Chapter 135 - Live It Over Again Isla Paradiso. Where the party goes on all day and all night.
For once, Brandon got the jump on me, instead of I on him. I've missed him so much that just touching him feels like . . . I don't know what.
Happy.
But then the silly, silly man thought we could come up for air after a mere hour (or two). Ha!
I finally let him drag me out to his custom sports car (I bought a matching one in red) and drive straight through the main island. I don't know how he knew his way around the island, but I suppose there's a lot of time to be had in the Netherworld.
He finally parked the car at the very edge of the island and we ran down a little path. I heard water halfway down the hill, and turned to see an enormous waterfall.
"I proposed to you under the waterfall the first time, remember?" he asked, beginning to kneel.
"How can I forget?" I laughed. "I'd barely graduated from high school, and here my ridiculous, nerdy boyfriend was asking me to marry him . . .
"Well, your ridiculous nerdy boyfriend never regretted that day, and now he's in paradise with his girlfriend, asking her to live it over again." He pulled a little velvet box out of his jeans pocket and opened it to reveal a ring. "Marry me, Bree?"
All the while, the waterfall was pounding down next to us, mist surrounding us, little droplets of water sparkling against the diamond ring.
I looked down at Brandon to see him watching me with a hopeful little smile. "Do you really expect me to say no to my soulmate?"
"No offense, but you're a very unpredictable person." He slid the ring onto my finger.
"And don't forget it, either," I retorted as he rose from the ground.
"I never will," Brandon murmured as we embraced beneath the waterfall.
Far away, in a little house by the ocean, my best friend from hundreds of years ago had her own romance for the first time in her life. JoAnna always aspired to be a master criminal, and she happened to find someone who shared that dream.
We both took off to find jobs. Brandon decided to become a doctor, because, as he reminds me, he feels that, given this second chance at life, he ought to offer the same to others.
I chose a much cooler profession: Lifeguard. I also happened to run into Brandon at City Hall, an encounter that he was evasive about, for a reason that I discovered later.
As it turns out, Brandon bought me something special to celebrate our new life. A run-down little resort down at the beach--apparently, the owner was looking for anyone to buy it so he could get out of the money pit that came from owning a business-less business. Brandon reminded me (he's very good at that) that I'd always wanted a place that would be an ongoing party, and this little resort was my chance at that! Besides, he named the place after me:
Bree's Cove.
No place named after
me was going to look like it was hit by a meteor, so I drove in, made a few calls, waved my 1.5 million dollars around, and owned a
real resort within an hour. Welcome to Bree's Cove, party center of Isla Paradiso!
I found running one resort to be so much fun that I bought another one! Being a resort tycoon is the way to live.
I even had a little wedding chapel constructed on the hill, with a beautiful view of the ocean. Brandon and I agree that it's just about the perfect place to get married, and there was a wedding the very next day.
Meanwhile, calls were coming in every two minutes. Mainly from newspaper reporters, who wanted an exclusive interview from the (extremely beautiful and popular) young woman who bought all three major resorts on the island in one day. That's right, I also took control of Sparkling Sands! It feels a little like being an emperor.
JoAnna and Matteo were married on our second day in Isla Paradiso, in a lovely informal wedding at the Spanish chapel.
Brandon and I sat in the very front row and cheered the loudest. All of you out there are probably wondering why we didn't get married, too, and of course we're going to! It's just that we want to find the perfect place and time, not just marry again because we have to.
"Do you still want to . . . do what we discussed?" he asked as we cuddled in the hot tub.
"Of course!" I laughed. "It's going to be amazing. Can you imagine going to a dive site for the first time? I've always wanted to, and this way we'll be so fast, and strong, and perfect . . . besides, I think you'll be just as cute with a tail."
"Can you remember being at University?" I murmured, pulling him closer. "Just being young, and partying--no responsibilities, no parents, no dynasty . . . I want to go back to that. And we will. But now that wonderful, fun time will be at our home, not somewhere else."
"I love you," was his only response.
"Stop talking about it and get over here." I pulled him into another kiss.
We climbed out of the hot tub together, took the kelp out of our pockets (you don't want to know where I kept mine), and took a bite.
