CHAPTER 50

WELCOME TO URUGUAY

"What the hell, Dianna" Davis dramatically said, as she parked their rental car in front of the house of Dianna's father. "You're rich".

Dianna opened the door of the car. "No, I'm not. My dad kinda is", she murmured.

Davis chuckled. "Yes. That's the kind of thing that rich people say". She opened the trunk, and they took out their bags. A couple got out of the house, excited, and greeted them from the front door, while the black beautiful iron gate was closing the entrance to the lot.

"Hola, hello" a charming and pleasant man, with a great smile, walked to meet them, with an elegant and pleasant blonde woman beside him. "You must be Lisa" he said, in almost perfect english, giving a welcoming hug to Davis. "I'm Frederico. Call me Freddy, please" he said, with a hint of an accent, and Davis was shocked with his appearance. He looked 60 or 65 years old, at most. Not 75, at all. His hair wasn't even completely gray yet, and he only had some wrinkles. He was wearing a polo shirt and jeans, very relaxed but still elegant.

"Nice to meet you sir. Freddy" Davis corrected, when he gestured.

"Dianna" he turned to her, giving her a warm bear hug and a kiss. He glanced at her nose, then at her other scar, not as visible anymore. "What happened there? Bar fight?" he asked, and she chuckled. "You should see the other girl" she joked, and they laughed.

"Hello, Lisa, I'm Tatiana" the blonde woman introduced herself, and she had an accent, but she continued to speak in a very good english, while hugging and kissing Davis, "nice to meet you. Welcome to Uruguay", she said, with a wide bright smile. She looked 55, but Davis was suspecting that she was older. She had to remember to bottle the water from that town and bring back to the U.S.

Davis watched as Dianna and Tatiana hugged each other affectionately. Obviously they liked each other, and Davis thought that was really nice. Dianna needed to be surrounded with love these days.

"So, Lisa is your plus one, huh, hija?" Mr. Veiler quickly said, teasing and smiling, but Dianna tried to disguise her discomfort and laughed at his tease.

He wasn't finished, though. "That's ok, I'm used to it. Just remember, I'd like some grandchildren before I'm too old to play with them" he loudly said, getting inside his house while some young cute guy took the girls' bags. Davis thought that was really fancy, but apparently that was fancy for Dianna, too.

"Who's this?" she asked her dad, pointing at the young guy, and Tatiana answered for him.

"We hired him to help us here to get things ready for tomorrow. He'll be one of the waiters, too, and help at the inn with your friends' bags when they arrive".

"Oh" Davis said, looking at Dianna, with an impressed face, "that's nice". Dianna agreed, shrugging.

"Come in, come in, you girls must be tired. You can rest and we'll have dinner later on. Daniel will come too, with his girlfriend" Mr. Veiler said, mentioning Dianna's brother, and they got inside the house, which was a brick house, beautiful and traditional, and even though for U.S. standards it wasn't too big, the good taste and old money was very noticeable by the décor. And because the backyard and outdoor patio were enormous, already being prepared for the party.

"What's for dinner?" Dianna asked, like a college girl coming back home and starving.

"Carne con papas" Tatiana answered, with a proud look, and Davis understood that it meant meat and potatoes. It sounded simple, but she had a feeling that it was going to be delicious.

"Ok, this is really delicious" Davis concluded, when she was eating a full plate of meat and potatoes for the second time. "And I'm glad I can drink alcohol again" she joyfully said, raising her glass of wine, smiling at Dianna. They had to take ten days of antibiotics and they finished the meds that week. Dianna still took some pills for her shoulder, but these didn't make her groggy and they were free to get drunk during the party. Davis was in a great mood that night.

"You know, the wine that they use for the sauce doesn't have any alcohol. You simmer it until you evaporate it" Dianna tried to explain to Davis, but she didn't have the patience to cook those kind of things, she just ate them, so Davis ignored the cooking tip and took another big sip of wine.

"So, how proud are you guys of Dianna, huh?" Davis joyfully asked Mr. Veiler and Daniel, Dianna's brother.

