JACQUIE AND AVA, our three-year-old, cling onto my legs.  Jacquie’s arms are surprisingly strong for a five-year-old.  I try to peel them off, laughing as they latch on harder.
 
“Come on, you two.  Auntie Jenna is waiting.”
 
“Let’s go, girls,” Martin says, trying to disengage their death grip on my legs.
 
“We don’t want you to go!” Jacquie says, looking up at me with her big blue eyes.  She definitely takes after her father. 
 
“You’ll have all weekend to bake cookies and make drawings and play with Gabby and Taylor.”
 
“We’ll miss you.”  Ava blinks back tears.
 
“Ava, Jacquie, is that you?”  Christian, Jenna’s husband appears in the doorway.  He wiggles his eyebrows.  Ava turns around, her eyes brightening at the sight of her uncle.
 
“Uncle Cwistian!” Her grip on my leg loosens.  Jacquie sniffles, looking over her shoulder suspiciously.
 
“If you two aren’t careful, you’re going to get a tickle attack.”
 
The two girls giggle, letting go of my legs.
 
“Three… two…” My daughters giggle, sprinting around their uncle and through the doorway.  Christian winks at us.  “Have fun,” he says under his breath.  Then, he turns towards the doorway and yells “One!”
 
Ava and Jacquie giggle in the distance, and Martin slides his arm around my shoulder.
 
“First weekend alone since Ava was born,” he whispers in my ear.  “And I’ve got big plans for it.”
 
I grin.  My heart squeezes as I look at my sister’s house.  As much as I’ve been looking forward to this weekend, it’s still hard to leave my kids behind.  Martin leads me gently to the car.
 
He traded in his BMW for a much more sensible Volvo when he paid the insurance company.  Now, he slides into the driver’s seat of our minivan.
 
I click my seatbelt on and grin at him.  “Nothing sexier than a man with a van.”
 
“You’ve always been kinky,” he winks.  He clucks my chin and smiles at me.
 
“You never told me where we were going this weekend.”  I glance over at him as he drives.  He’s got a few grey hairs around his temples, and the lines around his eyes have gotten deeper.  He’s also developed deep, happy laugh lines around his mouth, and his eyes shine brighter than ever before.
 
We’ve both aged, and I’ve never been more in love with him.
 
“Well, that would ruin the surprise.”
 
“Did I bring the right clothes?”  I glance in the back seat at our bags.  What if we go on a tropical vacation and all I have is sensible, cold-weather clothes?
 
“Whatever you brought is perfect.”  He glances at me, grinning.  “I don’t expect you’ll have many clothes on this weekend, anyway.”
 
When we get on the highway, I smile.  “The mountains?”
 
“Stop trying to guess where we’re going,” he laughs.  “You’ll find out soon enough.”
 
I slide my hand onto his thigh and sigh.  My heart feels so full it almost hurts.  I love this man so much.  He’s given me a family, a life, a house.  He gave up everything for me, and he hasn’t stopped.  Marrying him was the best day of my life, apart from my daughters being born.  Every time I watch him with the girls, it feels like my heart is bursting with happiness.
 
After a little while on the highway, we start to slow down.  Martin puts his hazard lights on and pulls over on the shoulder.  My eyes widen when I see the tree—the tree—beside us.  I glance at my husband, cocking my head to the side.
 
He takes a deep breath.
 
“It’s been nearly six years, and I’ve never forgiven myself for how I acted last time we stopped here.  I wanted to do it right.”
 
“Martin, you don’t need to do that…”
 
He shakes his head, nodding to the back.  “Let me grab some things.”
 
I slide out of the car and watch him open the trunk.  He pulls out a hammer, a few nails, and a carved wooden board. 
“In loving memory
Jack Martinez
1985 – 2018”
My eyes mist up and my lower lip trembles.  I slide my arm around Martin’s waist as my throat closes up.  He kisses my temple, and we both walk down the ditch towards the tree.  Martin positions the board up against the trunk and then turns to me.
 
“You want to do the honors?”
 
I sniffle, choking back more tears.  “I’m not sure I should be anywhere near a hammer right now.”
 
“Come on,” he smiles.  “I’ll help you.”
 
Together, we hammer two nails into the board.  Martin puts his arm around my shoulder and I lean against him, letting my tears flow freely.
 
“You didn’t have to do this.”
 
“I know, but I wanted to.  He deserves to be remembered.”
 
“A lot of men wouldn’t want to remember their wife’s former husband.”
 
“A lot of women wouldn’t have named their first daughter after their husband’s former wife.”
 
I laugh.  “Fair point.”
 
Martin touches his nose to mine.  We press our lips together, and I take a deep breath. 
 
“I love you so much, Marty.”
 
“I love you too.  Now come on, I’m getting cold.  Let’s go.”
 
We drive into the mountains, near the place where we first went away for the weekend.  This time, the cabin where we stop is smaller and cozier.  It’s more of a cabin and less of a mansion.  Martin nods towards it.
 
“My budget was a little tighter this time.”
 
“It’s perfect.”
 
I can’t keep the smile off my face.  Martin slips his hand into mine and leads me inside.  I gasp when I get in.  The fire is already lit, and the table is set with beautiful china and two long candles.  Martin lights them, and then opens a bottle of wine.
 
