Page 27 of Meet Me at the Altar

TWO WEEKS LATER

“Where are we, Drè?”

“Santa Fe,” I announced, removing the blindfold from her eyes.

“What?” She shrieked, spinning around in her seat.

We had done a lot of the things that we both had in common, including hiking and attending a couple of professional baseball games. When I designed this date, I rolled through my mental Rolodex of conversations we had in our teens. Santa Fe, New Mexico, was always somewhere she wanted to go.

Last week, I told her to take off Thursday through Monday because I was taking her away. I arrived at her house this morning in a chauffeured car, and we headed straight to the airport. Thankfully, my time in L.A. allowed me to build some lucrative connections.

One of my constituents, a philanthropist named Jason Powers, loaned us his private plane. I requested the pilot and the airline attendants to keep our destination a secret from our guest. When we landed, I made sure she had on a blindfold, and we rode almost all the way to our luxury resort without her knowing where we were going.

“I told you that I would be generous with you, Kalli. Whatever you want and wherever you want to go is granted,” I explained, taking her hand in mine and kissing her knuckles.

“All this . . . a private plane, my shopping spree you sent me on yesterday, a trip that I mentioned as a kid—it’s all for me?”

“Of course.”

“I can’t believe you remembered. Ohmigosh, you’re spoiling me, Drè.”

“I overheard you telling your sister last week that it was time for you to go summer shopping again. So I sent you summer shopping yesterday, my treat.”

I’d sent her with my AmEx Black card and told her that she didn’t have a limit. She had called me when her expenses reached two grand, and I told her to quit tripping and do some real shopping.

When she called again at five grand, I promised her that if she didn’t get everything that she needed and wanted, I was going to report my card as stolen. I told her that she had better not call me again. I told her that real shopping didn’t start until you were at least twenty G’s in. She gasped but then said okay.

When I picked her up this morning and asked if she had everything she wanted, she nodded, handed my card back to me, and guiltily admitted that she spent sixty grand. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all on herself. She had bought quite a few things for me, which on one hand irritated me, and on the other, I found it cute.

“You have arrived at your destination, sir,” our driver announced.

He stepped out of the car and held the door open for me. While I walked around to open Kalli’s door, he removed our luggage from the vehicle and carried it up to the resort’s front doors. Kalli stood for a moment, taking in the rugged Southwestern views all around.

“These mountains are gorgeous,” she stated breathlessly.

“Yeah, I’m told that although the mountains are all around, we’re steeped in the culture of Sante Fe and that we’re not far from the art and culinary scenes.”

“You have to take several pictures of me for my Sociogram account with the Rocky Mountains as my backdrop, baby.”

A nigga’s heart squeezed in his chest. We had kissed, touched each other, and spent so much time together, but this was the first time she had called me an affectionate term of endearment. That shit had my heart in a vise grip.

I pulled her close to me and dropped a kiss on her lips. My hands cupped her ass, and she moaned into the kiss. I pressed my tongue through her lips and licked all around her mouth as she locked her arms around me.

I felt our driver’s presence as he returned, although he didn’t speak a word. Reluctantly, I pulled back from Kalli and pressed my forehead against hers. “I think I’d better get you inside before I do something outside that might get us banned.”

She giggled, wiped my lips, and nodded. “I think you’re right,” she replied with a sparkle in her eyes.

Once we were inside and checked in, we headed up to our room.

“This is so gorgeous, Drè.” She spun around with a wide smile on her lips as she took in the high beamed ceilings, original artwork on the walls, handwoven rugs, and the Southwestern décor of the room.

She ran and jumped on the king-sized bed before running into the bathroom and taking in the large soaker tub. Whenshe returned to the room, she pointed across from the bed and declared, “Ooh! They even have a fireplace.”

“I doubt we’ll need it while we’re here.”

“I know it’s spring, but we are still in the mountains, babe. I’m sure that it gets cool at night.”

I smirked. “That’s where your man comes in, babe. I’m here to heat that li’l ass up. Trust me, by the time I finish with you, you’ll be looking for something to cool you off.”