"Hurry up or we are going to be late." Logan called from outside the bathroom. I drag the curling wand through my hair as quickly as I can, touching up some of the bouncy blonde curls around my face. Logan enters the bathroom, wrapping his hands around my body, placing his head on my shoulder.

"Damn, you are so beautiful!" His voice is a low growl that causes my nerves to jump on end. How can he do this to me with just the sound of his voice?

I feel the blush rush to my face once more. After last night, how could things get any better between us? Things started off rocky, but now I felt like I was on top of the world. My partner was back in my arms and I was so thankful to have him here.

"You are right. We better get going before you give me any other ideas." I mumbled, trying to keep the words to myself as best as I could. He had me feeling weak in the knees and if I didn't hurry, we would be stuck here all day.

"What other ideas?" Logan shouts, following me out of the bathroom as I primp my hair one last time in the mirror's reflection in the main hotel room. Before he can reach me, I grab my purse off the table and head towards the door. I flung it open to enter the hallway as it slowly fell shut behind me. He isn't far off my trail, grabbing my arm to pull me back into the room. "What...other ideas?"

His breath was much more raspy at this point, almost like he was just as desperate for me as I was for him. I couldn't help but smirk at him. His hands pulled me tighter into him, drawing me even further into our hotel room. If I wasn't careful, I was going to have that fresh out of bed look again, and I wasn't sure I would complain.

Logan's lips crashed against mine with a new hunger that pulled me in deeper. They trapped me like a fly on his web and there was no escaping. This was the end.

Before I could breathe once more, my shirt was over my head and my body was pressed up against the sheets. I was truly in a paradise.

~*~

"Finally, you guys decide to show up! What in the world took you so long?" Logan's mother whines as we get out of the car. We were delayed a little longer than we had expected to be with all of our rolling around, but I didn't remember setting up a time with her in the first place on when we would be back here.

"We are here now, Ma. No need to worry about it." I could feel the heat rush to my face once more when Logan wraps his arm around his mother, leading her back into the house. Once inside the home, there were two bouncing children, eager to see their father. I'd say they felt the same way for me, but it was quite apparent who they missed more when they dove into Logan's arms so fast I thought they were going to knock him over.

"Were they good for you guys last night?" I ask, turning to Logan's parents. I was hoping to just get an answer from either of them that showed I was standing in the same room as his family. They looked me over, their eyes dancing across my outfit as if they were military inspectors and my uniform was out of regs.

"Other than a few issues with your parenting style, they were absolute peaches last night. Nothing we weren't able to manage." Logan's mother's input was worse than I had expected it to be, and suddenly I wished they had ignored me once more. Hell, I wished I had never asked in the first place. When would I learn to keep my big mouth shut?

Logan was off in another room as Mazie and Marcus showed him all the cool toys they got to play with last night. This left me alone with the In-laws from hell. I removed my shoes so I could slip onto the couch. At least if my back was against that, I knew they wouldn't be able to stab me in it while I wasn't looking.

"Next time, make sure you guys are on time. We've already had breakfast here, and the kids have been just waiting for us to leave for the zoo." Logan's mother decided she wasn't done. Her words hadn't cut deep enough this morning. I looked at the clock on my phone, not really acknowledging what she had said. It wasn't even nine in the morning yet. We also hadn't been here for over five minutes. I mentally begged for the kids to bring their father back, just someone to take all the attention off of me.

"How's that job of yours going?" Logan's father asks, speaking the first words I'd heard from him all day. He caught me off guard, and I wasn't sure how to answer the question when he asked. Did he really care to hear how my job was going? Or was he just trying to fill the empty space between us?

"It's going well. I should be up for a promotion here soon." My words were weak. I could feel Logan's mother's eyes boring into my soul. She was judging the words falling out of my mouth. At that moment, I knew I made the right decision to give very minimal information.

"Oh honey, don't you know? That's why they never come to see us, because she is always so busy working to get those promotions that won't help her." Logan's mother took her husband in her arms. It looked as if she was speaking comfort from him, hoping he would keep the big, bad, scary daughter-in-law away from her. I rolled my eyes. There was no proper answer to what she had just said. If they took the time to understand anything about us, they would know why we are never here. Logan has been gone, under the ocean, for months at a time. His mother got the same emails I did, informing us of information about them while they were away. She has all the same information I do and yet she still blames me for never seeing her grandkids.

