Chapter 535) Where Have All The Roses Gone

Tomarang
Rental Cabana

Hauling her duffel bag and carry-on inside, looking around, trying to get acclimated to the scents and sounds while battling the jet lag, Briar Rose’s mouth gaped open. Dumping her luggage somewhere she walked through the rental cabana, everything screamed ‘exotic’ to her … until she opened a door revealing the bedroom.

“Umm … whoa!”

After a moment of shock, she grinned and called out

“Ahem … Brad?! BRAD??? BRADDDYYYYYYYY?!!”

“What?!”

“Come here please … need you to see something. Hard to put into words, you need to look at this.” he called over, while giggling.

It took a moment for him to arrive in the room.

“Sorry, took a minute, had to pay the driver and his English was about a great as my Tomarani and he had no clue what a credit card was, then I couldn’t figure out the currency and … oh! OH … that! Oh boy! Uh oh … awkward.”

“Yeaaaaaah …look what I found. The boom-chicka-bow-wow room. Looks like a love song exploded in here. HAHAHAHA.” Briar Rose couldn’t help but laugh, while Brad grimaced.

“Right. About that … I have a REALLY good explanation for this. So, turns out Tomarang is pretty popular this time of year and on such short notice there wasn’t so much to choose from … so I picked the best of what I had to work with.” he smiled sheepishly.

“And you went with the honeymoon cabin? Wine and all? Assume they don’t realize we are 17? You are KILLING me here. I feel I need a shovel to make it to the bed with all those rose petals. Did you happen to pack a shop vac? This is hysterical!” Briar Rose was incredibly amused.

“I seriously hope housekeeping takes care of those! This was the nicest looking on the pictures I saw and had the best stuff around! Yeah … sorry about that, I probably should have warned you. If that makes it any better, technically it’s considered a cabana, though, because we have direct beach access and …”

Briar Rose’s giggling turned into hearty laughter, so Brad chimed in.

Once they calmed down, she turned to him, kissed his cheek, running her hand across the other.

“Nice deflection, Cunningham. As funny as I personally find it, and yes, I really like this cabin – or cabana – and you are incredibly adorable, but let’s just NOT mention this part when we talk to our parents.” she giggled.

“My plan all along!”

“Sooo … you mean to tell me there will be no marriage proposal at our ripe age of 17? I will be an old spinster now? My heart is broken.” she teased, while theatrically raising her hands acting sad.

“Well, I think my nose would be broken worse than your heart if we came home engaged. First your dad, then your mom, then my parents … and probably Connor and Keira. And your sister … yeah, too much of a risk.” he winked.

“You forgot Jasper. And good point. Let’s just not. I’ll see if I can still cancel the order for my wedding gown.” she laughed.

“Girl, nice try, as indecisive as you are even if I asked you right now, the earliest we could get hitched would be for your 25th birthday, it would take you THAT long to pick out a dress, not to mention cake, flowers and venue.”

“So, what you are saying is that I have good taste.” she winked and kissed him.

“You’re dating me again, so CLEARLY you do. I am also famous for my humility!” he joked.

“Didn’t you mean ‘delusion’? I say we move this party onto that beach access you were talking about! You know how much I love swimming!”

They quickly changed into their swimwear and went to play in the ocean, splashing turned into water chases, which turned into wild kissing whenever they caught each other. Eventually, the fun and fresh air had made them hungry, so he took her by the hand to go back inside to get dressed for dinner and exploring.

When they arrived at the back door, there was a handwritten note attached to it that hadn’t been there before.
Brad grabbed it, read it frowning, then handed it to Bri

‘Briar Rose,
you were supposed to TEXT us the moment you got here so we know you kids are safe!!!
No worries, I found you and Brad playing in the ocean, but didn’t want to walk into some ‘Free Willy’ moments I could never unsee, so text us tomorrow morning and every day as you both promised!
Please stay out of trouble!
And please PLEASE remember to check in.
If I have to come back to check on you I will be taking you home with me!
Love you,
Dad
P.S. What is it with Brad and proposal stuff?!
First his bended-knee promposal, now a honeymoon cabin?!?!
You had better NOT come back with any new inappropriate jewelry on your fingers, or we all will have a VERY inconvenient talk!’

Brad grimaced.
“So much for not mentioning it to your parents. I think we can both take ‘covert operative’ off our potential future jobs list.” he joked.

The rest of the week in Tomarang was great for both.

They tasted so much new and exotic foods that both worried they wouldn’t fit in their clothes by the time they had to travel home.

They went to a tiger Sanctuary, got to pet live tigers and even ‘adopted’ one, which was basically a sponsorship supporting the sanctuary financially.

Henford-on-Bagley
Duncan Farm

The young man dismounted smoothly with the ease of a seasoned rider, then lead his father’s stallion ‘Trapper’ with him as he headed over to the paddock, where his smile disappeared.

“Callum, where is the horse I gave you!? Where is ‘Prairie Rose’?! And where did that giant monstrosity come from standing with Big George?!” Jackson looked horrified.

“Oh, funniest thing happened. Briar Rose came ’round for a visit with her boyfriend, some layover their plane had to make here because of bad weather, so they stayed a couple of days with Her Royal Majesty, you know, since she is Bri’s cousin! They spotted your mare, and Briar Rose absolutely went bonkers when she saw her, started crying out of the blue, she said she knew the horse since foal and recognized her, the horse clearly knew her too, so her boyfriend really wanted to buy it for her. Of course, we said no, but then he said his father breeds Clydesdales, and it’s better for George to live and eventually breed with another draft, and that he had mares old enough to breed, so we agreed to make the trade. We dinna think you’d mind, knowing how close you are with Bri, so you can still go see the horse when you visit her next. Everyone’s happy and Bob’s your uncle.” Callum chatted on chipperly, completely unaware of the bitter discord between Jackson and Briar Rose now, and the fact that he had never once been to her hometown.

“You gave away the horse I trusted you with?! I thought you said you wanted a second horse, first I hear anything about breeding! Prairie Rose is too young to breed, and she wasn’t for sale, Cal!!! And no, I cannot just go and see the horse, do you not realize Bri and I live on completely opposite ends of the country?!” Jackson’s voice nearly tipped over for disbelief.

“No, we dinna know that, sorry. We thought since you were friends you lived near each other. When you brought her here you said you dinna like having Prairie Rose anymore. And come on, Jackson, a REAL Clydesdale for our George? George is a draft, Dandelion is a draft, perfect! Look at them, was love at first sight. They are the perfect couple. Look at them!”

“There is no such thing as love at first sight or perfect couples! All that is nothing but a lie! And you don’t just give away horses like that! You should have told me! Asked me! Or told my dad! He would have told you no! Goddammit!” Jackson cursed colorfully.

“I am sorry, I didn’t think you cared so much, since you have so many horses and couldn’t wait to get rid of this one. I thought maybe there was something wrong with her.”

“There is nothin’ wrong with Prairie Rose! She is perfect. It’s just always the same, the moment I turn my back, some other guy takes her away. And always the same guy too, always that Brad! I knew I should have left Prairie Rose with my father. Wish I could do that with the other one too! Give them to my dad to keep away from all that other crap! And from me! But then I could always go and see them, from a distance. Just watch ’em, observe, smile. Dammit.”

Jackson was very upset, ran over to mount Trapper so fast it startled the stallion, who protested noisily when Jackson gave him the heels to ride off fast, leaving behind a very confused young Callum, who really didn’t understand why Jackson was so upset about a horse he no longer wanted.