She looked at him with a bewildered expression. He smiled as he read her mind. “Don’t worry, honey, there is plenty of time for me later! It’s a you and me kind of weekend!”
“What? where? huh” she asked confusedly.
“Just GET IN the Jeep and we can get outta here!! I’ll be three minutes to get my stuff!”
He ran upstairs to pack a few things leaving her wondering what had just happened. Her phone buzzed and she saw it was from Andy. She thought about opening it but thought better.
“OK, let’s go, honey!” Donald said as he practically ran down the stairs.
Kay had recovered from her initial shock. “Wait, what are we doing, where are we going, WHAT IS GOING ON?”
Donald stopped, grabbed her, and gave her a big kiss, even sneaking in a little tongue. He smiled at her while cupping her pretty face. “Just get in the car and I will explain everything!”
She shook her head at her husband in mock frustration with a small smile on her face. She really did love that man. She had dated several different men in her twenties but it was obvious when she and Donald got together that he was different. They just seemed to hit it off from the very beginning. Talking late into the night, she felt instantly at ease with him. She just felt…safe with him. She felt lucky to have found a man who was both strong and compassionate. Tough and sensitive.
As they buckled their seatbelts and he started to back out of the driveway, she snapped back to reality. “What about the kids, where are the twins? Who is going to get them? Where are they?”
Donald smiled, he knew this was driving her crazy. Kay was a planner. She liked to know what was going on and she hated being in the dark. He thought about stalling for a minute, but he knew better. The weekend had started on such a good note, that he thought he would appease her with some details.
“The kids were picked up from school by your parents. They are headed over to my sister’s house in a little bit. Darin is out of town for the weekend, so she was just going to hang out with the kids for the weekend. So, it’s a cousin weekend!”
“How? What?” she stammered.
“I texted your mom and my sister and asked if they could handle the twins for the weekend. I told them we needed some time together! They jumped at the chance! They have it all taken care of! Soccer practice, gymnastics, they got all the info!”
Kay was still trying to piece it all together. “Did you call Mr. Floyd? Did he really say for me to leave early today?”
“I called Jay and told him that we hadn’t had a real date night or time alone in almost a year. I told him my plan and I didn’t realize I was on speakerphone!! His wife was in the car too! She answered for him and said of course you should go home early today! They told us to have a great weekend!”
“Why would you call him? I don’t understand.”
“Honey, would you please relax and enjoy yourself? Jay has told me numerous times to please ask him if he could help me with anything. He likes to be helpful but no one will ask him. He told me he is so grateful for all the help with his son and wants to repay me somehow. I figured this was an easy win for both of us!”
She sat back in her chair when she realized that he had done all this to spend some time with her. She felt a twinge of guilt for her behavior with Andy. This man loves me so much. And God, I love him. What the hell was I doing?
They had been driving for forty-five minutes when Kay snapped out of her thoughts and wondered where the heck they were going. Before she could say anything, he turned on the blinker and they got off the highway. She recognized the exit.
“Oh my god, are we getting Stephano’s???” she asked excitedly.
He smiled as he turned into the parking lot. Stephano’s had been the place of their second date and many after that. They had not been there in years, however.
“Do us a favor and get in the back of the Jeep and grab the grocery bag on the left while I grab the pizza, would ya please?” he asked with a coy smile.
He jumped out and ran into the pizza place. He had estimated their time of arrival within ten minutes of the actual time! He paid for the pizza and put it in the back seat. He ran back in to grab the drinks.
“Here honey, put some of that Citron in your sprite! And I’ll take some of the Crown for my coke!”
She smiled. This is what they used to do when they were going up to… “Oh my god, are we going up to your uncle’s cabin?” she asked with a huge smile on her face.
It was a small, secluded cabin on a small lake up in the mountains. They had spent a few very memorable weekends there in their first few years as a couple. It wasn’t much, but it had a big bed, a hot tub, and a beautiful view of the lake.
They fixed their drinks and headed for the forty-five-minute trip up to the cabin. She looked over at her husband as she took a sip of her drink. “So, honey, what is going on? Why are we going to the cabin?”
Donald sighed with a slight smile. “Um, well, to be honest. I miss you.”
“You see me every day! How could you miss me?”
Donald thought for a while. She started to get a little nervous. Finally, he glanced over at her and said, “Honey, do you know the last time we had sex?”
She thought about it and stammered, “It has been a few weeks, we have just been so busy, and well why didn’t you say something?”
“Kay, it was spring break.”
She started to do the math when he did it for her “That was six weeks ago. This is our longest drought, other than the end of your pregnancy and the first few months of the twins’ lives, that we have ever had. By far. I miss you. I miss us.”
She sat there trying to absorb all that he was saying, while also feeling some dread and guilt about her flirtation with Andy. She really couldn’t believe it had been that long but knew that he was right. “I had no idea, I am sorry Donald, oh my gosh, really? Has it been that long? Why haven’t you tried to have sex with me? I don’t remember turning you down other than that one time when I didn’t feel well.”
Donald stared forward for a while and took a sip of his drink. “Honestly, I thought you didn’t want me anymore,” he said with a sad look on his face.
“Why would you think that? Of course I want you.”
"Do you remember our sex at spring break? At the hotel, with the kids out in the other room on the pullout bed?”
“Well of course I do!”
“I initiated it, but you really didn’t seem too into it.”
“Well, honey, the kids were in the next room!” She was trying to convince him and herself.
“That hasn’t stopped us before. Remember that time at the waterslide park hotel when I had to give you a pillow to bite so you wouldn’t wake them? At spring break I didn’t even know if you enjoyed it.”
“Of course I..”
He interrupted her. “I am not trying to pick a fight. I didn’t feel good about myself. You are so fit, and you look so amazing, you are honestly hotter and more sexy than the day I met you. I….was not. But I am working to fix that. I want you to actually want me too. You haven’t initiated sex in so long, I honestly can’t remember the last time. Actually, I think I do, it was New Year’s Eve and you had a few too many cocktails. We used to have sex almost every day and you were often the driving force. Look, I realize kids and getting older may slow things down a little bit, but in this year you haven’t wanted me. At all. I felt like it was my fault. I wasn’t this fit, former athlete that you fell in love with.”