Chapter Four

"How 'bout if we just forget to go back?" Jaime sighed dreamily. She and Steve were welcoming the next morning's sunrise while enjoying the feel of the surf on their bare skin, 'From Here to Eternity' style. They'd slept very little, but neither one minded and they were definitely not tired.

"We've got over a week left," Steve reminded her.

"Yeah, but..."

"I know. I don't wanna lose this, either," he agreed, echoing her unspoken thought.

"But once I go back to Ojai..."

"So – don't."

"Don't what?" Jaime asked, twirling the hairs of Steve's chest while she nibbled his earlobe. "Don't nibble? Don't kiss you?"

"Don't go back to Ojai." Steve kissed her in a way that was sure to incite another round of 'bonding'. "Tell Oscar to base you out of DC." He timed his next words perfectly. Steve looked straight into Jaime's eyes as they once again became one body. "Marry me...?" he whispered.

Jaime's body moved fluidly, her hips rising to meet his as they rolled a little further into the surf. This was a new topic for their 'talk it all out' vacation, and they were certainly going to talk about it – in depth – later.

- - - - - -

"You could just move in with me," Steve continued, once they were again ready (and able) to talk. "But...I'd much rather make an honest woman out of ya." Jaime just smiled, so Steve nervously kept talking. "Don't wanna pressure you into something you aren't ready for -"

"I'm ready."

"I mean, there's no rush. I just thought -"

"I'm ready."

"It's something you can keep in mind, for the future, whenever -"

"Steve!" Jaime finally put a gentle hand to his face, stopping the flood of words. Once he was quiet, she grinned. "I am ready – now."

- - - - - -

The two ecstatic co-conspirators winked at each other and settled into two seats as far from each other as they could get on a private plane. (The pilot, after all, was in radio contact with Washington.) They folded their arms across their chests and uttered not a single word through the entire flight home. They never even glanced at each other, both to keep up the ruse and because Jaime might have collapsed in a fit of giggles.

Oscar and Rudy were both waiting to meet the plane. They could've sent a car, but were dying of curiosity; had the vacation had its desired effect? Their eyes grew wide as Jaime flounced down onto the tarmac – alone and angry.

"Thirteen days and twelve hours too long, if you ask me!" she snapped, scowling as she practically threw herself into the back of the limo. Only after she was completely settled in did Steve emerge from the airplane, looking as though he'd had a thoroughly miserable flight.

"Is there another car?" Steve asked. "I don't think she wants me riding in that one."

Oscar and Rudy exchanged a raised eyebrow glance. "Get in, Pal," Oscar said softly, wondering how on Earth his two friends could've possibly screwed up two weeks in Paradise.

"I'll...walk," Steve insisted stubbornly.

"Get in the car," Oscar said in a quiet but authoritative voice. He got into the limo's middle seat with Steve while Rudy sat in the back with Jaime. Neither newly-returned vacationer spoke even one word.

"What happened?" Oscar asked as the limo pulled away.

"Ask him," Jaime muttered.

"Steve?" Oscar probed, as gently as possible.

"Nothing. Nothing happened. Not a damn thing," Steve grumbled, struggling to keep a straight face. He didn't dare look at Jaime.

The ride continued in silence for a good ten miles before Jaime shifted in her seat and unwittingly moved her hands to her lap. Rudy took one look and chuckled out loud. "Oscar?" he laughed, "looks like we've been had." Jaime realized what she'd done and quickly moved to hide the evidence, but Rudy happily grasped her left wrist. "Uh-uh, Honey," he told her. "I already saw it. Now show Oscar." Rudy was grinning so wide that it almost hurt.

"I was gonna show you when we got to the office," Jaime sighed, holding up her left hand, which sported a brand-new, shiny-gold wedding ring. "Had you going, didn't we?" She leaned forward to happily kiss her new husband for the first time since they'd left the island.

"How on Earth...?" Rudy wondered. "That place is isolated!"

"We have friends in high places; just made a few calls, hired a plane to fly in the judge, and...voila!" Steve said, grinning too.

"Oscar?" Jaime added. "Thank you for sending us off together like that. We had the perfect vacation!"

END