“You should get ready,” Peter said, coming up behind her, kissing her neck. The kids rinsed their mouths and put their toothbrushes in the cup, then ran to their bedroom.
“Are you sure it’ll be fine leaving them in the hotel room while we go to dinner?” she asked anxiously.
Tonight was their anniversary, and they had planned to eat at the hotel’s restaurant—alone for once.
“Of course,” Peter said. “The door will be locked, and the kids will be sound asleep. We’ll be right downstairs. This is a resort. It’s safe; believe me. Besides, I can’t wait to have a few hours alone with my beautiful wife. I feel like we haven’t been alone for years.”
He was right. They hadn’t been good at prioritizing being just the two of them. Other couples had date nights once a month or even once a week, where they went out just the two of them. Mary didn’t like leaving her babies with some babysitter, and to be honest, she wasn’t that interested in being without them. She loved Peter, but why couldn’t it be all four of them?
“What if they wake up and want their mother?” she asked, biting her lip. She felt odd about this dinner and wasn’t sure she wanted to go.
“We’ll leave my phone by their bedside. They know how to use that and can call us on your phone. Plus, we can check on them every hour if you like.”
“Let’s make that every thirty minutes, and you have a deal,” she said, smiling at him in the mirror in front of her.
Prologue
“Okay, kiddos. What are we reading tonight? And remember, Mommy has to go. That means it can only be one story tonight.”
“Aw!” Blake said, disappointed. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and pouted. “You’re gonna choose something she wants because you always do.”
“No, Blake,” Mary said. “We can choose a book that you both want to read. What do you want to read?”
“Flat Stanley!” Blake exclaimed.
“NO!” his sister yelled. “I hate that book.”
“I am not reading about that stupid Wolfie the Bunny again,” Blake said.
“Well, I don’t want to hear about stupid Flat Stanley. What’s so cool about him being flat anyway?”
Mary smiled and looked at the pile of books they had brought with them. She had gotten ready for dinner and was wearing her red dress—the one Peter gave her for their last anniversary. It was a little tight over the hips, and she had realized she had gained some weight since last year. As she bent down, it felt very tight in the waist as well. She pulled out a book.
“How about this one? You both used to love this.”
She showed them the book’s cover, holding it up for them. Maggie’s face lit up. “Yay. I love Kevin the Cute Monster.”
“I hate that one,” Blake said. “Monsters aren’t supposed to be cute.”
Mary sent him a look, her head slightly tilted. “Maybe not, but this is the book I am reading tonight, okay? Then we can read both Flat Stanley and Wolfie the Bunny tomorrow night. Maybe we can even add a third one that you pick, okay?”
Blake wasn’t happy but finally acquiesced. The children crawled into her lap, and she opened the book. Mary began to read while she could hear Peter in the bathroom, getting ready. She thought for a second about telling him she didn’t want to go out tonight after all, that she didn’t feel like leaving the children, but she knew he would only be hurt. He had talked about the dinner for weeks, how the restaurant at the hotel had five stars and that she could get Foie Gras, her favorite. She didn’t tell him that it had been many years since she had thought of it as her favorite. The thought of eating the fattened liver of a goose made her want to throw up now. Things had changed. She had changed. And right now, all she wanted was to lie down with her children and cuddle with them all night. She really didn’t need a fancy dinner or alone time with her husband. She wanted to sleep in their room so that she could protect them all night.
“You almost done?” Peter asked and stood in the doorway. He walked in and kissed each of the twins goodnight. She smiled warmly.
“Almost. Just a few more pages.”
He looked at his watch. “All right, but hurry up. We have reservations at eight.”
He left, and the kids crept slightly closer to her. She kept reading until Maggie suddenly interrupted her.
“What if we get scared while you’re gone?” she asked.
“Then you have the phone. Remember how I told you that you could call my phone and I’ll be up in less than a minute?”
Maggie nodded with a sniffle. Blake sent her a concerned look. She pulled them both closer.
“I’ll come to check on you once every thirty minutes,” Mary said, her heart aching. She didn’t like this. The children weren’t used to being left alone. On the other hand, she knew Peter was right; they’d be safe in the hotel room, but still. She couldn’t say why, but she didn’t feel comfortable leaving them. “I’ll leave the bedroom door ajar to make sure there’s a little light coming in. It’ll be just like if Mommy and Daddy are right next door.”
“But you won’t be,” her son added, concerned. “You are not next door. What if Maggie has a nightmare?”
“You’ll be fine,” she said, trying her best to sound comforting. “You’ll be sleeping, and when you wake up, Mommy and Daddy will be here again. You won’t even know we were gone.”
Mary sighed and tugged them close to her. She pulled up their covers, then kissed their foreheads gently. As she walked to the door, she wondered if it was because they could sense her unease that they were anxious about this. Children sensed those things in their mothers, often before they did themselves.
Mary flipped the light switch, then turned around to glance at her already half-asleep children one last time. With a deep sigh of happiness, she thought to herself: How did I get to be this lucky?
Prologue
She did order the Foie Gras. Not because she desperately wanted to eat it again the way Peter thought, but mostly to make him happy. He had wanted to treat her with this delicious meal for years, and now he finally could.
Peter was a sweetheart, and she didn’t want to break his dear heart, so naturally, she ordered Foie Gras for the appetizer and then the fish for the entrée. The food was wonderful, and so was the atmosphere at the restaurant. They were sitting by the big panoramic windows overlooking the dark ocean as the sun set. Everything was beyond exquisite.
After the first glass of wine, Mary began to relax, and as the second went the same way, she no longer had that knot in her stomach, telling her things were about to go terribly wrong. She smiled and laughed at Peter’s jokes, and they talked while looking deeply into each other’s eyes without being interrupted, something they hadn’t been able to do much of in the past five years. Yet somewhere between the appetizer and the entrée, the conversation still turned to be about them, the children. Mary had run out of other topics to talk about, and frankly, they were more on her mind than ever.
“Do you know what Maggie told me today?” Mary said with a light laugh. Her fingers were touching the stem of the wine glass gently as she smiled secretly to herself. “She said she had met a secret spy.”