“What took you guys so long?”

“Do you realize how hard it is to convince someone that saw, first hand, what I did to you that I will never, ever do anything like that again?”

Okay, I understood his point, but I still felt he was hiding something and he evidently didn’t want to discuss it anymore.

We left my place in Colorado for the last time early the next morning. I hide the key outside and figured, since I had five months left on the lease, I’d tell Ryan where I’d left it and he could offer it to Andy and Ty for the remainder of the time. They were a little wild, but I knew they wouldn’t tear the place up. Naomi would get a little break from her boys as a thank you for all the good food she had prepared for Ryan and me.

I called Mom and told her I was coming home with a couple surprises and I would see her in a week or so. Micah said he wanted the return trip home to be slow. He turned the car south and we headed down into New Mexico. The scenery where we were traveling wasn’t all that spectacular (except for my view as I stared at Micah), but it contained a lot of open road so we could take advantage of a little unchecked speed. Micah didn’t do it much, but I could see the grin working the edges of his lips at one point when he got it up to one-ninety and then backed down.

“How hard have you pushed it?” he asked, the smile getting broader over my responsive little piece of machinery.

“They have a 250 mph club, but I’m not in it,” I laughed, watching the big smile on his face. “I stopped at 242, but I was out of runway.”

That killed the smile.

“You need to sell the car, Leese,” he was suddenly serious.

“I love this car,” I defended, “I can kick anybody’s-”

“Leese-it’s two passenger.”

“So? It’s perfect for us.”

“Where are we going to put the baby seat?”

“My Aston Martin is still sitting in Mom’s garage.”

“You still need to sell this thing. It’s a little too much temptation and you might get hurt or worse.”

I rested my hand on his arm, “Micah, I can handle it.”

“Not pregnant. Even I shouldn’t have done what I just did-not with you in the car. The problem is that it’s just too damn enticing to push the pedal down.”

“I’m keeping the car,” I replied stubbornly, but I didn’t want to totally be hard-headed about it. “Maybe it’ll sit in the garage and all I’ll do is look at it, but I don’t want to sell it.”

He frowned, but the discussion ended.

He found us a beautiful hotel near Carlsbad with awesome views of the grand vista that stretched before us. We enjoyed a good dinner and a fabulous night together, but he told me we needed some sleep because we were going to get up very early the next morning. Before dawn we drove up to a special place and watched as the millions of bats darken the pre-dawn sky to return to the safety of the caves.

We traveled to San Antonio and he pulled into the Fairmount hotel, where, to my surprise, he had already reserved the Presidential suite for us. He was being sneaky, but this was a good kind of sneaky. He also reserved us a private dining area at Biga on The Banks. I told him if he kept up this kind of romance, I was going to expect it all the time. He smiled softly, gave me a breathless kiss and replied, for the time we had together, I should expect this from him.

I liked the idea of constant romance, but I didn’t like the way he stated it. It was almost as if he was telling me there was a limit to our time together. That brought up the subject I’d been wanting to discuss, which was what did his family decide to do over the D’Angelo issue? He refused to discuss it with me, and once again he was putting it off. He said there would be a time when it would come up, but for now he simply wanted us to get a little bit of the honeymoon we had been denied so long ago. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, argue about that.

The next day he said the drive would be a little bit longer, but he had a surprise for me at the end of the day that he thought I would like extremely well. The problem was the closer we came to the destination the more upset I became. He was driving into Louisiana. The chances of someone seeing him and reporting to D’Angelo about who he had with him increased a hundred-fold.

Tearfully, I begged for him not to stop the car anywhere in this state unless it was just to fill the tank, and I didn’t even want to do that. He promised me D’Angelo would never know we were here. I was unconvinced. We were coming in from the west side of the state so I wasn’t familiar with the roads, but eventually he turned down a driveway to the left and I suddenly knew where we were.

“But, you sold it,” I said, fresh tears forming in my eyes.

“I bought it back. Mom’s been getting it ready for us so we could spend a night or two here.” He glanced over at me to watch my reaction as the beautiful plantation style home came into view.

