Overflow: The Carpino Series (19 page)

Shaking his head, he hangs up the black vest and with my box
of clunky shoes tucked under his arm, he herds me to the check out.  My first
shopping experience at Cabela’s took all of twenty minutes.  And most of that
time was spent me telling him I wasn’t the camping kind of girl.  I can’t even
get out of the produce section at the grocery store in twenty minutes, for
heaven’s sake! 

“The next time you tell me you want to take me shopping,
Jude, I’ll know to brace for the experience,” I say conversationally holding his
hand on the way to the car.  “I can’t imagine the pain you endured shopping
with me for carpet.  I now know what a sacrifice that was for you.”

“Anything for you, Gabby,” he says looking down at me as he
opens my car door. 

“Thank you for my new stuff,” I say fitting myself to him
beside his truck.  I smile big and add, “And thank you for not making me sleep
in a tent this weekend!”

“You’re welcome, Gabby.  I can’t wait for to tomorrow.”

“Me too, but I’ve got to go home and finish packing.  I have
to bring a little of everything since I don’t know where we’re going.”

He kisses me quick and says, “Sounds good, sugar.  Let’s
go.”  And he takes me home with my new clunky shoes and puffy pink vest.

*****

“You know it’s really hard to pack when I don’t know where
I’m going, Jude.  Can you please give me a tiny clue?” I yell from my bedroom
while I stand in front of my bed with my suitcase laid out in front of me
overloaded with clothes for every occasion.  I hear Jude making his way to me
with Mia prancing after him. 

When he gets to my room, he proceeds to move me out of the
way and starts digging through my neatly folded clothes.  “Hey!  That took me a
long time!” I yell.  He removes a super cute short flowy  tunic I wear with
leggings, two pairs of jeans with bling on the pockets, a cowl neck sweater
with fringe on the neck, three semi dressy tops, a pair of strappy black heels
and leopard print flats, tossing them all aside.  He continues to dig through
my suitcase and all of a sudden stills.  He brings his hand up holding my new
Victoria’s Secret midnight blue nightie that is sheer under the bust that has
matching lace panties.  He lets it fall holding it by the straps and I yell
again, “That was supposed to be a surprise!”

His only response is to drop it back into the suitcase while
muttering, “You can bring that.”  Then he turns walking to my closet and I fold
my arms across my chest to wait on him.  He returns with a huge stack of
sweats, t-shirts, plain jeans, my winter running leggings and a couple pairs of
lounge pants.  “Here,” he thrusts it into my arms, “You might want all of
this.”

“What if we go somewhere dressy?  I’ll have nothing to
wear!” I protest.

He grins at me and says, “Don’t worry, we won’t go anywhere
dressy.”  Then he turns to leave the room. 

I proceed to repack and hang all of my nice stuff back up. 

About an hour later, I’m lying in bed reading on my Kindle
while listening to Jude close down my house.  I can’t concentrate on my book
thinking about my surprise trip tomorrow.  Jude comes in, puts Mia on the bed
with me and says, “Be right back, babe.”  I can hear him brushing his teeth and
getting ready for bed. 

He comes in and climbs in bed with me, I look over to him
and start clarify our plans, “We’re leaving at eight?  Leaving the house at
eight, not having to be somewhere else to leave at eight, right?”

“You really do have an issue with surprises, don’t you? 
Yes, we will leave here at eight, drop Mia off with Emma and be where we need
to be when we need to be there.  You need to relax.”

“It’s hard to relax when I don’t know where I’m going,” I
say petulantly.

He scoots himself down in the bed, takes my kindle out of my
hands and tosses it to the foot.  Then he yanks me down so I’m facing him, his
hand comes behind my knee pulling it up and over his hip.  “Do I need to make
you relax, Gabby?” he whispers against the skin under my ear. 

“Maybe,” I whine, but this feels good, he’s got his hand on
my ass pulling me in tight to him and he still has his mouth on my neck. 

“Alright, let’s relax you,” He whispers again and his hand
dips into the back of my panties.  His head comes up to kiss me deep and rolls
me to my back.  “Don’t worry about this weekend, it’ll be great, trust me.”

“Okay,” I breathe and weave my fingers into his hair and
kiss him back.  He does all kinds of things to relax me and I fall asleep
tucked into Jude.  And instead of worrying about my surprise birthday weekend,
I fall asleep looking forward to it. 

