Delayed Gratification: The Honeymoon Read online

  It would be fun. Rae was sure of that much. As long as they were together, they always had fun. Yet she couldn’t help but wish that Willa had penciled in more opportunities for them to physically reconnect after a year of elevated stress and nearly a decade of real-life distractions that didn’t always allow them the chance to connect physically as often as she knew either of them would like. The sex they had now, ten years later, was better than ever, but Rae couldn’t help but feel that lately, it simply didn’t happen often enough. It wasn’t either of their faults, really. Personal and professional obligations, along with competing menstrual cycles, meant that the stars didn’t often align to allow for deliberate, prolonged sessions of naked, grown-up intimacy. Willa’s dreams for their honeymoon centered around the destination; Rae’s were squarely focused on how much time they would have together, alone, preferably in bed.

  Oh, well. Rae glanced over and smiled at the sight of Willa’s mouth hanging open. The important part is making my wife happy. If she wants to go to Venice, I’ll make love to her in Venice. As long as we can find a few minutes to spare.

  Through the flurries, Rae spotted a sign up ahead that announced their arrival at the Michigan border. At the same moment, the steering wheel jerked in her hands as the front tire spun on a patch of ice. The temporary loss of friction sent them sliding into the other lane, which was blessedly free of oncoming traffic. It took Rae a moment to regain control and move back into the center of her own lane. She exhaled steadily and attempted to calm her racing heart. Thank goodness we’re some of the only people stupid enough to be on the road right now.

  Unfortunately, that conclusion was challenged only fifteen minutes later when a large SUV roared up behind their sedan. His high-beam headlights flashed in her rearview mirror, causing a moment of terrifying disorientation as her night vision dissolved. She maintained her slow and steady pace, unwilling to succumb to the blatant intimidation of a driver who clearly didn’t appreciate how precarious the road conditions actually were. “Go around, asshole,” Rae muttered under her breath. “Don’t involve me in your foolishness.”

  The SUV surged to within inches of her rear bumper, aggressively demanding that she increase her speed. Rae lifted one white-knuckled hand from the steering wheel and waved for him to pass. She had absolutely no interest in going any faster—not even for Willa, let alone this dickhead. “Go around me,” she urged him again, in an angry whisper. “You want to kill yourself? Go on ahead, pal. I’ve got other plans.”

  As though he’d heard her mutters, the other driver swerved his much-larger vehicle into the oncoming lane and accelerated until he’d pulled even with her car. Subtle movement in her peripheral vision pulled her attention quickly to the side long enough to confirm that he was most likely shooting her his middle finger. She refocused on the slick road and gestured him forward calmly, not interested in engaging in any highway drama or road rage when the simple act of keeping the car traveling in a straight line required every bit of her concentration.

  See you later, jerk. Hopefully you’re not headed to the airport to claim the last seat on that flight to Venice. The SUV picked up speed, sliding back into the lane just ahead of them. Idly, Rae worried what would happen if they didn’t manage to secure a second seat on the early morning flight. How badly would Willa freak out then? She yawned, almost too tired to add that to her current list of anxieties.

  That’s when the asshole in the SUV hit a patch of ice that sent his vehicle spinning out of control. His headlights illuminated their rental car as his vehicle whirled a hundred and eighty degrees, blinding Rae at the same time her foot instinctively shot out for the brake, and then they were thrown into darkness as the SUV continued to rotate in front of her. Despite knowing she would surely lose control, Rae helplessly applied the brake and steered to avoid hitting the other driver. Sure enough, her tires lurched across the slippery surface, slinging them into the wrong lane. In a moment of clarity, Rae remembered an early lesson from her father. Steer into the slide. She did exactly that, wrestling with the wheel as they skated across the road before plummeting down a steep embankment. When they finally came to a stop, mostly unharmed, Rae threw the car into park and dropped her forehead to rest on the steering wheel. Her stomach heaved as she attempted to recover her wits.

  That lunatic!

  “Rae?” Willa’s sleep-slurred voice snapped her out of the lingering fright. “My God, what happened?”

