“Ya know, partner, normally I’d ask you to just make a decision and stick to it. But in this case I’m real glad to hear you changed your mind.”
Steve chuckled at the relief in John’s voice. “Yeah, I think you’re just happy that you don’t have to go shuffling around the workload at Black Patch, after all,”
“I did that two day ago, what kind of operation you think I’m runnin’ over there?”
It had only been five days, and the Black family calendar was pretty full, so Steve was surprised. “Huh. I didn’t think you’d have time to get to it so fast. Sorry I ended up making more work for you.”
“Yeah, well, undoing what I did after redoing it in the first place ain’t that bad a price to pay to keep you in Salem,” John assured him.
Kayla smiled as she heard the conversation from where she sat on the terrace sipping her morning coffee. She knew John was fully Team Steve in this whole thing, and it made her happy to hear his reaction.
The two friends said goodbye, and Steve stepped back onto the terrace to sit with his wife some more. Kayla shifted her leg out from under her to cross it over her knee. She laid her head back and let the sun warm her face.
“Sorry, baby, last office call.”
“That’s ok, I had to check in at work, too.”
“Everything sounds fine back home,” Steve said. He rubbed his hand over Kayla’s bare knee. “Eric and Nicole got hitched.”
“I heard,” Kayla replied.
“Did you hear the part about the cake?”
Kayla squinted at her husband with a sideways smirk. “Real shock,” she deadpanned.
“How is she a Brady?”
“Sometimes I wonder.”
It was near the end of their first week, and they hadn’t wasted a minute of it. For three solid days they explored as much of Lake Louise as they could. They had taken so few vacations as a couple in their years together, and while this one came about in as unorthodox a way as could be imagined, they couldn’t help but revel in it.
It felt good to just relax in the sun right now. But their past three days here at the resort had been non-stop togetherness. The first thing they did was get out on the water. They rented a canoe and about lost their mind at their pristine surroundings. The turquoise water formed by glacial runoff was so clear it was hard to remember this was actually a lake. The surface was so still that paddling was like sinking a hot knife into butter – effortless. With the lake beneath them and the Canadian Rockies surrounding them, it was an insulating blanket of serenity. Nothing was more stunning than Mount Victoria looming directly ahead of them.
“I could look at it all day,” Kayla had said from her position in the front of the boat.
“I could look at you all day,” Steve replied. He could literally feel the smile spread across her face.
They took photos of their surroundings, including plenty of each other. It was the height of the season, so there were a lot of small boats on the lake getting into his shots, including kayaks and rowboats. But right now Steve and Kayla were the only ones in this particular spot, so he quickly got a picture of her turned around in the canoe with the mountain raised spectacularly behind her. A few taps, and it was now Steve’s wallpaper.
“Come here, baby, let’s blow the kids’ minds.” Steve leaned toward Kayla, she did the same, and he texted the resulting selfie to Stephanie and Tripp with the caption, “Honeymoon.”
The replies came fast and furiously. They knew that their parents were back together, as did all the important people in their lives, they’d called to tell them. But this photographic evidence made their kids very happy.
They went back to paddling in silence for a while, then Kayla spoke up quietly.
“Steve?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“It’s not our honeymoon.” She didn’t need the resulting silence to know this wasn’t what Steve wanted to hear.
Kayla turned around in the canoe to see Steve frowning at her. She put the oar down and positioned herself to face him while they floated. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to ruin the moment.” He pumped his jaw muscle and pushed away how close he came to letting Justin have this trip with her. “But it’s not. We’re not even married.”
“Don’t say that, Kayla.”
“We’re not.”
“I feel married. Do you feel married?”
“That’s not the point.”
“Are you sayin’ you don’t feel married to me?” Kayla could see he wasn’t just angry, he was also afraid of her answer.
“No, I’m not saying that.”
“Then we’re married.”
“Steve,” she said with a calm, rational tone, “it’s not that simple. I’m just saying, now the kids are going to think we got remarried again.”
Steve didn’t want to go down this road with this conversation. If they did, it was going to go to a subject he didn’t want to talk about. That he dreaded talking about. That he knew deep down they should talk about. But that he was afraid to let himself talk about.
That she was going to marry Justin.
The whole culmination of everything that had led to that near disaster was something Steve was trying to just let pass without acknowledgment. They’d been through enough, there was no reason to belabor it.
“Are you gonna stay with me, Sweetness? After we go back to Salem, are we together?”
“Of course, we are!” she said very quickly. “Yes, we are!”
