“The next time you suggest Christmas in the DR and I hesitate, please smack me upside the head.”
I was living my best life right now with the windows down feeling the sea breeze touching my face. The road from the Santo Domingo airport was so close to the ocean that the water splashing against the rocks almost hit our car. It was seventy-eight degrees and sunny on December twenty-third, and I was having trouble remembering why I hadn’t agreed to coming a week earlier like Tom suggested.
Tom smiled and shook his head, his eyes focused on the road.
“How about I remind you we could be lounging on the beach in eighty degree weather, drinking beer, instead of freezing in East Coast winter hell?”
I gave an enthusiastic nod at his brilliant suggestion as I lowered the car window all the way down. “Deal,” I said as I lifted my face to the warmth of the sun.
The last nine months had been incredible.
Tom and I were solid. After he and my mom got back from their trip to Miami, we took our time coming together again. We talked and made plans. There was a lot of figuring out to do, because we knew we were building something to last forever.
My mother was doing great too. She’d ended up quitting her job at the hospital only a couple of months after her leave, when the agency she’d been going to for her support group offered her a job as an office manager. She loved it there and was a lot less stressed.
She still had her struggles and bad days, but in general was doing much better. So much better in fact, she’d actually finally been up to getting on a plane to come on this trip. I looked at the rearview mirror and saw her and Libe chatting quietly. I assumed my mom was listening to all the instructions Libe had for what they would get up to once we got to the house. Those two were thick as thieves these days.
There were still a lot of working parts to manage though. Work had been hectic for both Tom and I. Once the renovation in Harlem was done I finally had to come clean to Melissa about just how greatly I’d crossed boundaries with Tom. She’d been gracious and understanding, especially since I had done my job and then some, but I’d felt compelled to prove to her she could still count on me. And of course, I’d taken too much on. So now I was overseeing renovations on our other shelter.
I’d also been consulting with a social services agency for LGBT survivors here in the DR, which Tom was funding fully from the ground up. His mom and some of her friends were heading the project, and they’d asked me to help them with the programs they would implement. I was planning to visit while I was here, and could not wait to meet the staff and see the space. Tom on his end had a few things in the works with Henock and Sanjay here in the DR and in East Africa. His semi-retirement was slowly coming to an end, but he was trying very hard to maintain the work-life balance which eluded him before.
I turned around to look at him, and had to hold back from running my hands all over him. He was all business driving the humongous Range Rover which had been waiting for us at the airport parking lot. His parents left it for him there this morning, so we’d just walked to it and driven away in it.
No big deal.
One of the biggest challenges for me in the last year was learning to let the over-the-top shit that happened with Tom roll off my back. His money, the way he lived, and the things he could afford were just a part of who he was. He was so generous and low-key about it all the time, I’d had to let it go a bit. I was also getting better at allowing myself to enjoy some of the many perks. Like spending a week at my boyfriend’s beachfront penthouse in the DR.
God, he was so fucking hot.
How did he still turn me on this much after a year? He looked so sexy today with a little salt-and-pepper scruff and his aviator glasses. We’d taken off our New York City winter gear after we got out of the airport, so right now he was wearing jeans, a tight t-shirt and leather flip-flops on his feet. I wanted to climb on his lap and have my way with him right here in this damn car.
My thoughts must have shown on my face, because he ran his hand along my thigh, and gave me one of those low filthy chuckles that got me so worked up.
“My folks are waiting for Libe and Dinorah to take them down to the beach as soon as we get in.” He turned his face towards me and licked his lips while I sat there shivering. “So we can, umm, take a nap while they’re gone.” His fingers were running along the inside of my thighs in a manner suggesting there would be no such thing as napping once we were alone.
I had absolutely no problem with that.
I cleared my throat and looked at the backseat again, and saw the scheming to take over the world back there was still going strong.
“A nap sounds nice. Then you’ll take me to your private beach, Mr. Hughes?”
Another dirty grin. “I have some spots I can show you.”
“I bet you do.” I cut my eyes at him, like I didn’t know exactly what he was up to. “I’m here to get to know the rest of your family, not be your personal entertainment, Thomas Caonabo.”
“I promise you’ll like it.”
So fucking smug.
I was about to tell him so when Libe yelled as Tom took a right turn off the highway onto a small road.
“Abuela’s house!”
The road we turned onto was literally feet from the ocean. We drove past villas and houses while Libe frantically pointed at an apartment building at the end of the street. Tom’s dad had retired the same year he sold his company. As a gift Tom bought some land in a beach town right outside of Santo Domingo, and built four condos for the family.
As people do.
So now his parents lived there full time. The other three were there for Tom, his brother and any friends who wanted to come to the beach. It was completely over the top, but like I said, I was rolling with it.
As Tom parked the car in one of the spaces on the gated lot in front of the building, I heard my mom exclaim from the back.