"Very" Daniel quickly answered, in perfect english, just as Dianna. Their mother probably taught them. "She already made us proud when she worked with the police, here and at the U.S., and it must be exciting for her to help the U.S. Navy now" he stated, looking proudly at Dianna.

"Oh, we are. Very proud. We always knew she'd go far. Professionally" Mr. Veiler nodded, widely smiling, and Dianna was shyly smiling at them.

"Of course, it breaks my heart that she's still single" Mr. Veiler dramatically said, and both Dianna and Tatiana glanced at each other, while Davis squirmed on her chair. She was used to those comments, too. They were incredibly annoying. Mr. Veiler continued, "at her age, your mother had two beautiful grown up kids, and she even graduated college" he stated, shaking his head.

Dianna wasn't someone to listen quiet, though. "Daniel is older. Perhaps you could ask him why he doesn't have kids yet", she glanced at Daniel, teasing.

"Oh, it's different. He's got time. He's always dating someone, let him enjoy it" he said, nodding at Daniel, who just kept quiet. His current girlfriend wasn't attending the dinner.

They kept quietly eating, and Tatiana opened her mouth, smiling, to change the subject, but Mr. Veiler once again talked.

"Maybe now that she works with the Armed Forces, there are more options for her. Men committed to a relationship" he grumbled, and Davis almost laughed, because obviously he didn't know that the military men were usually the worse types to be married to. Almost all of the marriages ended in divorce.

"My dad thinks I'm single by the guys' choice, not mine" Dianna casually said, teasing, and Davis looked at her, shocked. Tatiana was probably used to those conversations, so she just smirked, and Daniel chuckled with Dianna.

Davis tried to tone the conversation down, "I'm sure he doesn't think that-"

"Dianna is reserved. Smart. She has her talents. Someday someone will see you, hija" Mr. Veiler said, affectionate, oblivious to the fact that he was admitting how unimpressed he was with his own daughter. "I invited guys of your age, Dianna. To my party. Sons of my friends. I'll introduce them to you" he continued, while eating.

Dianna sighed. "I know most of them, dad. They went to high school with me".

"See? They may remember you. And you're my daughter, after all", he smiled, cocky.

Davis kept quiet, suddenly understanding why Dianna was usually reserved about guys. But apparently not always, because Dianna wasn't too patient with her dad that night.

"I had a fling with a couple of the guys you invited, dad. Cute ones. I just didn't tell you" Dianna said, cocky, and Daniel chuckled. He obviously knew that. "One of them was even the mayor's son, your old friend". She mentioned, and Davis knew that guy must've been a good catch, because Mr. Veiler widened his eyes.

Daniel meddled, "Oh yes. He was quite smitten with you. But you didn't want anything serious". Dianna smiled at her brother, cocky, and it seemed it was true.

Mr. Veiler grumbled, but not entirely believing them. "Seriously? Huh. Didn't know that".

Daniel decided to intervene again in favor of his younger sister. "She was popular in high school, dad. And people know her around here. Maybe even more than you" he teased, smiling at Dianna.

Davis decided to boost Dianna's self-esteem too, and her own. They both needed it. "Dianna is very popular at the Navy too, sir. And dare I say, I am the same age as she is, yet we're doing pretty well so far. Let us enjoy it too".

Dianna and Davis were excited to see the team guys and the girls on Saturday. They had half a day of activities planned, even though they were traveling for more than sixteen hours. They arrived almost at 3AM and since it was cold and they were probably tired, Dianna wanted to let them sleep at her uncle's inn, but when it was 10AM Sonny texted Davis letting her know that everyone was awake because they slept at the plane and they were too excited to sleep. And that they weren't old people, they needed action. So a few minutes later the girls made their way to the inn, and Dianna wanted to see if any of them wanted to have lunch later with them, and maybe get to know her uncle's farm that surrounded the inn.

"Jesus, Dianna, I thought it was a small farm" Davis said, impressed again, because it was really big, and the inn was a beautiful big house with two floors, with a pool and a big fire pit. They could see from the car a bunch of the guys already around the fire pit, talking and laughing, enjoying the sun on that cold day.

