Greyson
I was standing with my arms crossed over my chest and leaning against the front door as Skylar told her sister where every baby related item in the house was. Renee shot me a wary glance and I used every ounce of self-control I possessed not to start laughing at her. Laughing right now would do no good. Skylar was in full blown ‘protective mother bear mode’, and any interruption from me would only cause her to start over again. We had already been at this for fifteen minutes.
“The extra formula is in the cupboard to the right of the fridge. Bottom shelf, blue box. You won’t miss it. I don’t think you’ll need it because I prepared enough for you this afternoon. We usually put her down around eight, that’s when she normally gets tired. She doesn’t go to bed with anything to drink, or anything in her mouth. Okay? If you just talk to her while she’s in her crib she should fall asleep in five minutes. What else, what else? Oh! All our take out menus are on the side of the fridge. Order whatever, use one of these cards.” Skylar handed Renee a black credit card. “Do you think you need anything else?”
“Besides a shot of tequila?” Renee asked. “No. I think I’ve got it from here.”
“Okay. Just remember, if you need anything just call us. Please. Don’t worry about interrupting us we want to know if anything goes wrong or-”
“Okay,” I said, pushing myself off the door. I took Skylar’s elbow and guided her gently away from her sister and to the front door. “There is such a thing as giving a person too much information. Your sister has this. She’s related to you. It will be fine. Let’s go.”
Renee shot me a grateful look and mouthed ‘thank you’.
“I saw that,” Skylar said.
“Let’s go,” I said a little more firmly as I opened the front door and pushed her outside ahead of me. “It’s babysitting, not nuclear physics.”
“But I just want to make sure everything is-”
I turned around and rolled my eyes at Renee, who covered her mouth and giggled as I pulled the door closed behind me. I faced Skylar, who was staring at the front door with a pale expression. “We’ve never left our little girl before.”
“We’re not leaving her,” I said, sensing how delicate Skylar’s emotions were at the present moment. “We are taking advantage of a rare moment for the two of us to spend some uninterrupted quality time together.”
“Don’t you feel like we’re being selfish?” Skylar asked as I took her hand and brought her to the car.
“No, I don’t. I think this is the kind of thing responsible parents do. We want her to grow up with good role models for relationships, right? Isn’t this the kind of thing people in a good marriage do? They keep dating. They keep making time for each other. Consider this parenting.”
Skylar blinked and then opened her mouth to speak. She closed it again as she considered what I had said, and then I saw the slump in her shoulders disappear. “I think you’re right,” she said softly.
I opened the passenger door for her and leaned over once she was sitting inside. “Of course I’m right.”
I closed her door and caught her smiling at me as I walked around the hood of the car. I slid into my seat and started the engine. “Now, just to double check. Is there anything else you want to do before we leave? Because once we pull out of this driveway I’m not bringing you back home for a long time. I want to keep you all to myself for as long as I can.”
“Just drive, otherwise I’ll think of a hundred things and we’ll never get out of here.”
“You said it, not me,” I said before practically spinning the tires and racing out of the driveway like a madman.
Or like a man who knew what kinds of delights the evening had in store.
We ate dinner at a lavish steakhouse that was dimly lit; it was a stark contrast to our home and our current lifestyle. Across from me, Skylar looked like an angel bathing in the candlelight. Her hair was swept up in an elegant bun and diamond earrings winked in her ears. Her shoulders were bare, save for the two thin straps of her emerald green dress.
“You’re beautiful,” I said as she reached for her glass of water. Somehow her skin shimmered in the dim lighting as she moved.
Her green eyes swept up to me and she blushed the same way she used to when we were first seeing each other. It sent a ripple of excitement through me.
“You look quite handsome yourself,” she said.
“We hardly look like the sort to have a one year old back home,” I said.
Skylar smiled and shrugged one shoulder. “I suppose. It’s kind of nice to dress up again. It’s been a while since I was able to wear something so pretty.”
Her words unsettled me. I looked down at the table and considered what she had said. It had been a while. A long while.
“Greyson?” She asked.
I looked back up at her.
“Is everything alright?”
I nodded. “Yes. Everything is perfect. I just think we need to do this more often.” Her eyebrows furrowed together and I realized I probably wasn’t making any sense. I continued to try to clarify what I was saying. “Gwen is the most precious thing in the world to me, just as she is to you. But you’re precious to me too, and I don’t want to look back and realize we missed out on this kind of time together because we were cleaning up toys or passed out face first in the bed because we’re so exhausted.”