  Rae gritted her teeth as she picked up her head to try to smile reassuringly at her confused wife. Her adrenaline-fueled fear turned to anger as she realized that she and the love of her life had only narrowly avoided death at the hands of an ignorant, impulsive dumbass of the highest order. She took a deep breath to quell her anger, then said, “Some jerk in a truck passed us going way too fast, then promptly spun out of control. I nearly hit him.” She glanced up the incline at the highway they’d left behind just in time to see the dwindling taillights of the offending SUV as it drove away, apparently unharmed. “He could have killed us both.”

  Willa reached across the center console to drag her into a tight hug. “Oh, Rae.” She squeezed so hard that Rae gasped. “Are you all right?”

  Rae returned the desperate embrace, savoring the moment of closeness in the wake of their near-death experience. “Yeah, I’m okay.” She pulled back and scanned Willa from head to toe. “You?”

  Willa smiled tearily. “To be honest, I slept through most of it.”

  “Good.” Rae lifted Willa’s hand to her lips and kissed the knuckles. “I love you, sweetheart.”

  “I love you, too.” Willa leaned in to initiate a heartfelt, albeit brief, kiss. Then she sat back in her seat and surveyed their surroundings. Her hand flew to her mouth, and she turned to Rae as panic flashed in her eyes. “Will you be able to drive us out of this ditch?”

  Though she already knew the answer, Rae took a moment to stare out the front windshield. Snowdrifts surrounded the small car, and the fluttering onslaught from the sky continued to grow steadily worse. Aware that Willa wouldn’t like the conclusion she’d reached, she said, “Honey, it seems obvious we shouldn’t be driving anywhere tonight. How about we take this near-death experience as a sign that it’s time to hunker down and wait for the storm to pass?”

  Willa’s distress only deepened, but now it was tinged with anger. “What? Are you telling me that because some idiot didn’t realize the roads were bad, you want to just give up?”

  “No,” Rae said calmly. She took a deep breath, drawing from her childhood experience as the daughter of an impossibly high-strung mother to deliver a dose of realism with as much compassion as she could currently muster. “I want you to accept the reality of our situation. We picked the wrong airport, on the wrong day, for our big trip to Venice. I know you’re disappointed, sweetheart, but I’m not willing to die to ensure that you’ll be able to party by the canals tomorrow night. I’m sorry. I love you dearly, but even I have my limits.”

  Illuminated by the moonlight, Willa’s eyes shimmered, then spilled over. “Seriously?” She looked down at the glowing digital clock on the dashboard. “We’re probably almost halfway there. We can do this. I know we can make it if you’ll just try!”

  Rae hated to see Willa cry. It was, in fact, the worst thing in the world. But today—for once—Willa’s tears wouldn’t sway her. Her mother might have trained her to placate other people’s emotional maelstroms at almost any cost, but right now, the potential cost was simply too high. “Honey, no.”

  Willa raised her voice, her anger deafening within the close confines of their stranded vehicle. “So that fucking asshole gets to ruin our honeymoon. Great. He’s probably some angry homophobe who would get a real kick out of that anyway, right? Stupid prick.”

  Unsurprised by both the volume and the vulgarity of Willa’s reaction, Rae nonetheless finally lost her patience in the aftermath of their near collision. Normally, she tried to keep her composure at any cost, but Willa’s dogged focus on
their prompt arrival at the final weekend of Carnevale—at the expense of their safety, no less—severed the very last thread of her self-restraint. She snapped.

  “Will! Shut up about it already. I’m sorry we’re going to be a day or two late for our honeymoon! I’m sorry we may miss Carnevale. I’m sorry, but I’m done worrying about making this damn flight. We almost died. The roads are clearly unsafe, and frankly, there’s not a chance in hell I can drive us out of this ditch, anyway. We’re going to have to call for a tow. Who knows how long that will take? Plus, we don’t even have two seats on the flight, if it doesn’t end up cancelled like all the others. I’m done, Willa. Done for the night. If we don’t die on this godforsaken highway, we’ll have the rest of our lives to see whatever the hell we want. On the other hand, if we kill ourselves trying to make it to Detroit, we’ll have missed this year’s Carnevale every bit as much as we would’ve had we simply found a nice hotel so we could get some rest after this horrible fucking day.”

