Love on the Malecon (26 page)

The preparation would take no time at all.
She didn’t need to interview anyone this time. She didn’t need to
learn the dynamics of the relationship. She was living it. Still,
she was going to ask to borrow Derek’s laptop for a little bit
today and get down some ideas that were already flowing in her
head. There had to be a store in Puerto Vallarta that sold
computers. Nicole had some money saved and, though Derek would want
to buy it, she really wanted to get set up herself. She’d need a
light-weight computer and bag with all of the traveling they’d be
doing.

Nathan also said he’d pitch her idea for
travel destination spots. He asked her to write up a mock article
after the wedding, to show in his meeting. He thought that even if
it didn’t get a regular column, they could buy her stories from
time to time, especially going into the colder months of the year.
Since she did want to write a book and would maybe write for
Derek’s properties, she wasn’t sure she’d want a regular deadline
anyway. Once a quarter might be nice.

Everything was falling into place. Nicole
wasn’t naïve enough to think that everything should come easy in
life. If you want something, you needed to work and fight for it.
But she didn’t think it should be like that with love. Of course,
relationships took work and you couldn’t get too complacent, but at
the same time, it should be easy to live and love together. All the
stars were aligning and it seemed like a good sign.

Derek was sitting outside on the balcony when
she came out of the bedroom. He was enjoying the view, his legs up
on the table in front of him with one crossed casually over the
other and a cup of coffee in hand. Nicole looked down at her ring
for the millionth time that day. Her life felt surreal. She loved
that man out there more than she ever thought possible. She wanted
the wedding to be soon, too. She wanted to be Mrs. Derek Stone.

She grabbed her sunglasses and sat down at
the table next to him.

“How did it go?” he asked.

“Great! He’d like me to write my final column
on our wedding,” she smiled at him,
“
He also said I could
send him a mock story about Puerto Vallarta as an idea to still
contract with them occasionally. I pitched him the idea of writing
for travel ideas to escape the Chicago cold.”

“That’s great! I’m very proud of you and I
can’t wait to read about our wedding.” He leaned over and kissed
her lips quickly.

He listened while she filled him in on the
phone conversation. When she finished and leaned back to soak up
the sunlight, she felt him hold her hand.
“
How about going
to Venice for our honeymoon?”

At the word
“
Venice”, she jumped up in
her seat. He was really going to take her to Venice? It had always
been her dream to go there. Again, she felt like she couldn’t
breathe.
“
Really?”

“Yes, I’m thinking we spend a few weeks
there. We could visit all over Italy after that if you’d like.”

She dove out of her chair and landed on
Derek’s lap, laughing and kissing him all over. He took her face in
his hands and she reached up to put her hands over his. She saw him
notice her ring; he leaned in and kissed it. Then he took her mouth
with his and her body seemed to melt into his. Luckily, she was
already sitting on him because this kiss would have made her knees
buckle from her own weight.

He reached back with one hand and grabbed
ahold of her hair at the top of her neck. He tugged her head back
hard, but seductively, and kissed all along her neck. She held on
tight to his strong shoulders. She moved her hands over his chest,
loving the feel of his muscles. She turned her body toward him,
positioning herself so that her legs were now on each side of him.
She could feel him getting hard below her and she used her body to
urge him on. She was wearing a short sundress from her limited
supply of clothing and he moved his hands to her thighs and slid
them under the material to her hips.

He pushed her body deeper into him. Then,
with one easy tug of the lace, he ripped the side of her panties
and pulled them away from her. She laughed at the thrill it gave
her. Nicole immediately began tugging his board shorts down low
enough to free his hard erection. She climbed on top of him. There
in the morning sun, on the balcony of her apartment that she shared
with her fiancé, she rode him until he made her body lose
control.