“Tom, this is gorgeous.”
I looked up at the building myself and yeah, she was right. It looked like something out of a celebrity lifestyles magazine.
It had four floors and there was glass on all sides, so you could see the ocean from any spot in the building. From where we parked we could see the white sandy beach just a few yards away. I turned to Tom with my jaw on the floor and saw him nodding as he maneuvered the car.
“We were lucky to get this land. My parents love it here, and it’s nice to be able to have a place at the beach when we’re home.”
He jumped out of the car as his parents came out of the lobby and walked to the car. Libe was in the back taking off her seat belt, and launched herself at her abuela when she opened the door.
“Abuela! We’re here!”
Tom opened the door for me and I got out to greet his parents. I’d met his dad at the shelter dedication ceremony back in the spring, and they’d both come back in the fall for a weekend. They’d met my mom then too, of course they all got along great. I also loved Tom’s mom.
Like he’d predicted, when I finally got a chance to get to know her more, we realized we had a lot in common.
“Camilo, bienvenido,” she said as she walked over to me with her arms wide open.
“Gracias. It’s so good to be here and not freezing in New York.”
She laughed as she came in for a kiss, then turned to do the same to my mom. “Hola, Dinorah. This is the best time to come. No mosquitos and no humidity. Weather is perfect all the time.”
I turned around to give Tom’s dad a hug.
“Hey, Richard.”
“Camilo, good to see you.” Then he turned to give Tom a bear hug. “Son, so happy to have you here with the family.”
I spluttered at that and Tom laughed.
He turned to look at me with that lopsided smile he was usually sporting when we were deeply immersed in “family time.”
“Amor, you want to go up with my folks. I’ll find someone to help bring up the bags.” Then he looked at his mom. “Mamí, you’re taking Dinorah and Libe to the beach right?” Esperanza gave him a wink and a very enthusiastic yes as she herded us inside.
I had the suspicion Tom was up to something, but I was on vacation and not going to get worked up about him doing his usual sneaky shit.
This was it.
I was doing this right now. I closed the door to the apartment and heard my parents, Libe and Dinorah chatting in the hallway as they walked down one floor to their place.
Camilo and I were finally alone after almost an hour of catching up with my family, and I was desperate to get my plan in gear.
I walked in the master bedroom and saw him standing on the balcony, his hair fluttering in the breeze.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the water below was a blinding blue, the rays of the sun sparkling on the surface like diamonds. Just below us the palm trees lining the beach swayed in the breeze. It was a perfect island day, and to have Camilo here with me felt like a reward I would spend the rest of my life being grateful for.
I walked up to him and put my arms around his waist, my chin on top of his head.
“Hey, amor.”
He lifted his head for a kiss and I pressed our lips together.
When we pulled back Camilo sighed happily, his eyes bright. “This view is amazing, Tom. I’m having a pretty intense ‘How is this my life?’ moment again. I’m so happy to be here right now.”
I nodded and kissed him again, once again feeling too full of feelings to speak.
“It feels so right to be on my island, with my love.” His face turned soft and he pushed his head back against my chest as I spoke. “Sometimes it’s like I don’t have the words in English or Spanish to explain how I feel about you—”
He smiled as I moved, so we were face-to-face. “To tell you how much you’ve brought to my life. You’ve opened my eyes and my heart. You humble me with your strength. I don’t deserve you.”
He put his hand up as if he was about to protest, and before I lost my nerve I pulled the red and gold box out of my pocket. I’d debated on whether to do the kneeling thing and decided Camilo might just laugh at me for being corny.
I opened it to show him the two bands inside, grinning at Camilo’s yelp.
“Tom?” he gasped, but a smile was already forming on his lips.
I moved to push our foreheads together.
“Camilo, mi amor. You’re the one. From the very first moment I saw you, you’ve been changing my life. I want us to wake up together every day. You’re my forever, Camilo.”
I closed my eyes then, and could feel Camilo’s cheeks popping while I asked what felt like the most important question of my life. “Will you marry me?”
I opened my eyes and found him nodding, as he pushed on his tiptoes to kiss me hard. He nipped at my lips as I fumbled with getting the rings on our fingers. When we pulled back he had a pissed off look on his face.
I couldn’t help laughing. “You’re mad at me now?”
He put his hand up to look at the ring and then pulled my head back down, so he could kiss me again. “Like you had to ask me? I’ve been ready, Tom.”
I threw my head back, laughing again, and picked him up. I was so ready to be done with all this, and move on to the real celebration. But just as he wrapped his legs around my waist and I turned for the bedroom, we heard a chorus of voices coming from my parents’ balcony on the floor below.
“Did he say yes?”
I could hear Libe’s excited little voice over the rest. Camilo laughed with his lips against my neck, as I walked us back close enough to look down at my parents’ balcony.
When we could see them, we both leaned over and answered together.
“Si!”
* * *