“That’s impossible, baby.”
That same day, we had victory sex two more times, in two different parts of the house: his office and in the bathroom. Each time was better than the last, and by nightfall, we were raw, exhausted, and mostly satisfied. Cane said work could wait, and curled up with me in our bed to watch a movie. To many people it may not have seemed like much, but to me it was everything—he was here, and I was smiling, and there was no better place to be than in his arms.
Were Cane and I perfect? Hell no, but we were happy and in love, and at the end of every single day—no matter how hard things got or how trying it seemed—being happy and in love was all that mattered to me, and only a fool would try and convince me to think otherwise.
Chapter Thirty-Six
KANDY
Two Years Later
If someone had told the nine-year-old girl on the tire swing, with the Chucks and rainbow socks on, that the man smoking in front of her house would turn out to be her soulmate, she would have laughed right in their face and told them they were wrong.
Yet, there I was, sitting on a beach in Belize, like Cane had promised me, sipping on a frozen margarita, with that beautifully twisted man at my side. It felt good being twenty-one. I felt a more equal status with Cane since I could actually go to bars and clubs without worrying about age or restrictions.
He and I had a lot of fun over the past two years. Of course he still worked hard and left town often, but during the moments when he was back, I cherished his presence. I made sure to take opportunities with him. To travel with him, even with school in the way. We mostly did our traveling when I had breaks, or during the summer.
Right now it was mid-June, and I was lying beneath one of the shady blue umbrellas, enjoying the warm air and crisp splashes of water from the ocean whenever the wind blew. We’d been planning this trip to Belize for a little over a year now.
“You deserve another getaway,” he’d told me one night when I was studying. “You’ve been working hard.”
“We both have,” I said. “But what about Belize?”
Of course I was only kidding, but he’d considered it done the moment I mentioned it. Now we were here, and it was nothing short of amazing. We sunbathed and drank and had lazy sex in our overwater bungalow. We ate out every single night, and drank some more. It was the perfect romantic getaway.
The sun began to sink and we packed up, walking back to our bungalow hand-in-hand. I tossed my beach bag down on the patio, and we both went to shower together before catching a meal.
That night over dinner, I had many questions to ask him. For some reason, our little getaway made me think, and not just about the positives, but some of the negatives too. Of course, the negatives nagged at me the most, and since our trip would be coming to an end in two days, I figured asking that night would have been best.
When our food arrived, I asked, “Do you ever just sit and think about our future? Like how one day you’ll be sixty and I’ll be forty-ish?”
He looked up from his lobster and into my eyes. “Hmm…no. I don’t really think about the age aspect too much anymore.”
“It doesn’t scare you to know, though?” I urged.
“Not at all,” he said, then bit into his bread roll. “Does it scare you?”
“No.” I shook my head, holding back on a smile. “I just wonder if you’ll even want me five or ten years from now.” The music changed to a calmer, soothing one. It was like jazz music, but with a hint of R&B.
“Kandy,” he said, reaching across the table and grabbing my hand. “I will never get tired of you. Don’t make excuses now. You’re stuck with me for life.”
I giggled as he kissed the back of my hand.
“But now that you mention it,” he sighed, “if I’m sixty or seventy and can’t get it up, that’ll scare the fuck out of me.”
My eyes stretched and I burst into a fit of laughter. “Oh my gosh! Why?”
“Because I need to be able to please my woman at all times—liver spots, dentures, and all. I should probably start looking into Viagra if I can’t, just in case.”
“Oh my goodness!” I laughed as he grinned. “You are insane.”
He released my hand to take a sip of his sweet tea. I took a bite of my shrimp, still looking into his eyes.
“So…what about having kids one day? Do you still not want them?” That was the main question on my mind. I didn’t bring kids up much since he found out my truth. Not because I had forgotten, but because I didn’t want to ruin our perfect moments by making him or myself feel bad.