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Rachel's eyelids fluttered open and she was delighted to find herself wrapped securely in Eddie's embrace. Upon seeing his sleeping state, she thought about drifting back off herself, but had a better idea.
Burying her face in the crook of his neck, Rachel began to place butterfly kisses across the top of Eddie's chest and travelled up towards his face. The way his grip around her waist tightened slightly, told Rachel that he was awake. As she pulled herself up to meet Eddie's gaze, her mind was taken back to the events of the previous evening. In particular, how truly overwhelmed with love she was, when falling asleep resting on Eddie's chest, listening to the sound of his heart beat.
"Think that should be my new alarm," Eddie muttered, sleep lacing his tone.
"I can arrange that."
The pair shared a smile, following their joy through with a kiss. A sudden surge of excitement ran through Rachel's body at the thought of the rest of their holiday together. If the first day was anything to go by, it would most certainly be the holiday of a lifetime that Eddie had referred to.
"Breakfast?" Rachel suggested, mind already wandering to what the day would bring.
"Sounds like a plan."
"Although," Rachel began as they made their way downstairs dressed in their sleeping attire, "I don't think any breakfast can top your wonderful gesture yesterday morning."
Eddie flushed slightly at her sincerity, feeling content with knowing yesterday's breakfast was something she had enjoyed.
"You're worth it," he grinned, momentarily stopping to place a lingering kiss on her cheek.
Before long Rachel and Eddie were sat in yesterday's seats outside, revelling in the warmth that was radiating from the sun. Rachel loved the thought that this was their second day in a row eating breakfast outside, and her grin only widened after realising the next five days would also be spent like this.
"Where to today then?"
As Eddie spoke their legs brushed slightly under the table. It had been a repetitive occurrence since sitting down to eat, and Rachel felt an abundance of emotions swirling inside of her upon realising the high possibility that his gesture was in no way accidental.
"How about Cuitadella? The town not too far from here."
"Yeh... why not, it'll be nice to have a look around."
They finished off their breakfast with strikingly similar expressions. Both sets of features had an immeasurable amount of happiness etched within them, and that wasn't about to alter whilst in the company of one another.
...
"Are you sure you don't want me to drive Eddie?" Rachel giggled, reminiscing their drive from the airport to their villa.
"Hey, you better not be dissing my amazing driving skills," Eddie responded with a mock hurt expression.
"Nope. Not at all," she grinned, climbing into the passenger side; knowing that Eddie would most definitely be taking his place in the driver's seat.
"Besides," Eddie began as he joined Rachel in the car, "I need you to deal with the directions, haven't quite got the sat nav to work in this car yet."
"Sorry, just a second... is that you admitting that I'm better at giving directions than you?"
Eddie rolled his eyes slightly at Rachel's teasing, also allowing a huge beam to take over his mouth.
"Never," he whispered, leaning forward to place a hand on her knee.
Rachel's giggles subsided, and an expression full of adoration replaced her mischievous one. Internally, Eddie laughed to himself, at least he had a good way of shutting her up. For a brief moment, he mirrored Rachel's countenance, before giving her leg a final squeeze and turning his attention to the wheel.
Since Friday, Eddie's knowledge of driving had improved somewhat. And Rachel had to say, she was rather impressed. Even she wasn't doing a terrible job with directing him towards Cuitadella. All in all, they made a valuable team, and it wasn't long before Eddie was pulling into a car park fairly close to the town centre.
"Well that wasn't too traumatic," Eddie joked once the pair had emerged from the vehicle.
"Hmm, you must have been doing your research since Friday," Rachel replied, allowing her sincere smile to tell Eddie that she was secretly impressed.
"Didn't do such a bad job with the directions either Mason. What a team."
"Exactly my thoughts."
With the car locked up, the couple linked arms and began their exploration of Cuitadella. At a first glance, it seemed to be an exquisite and intriguing place. Many of the streets leading up to the centre of the town were fairly narrow, and bursting with a variety of shops.
One building in particular caught Rachel's eye, it was a jewellery shop named 'Majorica.' She had heard of it before, it was a pearl of Menorca shop which sold a vast array of accessories.
Before Rachel could make up her mind on whether to have a look in or not, Eddie had taken her hand and lightly guided her towards the building. They reached the doorway, and she simply turned around to face Eddie with a look which portrayed both gratitude and joy. It truly was amazing how effortlessly he could read her mind.
When they entered the shop, it was as if they were in jewellery heaven. Necklaces, bracelets and rings were presented in abundance; and all were stunning, but Rachel seemed to be magnetised towards one particular item.
It was a silver chain necklace, which held a single pearl at the base of it. The design was simple, but very much Rachel.
"Why don't you try it on?" Eddie questioned, after they had glanced at all the other accessories on offer.
"It is nice," Rachel considered, turning to smile at her other half, "why don't we go and grab a drink first, I might pop back later."
