“You've got plans tonight,” he informed me. “Some nice plans.”

“Do I?” He grinned in response. “And here I thought it was just going to be another Monday night. Get the kids in bed, maybe call it a night a bit earlier than normal....”

“Nope, we're going out. Somewhere nice.”

“Black tie nice or casual nice?”

“Somewhere in between. Everything is taken care of. You just need to get dressed and be ready to go at six.”

I raised my eyebrows but he just started singing along to himself, slowing down our frenzied twirling to match the slow beat of the song.

“Love you,” he whispered in my ear as the song came to a close the second time.

“And I you,” I replied. We shared a quick kiss, then he went upstairs. The music cut off and then Josh returned, this time getting himself some coffee and sitting across from me.

“I was going to go to the pound today,” I said, looking up from the chapter I was reading. “I haven't been in a while and had nothing planned for this afternoon. Want to come with?”

Josh studied me. “Sure.”An uneasy silence came over him, like he wanted to say something more but wasn't going to. I watched him for a moment, deciding it was probably something to do with Lance and let it go, returning to my homework.

By the time we left for the pound, he was back to a more normal mood. Harry loved the dog area, running from cage to cage, sticking his fingers in, giggling delightedly if they licked his fingers. I gathered up a leash and some toys, selecting one of the smaller ones to take out to the fenced in run in the back of the building. Josh and I stood just inside the gate, watching as our son ran around with the beagle mix, both completely in their element, laughing and barking as they ran in circles.

“He really loves his dogs,” Josh commented, watching as Harry threw the ball and then chased after Kiki for it.

“Yeah, and they really love him too. Have you noticed how Jake tolerates his playing but if anyone else does it, he growls? Rosie's like a second mother to him, the way she watches after him.”

“Rosie loves everyone.” 

After a while, we took Kiki back in and hooked one of the larger dogs to a lead and took him for a walk around the lot. Then we had to tear Harry away from the dogs and took a cat out into one of the playrooms. Harry reluctantly played with the cat, eventually warming up to how it would bat at the feather on a stick that he could wave around.

“He really loves dogs,” Josh repeated.

“He does,” I agreed. “I sometimes wonder if he'll be a vet, but his love is so specific to just dogs.”

“Yeah,” Josh agreed. “I wonder sometimes too. I look at them and wonder what they'll be when they're adults.”

I nodded. “I worry about Celine. I see so much of myself in her, I hope she finds something she's passionate about. Scottie may end up like Scott, he's got his father's analytical mind and love of baseball. Whatever he ends up doing, he's probably going to coach little league or something.”

“I see Livvie as a preschool teacher,” Josh added. “She's so wise beyond her years, sometimes I forget I'm talking to a kindergartner.”

“I know! Where'd she get that from? None of her siblings were like that.” Josh shook his head. “Aurora's a future CEO, I don't think she'd settle for anything less. Aydin will work for NASA or a planetarium somewhere.”

“Yeah, and Zara'll be one of those millionaire matchmakers maybe.”

“Hm. I don't know. She's a bit harder to place. Painter maybe, I think. She's bossy, but she loves coloring almost more than anything else.”

“Yeah."

We hit McDonald's on the way home, enjoying our mostly quiet outing, just the three of us over nuggets and fries.

Harry was nodding off when we returned and Josh put him down for a late nap while I met the school bus at the end of the driveway.

Josh offered to sit though homework so that I could go up and have a shower to start getting ready for whatever he had planned for us.

At six we had both showered and dressed, he in dress pants and shirt. I went with a dress that was a few steps up from casual. I had put my hair in some large curlers after the shower and left it down, a soft wave giving it some interest. A baby-sitter had arrived, one of our regulars.

I laughed when I saw where we were going for dinner – our favorite chinese place.

“I didn't know that Chow Fat's had gone upscale,” I joked. He smiled, as if there was some sort of private joke I was missing.

“Can't argue with the basics,” he said. “Your usual?” he asked. I nodded and sat back, letting him go in to order our food.

We ate at a picnic table that was on the parking lot side of some dunes at the beach. He kept glancing at his watch as we ate, like we were going to be late maybe. I watched the glitter of the sun on the water as the waves rolled in, feeling more at peace than I had been lately, which was something since I had never felt as peaceful as I had the past few months before. Something about the power of the water as it crashed against the sand that marked the edge of the land was both invigorating and relaxing at the same time.

Finally, after the last eggroll had been eaten and the end of the wonton soup playfully bickered over, I found out why I was dressed up. Like he had done for a  few years previous, he had planned something spectacular for us, then surprised me with it.

“You remembered,” I stated when we got inside the theater and I discovered that we were about to see a production of Macbeth.

“Yeah,” he answered. “I did.” I was at a loss to what to say to that, realizing just how much effort he put into remembering our nights alone in the hotel nearly a decade earlier. I suddenly remembered the night vividly. He had a fight with Bobbie about something simple, about not making it to some sort of art festival or something. He hadn't been in the mood to go out and I had a headache. He was too angry to go to sleep and so we stayed up, talking about things. It was one of the first nights we did that. We sat together at the table in his room, cups of tea in hand, talking about Shakespeare, art and other things that we found we shared an interest for.

He had gotten us what they were calling a banquet seat, which was really just a slightly curved couch, set against the back of the front section, up against the bar. He had actually bought all four tickets for our couch so we could have a bit of space to ourselves.

The performance itself was great. I was reminded of how much fun I had reading the play in school. They had hired a local theater troupe to come in and act out bits after we had read the play. And we were encouraged to participate in some of the scenes, and at the end of the week we all got out of the pep assembly to stage the final battle with doll rod swords.

“For the record, I like Hamlet too,” I informed him as we walked to the car.

“Just the tragedies then, I'll remember that when they put on Romeo & Juliet.”

I made a face. “Romeo & Juliet is so ninth grade, hon. Everything is Romeo & Juliet.”

“The Tempest is good too. And Midsummer Night's Dream.”

“Yeah, I like those too,” he glanced at me as he started the car. “I remember.”

“I'm not tired yet, what do you say we make some tea and chill in the family room for a bit?”