Jude throws it in park, turns to look at me and says,
“Ready?”

“What are we doing here?”  

A couple of things have confused me this morning.  I know I
packed heavy, I mean, I added more stuff after Jude left the room because as
much as I trust him, a guy never knows how much a girl is going to need on a
weekend getaway.  Besides, I don’t know what I’d be in the mood to wear.  So my
suitcase is big and heavy.  When Jude loaded the car, he hefted in my ginormous
suitcase followed by his gym bag.  Not a gym bag big enough for say, football or
hockey equipment, but a gym bag big enough for your stuff to play a pick-up
game of basketball.  Minus the ball.  When I asked him about his lack of
provisions for the weekend, he simply said, “Don’t worry.  I’ve got everything
I need.”  This made me wonder if he plans on spending the whole four days and
three nights in bed.  Not that this would be a terrible thing, but the suspense
of the surprise is starting to drive me a little batty.  We proceed to drop Mia
off with all of her stuff, which when you get right down to it, her bag was
bigger than Jude’s.  Then we stopped by some office building that held multiple
businesses inside and Jude said, “I’ve gotta run in and get something, stay
here.”  Before I could ask what in the hell he was doing, he was gone. 

And now is now and we are here.  Jude looks at me and says,
“Come on, we need to get going.”  He gets out of the truck, opens the back
door, drags out my mammoth suitcase and his light as a feather gym bag.  I get
out and meet him at the front of his truck as he’s beeping the locks. 

I semi repeat myself, “Why are we here?”

“We’re flying.”

“But,” I look around at the tiny airstrip that they call an
airport and continue, “these are really little planes.”

One side of his mouth turns up at me as he replies, “But
they’re still planes.” 

He heads into a small building lugging my suitcase and I
have to skip to keep up.  He holds the door for me and we enter a little office
space slash service desk.  The whole place is decorated with plane models and
pictures of all sorts of planes, new and old.  Jude starts talking to the
attendant behind the desk, showing him all kinds of papers, ID and finally
handing him a credit card. 

Holy shit!

It’s all coming together! 

“Wait!” I shout softly.  “Are you flying the plane?”

Giving me the half grin again, he replies, “Yeah.”

“Do you know how to fly these planes?”  I mean, flying
planes isn’t exactly like driving cars, right?  Aren’t they all different?  He
flew fighter jets while doing scary stuff, it can’t be the same as flying these
little planes, can it?

“I am a pilot, Gabby.”

“But that can’t be the same as flying these planes.  Do you
fly these little planes?”

“Yes it’s pretty much the same and yes I fly these planes. 
Come on, I’ve got to go through preflight and we have a scheduled take off. 
Get your stuff.”  With that, he grabs my suitcase heading out the backdoor
leaving me standing here with my two additional carry-on bags (I require a lot
of stuff) and a nosy attendant who is listening to our entire conversation. 
Pulling myself together, I grab my bags and hurry after Jude.  He’s about
twenty yards away throwing my suitcase in the back of an
itty-bitty-tiny-little-airplane.  Well, its itty bitty compared to all other
airplanes I’ve ever flown in. 

“Did you rent this?” I ask.

“No, a friend of mine owns it, we were in the Force
together.  He’s letting me borrow it for the weekend.” 

He starts doing all kinds of things around the plane and
since I have only gotten on a plane through a jet way, I decide to stand here
awaiting instruction.  He finishes up and says, “Alright, load up.”  He’s
holding the door open for me to climb in. 

Jude takes my carry-on bags (who knew I would actually be on
a plane today) and threw them in the back.  I decide I should start finding out
as much as I can about our mode of transportation, so I ask, “What kind of
plane is this?”

“Cessna 172 Skyhawk,” he informs me.

“Huh,” that means nothing to me.  “Do they, um, have a good
safety rating?  You know, like that insurance institute does with cars? 
Although, I’m sure they don’t crash these with dummies in them to see how well
they stand up.   I’ve seen lots of plane crashes on the news, planes crashing
to the ground never fare well,” I ramble on.

“Babe,” he says, trying to get my attention away from the
enormous instrument panel in front of me that is overwhelming my brain. 
“Gabby, look at me,” I finally look away from the gadgets and gizmos to give
him my eyes.  He then asks me in a really nice, low and raspy voice, “Do you
think I would do everything I could to keep you safe for weeks from a crazy gun
trafficker only to put you in a plane that I’m flying and put you at risk?”