“Then it doesn’t matter what a piece of paper says.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“I know what’s in here,” Steve pointed to his heart. “I love you, Sweetness,” which he also signed as he said it, something neither of them had done in quite some time. It sent such warmth through her she felt it radiating within her. “OK?”
Kayla smiled. “Ok,” she nodded.
But it wasn’t really ok. And neither of them actually believed deep down that the piece of paper and what it said didn’t matter. Because it did. But the denial wasn’t ready to take its leave of them yet, so they left it at that for now.
They took more pictures, saw more boaters, spotted a lot of wildlife they just didn’t see every day, and before they knew it nearly two hours had gone by.
“We should have packed a lunch,” Kayla said, I’m famished.
“Alright, let’s turn this sucker around and go eat.”
“Why don’t we switch positions,” she suggested, turning back around in her seat again to take up the rear position.
“Nah, I like the view.”
Kayla grinned like a devil. “Like what you see, then?”
“Sweetness, the only thing I like seeing more than your perfect ass is your beautiful front.”
“Hmmp. I guess I know what kind of lunch you’re in the mood for, then.”
“Well, I would like to eat. Wouldn’t you like to eat, baby?”
“That depends on what you’re serving.”
Kayla shifted a bit in her seat as they paddled, and Steve could see she was getting aroused.
“Sweetness I am at your service, and there is nothing I wouldn’t serve you.”
They paddled very fast to return the canoe.
They made a beeline for the resort, and the minute the elevator doors closed they started mauling each other like drunken college students at a frat party. They only paused long enough to get from the elevator to their room, then went at it again before they were even fully in the door.
Kayla tugged down Steve’s athletic pants, Steve lifted her sundress up, and he pulled her down on top of him to the dining room chair. Kayla whimpered in need as the fabric of her underwear kept Steve from filling her. He tugged it aside, and Kayla impaled herself upon his shaft. The sex was fast and furious, and ended with coital pleasure pouring over the in waves.
They kissed lovingly as their recoveries settled in their bellies. Kayla felt their combined fluids against her body and knew this pair of underwear was done for the day. “We made a bit of a mess on this chair,” she said as her body lurched against him in a tiny aftershock.
“I dunno, baby, feels like maybe you’re not done yet. Might still be making it.”
“Good thing we have laundry service.”
The following two days were exactly like that. Hiking, swimming, eating their meals together, and loving each other in mind, body, and soul. They took every opportunity to hold each other, kiss each other, and find their intimacy, even in just the way their eyes connected. Every day together, brought them exhaustion by the time the sun set, but it also brought them closer with every moment.
Now on the terrace taking in the sun that had risen over the horizon two hours ago, they sat in their bathrobes, held hands, and snoozed on and off until lunchtime.
On Friday a full week had passed since Kayla ran after Steve and Steve ran back after Kayla to find each other at the gate of the airport terminal. The day came and went without discussion.
On Saturday they decided to hike up to the Lake Agnes Tea House. Named for the original First Lady of Canada, it was a century-old tradition in the “Lake in the Clouds” area to take the trek up to the bounty that was the gorgeous and idyllic Lake Agnes and take your well-earned reward at the Tea House. They took a shuttle from Lake Louise to the base of the mountain in Banff National Park where the trail began and headed up. The trails were smooth and easy to traverse, but it was a 5km hike, a lot of it uphill, that took half their day. It was a two-hour straight shot if you walked slowly, but they stopped an awful lot to take photos of the flora, the fauna, and each other.
And make out surrounded by the lush forest a couple times.
When they got to the top, they weren’t just ready for some tea, they were starving and were very grateful for the full menu of soups, sandwiches, and salads that had evolved over the decades to compliment the tea.
They had lingered for quite a while in the tea house when they noticed they were now the only ones there. Steve glanced at his watch as Kayla took out her phone, and they were both shocked to see it was nearly 4pm.
“I’m so glad you enjoyed your lunch,” a very fit woman wearing an apron said as she smiled down at them.
“It was delicious,” Kayla said. “My—husband ate two plates of your apple crumble.”
“Well, I ate mine and finished hers,” Steve said without a hint of shame. “What can I say, the trail makes you hungry.”
“We get that a lot here,” the woman said. She was about 45, shoulder-length brown hair, and bright hazel eyes.
“We didn’t realize late it had gotten, we’ll get out of your hair,” Kayla smiled.
“Nah, take your time, eh? I’m just procrastinating before I have to go schlepp the latest supply run in. My staff got it up the trail a few hours ago, I just keep not doing it,” she laughed.
“Oh, you do the baking?” Kayla asked.