Logan entered the room with the kids trailing behind him, and I'd never been more thankful for something in my entire life. Well, that wasn't completely true... I was thankful the day Logan got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was also thankful the day that I actually got to walk down the aisle since we thought the military was going to ruin that day. I've always been thankful whenever it came to Logan. But in this moment, it was a whole different kind of appreciation. The tension between me and his parents had never been good, but lately with this last deployment, it's gotten worse. Now that the kids were older and had their own opinions, it seemed the judgment cast in my direction was so much harsher than it used to be. Something about my brainwashing of them and Logan all at the same time.

Everything always seemed to be my fault.

"Are you guys ready to go to the zoo?" My mother-in-law looks at the kids. The heart that was once cold when she looked at me warmed as soon as she saw their smiling faces.

At least she was nice to them.

Logan took his place beside me, helping me up off the couch, his hand never leaving mine. He led me to the garage, trailing behind everyone else. When everyone had left the house and was loading into the car, he snuck a quick kiss.

"I love you." He whispered against my skin, causing my whole body to heat up instantly.

"I love you too."

The drive wasn't too long. It was only forty minutes away, which wasn't and for the area we were in. It didn't matter anyway. I was able to sit in the very back seat of the three row van and enjoy some quiet time on my phone. Logan sat in the middle with Marcus, and Mazie took the seat next to me. They all chatted away about how Logan's father was doing so well in his job, but now that he was getting close to retiring, things were going to change soon. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at how he thought the world worked. It was like Logan's parents just didn't have a clue.

When we pulled into the Zoo parking lot, the kids flung their seatbelts off before we could even find a space to park the car. I had to grab Mazie's arm to keep her from chucking all of her stuff on top of me. Logan helped the kids climb over the seats so they could get out, and once their feet were planted firmly on the asphalt, he pulled the seat down, once again taking my hand to help me escape the vehicle.

"What do you want to see first?" I asked. Marcus ran over, wrapping his arms around my legs, giving me the world's biggest hug. He was my lover boy when he got excited.

"I want to see the giraffes!" Mazie shouted, loud enough for another family getting out of their car to turn to look at us. I smiled at them, hoping they would just carry on with their day.

"Why would you want to see the giraffes?" Logan's mother comments, turning her nose up in the air. What the hell was wrong with Mazie picking what animal she wanted to see? That's literally what we were here for.

"Because they are my favorite and I had to do a school project about them, so I know lots of cool stuff about them, and they are really really tall, and they like to eat leaves off the top of the trees..." Mazie continued on, rambling so quickly to herself that no one could really understand her anymore.

"Giraffes are disgusting creatures, and they aren't very smart. We should spend more time looking at something else." Logan's mother injected.

I nudged Logan in the side, hoping he would come to our daughter's defense. He seemed oblivious to the whole situation. His eyes danced around the scenery taking in everything around us, but nothing was going on with us. No one wanted to speak after the awkward exchange, so the only sound was our shoes on the asphalt.

The line at the gate wasn't too long, only about a fifteen-minute wait or so to get in.

"Ugh, this line is ridiculous. I knew we should have left earlier. I'm going to go sit down over there honey, wave me over when it's our turn to head inside." Logan's mother walked to a nearby bench located under a tree.

There it was, yet another hit at me. It couldn't have possibly been Logan's fault we were late, or maybe it was traffic, or maybe it was the fact that I hadn't seen my husband in months and just wanted to spend some extra time with him. Logan's father gave me a knowing look before deciding to ‌join his wife on the bench. The kids ran off to look at the stuffed animals in the gift shop. Logan turned to look at me, shrugging his shoulders, not sure what to do.

"Go." I motioned, waving him off to go keep an eye on the kids. "I'll wait in line until it's our turn and get the tickets for everyone."

Logan gave me an apologetic look before rushing off to find our kids. Some more alone time might be good for me anyway. This day just seems to keep getting better and better. I glanced at my phone for the time, only to see it was ten in the morning now. This day was going to drag on and on at this rate. I needed to figure out how I was going to deal with this.

I watched the couple sit under the tree together. They seemed so happy when they weren't around me. I couldn't imagine I had done anything to them. All I did was marry their son and try to be as respectful as possible.

But yet they still hated me.