“Probably not,” I mutter, gazing back at the gadgets and
gizmos. 

“Gabby,” I look back at him again.  “It’s safer than
driving.  We’ll be fine.”

“Oookaaay,” I drawl out.  Jude chuckles and returns to the
gizmos.  “Wait!” I yell thinking of something important.  “Do we have enough
gas?  It’s not like we can just pull over and fill up.”

Laughing at me now, he says, “It’s fuel and yes we’re topped
off.  I have to check it in preflight.  Now buckle up, you’re making us late
for takeoff.”

I guess knowing we have enough
fuel
makes me feel
better.  Jude cranks up our little plane and taxis us to the end of the
runway.  Man, this sucker is loud compared to big planes.  While he’s doing
this he says, “It should take us between two and a half and three hours. 
Settle in sugar.” 

Holy smokes!  As I say a silent prayer for safety, Jude
speeds our little plane down the runway and we lift into the air.  Watching the
ground get smaller and smaller I realize my surprise birthday weekend getaway
has barely begun and Jude is certainly full of surprises.  Well, one thing I
know is for certain.  I’m not sleeping in a tent tonight!

*****

We flew southwest in our little plane.  I knew this because
during the flight, which honestly wasn’t that bad once I settled in and got
used to it, Jude gave me the low down of every instrument on the plane.  He
even let me steer for a few minutes.  Now, would I be able to fly or land our
itty-bitty-tiny-little plane if he passed out from being too good looking or
bossy?  No.  But I do know how to read a compass, so it was easy to tell that
we were heading southwest. 

Jude still hasn’t given me any hints as to where we are
going, but I am intuitive enough to figure out that we are to going to Colorado
since the landscape changed from flat and boring to mountainous on the
horizon.  I’ve been to Colorado in the winter on ski trips with my youth group
from church when I was younger, so it should be different being here with no
snow.  But more importantly, since Jude is from Colorado, I am super excited to
see what he has planned!

We just landed at another airstrip and Jude is taxiing the
plane to the plane parking lot, for lack of better words.  I turn to him as my
ears are popping like crazy, “Okay, Jude.  I know we are in a city in Colorado,
are you going to make me look for signs or are you going to tell me where we
are?”

Smiling as he messes with some things on the instrument
panel, he says, “Alright, Gabby.”  He turns to me and continues, “We’re just west
of Denver, but we aren’t staying here.  Let’s go.”

He gets all of our bags and I follow him, doing the reverse
of what we did in Omaha, going into a little building from the back.  He talks
to another attendant, more paper work and he turns to grab my hand pulling me
out the front door.  It’s cooler here than it was at home so I’m feeling
grateful Jude bought me my puffy pink vest. 

Walking me out to the parking lot, I look up and see an
older Jude-like looking person leaning up against a Jeep Cherokee.  He’s
looking at us, but mainly at me.  I stop in my tracks and pull on Jude’s hand. 

“What?” he asks.

“Who’s that?” I whisper.

“That’s my dad, Gabby,” he grins at me.  “Come on, I’ll
introduce you.  Trust me, he’s not nearly as overwhelming as your family.”

Too shocked to think of a come back to his gentle jab at my
family, he yanks me forward to his dad.  Letting me go, he gives his dad a man
hug with a slap on the back then turns back to take my hand and says, “Gabby,
this is my dad, Rick.  Dad, Gabrielle Carpino.”    

Rick Ortiz is just as tall as Jude with the same dark hair
but his is speckled with gray around his temples and cut shorter.  He looks
like he used to be built like Jude, but the years have made him softer.  He’s
wearing business casual clothing with an older black leather bomber jacket that
looks great, one of those jackets that looks better with wear.  He gives me a
guarded look with a small smile and sticks out his hand to say, “Gabrielle.”

Dropping Jude’s hand to take his, I respond, “Please,
Gabby.  It’s so nice to meet you.”

Rick Ortiz continues to look at both Jude and I now and I’m
wondering what this is all about.  He turns to Jude and tosses him some keys
and says, “A friend from work is picking me up.  It’s all yours for the
weekend, just lock the keys in it under the seat on Monday and I’ll be by to
get it later.”  He lets out a breath and looks like he’s trying to relax and
goes on with, “Do you have time?  I’ll take you to lunch before you head up.”

