Help Me Heal

Chapter 48

"You know, I was going to propose to you while we were here," Hank said.

"I know, since you already had this," Kalinda said contentedly, looking at the silver engagement ring on her finger. "But I'm glad it happened the way it did. It was authentic. Natural. It was very 'us'. We'll have to start wedding planning when we get home."

They were currently relaxing on loungers on the balcony of their hotel room in Cancun. They had a view of the beach, and a cool breeze was blowing, taking the edge off of the morning sun. Hank found it as close to perfection as he could manage, given that he had just shared breakfast and tall glasses of fruit punch with the woman he loved.

Kalinda was wearing a dark blue bikini, showing off what Hank considered to be an almost unbelievable body for someone her age. There were people down on the beach at least twenty years younger than her that she put to shame.

"Yes, we will. Have a think about what you'd like," he said.

"I don't want anything special, Hank. Neither of us are particularly religious, and neither of have many people to invite. A church wedding would be silly. What do you say we do it in a small chapel and save money to put towards a honeymoon vacation. Maybe we could pay for Jay and Erin to come too?"

Hank looked at her, surprised in a good way. "You want to spend less money on a wedding ceremony so that we can bring my daughter and her boyfriend on our honeymoon with us?"

"Yes. I can't make this much clearer, Hank. Having a family means so much to me. I know Erin will never be my daughter. But to a limited extent it feels like she might. And that means Jay too since they're committed to each other. Plus we both know they've got no money. They won't be able to avoid a vacation."

To a limited extent, Hank noted, as always enjoying the way she worded things. The fact that she thought of Erin that way was important to him.

"Okay, we'll do that. You continue to amaze me, Kalinda. We're lucky to have you. All of us." He leaned over and gave her a kiss, mindful as ever to show her plenty of love and affection. He never wanted her to feel even a hint of the way her ex-husband had made her feel – totally un-loved and un-wanted.

"I'm the lucky one," she said before replying to his kiss with one of her own. Next she looked at her phone. "Bloody hell, look at the time. We need to go and call Lucy."

At long last, a Skype call had been arranged so that Hank and Kalinda's best friend Lucy Thorne could meet each other. As yet, the engagement news had been withheld so that Kalinda could break the news 'face to face'.

As they went into the hotel room to fire up the laptop they had brought with them, Hank had an idea. He knew from browsing Kalinda's Instagram posts that she and Lucy liked to meet up for vacations once or twice a year.

"You haven't gotten together for a long time. Why don't we invite Lucy and her husband to join us too?" he suggested. "They'll have to pay for themselves though," he quickly added as an attempt at humour.

"Seriously?" she asked, looking at him.

"Yeah, why not? It should be a good time. And just because they come doesn't mean we have to spend the whole time with them. We can still do things just the two of us when we want to."

"An excellent point. If you're sure, we'll make the invitation during the upcoming conversation."

'Upcoming conversation' made him smile. "Are you doing that on purpose again?" he asked as she connected the laptop's charger and fired it up, placing it on the table in front of the hotel room's couch.

"Doing what?"

"Nothing," he said, giving her a quick kiss.

The laptop was already connected to the hotel's Wi-Fi, so it wasn't long before Kalinda had fired up Skype and called Lucy Thorne, who showed as online. Hank studied the woman's profile picture, showing her standing with presumably her daughter on a beach somewhere. Lucy was tall, dark haired, pretty and in great shape for her age, much like Kalinda herself. There was a lucky man not shown in the picture.