“I do the everything’ing. This is my place. My name’s Joanna.”
“Well ya done good, Joanna,” Steve said. “This might have been the highlight of our trip.” Kayla raised an eyebrow to him, and he raised one back to her to let her know that there were some highlights they didn’t have to disclose. “Wait, he doubled back. Up the trail? Like the hiking trail?”
“Well, the helicopters do the big jobs, but everything else is just the staff bringing it all up in backpacks.”
“You’re kidding?” Kayla said.
“Nope. We don’t even have electricity, we bake everything in a propane army oven.”
Now Steve was fascinated, and the woman took visible pride in how truly impressed her two customers were. It didn’t take long for Joanna to take a seat, and soon the three of them were trading life stories. More Joanna and her family’s than Steve and Kayla’s, but all three of them were rapt at each other’s tales. Joanna told them all about the origins of the Tea House and how it’s been handed down, and then it was her turn to be fascinated by her customers’ epic love story. They stuck to a pretty high level explanation and didn’t get into their last reunion, but they didn’t have to; just beating the odds of a 16 year separation made the proprietor swoon.
“And then you became a surgeon! I can’t even begin to imagine. It’s amazing how you did that all by yourself.” Steve beamed with pride in Kayla.
“Well, I can’t even imagine how you are able to live here year round and get anything done. I’d be outside every day taking in the scenery and unable to focus on literally anything!”
“So is this a family vacation then?” she asked. “Your kids back at the hotel in the pool?”
“Just us this time,” Steve said. And Kayla realized with a bit of sadness that there actually hasn’t ever been a family vacation. Not one time. And given their ages and locations, it wasn’t likely to happen, either. She shook it away. “We just decided to take the next flight out of town, wherever it was going, and this was the place.”
Joanna and Kayla spent most of the rest of the conversation talking about a mile a minute about pretty much everything. That’s my Sweetness, Steve thought to himself, she makes friends everywhere.
Joanna took the two of them on a tour of the building, especially the kitchen, and she packed them up a nice goodie bag for a late night dinner back at the hotel.
“No, no,” she insisted when Steve tried to pay her for generous amount of food, “my gift to you. I had a great time procrastinating with you!”
Joanna offered several hidden gem suggestions for the rest of their time in Banff. They thanked her, they all friended each other on social media, and then the two of them readied themselves for the long hike back down the trail.
While they took their time on the way up, stopping, flirting, kissing, taking photos, and talking, they were mostly in their own heads on the way back down. Kayla couldn’t help but think of the lost time and how much of it wasn’t’ necessary – and not all of it was entirely Steve’s fault. It takes two, she thought to herself.
Steve’s thoughts were similarly disquieting. The way she just so briefly hesitated before she said the word, “husband.” The discomfort he saw her trying to hide when Joanna asked if this was a family vacation. The topic he didn’t want to think about tried to rise up, so he shoved it back down and kept on walking.
By the time they finally got back on the shuttle, Kayla’s feet were aching. The Keds were better than Jennifer’s heels, but they really weren’t the best shoes for a hike.
Later that night they decided to take one of Joanna’s recommendations and took a rowboat out onto Lake Louise after dark to eat some of the dinner she’d packed for them. They weren’t starving, but the loaves of bread, butter, jam, and bottled mineral waters were perfect.
It was a very chilly night, but the yoga pants and hoodie Steve had purchased for Kayla were perfect. Steve was like a walking furnace most of the time, he just wore a couple layers and was fine. Not so fine were Kayla’s aching feet. She took one out of her shoe and rubbed at it.
“Still hurtin’ you?” Steve asked?
“Yeah, just a little bit.”
“Give ‘em here,” Steve said.
Kayla smiled as she lifted her foot to rest on Steve’s knee.
He took off her sock and started pressing his thumbs in exactly the right places on the first try. Kayla let out a little squeak of happy. She closed her eyes to how good it felt for Steve to rub her feet and figured he’d stop pretty quickly. After several minutes, he motioned for her to give him the other foot. “You’re so good to me,” she cooed as she immediately gave him the other foot. He repeated the process and smiled as Kayla started to fall asleep right there sitting up.
“Baaaay-bee,” Steve singsonged. Kayla popped her eyes open. “Is my Sweetness tired?”
“Mm …” she moaned sweetly. “It just feels so good.”
Steve worked up from her foot and started putting pressure on her ankle, and then up her shin. This time Kayla inhaled sharply. “It’s that good hurt, isn’t it?” he asked. “When a muscle is just so tight you have to release it.”