“Okay,” Skylar said slowly, “Where are you going with this?”
“Nowhere,” I said, “I just want us both to commit to trying to make this happen more often. You and me. At a place like this. We need this, Skylar. Tell me you need this.”
Skylar bit her bottom lip. Blood rushed straight to my groin. She hung her head, but smiled when she looked back up at me. She was blushing again. “I need this.”
“Good,” I said. “Very good.”
Our food arrived shortly after. It was delicious, but I didn’t pay it much attention. Instead I watched my wife. I listened to everything she said, which was mostly stuff about Gwen, and I hung on to every word that fell from her lips. She had me in the palm of her hand, just as she always had. I knew as I sat across from her that this feeling in my stomach of excitement and joy would never fade. I was going to love her fiercely until the day I died.
When we finished eating Skylar indulged in another glass of wine. I kept to water so that I would be able to drive us to our next destination- our surprise destination.
After paying the bill I pulled Skylar’s chair out for her. She hooked her arm in my elbow and we left the restaurant together. The valet brought our car around and we packed back inside. I turned the ignition and Skylar sighed happily beside me.
“That was delicious,” she said, “I’d definitely go back to that place.”
“Me too,” I said as I pulled away from the curb.
“Where to now?” Skylar asked, rolling her head to the side to watch me as I drove.
“You’ll see,” I said without taking my eyes off the road.
I waited for her to question me. I knew she loved surprises, but she was bad at going with the flow. She always liked to know what to expect. “I’ll see?” She finally said. “Give me a hint?”
“Nope.”
“Oh come on, just a little one. Do you think I’d be able to guess it?”
“Probably. You’re smarter than I am.”
“Stop it,” she said, and then she laughed softly and looked out the passenger window. “I know I am.”
I laughed and turned right down a narrow road. “Any ideas yet?”
She made a thoughtful sound in the back of her throat. “Maybe one.”
I knew she would figure it out as we got closer to our destination. The last time we had driven this route we had only known each other for forty eight hours. I had taken her to the park on a sunny afternoon and laid out a blanket. I brought along a picnic basket, and the two of us sat in the shade under a tree in the park and ate strawberries while watching the other park goers and young families.
It was strange to think that this time we had a family of our own.
I parked the car and walked around to Skylar’s door. I opened it for her and didn’t stop myself from checking her out as she got out, one long leg after the other.
I opened the trunk and grabbed a blanket and picnic basket I had packed earlier that day. Skylar’s eyes widened as she saw it in my hands, and then she let out a surprised giggle.
“You packed us a picnic?”
“Hell yes I did,” I grinned at her.
We cut through the parking lot and over the first grassy hill to the same spot we sat the first time we came to this park. The grass beneath the tree was damp, and I was glad I brought the blanket. I put it down for us and gestured for Skylar to lay down.
“You first,” she said.
Thrown off, but not of the mind to refuse her, I kicked off my shoes and laid down on the blanket, clasping my hands behind my head. Skylar still stood at the edge of the blanket looking down at me. “What are you still doing up there?” I asked.
Skylar lifted one hand to the bun swirled at the top of her head. With a flourish she pulled a pin free, and her black curls cascaded down over her shoulders and shone in the moonlight. My breath hitched in my throat, and I found I was incapable of anything but staring at her as she slipped the thin straps of her dress down her shoulders.
When she turned away from me and began undoing the zipper up the side of her dress, I thought I might lose my mind. She took her time and I could hear the metal of the zipper whispering seductively as she pulled it down until it stopped at her hip. Then, knowing what torture she was putting me through, she began inching the dress down ever so slowly.
Her breasts emerged first over the neckline of the dress. She hadn’t been wearing a bra, and her breasts were fuller than they used to be from having Gwen. Her nipples were hard and I hoped for a fleeting moment that she wasn’t cold.
Thoughts of the temperature vanished when the dress fell around her ankles. She hadn’t bothered to wear anything under the dress. I was astounded by how sexy she was.
“You sat through dinner in nothing but that dress and your shoes?” I whispered. My voice sounded low in my own ears.
She nodded but didn’t say a word.
Skylar turned away from me in a slow circle, giving me a show of her naked body in the moonlight. When she was facing the other way she looked over her shoulder at me.
“Are you just going to sit there all night, or are you going to remind me how this used to go?”