The Vacation

The Vacation

Chapter 1

The tour company bus was going to leave without him.

This thought was circling within his brain as he ran down the sidewalk towards the train station's parking lot. While most tour guests probably arrived on the 8AM train, Kyle had come in the previous night as he was supposed to meet his fiancé Gwen at a quaint hotel in the small town. He flown to France from Canada and had taken an early morning train to reach the tour's starting point. Gwen was already in France working as an editor for one of the authors of the publishing house she worked for.

Kyle had booked this, awfully expensive, vacation to rebuild their relationship which had been going through a rough patch over the past few months. They had been together for five years and both had a love for being outdoors and cycling especially.
The couples and adults only cycling holiday was their chance to reconnect. He had hoped to recapture the bliss of their love for each other.

Luxury accommodations were, a condition Gwen had insisted on, hence the choice of this tour company and package. He had tried to argue for a more affordable trip, but she told him flat out if he was not willing to invest his money in their relationship there was no point.

So here he was in France, but the trip, so far, had not turned out as he had hoped for.

The previous day as he had checked in, instead of finding his fiancé, he found a letter from her at the reception desk. He took it to his room to read.

Gwen was not joining him on the vacation. In fact, she never intended to. At her request, he had paid the full price for their vacation and then some, digging deep into his savings he worked so hard for. She had written that this was punishment for not giving her the lifestyle she deserved, and it was the final lesson he had needed to learn from her.

Instead of joining him, she was going to marry the author. He realized she would become wife number three for the man. The author was wealthy, worldly, and eighteen years older than his twenty-five-year-old X. Gwen was just twenty-four so her forty-three-year-old husband had himself a new trophy wife.

Kyle had met Gwen in college. He was taking an Investment Management course and she was in a Publishing course, and he had fallen for the petite brunette hard. She was 4" shorter than him and beyond lovely. Short, tousled black hair, large blue eyes behind serious black rimmed glasses, cute button nose, and a wide, friendly smile. She kept her body trim and fit and was delighted that he was willing to follow her request to get his body in shape as well. Under her coaching he worked hard and quickly lost the soft pudginess on this frame.

Muscles grew and hardened, and he even stopped eating the foods he liked. He endured this willingly as it kept a smile on her face. He adjusted to his new fitness regimen and diet as her happiness was his greatest joy.

She had proven to be more experienced in bed than him, but he was a quick learner and she taught him much about what to do to make her happy between the sheets.

Gwen was his first and only.

Those early days had been overly exciting, and they discovered a mutual love for cycling.

He got a good job once he graduated and so did, she. They had rapidly growing careers and supported each other during their upward climb through their respective positions. Kyle thought they had a good thing going.

Now with her final act of cruelty, he knew he had been the only one in the relationship who thought so.

Once he finished crying after reading the letter, Kyle had wandered down to the bar feeling like he had a ragged hole in his heart. He tried to fill that hole with scotch. He barely managed to get back to his room and slept through his alarm in morning.

He was dammed if he was going to lose all the money on this trip. He loved cycling, it would not betray him and rip his heart out so viciously as Gwen did, so he decided to proceed with the trip on his own.

He just had to get to the bus before it left without him.

Running with a hangover was not how he wanted to start his vacation. But then, neither was discovering he had been dumped.

He sighed with relief as he saw the tour company van was still there and they were only beginning to load the luggage into the trailer. A passenger van was parked behind the trailer.

A cheerful, young blond woman wearing the jersey of the tour company and carrying a tablet PC turned to smile at him as he arrived out of breath.

Good morning! You made it! she said with a grin.

Almost did not, as he was getting his breath.

Your name? she asked.

Kyle. Kyle MacClenny.

"Ah! Here you are!" she said looking at her tablet. She checked the box next to his name and saw the name linked to his. She looked up and past Kyle. Will Gwen Carrington be joining us soon? We need to get on the road.

"She's, uh, she's not coming," he said with a distinctly uncomfortable look on his face.
Oh! Oh, ok, well lets, get your bag stored and you can take a seat in the van. She smiled awkwardly at him and made a notation on the tablet to indicate the cancellation.

He sighed and put his duffle with the other luggage being loaded into the trailer. He nodded to the tall, dark, and handsome man handling the luggage. Kyle turned and came face to face with an equally tall and lovely blond woman with a prominent, strong nose and a long ponytail who was helping the man with the loading. He smiled at her as well. Both were slim and very fit looking in their matching tour jerseys, so these were obviously the other guides. He saw a couple and a mother and daughter standing on the sidewalk next to the van. He smiled and nodded to them then climbed inside.

The back of the van was equipped with two rows of three seats and a third row for four. Ten seats. He wondered if they rented the vans based on the size of the group they had. He made his way to the back row.

His head was really thumping by this point, so he almost missed the pleasant greeting from a petite red haired, woman seated in the middle of the middle row. She was sitting next to a large bear of a black man who was snoring against the window.

Sorry, bit of a headache this morning. Good morning, I am Kyle he said, tucking his small shoulder bag on the van's rear bench as he turned to her.

I am Kimberly, she said as she reached out her hand. He shook it. The big guy next to me is my husband, David. He had a few too many glasses of wine last night, she said with an embarrassed eye roll.

Kyle gave her a smile as he touched his temple which continued to thump. Then I can sympathize with him. She gave him a false scowl then grinned as he moved back to drop himself on the bench. He slid himself along the bench to the window and leaned his left temple against the glass as the cool surface made his head feel a little better.

He let his eyes close and just listened to the people boarding. Kimberly was greeting everyone as they climbed inside so he guessed she was a very social person.

When a soft weight landed on his right hip Kyle's eyes flew open. He looked into the shocked and apologetic eyes of a woman who was moving back to the middle of the seat. She seemed a little older than he was but had a kind of classic Hollywood allure.

Gwen had been overly fond of those old movies. This woman looked like a brunette version of Grace Kelly. That lovely auburn hair was pulled back and fell to her shoulders. She was slim, but she felt soft when she had landed on him.

I am so sorry about that! she gushed, her British accent catching Kyle's ear. My clumsy daughter knocked me as I was sitting.

He smiled at her. Not a problem.

She smiled gratefully. I am Helen. Gesturing to her right she continued. This is my daughter Skye.

Hello, I am Kyle, he replied and nodded to the younger version of Helen sitting on her opposite side.

Are you travelling alone? Skye asked, her accent as thick as her mother's.

To be continued