“Mm-hmm,” she said with her face all screwed up in painful pleasure. Steve moved further up her leg and rubbed the fingers of both his hands up and down the bottom of her thigh as his thumbs rounded the pressure up the sides. This was not a sensation Kayla got regularly, and it was wonderful. “You … you can stop whenever … ungh … whenever you want.”
“Do you want me to stop?” Steve asked in a velvety deep voice.
Kayla opened her eyes to see Steve looking at her with hunger in his own. She shook her head.
Steve continued, the rubbing turning to soft caresses on the soft flesh of her inner thighs with both hands. There was just enough light from the waning crescent of the moon for Steve to see Kayla’s aroused face. He looked around, and they were the only ones in the area.
Kayla let him pull her yoga pants down, her underwear coming with them, and helped when she stepped one leg out of them. The blanket they sat on was soft, and she didn’t even feel the chill. Steve moved down to sit flat on the bottom of the boat and parted Kayla’s legs. He lifted her left thigh by the back of the knee and placed soft wet kisses up to the top, moved over, and did the same back down her other leg, supporting it in the same way. He stopped and beheld his wife, intimately exposed before him. It had been two years since he was in this position and thanked God for the privilege of having the chance again. Steve looked up at Kayla, searching for confirmation that this was ok.
“Only if you want it, baby,” he whispered. “Only if you’re sure.”
Kayla ran her fingers through Steve’s hair. “I’m sure,” she assured him.
Steve pulled Kayla toward him by her legs, and she scooted to the very edge of the seat, leaning back to position herself for him. He leaned in toward her center and gave a gentle lick. Kayla gasped, and he licked her again, this time with a little more contact. Kayla exhaled a little more heavily, and when he licked her a third time he made sure to make forceful contact with her clit.
Kayla responded immediately. She twined one hand into Steve’s hair while supporting herself with the other and arched her back. He threw her legs over his shoulders so he could have the most direct contact he could. He licked and sucked, marveling that what he could do to that tiny bundle of nerves could make her feel so good.
Steve’s cock was hard as a rock, and while he ached to reach for it, he wanted this to be about Kayla. He wanted to send her to the heights of pleasure while taking none for himself. He wanted to show her how much he loved her by giving her as much pleasure as he could for as long as he could.
The boat didn’t rock, and the sounds they made were softly controlled, but the passion was thunderous within them. Kayla’s for her sexual gratification, Steve for the power of giving it.
Steve’s face was buried in Kayla’s pussy, his lips joining with hers in a constant barrage of stimulation. He didn’t let up his ministrations, knowing Kayla was in ecstasy. He wanted to tell her to hold back and force herself to wait until she couldn’t take it anymore, so that the climax would be euphoric. But he didn’t want to diminish the pleasure of what his mouth was doing to her.
Kayla felt the euphoria Steve was trying to give her the moment he tasted her. Just when she thought it was at its height, Steve would suck harder, and her pleasure would double. Then he’d part her labia and flick his tongue back and forth over her clitoris, and it would double again. Then he would lap up her arousal and search out more with his tongue, and she’d get positively lost in the sex. She couldn’t help the grip she had in Steve’s hair, and Steve loved the feel of her possessing him like this.
Finally, Kayla let herself reach for the orgasm that was screaming to overcome her. She tried to be silent but couldn’t help when the cries of ecstasy in her husband’s name escaped her.
“Yes … yes … please …”
Kayla exploded in orgasmic bliss as her husband wrapped his arms around her waist. She jerked against him, and the waves only continued every time her momentum brought her in contact with Steve’s tongue. She whimpered his name over and over as the pleasure blanketed her in drunken sex.
When Steve was sure she couldn’t take another moment, he finally stopped. Kayla’s head was lolled to the side, her eyes closed in a trance-like state. When she opened them, it was like Steve was glowing right along with her.
“That was … amazing,” Kayla breathed. It was all she could say.
Steve brought her down to lay across his lap, cradled in his arms. She felt his erection push up beneath her and smiled. She knew he wanted nothing for himself, even if his body craved it.
“Thank you. For giving that to me.”
Steve kissed the top of her head. “Thank you for letting me give it to you.”
“It was … selfless.”
Kayla Steve held her tightly. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t give you, Kayla.”
She dug her head into Steve’s chest. He felt so good, and he smelled like fresh mountain breeze mixed with shaving cream.
It was getting very late, and they had to return the rowboat. But for now, they stayed there, alone on the lake, holding each other while their souls basked in the glow.
“Your feet still hurting you, Sweetness?” Steve asked.
“Not even a little,” she replied.