"Hey" Dianna waved, and Sonny, Ray, Clay and Trent turned to see her. Stella was with them too.

"This is what you call a 'cute cozy' inn?" Clay teased, walking to them, with Sonny next to him. "There's a kitchen in there that is bigger than my apartment".

Dianna ignored his comment, smiling and walking closer to the rest of the group. "How was the flight?"

"Shitty" Sonny declared, "but Naima gave us some good stuff and we slept a lot".

Dianna chuckled. They looked relaxed. "Just wanted to see if you guys wanted to take a look around here. We can get some horses" she said, and Sonny quickly shook his head, while the other ones were extremely excited. But Davis eventually convinced Sonny to join them, too, when she said she'd go.

"Dianna", a tall guy, with light blonde hair and a stubble, gently called her from the glass door of the inn, and walked closer. Dianna definitely had a type, and he was it, Davis noticed.

"Oh, hola. Gustavo". Dianna stuttered, and glanced at the group before walking to him. They greeted each other with a kiss on the cheek, which was the normal way in Uruguay among friends.

"I had to come to your dad's birthday, couldn't miss it" Gustavo said, in spanish, "and I guess a lot of the guys from high school will be here too, right? And I'm glad to see you've brought a big group from the U.S."

"Yes" she said, smiling, "and they're loud. Be prepared. I didn't know you'd stay at the inn, too".

"I had to, I rented my place out. I arrived this morning. And I like it here" he said, smiling back at her.

"You said something about horses" Clay anxiously meddled, standing very close to Dianna.

"Yes. We're going to take a ride around the place" Dianna said in english, but including Gustavo in the conversation, "so if you want to, you can come with us".

"Sure" Gustavo answered, in english too, "I'll just take an extra coat and I'll go with you guys, if you don't mind".

"Of course not" Dianna said, and she stated that the guys should get heavier coats too. It was colder near the pasture and woods, and they'd go to a plateau, but they were wearing light jackets, at most. Only Stella was properly covered.

"I'll call everyone then, and tell them to join us" Clay quickly said, almost running inside.

Dianna was waiting everyone outside, so they could all go together to get the horses, and Sonny was already complaining about them in advance, saying that if he fell, it'd be the horse's issue, and not his, and finally someone said that they were all ready to go, and the big loud group followed Dianna to the horse stable nearby. They'd have to divide into two groups, because there weren't enough horses for everyone, so the ones that were on the second group would take a walk nearby, on an area with a beautiful trail where the horses couldn't access. Sonny obviously volunteered to be in that group on foot, and since Dianna already knew the place, Gustavo volunteered to guide the first group with the horses, and she stood behind to go with the other group on foot.

The group was dissipating and Dianna stopped to open a wooden gate next to the pasture to access the trail and the plateau, and suddenly she saw Jason, Emma and Mikey walking to her direction, from the stable. Her heart skipped many, many beats, and she was absolutely confused.

Emma and Mikey stopped next to Davis and Sonny, and they started talking, while Jason continued to calmly walk to her, in the fog, with his hands in the pockets of his black puffy jacket, and all that was missing was the piano soundtrack from the Pride and Prejudice movie, when Mr. Darcy walks to Lizzie, but the song was definitely playing in her brain. And she was very aware that she gasped when she saw him, just like in the movie.

Except, in the movie, Mr. Darcy stopped to talk to Lizzie, tenderly declaring his feelings to her. Jason was definitely not Mr. Darcy. So, he casually walked to Dianna, that was paralyzed and didn't know if he was going to yell at her or what, but he just continued to walk, looking at the ground, and at her, stern, and placed his hands behind her head and on her waist, advancing at a confused Dianna with a delicious, slow and breathtaking kiss.

She was no fool, and had no way of resisting him, so she kissed him back immediately, in case she was concussed again and didn't remember. But his chest, neck and hair felt very real on her hands. The beard that scratched her face, too.

"You should have told me" Jason finally said, keeping his forehead on hers, when he stopped their kiss, before they embarrassed the people nearby, including his kids. "You shouldn't have acted like a fucking teenager in a movie, Dianna".

