Page 42 of But For You

Even though we had sat in economy-plus class on the 747 because both Sam’s and his father’s legs were too long for us to sit in coach, he was still complaining when we walked to the baggage terminal.

“You should have asked the pilot for an upgrade for the ride home,” I teased him.

“You’re funny,” he groused at me.

But I knew that. It was a gift.

Kola was sick of sitting by the time the shuttle got us from the airport to the hotel in Scottsdale. The driver talked as he drove, explaining about the two hundred acres the boutique hotel sat on, the amenities, the dessert bar that the kids would enjoy, the waterslides, the pools, the horseback riding, and so on. Even the drive in to the hotel was amazing. The grounds were gorgeous, beautifully landscaped, and a staff member greeted us and walked us to the front desk.

Hannah loved the fountain in the lobby. Looking at it reminded Kola that he had to pee, and then Hannah had to go too. I excused us and went to take my kids to find a bathroom. Another nice person walked us there, and once you went inside, there were individual rooms with sinks inside the bathroom, plus a place to sit down and relax when you came out. I had never seen five different kinds of hand soap and lotions and towels and pitchers of ice water with lemon in a bathroom before in my life. I had a feeling we were swimming in the deep end of money.

I wondered briefly how much we were shelling out for the weekend. Sam and I normally did our finances together, but Sam’s father was taking care of this, and then we were paying him when we got back. I started to worry because we had to make payments for school as well, and between this and our regular bills, I saw dipping into savings in our future.

I was okay to take money out, but we needed a new water heater, and we were paying Aaron back for a minivan that was more than we would have spent. We didn’t have to pay him back, but it would be weird if we didn’t⁠—

“Pa?” Hannah was finished, smiling, looking up at me like she was worried.

“This is nicer than my first apartment,” I told her.

“You lived in a potty?”

“Yeah.”

She found that hysterical. After we all washed our hands and Hannah used the rose soap and the aloe-and-clover-scented lotion, we made our way back to the front desk.

Apparently, we had suites and not rooms, and my anxiety rose as we traveled up the elevators. While I appreciated the suite—because sleeping in the same room with my kids meant that I would be celibate Thursday through Sunday—the cost looked staggering.

“It’ll be okay,” Sam whispered close to my ear.

“We need a new water heater,” I reminded him.

“I know,” he said, pressing a kiss to the side of my neck.

As the elevator slid open and we got out with Jen and Doug and their five kids, Regina reminded us to all meet in the lobby in twenty minutes so we could be on time for the reunion to kick off on the west lawn.

“Absolutely.” Jen gave her mother a thumbs-up before the doors swooshed closed. “Ohmygod, I need a drink.”

“It’s not even noon,” Doug reminded her.

She pointed back at the elevator. “We can go right back down to the bar.”

“We’ll get mai tais right after we unpack,” I promised her.

“Oh God, thank you.” She beamed at me.

Our suite was fantastic. It was easily 1,800 square feet—1,300 square feet bigger than my first apartment. There was Italian marble and a gorgeous view, fresh-cut flowers—birds of paradise and dragon lilies—on the table, and a fruit basket. It had a living room and two bathrooms, plus a guest toilet. There were two bedrooms—one for the kids with two beds in it and the other with a king-size bed for me and Sam—and each had its own balcony.

I took Kola and Hannah to their room and showed them how to unpack while Sam took care of our stuff in the other. Once I had the kids situated, I led them back to our room.

We all lay down on the bed and watched Sam get his Glock out of the travel safe—he only had his main weapon when he wasn’t on duty—and assemble it quickly. As federal agents, marshals always had to be armed.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, B?” he said as he started hanging up his clothes, having done mine before even arming himself.

“Do we hafta go to church on Sunday when we get home?”

“No, we’ll miss church.”