As family vacations go, Jason’s choice of hotel shocked me. I had expected some moderately priced, kid-friendly establishment Instead, we arrived at a five-star getaway resort, complete with a full-service spa and yawning indoor pool A bellhop in a red coat with gold-braid trim led us up to the very top floor, which could only be accessed by inserting the room key into the elevator key pad. Then, he escorted us to a two-bedroom corner suite.
The first room contained a king-sized bed with sumptuous white bedding and enough richly brocaded pillows to furnish a harem. Our view overlooked Boston Harbor The bathroom featured wall-to-wall rose- colored marble.
In the adjacent sitting area, we discovered a sleeper sofa, two low-slung camel-colored chairs, and the world’s largest flat-screen TV. When Jason announced that this would be Ree’s room, her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. So did mine.
“I love it!” Ree squealed, and immediately went to work disgorging her overstuffed suitcase into her deluxe chamber In five seconds or less, the room was covered in bright pink princess blankets, half a dozen Barbies, and, of course, Lil’ Bunny, given the perch of honor in the middle of the sofa. “Can we watch a movie?”
“Later. First, I thought we’d put on fancy clothes and I would escort my two favorite ladies to dinner.”
Ree’s scream of delight threatened to shatter the bank of windows. I continued to regard my husband with shell-shocked surprise. “But I didn’t bring anything fancy… I wasn’t expecting…”
“I took the liberty of throwing in a dress and your boots.”
My eyes went wider, but Jason maintained his inscrutable features. He was up to something. I just knew it. And for a moment, Wayne’s warning came back to me. Maybe Jason knew what I’d been doing. He’d guessed that I’d been tracking his online activities and he was… wining and dining me to death? Spa-ing me into submission at a sumptuous resort?
I retreated to our half of the suite, where I put on the shimmering blue dress Jason had packed for me, as well as knee-high black leather boots. I hadn’t worn this dress for Wayne yet. I wondered if Jason had known that, and I felt uneasy all over again.
Then Ree came barreling into the room, spinning around in a cranberry-colored dress sprinkled with embroidered flowers and finished with a giant looping bow in the back. “Mommy, do my hair. Hair time, Mommy. I want to look fabulous!”
So I fashioned Ree’s hair into a bun on top of her head, with curly wisps springing around her face. And I spritzed and styled my own golden curls, even finding some makeup packed away by my clever husband for our family getaway. I did eyes, cheeks, and lip gloss for me. Lip gloss only for Ree, who then pouted because she personally believed the more makeup you wore, the more “fabulous” you were bound to be.
Jason appeared in the doorway of the bathroom. He was wearing dark slacks I’d never seen before, with a deep plum-colored shirt and a dark flecked sports jacket. No tie. The top two buttons of his sharply pressed shirt were undone, showing off the strong column of his throat. And I felt a stirring then, low in my belly, that I had not felt in the past four months.
My husband is a handsome man. A very, very handsome man.
My gaze came up. Our eyes met, and I felt it then, genuine, spine-tingling, bone deep.
I was afraid of him.
Jason wanted to walk. While the evening held a bracing, February chill, it was not raining and the sidewalks were clear Ree loved this idea, as she loved everything about family vacation thus far She walked between us, her left hand tucked in Jason’s, her right hand tucked in mine. She would count to ten, then it would be our job to hoist her into the air so she could squeal at passing pedestrians.
They would smile at us, a well-dressed family out and about in the big city.
We followed the red line tracing Paul Revere’s ride toward the Old State House, then took a left and continued past Boston Commons, toward the theater district. I recognized the Four Seasons, where I passed my spa nights, and walking toward it, holding my daughter’s hand, I couldn’t bear to glance at the glass doors. It was too much like looking at a crime scene.
Fortunately, Jason veered away, and soon we arrived at a charming bistro, where the air smelled like fresh-pressed olive oil and ruby red Chianti A tuxedoed maitre d’ led us to a table, and another black-vested young man wanted to know if we wanted still or sparkling water I was about to say tap, when Jason replied smoothly that we would like a bottle of Perrier, and of course, the wine list.
I blinked at my husband of five years, struck speechless yet again, while Ree squirmed around in her wooden seat, then discovered the bread basket. She stuck her hand beneath the linen covering, producing a long thin breadstick. She snapped it in half, obviously liking the noise it made, and proceeded to munch away.
“You should put your napkin in your lap,” Jason told her, “like this.”
He demonstrated with his napkin and Ree was impressed enough to follow suit. Then Jason helped scoot her chair closer to the table, and explained the various pieces of silverware.
The waiter appeared. He poured elegant pools of olive oil onto our bread plates, a routine Ree recognized from our usual North End haunts. She fell to work soaking each piece of bread from the bread basket, while Jason turned to the waiter and very calmly ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon.
“But you don’t drink,” I protested, as the waiter nodded efficiently and once more disappeared.
“Would you like a glass of champagne, Sandra?”
“Maybe.”
“Then I would like to share some with you.”
“Why?”
He merely smiled and returned to studying his menu. Finally, I did the same, though my mind was racing. Maybe he was going to get me drunk. Then, when Ree wasn’t looking, he’d push me into the harbor. No walking near the water on the way back to the hotel, I thought with a vague sense of rising hysteria. Must stick to the opposite side of the street.
Ree decided she would like angel hair pasta with butter and cheese. She did her parents proud by ordering in a nice clear voice and remembering to say both please and thank you. I, on the other hand, stuttered like an idiot, but managed to order scallops with wild mushroom risotto.
