“All right, I get the point. I guess I’ll go find the girls.”
“Well now, just hold on. Why don’t you spend a little time on your own? You never really get that, and I think it’s great for Amy and Julia to get some time together. You’re always acting like you’re chaperoning them.” She gave me a suspicious gaze. “It’s almost like you’re scared she’s going to run off with Amy or something. Is everything okay between you two?”
“Everything is fine, Mom,” I said quickly. “We just don’t get a lot of time together as a family. I want to get in as much as possible.”
“I understand,” she said as she patted my hand. “But they need time to heal and grow together too. Let yourself take a little break, honey. It’s my vacation, after all, so I demand it.”
“Man,” I muttered playfully. “You’re getting pushy in your old age.”
“So, send me to a home already,” she shot back.
I laughed and disappeared, leaving her to the mystery date she was so excited about. It was strange to have free time. In five years, there wasn’t a second that I wasn’t with Amy or worried about her. My mother had gotten it completely wrong. I wasn’t worried that Julia would take Amy. I just didn’t know how to live a life with a co-parent anymore. What was I giving up?
Chapter 11
Julia
“What about sardines?”
Amy crunched up her face and shook her head vigorously. “No way, those are disgusting!”
I laughed. “You know your dad absolutely loves them. He even eats them out of a can.”
“I know, and they stink up the entire house. He has to take out the trash or I can still smell them everywhere.”
“Boys. They never grow out of being gross. Remember that,” I said playfully.
The waiter brought over two small pizzas, slightly bigger than the size of a Lunchables one but freshly baked with different toppings. It was our third serving, and the combinations were endless. I would run out of stomach space before noon. It was amazing to spend time with Amy. She was so much like her father it continued to stun me. The same cheerful personality and easygoing nature were inside her. It felt good to know that she’d landed his outgoing nature and not my own reclusiveness.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, honey, anything you want,” I said absentmindedly. It felt so natural to be talking with her.
“What kind of stuff did you really do while you were gone? I know that you weren’t doing the doctor thing like Dad says.”
“What makes you think that?”
She shrugged. “You’re too interesting for that. I think you’re a spy.”
“Oh? So a spy would be more interesting?”
“At least that story makes you the hero, right? I mean, you would never work for the bad guy.”
I smiled at her, the words carrying more weight than she knew. “Do you want to hear a story? You might be too old.”
“Is it about your job?”
I nodded. “In a way. What do you think?”
“Sure,” she said with a shrug.
“Years ago, there was a young queen who loved her king and their princess very much.”
Amy stopped at the prospect of a child and turned her full attention back to me. I continued with a smile. “The princess only ever wanted to be with her family. Her daughter was one of the people she loved most in the world. But the queen had a dark secret. There was an evil witch in her past, one that she tried very hard to keep hidden away from her little princess and the king.”
“Yuck. What did the bad witch want with them?” Amy asked, engaged.
“She wanted to lock them away so they could never see each other anymore. It wasn’t the first time that the evil witch had gotten ahold of someone. She’d done the same thing to the queen’s father years before.”
“Why didn’t the king stop the evil witch? Isn’t that what they’re supposed to do?”
I laughed a little. “Well, the queen never told the king just how evil the witch really was. She wanted to keep him and their daughter safe. But the evil witch had her ways, and before long, the queen was running to see her.”
“Didn’t she know that it was a trap though?” asked Amy.
The smiled faded away as I thought about seeing my mother for the first time after being gone for so long. I couldn’t suppress the shudder that rocked my shoulders. She was nothing but darkness. Her fake smile and lies now seemed so obvious. Like a good daughter, though, I’d let myself be blind to her evilness.
“She had no idea it was a trap. The evil witch made herself appear helpless, like she needed the kindhearted queen’s help. By the time the queen realized it was a trap, she was already locked away from everyone else.”
Amy was enchanted. “What happened to her? The story can’t end there. It has to have a happy ending. Did she get away from the evil witch?”
I nodded. “She did! She called on the magical powers she kept hidden within and was able to defeat the witch.”
“Wow,” Amy whispered. “She had powers too? How come she didn’t use them at the very beginning?”
“Because she didn’t know that she had the power. It came from the love she had for her daughter. And even though it took the queen a long time to realize it, when she did, she defeated the evil witch and found her daughter and the king again.”