She looked into his eyes, out of words and confused. In a second he was kissing her passionately, the next, saying harsh words to her face.

"Sonny told me your plan" Jason said, still holding her head with his hand, and giving her lips another quick soft kiss, he couldn't resist them. Dianna glanced at Sonny, close to them, pretending he was looking to the other side.

"What… plan" Dianna tried, but glad that he knew that she didn't really want to kiss Jared.

He swallowed, and let go of her head and waist. Then he distanced his face from hers. "To make me break up with you. Because of Emma", he stated, looking into her eyes, then her lips.

Dianna glanced to her side again, and Emma and Mikey were still talking to Davis, with their backs to them. Obviously they didn't want to see their dad making out with a woman. Dianna knew that something happened, but she wasn't sure what it was, so she kept her distance. "Emma… yes" she finally said, looking at him, with sad eyes. "I had to. I wouldn't be strong enough to break up with you", she confessed, and he had a sad face. "I can't stay between a girl and her only parent, Jason. You know it'd never work out".

Jason kept a stern expression, and licked his lips, anxious. "Emma and I talked. She's not against us anymore" he said, gesturing, and Dianna frowned. He came closer to her again, and cupped her face with his hands. Now her scars were pinkish and barely noticeable. He exhaled. "Natalie told her lies, many of them".

Dianna's face twitched, but she stood still and looked down. "Yes. That we had an affair. I know. But the thing is-"

"No, Dianna" he made her look up to him again. "She told Emma that you did what she did. That you took the notes from my sessions. That's why Emma hated you so much".

Dianna licked her lips, exasperated. "What?" she whispered, and Jason turned his head to see Emma and Mikey, and took his hands off of Dianna's face, who was still processing that information. His kids walked to them, Emma with her arms crossed and with a face full of regret.

"Hey, Dianna" Mikey greeted her with a hug. He always liked her and had no problems with her, so she quickly recovered from the news and gave him a warm hug, smiling, and asked him how was his flight. "Hurried" he sincerely answered, and Dianna chuckled.

"Dianna" Emma came closer, glancing at Jason, with a very apologizing expression. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have believed her. Please forgive me".

Dianna exhaled, and stood still, cautious. "So are you really ok with me and your dad?" she asked, and Emma nodded, emotional. "Of course I am. I always liked you. Before all of this" she stated.

Dianna walked to her and hugged her, affectionate. "It wasn't your fault, Emma. I'm just glad everything's explained now". She exhaled again, and glanced at Jason, who was smiling at them.

They stopped their hug, and Dianna and Emma had their eyes filled with tears.

"Well" Dianna said, joyfully caressing Mikey and Emma's arms, "Welcome to Uruguay, guys".

"Your family's loaded" Jason teased Dianna, while they walked from the pasture to an area next to the woods, making their way to a plateau nearby.

"My uncle kinda is" she said, shyly smiling, "and my dad is doing ok again. Our family struggled a bit when I was in college, but he made a good recovery" she explained, and Jason helped her climb a few stones to reach another trail. She couldn't support her weight on her left hand yet, it hurt her shoulder, but she could move it again.

They were the last ones on the trail, because everyone left them alone on purpose. Sonny, Full Metal and Brock just asked Dianna to point the direction, and they led the pack to the plateau, not hesitating for a second. Mikey was already mumbling he was hungry, even though he just ate a major breakfast at the inn.

"Oh, yes" Dianna suddenly remembered, after all the exciting things that just happened, "My dad and Tatiana want to have lunch with you guys. If all of you want to, they'll go to the inn and we'll cook there, because the table is bigger and there's an extra one. If not, and only a few of you want, we can have lunch at my dad's house. Or if you prefer, you can have lunch alone at the inn or downtown".

"I'll have lunch wherever is earlier" Mikey calmly answered, and everyone chuckled. "Seriously" he said, intrigued by their laughs.

"We'll have lunch with Mr. Veiler, Mikey" Jason stated, glancing at Dianna.