  Willa’s eyebrows drew together and she opened her mouth to respond, but the sight of headlights approaching on the highway above launched her into quick action instead. She leaned across the center console and pushed the button to flash the car’s high beams on and off. “We need to get out of here before the weather gets any worse. Do you have a cell signal?”

  Rae batted Willa’s hand away from the controls. “Will! You have no idea who’s in that car. We need help from Triple-A, not a scary backwoods serial killer.”

  Willa rolled her eyes but let her hand fall away from the button. “I somehow doubt, despite everything else that’s happened today, that we’re gonna get unlucky enough to draw the attention of a statistically unlikely criminal in the middle of a blizzard. Now answer me. Does your phone have a signal?”

  Rae dug around in the cup holder, then said uneasily, “My phone is dead.”

  “What?” Willa leaned into the backseat and dug around in her purse before coming up with her phone. “So is mine. Are you kidding me? The battery was at seventy percent when we left Chicago!”

  Rae made a stab at humor. “I’m telling you, it’s planned obsolescence. They’re desperate for us to upgrade to newer models.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe we could have afforded to if all our extra nickels and dimes hadn’t gone toward funding a vacation we apparently aren’t even going to get to enjoy.”

  “Will, we’re going to Europe. Even if we end up missing Carnevale, I’m sure we can salvage most of our trip. Maybe we lose a few days. We’ll still be together. Why not spend this delay having toe-curling sex in some tiny little hotel before we take on our whirlwind tour of the old world? We’ll do Carnevale another time, I promise.” Rae reached for Willa’s hand, dismayed when it remained limp within her grasp. “Come on, baby. Please don’t let this ruin our time together.”

  “I’m ruining our time?” Willa laughed without humor and pulled her hand away from Rae to wipe her teary eyes. “Sure. This is totally my fault. That makes sense.” She scowled and turned away. “Where’s the car charger for our phones? I asked you to put it in your carry-on.”

  Rae’s defenses went into high alert. “No, you didn’t. You told me to pack it. I did. It’s in our suitcase, which, as you know, is currently lost in the airport shuffle.”

  “Who ruined our time together?” Back at full volume, Willa threw her hands into the air and gestured at the snow falling outside. “Are you fucking kidding me? Because you didn’t listen to what I said, now we either have to spend the night freezing in this stupid rental car, walk for help in a blizzard, or flag down a potential rapist and/or murderer—in your imagination, at least—because now our phones are dead and we don’t have a charger and we can’t even call for help.”

  Rae prepared to fire back a cutting retort but yelped in surprise instead when the bright beam of a flashlight shone through the windshield and swept across their faces. Willa shrieked beside her and grabbed her arm. The light disappeared, then shifted to reveal the friendly features of an older, silver-haired woman standing off the shoulder of the highway. She shouted something Rae couldn’t understand. Before Rae could react, Willa opened her car door and clambered outside. “Hello?”

  “I said, are you girls all right?” The woman’s voice had trouble competing with the howling wind, so despite her lingering anxiety, Rae also opened her car door to better hear their potential rescuer—in case Willa needed backup. “Would you like some help?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Willa replied smoothly. “Thank you! Do you have a phone we could use to call Triple-A?”

  “Sure thing, honey.” The woman pulled a cell phone out of her coat pocket and met Willa halfway, in front of the passenger-side bumper. “Did you two spin out? The black ice on this road has been bad for a couple days already, and now with this…” She gestured at the snow but left her thought unfinished.

  Rae shook her head as Willa stepped away to make the call. “The car in front of us was going too fast and spun out. I lost control trying not to hit him.”

  The woman winced, then crossed to the driver’s side to offer Rae her hand. “I’m Lynn, by the way.”

  “Rae.” She shook with Lynn. “Thanks so much for stopping to help us. My fault, apparently, but we just discovered that we’re the proud owners of two dead cell phones and no charger, so you’re a real lifesaver.”

  “I saw your headlights flashing.” Lynn grinned. “I’ll admit, I thought about simply calling to report the accident, being out here alone and all, but once I saw you were both women, it seemed safe enough to offer the kind of help I’d want if I were stranded on a night like this.” She pulled her coat closer around her body and shivered. “If you’d like, we can go sit in my truck while we wait for Triple-A. Get out of the cold. My husband keeps a spare blanket in the backseat.”