Eddie could tell how much Rachel had fallen in love with the item, equally though, he knew that once she had made up her mind, it was unlikely to be changed.
So he followed Rachel out of the shop, taking a moment to admire her beauty as she took one step ahead of him. Her hair was gathered in a ponytail today, a rarity, but Eddie guessed it had something to do with the extreme heat. With this thought, Eddie considered how much Rachel suited the hairstyle, and took a moment to appreciate her elegance. Seemingly, he spent a lot of time doing that, it was becoming his favourite thing to ponder on. As well as all of these musings, Eddie made a mental note to not forget about that specific item of jewellery that she had adored so much.
...
"Oh Eddie, we have to go paddle boarding," a rather excited Rachel was tugging on Eddie's T-shirt, pointing towards a hut in the near distance.
They had spent a significant amount of time weaving in and out of the streets of Cuitadella, and had since shared a drink over looking the sea. The couple had now made it to a near by beach, which was where Rachel had spotted one of her all time favourite holiday activities.
"Paddle boarding?" Eddie queried in genuine curiosity.
"You must have heard of it?"
Seeing Eddie shake his head adjoined with an amused smile, Rachel continued.
"Come on Lawson, you're missing out big style."
"Are you not gonna tell me what it is?"
Rachel was now walking hand in hand with Eddie, guiding him over to the sand where the hut was located.
She allowed herself to giggle at the slightly worried expression on Eddie's face. Clearly, the mischievous glint in her eye had done the trick.
"Well, you are given a paddle board, believe it or not," she smirked before evaluating, "it's similar to a surf board, but larger, and more sturdy."
"Right..."
Another laugh emanated from Rachel's lips at Eddie's antics.
"We'll be given one each, along with a sort of canoe paddle. The aim is to stand up, and as you can probably imagine, that's fairly hard to achieve."
"I'm sure I can give it a go."
With that Rachel was left feeling rather pleased with herself, she hoped that Eddie would enjoy paddle boarding just as much as she had in the past. Although she did remember how difficult she found the activity during her first time. Thinking about all the times she'd fallen off one into the sea, Rachel allowed amusement to course through her body at the pure thought of Eddie on a paddle board.
...
Once the equipment had been hired and swimming attire changed into, Rachel and Eddie began the task of dragging the rather large boards down to the sea.
"Last one there has to do a midnight swim tonight," Eddie jeered, catching Rachel off guard and picking up his speed slightly.
Reacting instantly, Rachel increased her own pace, finding it quite difficult to concentrate with the amount she was currently laughing. Despite this, her experience handling paddle boards seemed to pay off, and she found herself at the water's edge several seconds before Eddie.
"Ohhhh," Eddie commented once he had joined Rachel, "damn it."
He was pretending to come across as deflated, but the joyous expression stretched out across his features said otherwise.
"Looks like you're going to be enjoying a lovely swim this evening," Rachel teased, placing a hand across his chest as she took a step closer.
"Reckon I can persuade you to join me though."
"I'll make you a deal. If you can stand on the paddle board first time without falling, I'll join you in the sea at midnight."
Grinning slightly upon realising the task was most likely impossible, Eddie leant forward to whisper in Rachel's ear, "you're on."
...
Once they were deep enough in the sea, Rachel switched her sitting position on the board to standing. She glanced across at Eddie with a smirk on her face, hoping that he would follow in her footsteps.
"Well, you made that look easy!" he joked, whilst genuinely wondering how she pulled that off so well.
"You can't just sit there forever you know," she giggled, amused at how Eddie was still sat strewn across the board, simply glancing at Rachel in admiration.
"Fine... fine... watch this space."
Eddie sat up slightly, preparing himself to make a stand. With a few wobbles, he was now fully stood up - not for long though.
"Think I did a better job than you - "
Before Eddie's sentence could be finished, he splashed into the water and in turn emerged rather quickly. The look of entertainment on Rachel's face and the way she had tipped her head back in laughter caused Eddie to mirror her contentment. He was well aware that as it stood, he would be wading into the sea at midnight without Rachel. For now though, he had another appealing plan.
"Don't think you're gonna get away that easy Mason," Eddie chuckled.
Rachel squealed as she anticipated Eddie's movement. There was no time to think though, as he had soon tugged on her wrist slightly, sending her balance slightly off peak.
"Eddie!" she screeched simultaneously to falling.
"I'm gonna make you pay for that," Rachel grinned, now level with Eddie in the sea.
"Ah well, would've been a shame to go all the way out to sea and not even get a tiny bit wet."
"Oh shush you, come here."
Rachel pulled Eddie closer to her, wrapping her arms around his neck and torso so that they were intertwined in an embrace.
Placing a salty kiss to the side of her neck, Eddie expressed the thought that seemed to be constantly buzzing around in his brain.
"I love you Rach."
"I love you too, now shall we try and get back on these paddle boards?"