Page 36 of Embrace

“I feel you,” Blaze said from beside me.

It was the fifth day of our weeklong honeymoon, and I almost missed my home.Almost. Blaze and I had made a promise not to speak to anyone from back home, so we had dozens of notifications from friends and family asking about the trip, but we hadn’t responded yet.

“I don’t want to do anything today,” I announced.

“The way my body feeling has me on the same type of time you on.”

“Good. I think today might be a good time to clear those notifications and see what life back home is looking like,” I suggested.

“I’m cool with doing that,” he agreed. “You know Do Not Disturb is a clutch ass feature. I hate seeing notifications pop up or the number on the apps, so with it on, I haven’t seen shit.”

“Me too. I know I’m going to have so many messages from my sister.” I guessed.

“I’ll order us some breakfast to get delivered, too.”

“You’re the best.”

I pecked his lips as we both turned onto our sides and grabbed our phones. We met back in the middle of the bed. Blaze propped himself up against the headboard and I snuggled into his side. I unlocked my phone and tapped my message app first. Dozens of unread messages greeted me. I decided to read the messages from my sister first.

Mari:Are y’all safe? Did y’all make it?

Mari:Damn, it’s been three days. Are y’all okay? I know your location updates in new spots every couple hours, so I know you’re alive.

Mari:Y’all must be making me a couple nieces and nephews?

Instead of responding I decided to call her instead. It was an hour difference in time zones. It was interesting to know Belize and Texas both were on Central time, but when daylight savings came around, Texas honored it, while Belize kept it standard. So half of the year it was on the same time, and the other half was an hour difference.

“It’s about damn time,” Mari said as soon as the call connected.

“Hey, sister,” I greeted her. “How are you?”

“Nah, fuck that. How areyou? I ain’t heard from y’all since the day of your flight. Are you okay? Are you having fun?”

“I’m having the best time. Blaze and I have done so much, we hardly had time to look at our phones. Plus we wanted to live in the moment free of social media and outside influences.”

“I love this for y’all, for real. We all knew y’all would be together one way or another,” Mari cooed into the phone. “What has been the highlights so far?”

“I’m not going to tell you yet. I’ll post a couple recap videos when we get back so y’all can see what we’ve done.”

“Boo!” Mari shouted. “I should be special enough to get some exclusive details.”

“Girl, you the only one I’m calling. I’m not even going to call Mama and Daddy. You can let them know we’re doing good and will be home in a couple of days.”

“I guess. But I got a question.” The sneaky tone in her voice made me sit up a little.

“What?”

“Y’all made me a little niece or nephew, yet?” she asked with a giggle.

I blew a breath from my nose. “Girl, mind your business.”

“Did he knock the cobwebs off that coochie cat?”

Blaze took the phone from my hands. “Sure did.”

I gasped. “Blaze, shut up!”

“I know the whole Belize city know my name,” Blaze continued.

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