  Rae pulled her own jacket around herself, wishing she’d dressed for winter weather instead of a quick transition from plane to plane. “That might be nice.” She glanced over at Willa, trying to gauge the current status of their predicament. From the tense set of Willa’s shoulders and the tone of her hushed voice, Rae suspected the cavalry wasn’t exactly on its way. “I have a feeling it might be a while before a tow truck makes it out here, though.”

  Confirming her suspicion, Willa sagged and turned to face them. She returned Lynn’s phone with a tense smile that did little to mask her seething rage. “So, yeah…they’re pretty slammed due to the storm. The guy said it would likely be hours before someone can come tow us. At least.”

  Rae walked around the front of the car so she could touch Willa’s arm, anything to prevent the meltdown she could see coming. She wanted to hold her wife but hesitated to make the nature of their relationship known without any awareness of their savior’s religious and political positions on same-sex couples. After all, they weren’t in the Bay Area anymore, and they desperately needed Lynn’s help. “In that case, I think it really is time to find a place to stay for the night. Maybe Lynn could drive us to the nearest town? That way we could start fresh in the morning, figure out our next move.”

  She could see that Willa didn’t want to agree, but she was obviously tired and not generally inclined to spend hours in prolonged discomfort, especially with an angry spouse at her side. Or without the security blanket of a charged smartphone. Still, it was obvious that Willa wasn’t yet ready to surrender. “We’ve got to be only three, maybe four hours from the airport.” She turned to Lynn. “Do you happen to know of a car-rental place that’s open late anywhere nearby?”

  Rae looked around at the rural landscape, desolate and thick with snow, but bit her tongue and let Lynn deliver the bad news instead. The older woman shrugged. “I’m sorry, honey, but I really don’t. And I think your friend is right. Best thing to do tonight is hunker down and wait for the roads to improve.” She gestured at their stranded sedan. “The conditions will only get worse as the storm moves in. If my truck didn’t have chains on the tires and my husband hadn’t desperately needed more an
tacid from the all-night pharmacy fifteen miles down the road, I wouldn’t be out here myself. I saw ditched cars everywhere. You dodged a bullet once tonight. Let’s not push your luck for the sake of making a flight that’s likely to be cancelled anyway. Am I right, darling?”

  Willa gritted her teeth, but Rae could see she was defeated. “You probably are.”

  “Besides, there’s serendipity at work.” Lynn extended a gloved hand to Rae, who took it gratefully, happy for the warmth of her fleece-lined fingers. “My husband and I happen to own an inn about five miles down the road. Weather being like it is, we’ve got nothing but vacancies at the moment. You can take a room free of charge, to help soften the blow of missing your flight.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” Rae said. “We’re happy to pay.”

  Lynn tugged Rae forward, helping her climb the slippery incline up to the shoulder of the highway. “That really won’t be necessary. We had a few cancellations due to the storm, and we weren’t fully booked, anyway.”

  Rae took the backpacks they’d carried onto their first flight when Willa handed them up, then extended her arm so Willa could pull herself out of the ditch and join them at the side of the road. She could feel the tension running through her wife’s body, the barely suppressed frustration and disappointment. She gave Willa’s hand a soft squeeze before letting go. “It’ll be okay, Will,” she murmured. “I promise.”

  Willa only shook her head. “How?”

  Chapter Three

  It took every bit of Willa’s maturity and willpower not to break down into huge, wracking, pissed-off sobs as she sat in the extended cab of Lynn’s truck and listened to Rae make small talk with their host for the evening. Unlike her, Rae seemed happy enough, and why not? She’d wanted to book a hotel room since Chicago, and now she’d gotten her way. Meanwhile, they were no closer to figuring out how they would travel the final one hundred and fifty miles to the Detroit airport before six o’clock the next morning. Willa glanced at the clock. In forty-five minutes, it would be midnight. There was no way. With at least three hours left to drive, depending on their speed, they would never find a new vehicle and make it through airport security in time to catch the flight. Not if Rae insisted on also taking time to sleep.