They slept late, for them, but needed the rest. There was nothing left in the champagne bottle, so they went downstairs to see what Gator had prepared for breakfast.
They could smell the golden waffles and bacon. He had scrambled fresh eggs and there was a bowl of freshly hulled strawberries. Gemma had made her famous coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice. There was also a bottle of champagne so the family could toast the not-quite-newlyweds.
After breakfast, John and Kayce drove them to the airport where they caught a four-hour flight that would take them to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. It was two and a half hours to Cozumel from Dallas, not counting the hour layover where they got something to eat.
When they stepped off the plane onto the tarmac Travis was struck by the warm humid air. It seemed as hot as Texas, but there was a humidity from the ocean that he was not used to. And the smell, it was green and earthy, not the dry air of the desert.
The hotel was comfortable, neither expensive nor cheap, but nice without being luxurious. They could see the beach and the ocean from their room. Palm trees and banana plants surrounded the building, and the lawns were green and well-mowed.
"What do you think?" queried Coralee, "Does the El Cozumeleno suit you?" She pronounced the "n" with a Spanish accent.
"I like it, it's not fancy but it's nice. Have you stayed here before?"
"Yes, a few times, I like it. I stayed here the first time I came to Cozumel and now I stay here every time I come back. It's close to the jungle but not too close. I've seen iguanas here and monkeys, and there are some beautiful flowers." She put her arms around her neck. "I come here when I need to unwind and relax. I'm glad you agreed to come here for our honeymoon."
"This is for you, I want what makes you happy. I'm not good at relaxing unless it's at the bar, but I want to see you smile again, and you haven't done much of that lately. Let's check out the restaurant downstairs, I feel like some shots of tequila with my beer."
They sat on the beach and watched the sunset. The stars came out dotting the black velvet sky. There was no extended sunset, but a brief flash of color soon became the dark tropical night.
Travis woke up to the sound of voices speaking in Spanish, he missed the sound of cows and horses. He felt rested and waited for a while to wake Coralee so they could make love then go downstairs for breakfast.
After breakfast, they went down to the beach. The sand had a fine texture like talcum powder and no matter how hot it got, the sand would not burn their feet. The tide came in and Coralee rented masks and fins and taught him how to snorkel.
He reminded himself to thank her for this. The water was clear and pristine and there were schools of colorful fish, as well as a cowfish that lived alone in the weeds on the bottom. There was a barracuda that lived offshore, and they watched as it caught and ate a fish.
They ate lunch in a small shelter that had been built to protect the tourists from the sun. They had worked up an appetite swimming, but she ate only the fruit plate while he settled for enchiladas. They went up to their room and made love and took a shower, then spent the afternoon relaxing.
The next day she took him to Chichen Itza. The stone ruins and pyramids were overwhelming in their grandeur. They had been built without metal and the carvings on the buildings were exquisite.
She studied his face as he took in what he saw before him. "Pretty amazing, isn't it?" she asked, "All the buildings were covered with plaster and painted, can you imagine? I feel humbled every time I come here."
He put his arm around her waist, "It is pretty amazing, sweetheart, nothing like this in Texas, I see why you like to come here."
"You want amazing? You're going marlin fishing tomorrow. Don't worry, I brought along seasickness medicine. You have to release the fish, but the fun is in catching it. Just wait, I think you're going to love it."
We should have allowed ourselves more time, he thought, I can see her unwinding and relaxing. She needs this, I tried to do it at home, but it wasn't really working. We won't be able to come here often, but she needs this and I'm going to make sure she gets it.
He was checking on the ranch every morning. It was tornado season, though some would say that tornado season in Texas was three hundred and sixty-six days a year. The worst of the storms came from April through June, it was always a concern on the ranch. He had built shelters for the house and the bunkhouse, to make sure the inhabitants of the ranch had a place to take shelter during the worst of the storms.
"Is everything okay?" she asked, he had just come back from making his daily phone call. He didn't like to make the calls in front of her, he told her he wanted to keep business and pleasure separate. He sat at the table and accepted a cup of coffee from the waiter.
He reached out and touched her hand, "Well, I was thinking about extending our stay for a week, but I'm sorry, I can't. They're having storms at home, though not a tornado—yet. As soon as the week is up, we need to get back."
"Is everything okay?" she repeated, and he answered, "Yes, for now. We'll go home when we planned, I don't want to cut things short unless something serious comes up."
"I have something to tell you," she said, a smile on her face, "I'm going to find a doctor and have my implant removed. I don't know how long it will take for us to get me pregnant, but sometimes it happens right away. I come from fertile stock on both sides, I don't want seven kids, but I wouldn't mind two or three."
"Are you sure?" he asked her, and she nodded, "I don't want you to do this if you're not ready."
"Yes, I'm sure. You're forty, I know you want kids before you get much older. I think I'd like kids now, the younger I am the easier it will be. I'll find a way to juggle competing and pregnancy and we can always take the kids with us when we go on the road."