When she could see that he was about to cum
himself, she leaned in close to him and whispered without thinking,
“
Stay inside me.” She was surprised at herself. Maybe it was
because she knew they would be married, but she didn’t want to fear
pregnancy anymore. When it happened, it would be the right time. He
pulled her face in for another deep kiss and she felt all of his
tension release underneath her. She smiled sweetly at him.
“
Let’s go take a shower.”

…

The next few weeks were a whirlwind until
finally, Kate was to arrive. Nicole had spent the entire time
shopping and working with a wedding coordinator and the Playa
Vallarta to plan her small, intimate wedding ceremony and
reception. Now she was pacing the airport arrivals area, waiting
for Kate to walk through the doors. Crowds of people passed as
commercial airlines landed and unloaded. Kate was the only
passenger on her flight, so she would most likely arrive alone.
Nicole thought it was funny that Kate saw the inside of Derek’s
plane before she herself did. She really wanted to fly to Chicago
and do the round trip to pick Kate up, but she had so much to
finalize for the wedding.

It felt like a wet sauna in the waiting area,
just still air with no circulation. Nicole was hot and sticky. Her
hair was sticking to her neck and she was beginning to get anxious.
What if something had happened to the plane? Finally, she saw Kate
come through the door and she raced to her as fast as she could.
She had her best friend now; all was right with the world. Kate
immediately grabbed her hand to see the ring and they laughed and
screamed and hugged again. Nicole had never seen Kate like this and
she loved it.

Derek had been staying in the background to
give them their time. After they finished their hellos, Nicole
called for him to come over. Kate squeezed her hand as he walked up
and communicated silently to her that she thought he was as
gorgeous as Nicole had said.

“Kate, it is wonderful to finally meet you,”
he said,
“
Nicole has been beside herself with excitement.”
Without asking, he went in for a hug.

“Thank you for flying me here. I could get
used to traveling like that. Nicole, you’ve gotta try it sometime,”
she teased.

The three of them made their way to the car
waiting for them outside. Derek had rented a larger SUV for Hector
to drive until after the wedding, telling Nicole that he wanted
there to be enough room for the extra passenger. He had also set up
a car service to help with the added guests that the plane would
bring in the day before the wedding. They would be too busy with
the event itself for trips to the airport. She loved that he was
taking care of all the little details so that she wouldn’t be
stressed.

Kate was in awe of their apartment. She had
the same reaction that Nicole did the first time she saw it. As
they sat out on the balcony the first night, she agreed with Nicole
that her life was surreal. She never came across as jealous. That
wasn’t Kate’s style. She was truly happy for her.

Nicole did worry that she was a bit jaded
about relationships from her career. Dealing with unhappy and
broken couples as a divorce lawyer had turned her into a bit of a
cynic. Nicole didn’t blame her; it could happen to anyone. But
Nicole did worry that she wouldn’t find happiness with a man until
she could see past all that. It would take the right man for that
to happen. She hoped Kate found him soon. She wanted happiness for
everyone in the world now, especially her best friend.

They talked and drank bottles of wine all
night. Derek had arranged for Kate to stay in the hotel room next
to their apartment. That way, she could stumble next door to fall
asleep. Once they said their goodbyes and Nicole and Derek both
watched Kate enter her hotel room, he scooped up Nicole and carried
her tired body into the bedroom, laying her down for bed. She
curled into his body and was asleep in moments.

The next morning, Hector drove Nicole and
Kate into the Malecon so that they could shop for her wedding
dress. She was determined to wait for Kate to find it. She wouldn’t
have her mom there, so she wanted memories with Kate. There were a
few shops off the main drag that most tourists would wander past.
Nicole was no longer a tourist now. She was a local, at least for
the time they’d live there.

The first shop was tiny and hot. It was so
dark that the two women could barely see the dresses. The little
old shopkeeper seemed like she was ready to put a curse on them
when they’d giggle about something. They couldn’t get out of there
fast enough.

