In the adjacent sitting area, we discovered a sleeper sofa, two low-slung camel-colored chairs, and the world’s largest flat-screen TV. When Jason announced that this would be Ree’s room, her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. So did mine.

“I love it!” Ree squealed, and immediately went to work disgorging her overstuffed suitcase into her deluxe chamber In five seconds or less, the room was covered in bright pink princess blankets, half a dozen Barbies, and, of course, Lil’ Bunny, given the perch of honor in the middle of the sofa. “Can we watch a movie?”

“Later. First, I thought we’d put on fancy clothes and I would escort my two favorite ladies to dinner.”

Ree’s scream of delight threatened to shatter the bank of windows. I continued to regard my husband with shell-shocked surprise. “But I didn’t bring anything fancy … I wasn’t expecting …”

“I took the liberty of throwing in a dress and your boots.”

My eyes went wider, but Jason maintained his inscrutable features. He was up to something. I just knew it. And for a moment, Wayne’s warning came back to me. Maybe Jason knew what I’d been doing. He’d guessed that I’d been tracking his online activities and he was … wining and dining me to death? Spa-ing me into submission at a sumptuous resort?

I retreated to our half of the suite, where I put on the shimmering blue dress Jason had packed for me, as well as knee-high black leather boots. I hadn’t worn this dress for Wayne yet. I wondered if Jason had known that, and I felt uneasy all over again.

Then Ree came barreling into the room, spinning around in a cranberry-colored dress sprinkled with embroidered flowers and finished with a giant looping bow in the back. “Mommy, do my hair. Hair time, Mommy. I want to look fabulous!”

So I fashioned Ree’s hair into a bun on top of her head, with curly wisps springing around her face. And I spritzed and styled my own golden curls, even finding some makeup packed away by my clever husband for our family getaway. I did eyes, cheeks, and lip gloss for me. Lip gloss only for Ree, who then pouted because she personally believed the more makeup you wore, the more “fabulous” you were bound to be.

Jason appeared in the doorway of the bathroom. He was wearing dark slacks I’d never seen before, with a deep plum-colored shirt and a dark flecked sports jacket. No tie. The top two buttons of his sharply pressed shirt were undone, showing off the strong column of his throat. And I felt a stirring then, low in my belly, that I had not felt in the past four months.

My husband is a handsome man. A very, very handsome man.

My gaze came up. Our eyes met, and I felt it then, genuine, spine-tingling, bone deep.

I was afraid of him.