Was he aware that he had tears in his eyes? She didn't know, all she did know was that she had just made him very happy. It was strange, pregnancy didn't seem so intimidating now.
Coralee didn't want to leave Cozumel, but the need to return to Texas was urgent. Travis needed to be back on the ranch. So far, they had been lucky, no tornados had hit but there was damage from the rain, the wind, and the hail.
When they boarded the plane back to Dallas she wasn't ready to go home, She was glad they had come to Mexico, it had been good for both of them. She had loved watching Travis go marlin fishing. He'd been beaming like a little boy as he fought to reel in the marlin. When she saw the broad smile on his face as he posed for a picture with it she knew she had made the right decision.
In the end, the answer was Mexico.
When they flew into the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, the sky was heavy with clouds, although planes were landing and taking off. Matt was waiting for them, and she saw a look of worry on his face that he could not hide.
"Bad news, Matt?" Travis asked and the cowboy nodded.
"I think we're in for a tornado," the wrangler said, "I saw one pass over the barn, fortunately, it didn't touch down, but it was close." He looked at Travis, unsure of how much he should say in front of his boss's young wife.
"Well, let's get home and hope we can get ahead of any severe weather. I don't like the look of those clouds, but we can pull over and wait out the rain if it gets too bad." Travis seemed concerned, but he wanted to reassure Coralee and didn't want her to panic. She wasn't used to Texas storms, especially tornados which happened infrequently in Montana.
Some of the damage from the storm was evident as they drove north, heading home to Travis's ranch. It was strange, she thought, some areas were flattened by where a tornado had touched down yet other areas were left completely untouched. The rain was coming down in sheets, sometimes rendering it impossible to see and Matt would pull over to the side of the road, and they would have to wait until it cleared enough to make driving safe again.
The weather seemed a little absurd to her. She was used to blizzards. When they happened the wind would roar and the snow would blow, making it hard to see. During a blizzard, everyone would hunker down and wait until the snow stopped falling. Here it seemed crazy, people insisted on traveling in the driving rain despite the obvious hazards. Were they used to it or were Texans just crazy?
One stop they made for the storm seemed to go on forever. Travis turned around and asked her, "How are you doing sweetheart?"
"Does this ever end?" she replied, "This is, what, the third time we've pulled over? At this rate it's going to take forever to get to the ranch, we'll be lucky if we're there by nightfall! Is there even any point in trying to go further? Wouldn't it make more sense to just find a motel and call it quits? No one drives in blizzards in Montana."
"Just be patient," he said, "It looks like the clouds are breaking up ahead of us. And we could run into the same weather tomorrow. Just be patient, we're not that far now, we should be home in a few hours."
She tried to solve the problem by lying on the back seat and attempting to fall asleep, which worked until the rain began to come down in torrents, pounding the metal roof of the truck.
"Jesus," she said as she sat up, the noise from the rain had woken her out of a sound sleep. It was as loud as a hailstorm. In fact, she couldn't be sure that it wasn't hail falling.
The men laughed at her. "Take it easy sweetheart," Travis told her, "We'll be home in an hour or so. You must have been tired, you've been sleeping."
Fortunately, there were no more stops and the rain started to let up. The culvert had held and by a miracle the road had not washed out and they were able to drive straight to the house and unload the luggage.
It was late when they arrived and Elena was not up to greet them. "Are you hungry?" asked Travis but she shook her head.
"I can wait until breakfast. If Elena isn't here, I'll cook. All I want to do is go to bed, I'm tired. What about you?"
"I'm all right," he answered, and went and picked up the remote control to the flatscreen TV on the wall, "I want to check the weather."
She sat down and watched with him, but the news was not good. There was another storm coming in that would arrive tomorrow or the next day, and tornados were predicted in the area where they lived. Viewers were encouraged to take the usual precautions.
"Damn," he clicked the TV off. I thought we were out of it. Tomorrow I am going to show you where the storm shelter is. I keep it stocked with food, and blankets, and I have a radio which can usually get reception in the worst of the storms. Have you ever seen a tornado?" he asked, and she shook her head. "Well, believe me, you'll know when we have one coming. If you ever think that you see one, even if you think you might be wrong, you head for the shelter, don't wait for me. There's another shelter near the bunkhouse for the hands and I may have to hunker down with them until it passes. Don't take chances, ever, not with a tornado!"
I'm a Texan by birth, but grew up in Seattle. We left when I was two and a half we moved to Seattle because my father, a Texas native, had had it with tornados. My mom would talk about standing on our back porch and watching a tornado pass over the house.
And yes, Texans do pull over and wait out heavy rain then resume driving. It's kind of funny to see cars stopped alongside the road waiting for the rain to quit.
I've visited Cozumel twice and stayed at the El Cozumeleno. It's a nice little hotel located on the beach and it's easy to catch a cab into town to visit the market. Once you go to Cozumel, you'll never be happy with Hawaii again.