbed tickets for tonight’s adventure. So, we had our own personal little sail out to sea. That dinged romance in my mind, but somehow it wasn’t romantic with no privacy as it was a small boat. It was still pretty sweet.

  “Well, looks like we’re getting a pretty amazing ride on this awesome trip we’re having. Remember our honeymoon, that boat ride we took made us both so sick that we vowed to never go on a boat again, and look where we are—on a boat.” He belly laughed and pulled me close to him. I could smell his Armani cologne and the salt coming out of his pores from the gulf sweat. The breeze was heavy and in the distance you could see storms moving in.

  “Are these storms up ahead going to cause a problem for us tonight?” I looked at the captain concerned. Then snuggled even closer to Brian, feeling a bit scared of how this boat ride might turn out.

  “Nope, they’re traveling the opposite direction of us, we will be fine,” he clarified. The boat started moving away from the dock. The water was a bit choppy, but the boat floated smoothly across it. It was a sunset sail, but I knew with those storm clouds it was going to ruin that picture for me. Nothing could ever be that perfect, I thought.

  That boat took off at a nice coasting speed. We had to get through the wake zone before he opened up the sails and let this baby ride with the waves. I thought it was so nice to feel the warm wind through my hair and Brian’s arms wrapped around me. He was right, we did have a pretty awful experience on our honeymoon. This seemed like it was going to be better though, I hoped.

  I looked at Brian and instantly felt at ease. The nerves that were building up before stopped. This was the man I have been married to for fifteen years. We’ve had an amazing story to tell if someone really wanted to get down to it. We’ve had several chapters, and some were hard to look back on. But creating new ones were what I looked forward to. It’s been quite a ride, and in the end, it worked out. I just can’t help but think of what would have been if it wasn’t Brian in my life. Would I be here right now staring into the ocean and beautiful clouds above us to rekindle our marriage? Would these stepping stones been given to me no matter who I ended up with? It drifted in my mind a few times. Was it normal to ask those types of questions after having been married that long? I didn’t know if it was or it wasn’t, but I thought about it.

  “What do you think would have happened if I didn’t get pregnant with Kate?” I looked at him with my blue eyes. I wanted to judge his appearance and took it he had to think about the question, since his brows squeezed together in thought.

  “I think fate would have landed us together, Millie. Don’t you think so?” He kissed my forehead. His hands rubbed my arms up and down. He noticed I got goose bumps from the wind.

  “Yeah, fate, that little bitch always has ways of working things out.” I giggled.

  The sails went up, and the captain even let Brian help him out. He taught him a small lesson on how to sail. I watched while thoughts kept running through my head. I kept thinking about Kate. How she’s grown into this young lady having boyfriends. What she’s up to right then with Ben, and how my Mom’s probably biting her nails off at my response of letting him over. I thought about our house. The house we lived in was going to be gone from us when this little romantic getaway ends. How we’re going to survive? My thoughts were scattered, but I needed to think. Being at home, I was too fucking busy packing, making sure Kate was where she needed to be at all times, filing the bills, paying the bills, that I never had a breather. Now that I actually got to think about it, it was purely depressing. My life took off down a runaway, and the brakes never came down to stop it. I was wondering if Brian ever thought about anything while we were so tangled up in our life that never stopped moving to realize our happiness. It’s almost as if we were on different wave lengths. Were we happy? I mean we were married, so we were happy, but was it the happiness that lasts a lifetime? How do you ever know if it was?

  The boat was sailing pretty fast, and Brian went back to snuggling with me.

  “Are you happy?” He kissed me hard before I could answer. “I want you to remember when I ask you that question.”

  I looked at him puzzled, my eyebrows scrunched. “What do you mean you want me to remember you
asked that question? About being happy?”

  He held my hand. “Now every time you think of being happy, you’ll think of me.”

  My lips formed a smile. “I already think of you when I’m happy. I am happy with you.” The sentence came out quicker than I could think about the question truthfully.

  Brian jumped up and ran over to the edge of the boat screaming my name. He pointed out to the water where a fin popped above the surface. “A dolphin!” he exclaimed.

  I rushed to his side, practically tripping over my feet. I was in awe. There was a family of dolphins swimming alongside the boat, splashing in the water. My breath hitched, and I covered my mouth with one of my hands. One of my dreams in life just came true. I saw the dolphins in person, like I’ve always wanted to. Not just the ones you see at the zoo, but wild dolphins. What I would give to swim with one would just be amazing.

  “They’re beautiful!” I gasped, staring at the wonderful creatures.

  “You’re beautiful, Millie.” Brian reached down, stretching his face to mine before planting his lips on my tender skin.

  He did the unthinkable; he took my hand in his and got down on one knee. I looked at him with a questionable smirk. My eyes grew wide, and my questionable smirk turned into a huge smile. His hand was shaking a bit, but he held my hand firmly. His deep brown eyes burned into mine as I felt his emotion radiate through me.

  “Millie.” He took in a deep breath and exhaled, trembling on his words. “You’ve been my wife for almost fifteen years. When we got married, I didn’t have the privilege of making enough money to give you a beautiful ring. I wanted to do this because we both know our marriage has been rough. We never got a chance to focus on us before Kate was born. We never got to travel around the world. We struggled, and we got by. I want this to be a new beginning for us.” He wiped the sweat forming on his forehead. My mouth hung slightly open. I held his hand and with my other hand, I held my chest, trying to calm my heart. “I want this ring to represent everything that we had, and everything in our future—our new future. Let’s put the past behind us and start over in our marriage. With this ring, it symbolizes my love for you and how much I’m in love with you. I love you, Millie Weaver. Be my wife, again?” You could see the sparkle in his eyes.