You Know Me Through The Years

Date Night

It was Dante's idea to get out of the house and leave the kids with Kyrie. Of course, he asked Kyrie politely if she would mind watching the girls for a couple of hours, and the young woman was more than happy to do so. As a matter of fact, she adored playing dress up with Evie while Mara usually kept to herself. Dante also made sure to leave some food out for the stray cat that was his brother before throwing his wife (not literally) on the back of his motorcycle and taking off.

He could not remember the last time he had taken his girl out on a moonlit ride across the countryside. Maybe it was before Evie was born? He really did not know for sure, but it had definitely been a number of years. Either way, he missed the feeling of her holding on to him for dear life as he sped up. To his surprise, she did not yell at him this time for going too fast.

Maybe it was because she had finally given into the idea that there was no stopping his antics or she had just given into the fact there was no changing him after all these years. Either way, it was nice. Dante was enjoying the cool night air under the waxing full moon. It lit up the landscape like a painting, and he knew she was going to enjoy it. He had something special planned.

Before they had left, Dante had packed up a backpack full of candles, leftover lasagna, a bottle of wine, and a blanket. He had given it to Roe right before they got on the bike and rode off into the night like a romantic pair of vigilantes. It was sappy enough in his head that he actually thought she was going to think it was one of those romance books she read.

As soon as he saw the road sign for the lake, he knew his destination was right around the corner. The lake in question was one they had been to many times before when Cade was into camping, but now that their son was grown, they had no reason to go. He knew Roe loved it out there when they went because there were no street lights polluting the skies. At night there was nothing but the stars and the moon lighting everything around the serene lake. It was the perfect place to go.

As soon as he turned down the road, Dante could feel Roe lay her head on his shoulder and hold on to him tighter. That was his first clue that she was excited about where they were headed. He smiled, knowing that the best dates were always the ones that were unplanned and relatively cheap. They needed this.

As soon as he parked the bike, he held his hand out to her so she could get off the back. After she was down, he got off as well while she removed the helmet she wore. They really did not have to say anything to each other as he grabbed her hand and started walking to the spot he thought was perfect.

Dante had brought her to a spot that was overlooking the lake. It was up one of the hills that surrounded the body of water and out in the open where no trees could block her view of the night sky. He was sure to find the softest patch of ground to put the blanket down and then he pulled out the candles.

"Are those my flame less candles from the bathroom?" He was not looking to use real candles to start a fire and get in trouble with the forestry service.

"You want to be on the news for starting a wild fire?" He held one of the candles up to turn it on while Roe remained silent. "Yeah, didn't think so." He spread all the candles out on the blanket before laying down on it and dragging Roe down to his level.

"Okay, so maybe we don't need real candles." She told him as she laid next to him. He was pretty sure he scored a lot of points for this date, but who was really keeping track anyway?

"Not when we have leftover lasagna and a bottle of wine courtesy of Vergil." He was going to have to replace that bottle later as his brother was getting stingy.

"Leftovers and wine are my favorite." The smile on her face was illuminated by moonlight and the warm glow of the fake candles. He was pretty sure if the world ended tomorrow, he was going to go to war with a smile on his face.