Jude squeezes my hand he reclaimed and looking down at me
then back to his dad, he says, “Next time.  We’ve got some stops to make on the
way and have to get going.  We’ll plan more time next trip so we can spend some
time together.”

Smiling, looking more genuine and relaxed now, Rick says, “I
understand.  Enjoy your weekend.”  Looking at me he goes on, “Happy birthday,
Gabby.”

Surprised Jude told him it was my birthday and surprised by about
everything today, all I could manage was, “Oh, thanks!  It was so nice to meet
you.”  Jude loads up the Jeep and after saying one more goodbye to Rick, we
head out. 

People aren’t usually uncomfortable around me and I can
usually make friends with a tree stump, so the whole semi tense introduction
was weird.  As Jude makes our way out of the parking lot and through the city
streets, I start with, “Your dad seems nice.  He looks like you.”

“Yeah, I think the Puerto Rican genes won out.  My brother
and I favor my dad,” was all he says.

“It’s nice of him to loan us his car, do you fly out here
often?” I ask, wanting to know as much as I can.

“No, I usually drive, but it’s eight hours in the car and we
only have a couple of days, I didn’t want to cut into our time with the drive. 
Plus my friend lets me use his plane as often as I like, he doesn’t have much
time to fly.  That’s why we stopped at his office this morning, I needed to get
the keys,” he goes on to explain our morning.

Realizing how he really went above and beyond to arrange
things for me this weekend, I say, “Thank you for everything, Jude.  I don’t
even know what we’re doing or where we’re going, but you’ve done so much
already.  Thank you.”

Taking my hand and pulling it to his mouth kissing my
fingers, he says as he looks to the road, “No problem, sugar.”

We make our way through Denver and start to make an obvious
incline on a four lane highway.  We are really making our way up into the mountains,
driving through tiny towns and as you look up there are mountain homes and
cabins peeking up out of the evergreens.  Jude pulls into a Safeway and parks
the Jeep.  “Can you wait another twenty minutes for lunch?  We need to grab
some stuff for the weekend.”

I was definitely hungry, but could wait thirty minutes.  As
we enter the store, Jude gets two carts and pushing one to me starts bossing,
“You get your salad shit, whatever other fruits and vegetables you want.  I’m
going to the meat counter.  Get whatever you want to eat with steaks, pork
chops and hamburgers.  You’ve got fifteen minutes.  I’ll meet you at the
checkout.” 

“Fifteen minutes?” I exclaim!  Seriously, is this the
Grocery Game or something?  “I need more time than fifteen minutes!”

He leans down and kisses me, like that’s going to make me
shop faster, and continues to boss, “Fifteen.  See you at the checkout.”

And he’s off!

Realizing that he is not going to give me more time, I speed
my way through the produce section, trying to think of everything we will need
for four days and three nights.  I even make it to the condiment aisle, grab my
favorite dressings, croutons and even some bacon pieces.  Then to the baking
aisle for nuts and craisins, wondering if Jude has thought about a dessert
since it sounds like we will cooking all weekend, I get box mixes for a
streusel cake and brownies, not homemade, but not bad either.  Wondering if I
have used up my precious fifteen minutes, but not really caring because I’m
pretty sure he won’t leave me at a Safeway in a mountain town, I speed-shop
myself to the beauty aisle.  I didn’t know we were coming to such an arid
climate, so I pick out some new lip balm, hand lotion and just in case we are
outside, some sunscreen.  Everyone knows you’re closer to the sun in the
mountains and I’ll fry.  Figuring I’ve used up my allotted time plus some and
thinking I would suck at the Grocery Game, I push my cart to the checkout. 
Jude is standing there leafing through a Sports Illustrated and only his eyes
rise to me as I approach.  Not saying anything, but shaking his head as he puts
away his magazine and pulls my cart in front of his in the checkout.  I see
that Jude’s cart is even fuller than mine, he would totally rock at the Grocery
Game!  Along with all the meat he listed off, he has bread, lunch meat, eggs,
my favorite coffee, milk, creamer, cheeses, cinnamon rolls in a tube, my
yogurt, jarred dips, crackers, two bags of chips, a lot of beer and two bottles
of cabernet.