"You don't have to" she said, timid. "You'll meet him at the party anyways".

Jason chuckled. "I know. But I want to. He seems like a fun guy, from what you said" he said, cutely smiling.

"Oh, he is" Davis intervened, amused. "You guys will like him". Then she came closer to Jason, and whispered, "He doesn't have much of a filter". Jason stared, intrigued.

Then she stopped talking, because they were all getting to the edge of the plateau. It was a beautiful view, with that sunny and cold day. There was still some fog under the edge, but they still could see the trees and some pasture below them. They all thought and said that it was beautiful, and Jason said it must had been nice to grow up around those landscapes.

"My house when I grew up was downtown" she explained, when Jason mentioned that, "I would've loved to grow up here. Although, come to think about it, I would've been far from my friends and school, and that wouldn't be good for a kid or a teenager" she chuckled.

"Definitely not" Emma said, and Mikey agreed. "Great place for a vacation, though" she added, smiling. She was really happy to be there, and so was Mikey. Then she remembered an important issue. "Dianna, do you think we can go downtown this afternoon, to buy me a dress? For tonight. We left kind of in a hurry. I'm wearing Stella's coat" she said, because even though she had clothes with her for the road trip, none of them was fancy, and she only had sweaters and light jackets, nothing appropriated for the cold wind they had there.

Dianna was surprised. "Oh, Ok. I didn't know that" she said, glancing at Jason, then she looked at her phone, to see the hour. "Oh, we have to go there now, then. The shops close at noon here on Saturdays, 12:30PM at most, we wouldn't have much time". It was 11:20AM already. Then she thought for a second. "But to be honest, you can totally borrow a dress from my… from my dad's wife. Tatiana. I don't have much stuff here, but I'll lend you coats if you need to. I brought a few".

Emma tried to disguise a suspicious expression. "I don't think I could wear a dress of your stepmom. I mean, not trying to be rude, but she probably wouldn't have the same taste in clothes as me" she said, already picturing she'd look like in an 80's throwback party in that lady's clothes.

"Oh no" Dianna gestured, "she's really fancy. She has good taste. Promise. But we can try to make it downtown, if you want to".

"You'll be late for lunch" Mikey meddled, worried that Emma might starve to death.

Davis stepped in. "Emma, you should believe Dianna. Tatiana is very chic. And she probably has a huge closet. Surely she has some black dress or something else you can wear".

Emma squirmed, trying to believe them. "But would she be ok lending me her clothes? I mean, she's your stepmom" she said to Dianna, cautious, because after all, they weren't directly related.

Dianna grabbed her phone. "Look, I'll text her just in case. But she does have a lot of clothes, and she's really great. I'm sure she'd have no problem lending you one of her dresses".

Mikey stood beside Jason, impatient. "I want to walk that trail, can we?" he pointed at a trail near the edge of the plateau, but not dangerous, and they could see the horses and the rest of the team guys making their way to them from that trail, with Stella, Naima and Gustavo with them, joyfully and loudly chatting.

"We can go back with the horses, and they go back walking, if they want to. This way, everyone sees everything" Dianna suggested, and they agreed. The path they took while walking was beautiful, but they were curious to see the other one.

"That's ok, I'll walk" Sonny quickly said, "I'll guide them through the woods".

The teams cheered each other, loudly, as if they hadn't just seen each other a little over half an hour ago.

"Gustavo, could you take our pictures, please?" Dianna shyly asked, but he gladly attended her request. He made them all pose in front of the plateau, then he decided the angle of the light was better a little to the side, and Clay grumbled for the rest of the guys to stop pushing, or he'd fall off the cliff with horse and everything, so Gustavo hurried up and took a lot of pictures of the group, then he asked if he could take a selfie too, because he liked the group, and they did, then he positioned the phone on a rock and took another picture of the entire group on the cliff. They finally stopped the photoshoot when a horse tried to bite Sonny and Full Metal.

Dianna told the group about lunch and they all agreed they'd like to have lunch with the birthday guy, even though his real birthday would be the next day, so Dianna quickly called her dad and confirmed, and he was already making his way to the inn, with Tatiana, to start preparing lunch. Her uncle would join them too.