“I wanted to redo that weekend.  Wipe it fresh and start over.”  He pours two glasses of wine and hands me one.  “I wanted you to know what you mean to me, and how much I wish I could take it all back.”
 
“You don’t need to take anything back, Marty.”  I shake my head.  “You’ve made up for those months over and over and over.  It’s been years!”
 
“I know.”  He takes a deep breath, weaving his fingers into mine.  “But you’re special, and even thinking about hurting you makes my whole chest ache.  I just wanted to make new, happy memories in these mountains.”
 
“Well, you’re doing alright so far.”  I laugh and put my glass down on the table.  I hook my arms around his neck and pull him down for a kiss.
 
It doesn’t take long for his hands to slide down my back, and for me to roll my hips towards him.  I feel his length against my stomach and moan into his kiss.  Even after a few years, the feeling of his body next to mine makes my head spin.
 
He picks me up and throws me over his shoulder.  I laugh, smacking his butt as he walks towards the fire.  He lays me down on the shag rug in front of the fire, pulling pillows off the couch and placing them around my head.  He kisses me, tasting my lips and my tongue and then kissing my jaw.  His kisses trail down my neck as he groans into my skin. 
 
Item by item, he undresses me.  Wherever he exposes flesh, he leaves a trail of kisses.  The fire crackles beside us and I run my hands over his body.  I pull his shirt off over his head, tossing it aside.  My hands follow the smooth, hard lines of his muscular body as I touch him for the millionth time.
 
When he peels my jeans off, he groans.  He kisses my inner thigh, higher and higher until his lips meet my panties.  He nuzzles his face on my panties, and I curl my fingers into his hair.
 
Using his teeth, he pulls my underwear off down my legs.  I kick it away, giggling.
 
“I’m going to treat you like a queen, Nicole.”
 
“You always do.”
 
He kisses my thighs, my hip crease, my mound.  His lips brush over my clit and I shiver.  When his tongue slides out to lick my slit, I sink into the pillows and moan.
 
He does that thing that I love—diving his tongue into my opening as he plays with my clit.  He knows exactly what I like, and today he pulls out all the stops.  Groaning with pleasure as he devours me, he slides his hand under my ass and spreads my legs wide.  I grip his hair, rolling my hips towards his face until I’m trembling under the weight of my pleasure.
 
My first orgasm crashes through my veins like a fireball.  I arch my back and scream his name as he moans into my soaked pussy.  He doesn’t stop until I go limp, and then he kisses my stomach and growls.
 
“I love making you come.”
 
“I love when you make me come, too,” I grin.
 
He unbuckles his pants and slides them down.  Before he can stop me, I wrap my fingers around him and take his engorged cock between my lips.  He groans, putting his hand on the back of my head. 
 
“Nic, I don’t want to…”  He moans as I take him deeper.  I suck him like never before, until his grip on my head tightens and his seed shoots down my throat.  I swallow every drop, sucking him dry as he trembles against me.
 
We both fall down on the pillows.  His arm drapes over my body and he leans his head against mine.
 
“That wasn’t the plan.”  He kisses my temple.  “I was supposed to make you come at least three or four times.  I was supposed to put another baby inside you tonight.”
 
I laugh, molding my body to his.  “Well, the weekend is long.  I just wanted you to know how good I feel.”
 
“Well, I know now.”
 
I grin, and then prop myself up on my elbow.  My hand trails across his chest, curling through his hair.  He closes his eyes.  The fire crackles beside us, its light flickering on his face.
 
“Do you mean that?”
 
“Mmm?”  His eyebrows arch but he doesn’t open his eyes.
 
“Do you want another baby?”
 
Martin opens his eyes and the love that I see in them almost knocks me back.  He cups my cheek and brings me down to his lips.  He kisses me soft, and then hard, wrapping his arms around me.
 
“I meant every word,” he growls.  “You make me the happiest man in the world.”
 
I slide my legs over his body as his cock throbs against me.  He chuckles, lifting an eyebrow and looking down at his shaft.
 
“I’m like a teenager around you.  I’m always hard.”
 
Instead of answering, I start grinding slowly, back and forth, on top of his shaft.  His hands fall to my thighs and he groans.
 
“Fuck…”
 
“Mmm,” I answer.  We don’t need words.  His hands drift to my breasts, my hips, my ass.  He pulls me closer to him and I reach down to sheathe him inside me.
 
We make love again, slowly and tenderly.  The heat of the fire makes our bodies glisten with sweat as we make love to each other like never before.  It’s slow and intimate.  It’s passionate.  It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.  We come together, laying against each other in a sweaty, orgasmic heap.
 
Finally, we disentangle from each other and take a hot shower together.  He washes me, and I wash him.  We don’t say much.  We eat dinner, and then we make love again, hard and fast against the kitchen counter. 
 
It’s heaven.  There’s no other way to describe it.  That evening, I don’t take my birth control pill.  We probably won’t get pregnant this weekend, but I can sense another baby in our future.
 
I fall asleep against his chest, with a thick blanket of happiness covering me.  Martin’s arms wrap around me and hold me tight.  He starts snoring gently and I smile.
 
The memories of this weekend will definitely eclipse the last time we were in the mountains.  I’ll never forget what it means to be truly, completely happy.