I leaned into him. Nathaniel sat behind me, pulling me back against his chest. I sighed in bliss because Nathaniel’s arms were my happy place.
For several minutes we stayed in that position, holding onto the other, watching the dancing flames of the fireplace. Once more the silence struck me. I’d journaled about it a day ago. Nothing major, just a paragraph or two about this week made my brain feel as if it was the one on vacation. I felt a bit silly once I wrote it down, but I left it there. It was a journal, and journals didn’t judge your thoughts.
Not to mention, I’d tried to do the whole mark it out thing exactly once before and Nathaniel had read me the riot act, and then I had to write one thousand words on why journals shouldn’t have any marked out bits.
“Do you think this week away was a good decision?” he asked and dropped his head to my neck for a kiss.
I tilted my head to give him better access. “That’s what I said a few minutes ago, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “But I wanted to make certain before bringing up my newest idea.”
“Which is?” I asked, both excited and trepidation at the same time.
“We plan a week together, just the two of us, twice a year.”
13
Nathaniel
I’m not sure why I thought she’d hate the idea, maybe because I’d had to practically pull her out of the house, kicking and screaming, to get her here this week. Why would I expect anything different when I brought up doubling the number of trips and making them annual?
But she did react differently. In fact, she reacted so different; I wondered if she’d heard what I said. Instead of either rolling her eyes, asking if I was serious, or saying ‘hell no,’ she said nothing.
“Abby?” I asked. “What are your thoughts?” I'd prepared myself for anything she came at me with. Any reason she had, I’d expected and had a response for. Not because I’m an ass who always has to win or get my own way, but because I knew this would be a positive change, and one that would hopefully lead to less stress for her.
“I think,” she started and then stopped.
“Yes?”
“I think it’s a great idea,” she finished.
Great idea. I ran through the arguments in my head, looking for my response to great idea.
What the fuck?
She liked it?
“It’s a great idea?” I asked. “You think so?”
“Yes,” she said, and turned her head to look over her shoulder at me. “Why do you look so surprised?”
“Because I know you weren’t all that happy about coming here for the week.”
“That had nothing to do about not wanting to be with you or going off without the kids. It was about me being worried that I’d forget or not have time to do something for Christmas.” She leaned back into my chest and I wrapped my arms around her tighter. “Being here with you this week has been amazing, and I’d love to do it twice a year.”
I kissed the back of her neck and watched as she wiggled in pleasure. I didn’t question her further or ask if she was sure, we’d both learned the hard way early in our relationship how dangerous half truths and unspoken needs were. Not to say we had a perfect marriage. Like anyone else, we had plenty of disagreements and our communication hadn’t always been stellar, but I thought we did better than average.
But we couldn’t allow ourselves to grow complacent. Another reason I wanted to get away a few times a year alone with her.
I kept my lips near the skin of her neck. It drove her crazy to feel my breath against her tender skin, and I loved the scent of her. “Reading your journal entry about having silence and your ability to think is one reason I suggested getting away a few times a year.”
Now that we’d both agreed on our plan, and our week was ending, I felt something that might have been a tinge of sadness I’d have to share Abby with everyone else soon. But realizing I’d have her all by myself again in another six months lessened that unnamed something.
“Six months isn’t too far away,” Abby said, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d spoken my thoughts or if we both happened to be on the same wavelength. “It’ll be nice to look forward to sneaking away with you.”
“And Linda will be overjoyed to keep the kids twice a year,” I added.
For several minutes, the only sound audible was the crackling of the fire. The silence reminded me that no matter how much I enjoyed getting away from it all, I found I missed the noise and chaos of our life. Or more to the point, I missed the kids. Elizabeth and Henry were as vital to me as Abby. Talking to them a few times a day via video chat wasn’t the same as being with them. I missed the happy hugs when I returned home from work, the sleepy hugs and kisses at bedtime, and the contentment of knowing everyone who mattered the most to me was under my roof where I could ensure their safety.
“Two entire weeks all alone with you…..” Abby spoke as if thinking through something. “Whatever will we do with ourselves?”
“I was thinking of checkers,” I said, not missing a beat. The glance she gave me over her shoulder told me she thought I’d lost every bit of sense I’d ever had. “With your body as the game board,” I added.
14
Abby
The morning of the day we planned to fly home, I slipped out of bed early and, without waking Nathaniel, made my way to the bottom floor of the chalet. Though we had a strict “no work” rule in place whenever we were at the chalet, history had taught us how important it was to be prepared because you never knew what was going to happen.
As proven on one of our first family visits to Switzerland, when there was an emergency at the New York office and Nathaniel had to work from his tablet to keep everything from falling apart. We had a small office added to the bottom floor which before held our indoor pool, sauna, and bathrooms. It wasn’t an enticing location, which was the exact point. It had no windows and I wouldn’t recommend anyone suffering from claustrophobia to use it, but it had a printer which was all I needed that morning.
I printed off what I needed, slipped it in into envelope I’d found the night before, and added a bow from the art supplies Elizabeth had in a chalet bedroom. I tip-toed up the stairs and peeked in on Nathaniel, thankfully, still sleeping. With an enormous sigh of relief at having everything taken care of in the short timeline I’d given myself, I hid the envelope in the living room and set about getting breakfast together.
I couldn’t keep the smile off my face at what I’d pulled off, but even more, the fact I’d been able to accomplish it without Nathaniel knowing. That I knew of anyway. He was a tricky one, and hard to surprise, but I was near giddy thinking I might have finally done it this time.
I hadn’t done it by myself, I’d had the help of Dena, who knew just about everyone, and Luke and Megan DeVaan who knew everyone else. That we’d been able to get it all together and completed in the time we had, was nothing but a minor miracle.
As much as I wanted to run up the stairs and wake Nathaniel up so I could give him his gift, I knew he never slept late, even the few times he’d been ill, and he’d be downstairs in the kitchen soon. But even having that knowledge, I was still almost bouncing as I waited for him to get up.