“Love?”
“Mm?” I mumble against her skin.
“Are you going to even pretend to watch this?”
“Nope.”
Sweetness laughs, playfully pushes my hand away, and then moves to straddle me. “You have my full attention, Jake. What are you doing to do with me?”
* * *
“Why does everything have to be a big secret with you?”
I laugh. Emily, because of her curiosity, doesn't really care for surprises if she knows there is one. If she's expecting a surprise, she doesn't want to wait to find out what it is. And quite frankly, I like teasing her.
“We're going to do something we've never done before and I promise that you'll love it.”
“I know I'll love it, Jake. I just want to know what 'it' is.”
“We're almost there,” I tell her.
About fifteen minutes later, we arrive at our destination. What is more romantic than a private hot air balloon ride? Emily's lips are parted as she realizes what we're about to do.
“Jake,” she says softly. “We're going to ride in a hot air balloon?” Her voice is full of amazement.
“Happy Thanksgiving, Sweetness.”
Finally, she looks at me, a smile growing into a full blown grin. Emily leans over the console and gives me a quick kiss before getting out of the car. I follow her around front, take her hand, and lead her to where our pilot, Daniel, is waiting. She squeezes my hand and tells me that she's really excited.
“Hello, Mr. Benson,” Daniel says as we stand before him. I shake his outstretched hand. “And you must be Mrs. Benson.” He shakes Emily's hand, and she doesn't correct him. “My name is Daniel and I'm going to be your pilot today.”
Daniel talks to us for a few more minutes before getting started. Emily chatters the entire time, but once we're in the air, she's speechless. The land below us is as beautiful as the woman standing in front of me as I wrap my arms around her, her back to my chest.
“Wow,” she whispers. “This is beautiful, Jake. Thank you.”
“You're welcome, Sweetness.”
No words are spoken for a while as we fly over Chicago. It's peaceful, amazing, and calming.
“The view is always better from the air,” Emily says. She turns in my arms, her gloved hands grabbing my neck as she pulls me down for a kiss. Her voice is quiet and her eyes are closed as she tells me, “I feel like your to-be wife again.”
My heart swells at her words. I hate that I've made it where she doesn't feel like that all the time, but that's not something I'm going to dwell on today. “Should I have a hot air balloon on stand-by for the future?”
Sweetness smiles shyly and looks up at me from underneath her lashes. “Do you plan on being a jerk in the future?”
“No.”
“Then no, you don't. But I wouldn't complain if we did this again.” She turns back around and savors the final minutes of our ride. Emily is in the loving mood when we get back home, a mood that she's been in quite a bit since our fight last month. I'm not complaining though. We spend the rest of the day in bed.