The second place she heard about was just
what they were looking for. It was still a tiny shop, but it was
bright and cheery and the woman that ran it was young and gorgeous,
inviting and earnest. Kate joked that if she modeled the dresses,
she would sell out of inventory. She introduced herself as Lupe and
handed them each a glass of wine. She told them to enjoy themselves
and have fun. Nicole tried on loads of dresses and Lupe convinced
Kate to try on a few for fun. This was exactly what Nicole had
hoped for.

Ultimately, Nicole decided on two dresses.
The first, for the ceremony, was strapless and long. The material
was light and airy and it cinched around her mid-drift to show off
her figure. Then she fell in love with a shorter dress and Kate was
determined that Nicole needed it for the reception. It was
sleeveless and extremely short, with an added sheer layer of
material that fell at an angle that ended almost at her knees. Her
favorite part was a ruffle of material that dropped at an angle in
the back to represent a train. It only dropped to her knee, rather
than behind her on the floor.

She and Kate spent the rest of the afternoon
picking out the perfect dress for Kate and shoes and jewelry for
both of them. They also decided to stop for a lunch and cocktail on
Derek.

Derek had given Nicole a credit card with
Nicole Stone embossed on the front of it as an early wedding
present and told her to go have fun. Usually, such a thing would
make her uncomfortable to go on a spending spree, but given it was
for her wedding, she made an exception. She was going to have to
get used to the fact that she didn’t need to live on any kind of
budget anymore. She didn’t want to go crazy and turn into a
shopping monster, but she liked the idea that if she wanted
something, she could have it.

The night before the wedding, Nicole stayed
in Kate’s room. Derek offered to go to another room but Nicole
wanted him to be comfortable in his own home. Besides, she would
have fun with Kate in her room. It was like old times. Kate and
Nicole promised to visit each other monthly. And Kate was thrilled
to find out the likely possibility that Nicole and Derek would be
living on a new property in downtown Chicago for part of the year.
They agreed that the summer would be the most fun and joked that
they should make sure Derek agreed with that decision. They stayed
up later than they had planned, which was a bit of a concern.
Nicole didn’t want to have bags under her eyes for her wedding. But
it was worth it. She would remember that night for the rest of her
life.

And then the moment of truth arrived. She was
standing at the edge of the beach, watching her friends from
Chicago and Derek’s friends and business acquaintances from Puerto
Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta mill around the chairs set up along the
beach. Derek was standing by the altar with Gael and he looked
incredibly handsome.

She looked down at her dress, hoping he’d
feel the same way about her. How did she get so lucky? She was
about to marry the man of her dreams. It was like a scene out of a
movie. She wondered if her parents really could have had a role in
orchestrating all of this. If so, they had pulled it off perfectly.
She wanted her mother there, though she had become used to big
moments in life without her. She hoped that didn’t seem cold. It
was probably a coping mechanism in life.

But her dad…she missed him so much in that
moment. She wished he was there to walk her down the aisle to meet
the man waiting for her. Then she felt his presence more than she
ever had since he passed. She smiled and knew he was there. He
would be walking with her, now and forever. Finally, it was time
and she began walking towards the man she loved so deeply and she
thanked her father again for sending her Derek.

Thank you for reading
Love on the Malecon
! If
you enjoyed it, please consider taking a moment to leave me a
review at your favorite retailer. And don’t forget to check out a
sneak peek of my next novel, love
on Ocean Drive
, at the end
of this book!

Thanks!

Aubrey Parr

Thank you to my beta readers that gave me
the reader’s perspective while I wrote. I would like to give a
special thank you to Kelly from For the Love of Books and Alcohol
for your endless hours of help and support. You are an amazing
mentor in this process and made
Love on the Malecon
what it
is today.

Thank you to Allison for editing the book. My
mind may be a little dirty at times, but so is my grammar.

Thank you to my mom for naming Love on the
Malecon. Thank you for being the perfect combination of a
supportive mother and a critical eye to help make the book its
possible best. You are invaluable.