365 Nights Read Online Free Page A

extreme patience.
    â€œHow do you know?” I asked. “You thought you had it right the first time. What if it’s not right this time?”
    â€œBecause I know. Because I’ve been there. Because I know what it feels like to feel right. You should know that there is nothing you can ever do that would ever make me leave you.”
    â€œReally? Nothing?”
    â€œNope.”
    And that exchange changed the course of our relationship. From then on, I worked harder to make sure that this lovely man who would never, ever leave me had a great life, not in spite of me, but because of me. And while I failed miserably at times, he had faith in me. I had tempted him with this offer of my own making, and he let me know that he wasn’t going to let me do it unless I really wanted to. This was all the reassurance I needed. “Don’t be silly. It’s going to be great.” And with that, I was ready.
    There was much to do to prepare, for the actual birthday, I mean. In addition to Brad’s birthday, my family gathered to celebrate birthdays for my brother and my daughter. We were surrounded by a dizzying number of birthday dinners, cakes, celebrations, and gifts. There was a whole red, white, and blue color scheme going on, which has always bummed out my baby brother, who swears red cake icing tastes different. He should know as he’s had a red, white, and blue birthday cake every year for the last thirty-four years.
    Fourth of July parades, cookouts, fireworks, and family birthdays, and you’ve got a fairly typical July vacation with the Mullers . . . one big, happy family affair. But this year, things felt different for me. Sure, I was nervous about my gift to Brad, but I was also excited. I’d never taken on this kind of commitment before that hadn’t fizzled out. Besides employment and marriage, I can’t think of anything I’ve done for an entire year—by choice.
    â€œHow in the world will you do it, Char?” I asked myself. There were so many variables to manage—time, energy, availability, nosy kids, ringing phones, housework—the list of distractions was really, truly endless. Even though we had worked out some of the logistics beforehand, the best-laid plans can go amiss. Normally, our mountain vacations included dinner with friends, lots of time at the pool, golf for the guys, some shopping, and serious family time with my parents and brother. Now, we had to incorporate a daily tryst in a bedroom loaded with tons of nostalgia, including a giant nightshirt from high school tucked in the drawer, ready for wear. It featured a mammoth pink ice cream cone and the words MY DIET STARTS TOMORROW emblazoned on the front. That bedroom did not at all ooze romance, I tell you, including the fact that it was attached to our kids’ room via a bath.
    But despite my worries, this annual mountain retreat became a giggly, sweet, and fun reintroduction to some revved-up intimacy. The only questions we had to answer were: “Will we do it this morning, this afternoon, or this evening?” I was more relaxed about the chances of our kids interrupting us, because they were so preoccupied with cousins and grandparents and all the play, fun, and games they could ever want, they wouldn’t for a moment wonder where we had gotten to. In fact, there was so much chaos and entertainment in that house that no one missed us a bit when we slipped upstairs on our own. I’m happy to report that we did indeed make our kickoff a little flirty and definitely romantic, even while in the mountains with my entire family. Do wonders ever cease?
    Some say that it’s very easy to be happily married on vacation, but it’s much harder to pull it off in the real world. Which is why honeymoons were invented, don’t you think? And of course, it’s true. On vacation, the stress of everyday life dims in the background of being together. There was no homework to finish,