Chapter 4
For the first time, Kate happily packed and readied herself for an adventure. She had never put herself in the mindset of being in the current moment and being fully present. It was important for her moving forward to make sure that she enjoyed each and every second of her life.
After having a talk with her mother, she knew she would have to live in the now. Ms. Walker sat with her daughter over a warm cup of tea and a slice of her heavenly peach cobbler and the women discussed life and love.
Ms. Walker told her daughter that love only came across one’s path once or maybe twice in a lifetime. She did not want her daughter to lose out on knowing love because she was overworking and leaning on her hectic scheduled versus enjoying life.
Her precise words were, “You can’t cuddle up to that job of yours at night.”
Never had truer words been spoken. Although Kate loved her job and all that she had accomplished thus far in her career, she knew she needed to fall back a bit from having such intense focus on it and take part in some of what life brought her way.
Life had brought her Bruce Stanger. All of her friends wanted a good man to make them feel complete. A man that would love them, cherish them, and adore them. Bruce did all of that and so much more. He encouraged her to be her best and all that he required of her, he required of herself. Not only was he her lover, they had also developed a friendship. She could share any and everything with him and know that he would give her his honest opinion and always steer her in the right direction.
When she found Bruce, Kate hit the jackpot. Her mother reminded her that she would have to work for her relationship and that she would have to put in the time and the effort to make it all work if she really wanted it. What she really wanted to know was the secret to making a marriage last. She assumed her mother knew the answer to that question because she had been married to Kate’s father for the past thirty years. Somewhere in there were some gems that she had to get a hold of.
There would be plenty of time to figure all of that out. They were not even engaged at the moment, just on the way on an impromptu getaway. Who couldn’t use one of those?
There would also be plenty of time on the Transatlantic trip to discuss where exactly the relationship was going. The more she thought about it, the more marriage seemed like the next step. Kate did not want to jump the gun or force the issue, but she wanted to make sure she and Bruce were on the right path.
She could count on Bruce to move that train along. He would not let them linger too long in retrograde. He was always the catalyst to propel their relationship forward. It was a fact that Kate appreciated. One of them had to be the one to do it, thank goodness it was him. If it was left up to Kate, the relationship would progress at a much slower rate.
Bruce was the perfect compliment and he knew it. His calm nature kept her focused when she wanted to otherwise give in to her normal nature and spread herself thin all over the place.
Kate watched Bruce sleeping. The first surprise had been the plane tickets to Paris. The next was that they would pack to leave that night. On top of that, Bruce chartered a private plane for their trip. It was her first time on a private plane and it was the type of thing Kate wanted to get used to.
It was one of the first times that Bruce flexed his billionaire status. He never truly did that and lived a mostly simple life. Sure he had the money to shower her with gifts and they ate at the best restaurants, and not to mention the fact that he had a swanky condo along with the ranch that he ran for his parents.
The fact that he was a billionaire was not something he immediately disclosed when they met. She was happy he did not because Kate wanted him to know she genuinely cared for him and not because of his social and financial status.
“You’re staring at me.”
“What? Oh, sorry.”
Bruce stretched. “No problem, my love. Did you get any rest?”
Kate shook her head. “None. At least not yet. I just got finished sending a few emails and reading two magazines.”
Patting her hand, Bruce got up out of the seat. “I need to stretch my legs a bit.”
She sat there waiting for him to come back. It was hard to really relax when she knew it would be such a long flight.
Bruce returned with two glasses of champagne. “Hopefully this will help you to calm down a bit.”
The bubbly liquid warmed her inside and made her feel slightly more relaxed.
“Thank you.”
“How long was I asleep?”
“For about an hour or so. I did not want to wake you, you were sleeping so peacefully.”
“I needed the rest. And you will soon too.”
“I’ll be fine. Just a bit giddy with excitement. This time, I’ll get to see Paris in a whole different light.”
“The best thing is that we will be doing it together.”
When Bruce spoke of being together, it was like music to her ears. There were so many more things she wanted to do together as a couple.
“So where do we start first? Do we need to make an itinerary?” The words flowed from Kate’s lips quickly as she thought about all of the things they would do in Paris. Full of excitement, Kate clasped her hands together, smiling as she thought about what a great opportunity this was to vacation with Bruce.
Bruce sipped the rest of his champagne. “I did not exactly plan the trip out to that degree. It was more of an impromptu thing, my love. The kind of thing where we would pick up and go and not really put that much thought into what we were going to do when we got there.”
“Oh.” Kate considered what he was proposing. “I get it. That would actually be kind of nice. I never really considered taking a trip like that.”
Bruce sat up in his seat, looking at her. “Are you serious?”
Kate shrugged.
“You mean you have never just picked up, paid for a hotel, chosen a destination, and just gone there? No expectations. No schedule. No idea where you are going and what you will do when you get there?”
Kate shook her head. “No. Whenever we went on vacations when I was a child, my mom had the entire trip planned out from start to finish. We would see everything there was to see and then go home.”