Chapter 3

We arrived at my house just before 4:30. I led her up the sidewalk toward the door.

"Are you sure your wife is ok with this?"

"She's the one who brought up the idea of using the extra bed. If she has a problem with it, she sure didn't show it."

I opened the door and led Julie inside. My kids were all at the dining room table doing their homework. We went in there so I could start the introductions.

"Hi guys, how was school?"

I got a reply from my daughter Rebecca, "Just like always, they think that I need more homework."

With that, I introduced Julie to the kids.

"Becky, could you show Julie the bed in your room where she'll be spending the night? I'm sure she'd like to put her stuff down somewhere."

"Sure Dad. This way Julie."

After they left, I went looking for Melanie. I found her in our bedroom. She was on the phone. When she saw me, she quickly got off the line.

"Hi honey. I'm home." I reached down to give her a hug.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too. I wish I could hold you all day long. I'd like you to come and meet Julie. I had Becky show her where she'd be sleeping tonight."

"Ok."

We left our room heading toward Becky's room. When we were almost there, the two girls were just coming out.

"Julie, this is my wife Melanie. Mel, this is Julie."

"Nice to meet you Julie." They started to hug each other.

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Becker. I've heard so much about you."

"That's something that I can't say. I only heard about you just this past week. I hope you like spaghetti. It should be done in about an hour."

"Sounds good to me. It'll be nice to have a home cooked meal for a change. The food on campus isn't too bad, but it's not like home."

"I can agree with that. I better get cooking. We have a game to catch tonight." With that, she headed toward the kitchen.

"She seems wonderful."

"Thanks. We've been married for over 16 years now. We're now in the 'for better' stage of the marriage."

That had her giggling.

"Hey, when are we going to get to this weeks project? We're not going to have much time."

"I meant to tell you about that. Come to my office, I have something to show you."

We walked down the hall to my office. Inside, I went to my desk and turned the monitor on. Within minutes, I was showing her the program that we needed to get running.

"Hey, weren't we supposed to do that together?"

"Yeah, but when are we going to find time?"

"I still think I'm the luckiest person in class."

"That maybe true, but you also just got out of some homework for the week. Next week, you get to do our project alone."

"No, you don't want that. I'm not that good."

"Try it anyway. When we get together, I can go over your work and make corrections as needed. You won't learn anything if you lean on me too much."

"That's true. I'll start working on it once we get the assignment."

We went into the family room to watch television with the rest of my family. I had just gotten comfortable when Robbie indicated that I had to take him up to the school. He had to get there early to go through pre-game warm-ups.

After dinner, we all got ready for the football game. It was a great game. On the first play from scrimmage, they threw a bomb to Robbie. It was nice to see them giving him a chance. When the ball came down, Robbie was there. He cradled it in his arms and was gone. For such a tall skinny kid, he sure could run. And run he did, all the way to the end zone and 6 points. The game became a blow out quickly and Robbie was a big factor. His height advantage made him an easy target in traffic. He's also very fast for the deep routes. He made 8 catches, 3 going for touchdowns. I was so proud.

It was almost 11pm when we got home. We were all too pumped up to even think about getting some sleep.

"Great game Robbie. I only wish I could have seen your other two."

"You saw more of me tonight than you would have in the others combined. I only had 3 catches going into tonight."

"Well tonight it looked like your coach was really milking that passing game early. You only seemed to stop once the game was out of reach."

"Yeah, more than one of us wanted to keep throwing. The coach didn't want the score to get to big though. No need to rub salt in an open wound."

"I know you'll probably be up for a while. I have to get some sleep. I've got a busy day tomorrow, not to mention I've had a long week already. I'll see you guys in the morning. Julie, you'll need to be up before noon. I will be leaving by 2pm, so if you sleep in too late, you're spending an extra night."

"Ok, I'll be up."

Melanie and I headed off to bed. Julie and our older kids were going to stay up for a while. Mike was out from the moment we got to the car after the game. When you're 10, staying up late is quite difficult.

The first thing we did upon getting in the bedroom was to give each other a big hug.

Melanie was the first to speak. "I love you."

"I love you too. Boy Robbie was good tonight. I don't think that he'll be able to sleep."

"I know, I don't plan on sleeping though."

I turned and saw that familiar twinkle in her eye. I knew I was going to be in for a long night. We started out undressing each other. We both got into bed and started kissing. We made love like we hadn't seen each other in years. It must have been late when we finished.

The next morning I was up at 7 as always. Nature always calls that early. After seeking relief, I found my boys parked in front of the television. We quickly started to make breakfast. This is a special day, Melanie's birthday. Breakfast served in bed will begin the day. We made sausage gravy, biscuits, scrambled eggs and toast.

As usual, Becky was still sleeping as was Julie. She didn't even join us when we went in singing happy birthday and delivering breakfast. Mel doesn't normally like to be woken up early. But for breakfast in bed on her birthday, she'll make an exception.

After finishing breakfast, we started talking about the days plans.

"So where are you taking me for dinner tonight?"

"I have a nice day planned for us. It's going to start just a little after lunch and will end when we get home tomorrow."

"Aren't you going to tell me what it is?"

"All information is on a need to know basis only. Currently, you don't need to know."

"You can tell me."

"Yes I could, but then I'd have to kill you. Wouldn't you rather wait and be surprised?"

"Ok, I'll wait. When are you going to take Julie back?"

"After she wakes up. I'm not going to wake her up."

"Ok. Can I sleep a while longer?"

"Sure, I'll wake you up before lunch."

"Thanks," as she rolled over to go to sleep.

I was surprised. I expected Julie to be up by 11 at least, but she was still out. Even Becky was up and she's known to sleep well into the afternoon on Saturday.

"Becky, is Julie stirring yet? I need to get her back up to the campus. I'm not going to wake her up though."

"Well, we were up quite late last night. She may not be up until much later this afternoon."

"If she's not up before your mother and I leave, she'll need to find her own ride or wait until tomorrow afternoon."

"I know she knows that. She told me last night after you went to bed. If you leave before she gets up, I'll tell her that she's stuck."

"Ok. It'll be her problem at that time."

We left around 1pm. My wife wanted to know what I had planned. She never could wait to see what was planned.

"As I said, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Don't make me do that."

What I really had planned though, was a trip to Toronto. It's going to be a 2 hour drive but in the end, it was going to be worth it. Around 4pm, we were going to be checking into our hotel, dinner at 6 at a nice restaurant, tickets to the theatre for 8. After the show, back to the hotel for a very nice, night to ourselves. I intended to surprise her with every part of my plan. This was going to be very special.