"Please tell me there will be meat" Sonny pleaded, while Dianna chose a horse.

"Yes, Sonny. They'll make an asado for lunch" she confirmed, and he joyfully laughed, scaring her horse. "You know, you'd arrive there faster if you rode a horse, too" she teased, and he thought for a second. "They're tamed, Sonny. They won't run, unless you make them".

Finally, Sonny shrugged and took the other horse for himself.

"Do you need a hand?" Jason came closer, teasing but offering his help to Dianna. "I could lift you, if you want" he added, coming closer, with a husky voice.

Dianna felt a shiver through her spine while looking up at him. "Actually, I need a hand, yes" she admitted, stuttering, because she couldn't pull her body weight with her left hand, so it would be more difficult to mount the horse.

"Alright" Jason said, charmingly smiling, then he took her hips and raised her while she straddled the horse, and she squirmed on the saddle, to sit erect. Jason glanced at her, noticing she was looking like an amazon again, wearing the same tan pants and tall boots that she wore at Base once, but she had a pastel green knitted high collar sweater, and a puffy off-white jacket. Her hair was loose and a little disheveled from the wind.

Jason mounted his horse, trying to look as casual and professional as he could, even though it wasn't really common for him to be riding horses on the weekends. But he was doing a far better job than Sonny, who was a self-claimed Texas cowboy. Jason noticed Dianna discreetly checking him out, and he sat as manly and blasé as he possibly could, like he was about to play a polo match with his buddies. Or to catch an escaping cow.

"Did you arrive home okay on Thursday?" Jason asked, making his horse walk alongside Dianna's. She smiled, affectionate.

"I did. Thank you" she said, and kept quiet. "How was it at Lindell's office?" she finally asked.

Jason nodded, "It was weird. Tense. But I felt better afterwards. He'll relocate her soon".

Dianna nodded, then kept quiet for a while. "I'm sorry that I hurt you" she finally whispered, looking seriously at him. "I really did act like a teenager. But like I said, I needed you to want to break up with me".

Jason pouted. "That's ok. I understand it now", he admitted, and kept quiet.

"I didn't want to kiss Jared. But I knew it would hurt you" she added, still talking in a low voice.

Jason pouted again, and nodded, avoiding eye contact. "U-hum. It worked".

"I didn't even kiss him properly" she blurted, stern, "I mean, it was quick and I didn't even use my tongue or anything".

"That's ok, Dianna" Jason gestured to her, talking louder, to shut her up. But on the inside, he felt glad to hear that. Until Sonny told him the truth, Jason was picturing Dianna having sex with Jared after he left the bar that night. In a car, or against one.

"I'm sorry for telling you that about the Eagles", Dianna continued, filled with regrets, "I didn't really mean that. I like them".

Jason stopped his horse. "What do you mean? Are you not a Cowboys' fan?", he asked, confused, because there was no way that a Dallas Cowboys' fan would truly root for the Philadelphia Eagles.

"Of course not" Dianna snorted, smiling. "I was trying to annoy you".

Jason rode his horse near her again, touching her leg with his. "When did you start to put that lame plan of yours into motion?"

Dianna ignored his mock and calculated, but gave up, she wasn't sure if it was Monday or not. "When I came back from Davis' house. The night after she gathered my hair up in a bun and tried to teach you. That's when I started". She remembered that, because she found out that she couldn't shower.

Jason nodded, vividly remembering that night. It was that night when she was being harsh with him, so much that he slept on the sofa. He was still thinking that she meant what she said the morning after that, that he was smothering her. He thought that she was just being mean after she stayed at Davis' house, during the last couple of days before they broke up. "I remember. U-hum", he said, smiling, and looking at Dianna with hungry eyes.

"Don't worry, Jason" Dianna chuckled, unaware of his stare, "I didn't buy a Cowboys' jersey, ok?" she joked.

"Yeah" Jason answered, pensive and licking his lips, while staring at her. He couldn't wait to fuck Dianna.

.