I was hit with so many emotions and absolutely overcome with memories, “Oh, Micah-thank you. I love it, but are you completely sure he won’t know we were here?”

He pulled the car around to the back and parked in the exact place he parked the Trans Am so long ago. He leaned over and took me in his arms and said we were totally safe.

The interior had changed a little. Evidently the previous owners didn’t keep all his furniture. But his bedroom was the same, as was the guest bedroom. The emotional level when he laid me down in his bed was as high as our wedding night. Sensual overflowed and I had never loved him more than holding him against my body in this house. We stayed for two heart-pounding nights and then, when it was time to restart our journey, he backtracked to get to 51 and headed north, taking a long route around to completely avoid New Orleans. He explained that my car would be enough of a red flag. If word got to D’Angelo that a Shelby Ultimate Aero had come through the city, things would change quickly.

We made our next stop in Pensacola at Bev and Matt’s house. I told them they were sworn to secrecy because Mom had no idea about Micah or the baby and that we had to stay out of the press as long as possible. They were ecstatic to see us, but they were concerned over what they heard about our lives since the wedding. I told them we were apart for a little while, but what mattered was we were together again and very happy.

I wasn’t sure if I should call Jewels. With everything that had been in the news about me and Ryan, I didn’t know if she’d even speak to me. I decided to give it a try and to my pleasant surprise she was thrilled to hear from me. We talked for a long time over the phone about all that had happened in both our lives. She wanted to know how Ryan and I were getting along. I explained that he and I had never been more than good friends, but he finally found someone and was living in Colorado. She said she found someone, too. Brent Rushford, whom she had dated off and on since ninth grade, asked her to marry him. They had only been engaged for a week, but she was already planning the wedding.

We were leaving out in the morning, but I told her I would love to see her, even if it was only for a few minutes.

“How about the school parking lot? That was where we spent most of our time anyway,” she giggled.

“All right, but you’ve got to promise me one thing; no loud music. I don’t need Officer Martin to catch us trespassing because I’m trying desperately to stay out of the news.”

“Who’s with you? Is it that guy from Remake?” she asked with a little squeal.

“You’ll see in the morning,” I laughed. “Can you get there early, like 7:15? I want to be out of there before all the students start arriving.”

“I’ll do one better; I’ll be there at seven.”

Seven a.m. I watched a little white Kia turn into the lot. We had parked just inside the gate and she was drawn like a magnet to the sports car. I was leaning against the hood as she parked.

“OMG! I love your hair! I almost didn’t recognize you!”

“That’s the idea,” I laughed.

“That is a freaking awesome car…” She started to say as she ran to embrace me, but as soon as she threw her arms around me, she discovered my secret.

“Holy crap! You’re-you’re pregnant?”

The car was suddenly forgotten.

“Would you like to meet the father?” I said, tapping on the driver’s window to let Micah know it was okay to step out of his dark hiding place.

He raised the door and started to get out, but she practically knocked him over to hug him.

“I guess this means you approve,” Micah laughed, picking her up off the ground as he hugged her back.

“Lord, yes,” she blubbered out. She was crying and saying she hoped all along the two of us would end up back together. “You guys were like perfectly matched. When I heard you’d split up, I was so pissed at Ryan.”

“It wasn’t his fault, but the important thing is we’re together and our son is due in September.”

We spent a few more precious minutes together, but I knew the other cars would be filing in and we didn’t need any exposure in Pensacola. We shared a couple more hugs, begged her to keep things quiet, and then we drove away.

Micah wanted to know if I wanted one more hotel stay to break-up the twelve hour drive to Palm Beach, but I was ready to see my family. I called Mom and told her we would see her around eight or nine p.m. The strange thing for me was that Micah’s emotional state as we grew closer seemed to lower, almost to the point of depression. I asked him if he was okay, but he just kept saying that Palm Beach held a lot of good and bad memories for him. I knew he was right, and it broke my heart all over again to think about what he went through when I vanished only days after our wedding.

When he and I came through the door, Mom honestly looked like she could faint. Micah was instantly at her side to keep her from hitting the floor. She simply couldn’t believe it. Kimmy was happy, but I think she was expecting Micah all along anyway.