“And they lived happily ever after?” asked Amy, her voice barely a whisper. “Together like a family again.”
I swallowed back the lump in my throat. It was stunning to see just how smart Amy really was. She knew the story wasn’t all fiction, but she didn’t ask me about it. Instead, she wanted to know the same thing as her father—what happens at the end of the story? I plastered a smile on my face and took her hands in mine as I nodded my head.
“Of course they lived happily ever after, honey,” I whispered. “She never left her daughter again.”
“Good, I like that ending,” she whispered as another round of pizzas was delivered.
“I have an idea. Let’s go see if we can find your dad and maybe talk him into camping out on the beach later. What do you think of that?”
“Really?” she asked in wonderment. “I didn’t even know that we could do that.”
“Neither did I until last night, but apparently, you can rent tents and camp out all night. We can roast marshmallows too.”
“I would love that,” she whispered.
I felt like there was more that she wanted to ask me and talk about, but I saw Aaron walk into the café and smiled at him. I could wait until later to tell him what Amy knew. For the moment, the only thing I felt like doing was enjoying our time together as a family.
“I can’t believe she fell asleep after all the marshmallows she ate,” I said. “I thought she was going to go into a sugar coma.”
Aaron collapsed on the air mattress next to me, the curtain separating Amy’s room from our own tightly drawn for the night. The sand felt cool on my bare feet as I tugged off the shift I was wearing and climbed under the cool sheet. There was a peace to sleeping on the beach that I hadn’t expected.
“She’s always tolerated sugar really well. I have to watch giving it to her, though. It’s terrible for the teeth.”
I grinned at him as he climbed onto the mattress. “You know so much about her. How is she doing in school? Is she social like you?”
He nodded. “She tries to make friends, and I know she has a few on the softball team but it’s hard for her. Kids can be mean sometimes, and they don’t understand why she doesn’t live with you. Most of the single parents in the area are all moms.”
“So they know we’re divorced then?” I asked, surprised at how guilty I felt.
“No,” he replied quickly. “Not really. I kept the divorce quiet. You didn’t want anything to do with us, so I didn’t want to drag that into the public light. I just told the school the same thing that I told Amy, that you were gone but came back for brief periods of time.”
“Does this mean you’re planning on sticking around to see what happens next?”
I sighed and lay back on the mattress. “Aaron.”
He shook his head quickly. “No. Never mind. I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t something that I wanted to get into again. “How did the hunt for your mom’s new boyfriend go? Are you going to have a stepfather half your age?”
Aaron rolled his eyes. “I didn’t get to meet the guy but I was wasting my time anyway. Mom was already planning on inviting him to dinner. Apparently, they made last-minute plans for tonight, but everyone should meet him tomorrow.”
“Are you really worried that it’s another conman? I don’t mean to second-guess you, but I thought that kind of thing only happened in the movies or maybe in some upscale area where rich women are everywhere. It seems like a long shot to meet a woman on a cruise. Plus, your mother isn’t really the kind of woman who will let a man in a second time. I’m sure that she is being careful.”
“I don’t know what to think anymore.” He grinned. “You know, I accused her of hooking up with the bartender?”
“You didn’t!” I giggled. “Wow, I bet she was flattered. I think she likes the attention. Plus, it’s good for her. I looked through a catalogue that she brought with us, and I have to say, she has a great eye for art, which is something I never would have expected.”
“It was shocking, but it’s a problem too. She’s never had this kind of money before so she doesn’t know how to be careful with it.”
“And what about you? I know that I was never around to offer financial help. I just assumed that if you needed it, you would come to me.” I swallowed hard. “That call never came.”
“No, and it never would have. My father set up a small trust for me that I didn’t know about. It didn’t kick in until I was thirty. My mother said he set it at that age to make sure I wouldn’t just ‘piss it all away’, in his words.”
“You never should have dealt with that on your own though.” I shifted uneasily. It wasn’t something that I wanted to ask, but it needed to be addressed. “What about now? How will this work if I come back to Arizona with you? I don’t want to step in, but I want to be with Amy. I’ve lost too much time with her already.”
Aaron paused and cleared his throat. I could tell that he was struggling with what to say. “I don’t know, Julia. I wish that things could go back to normal, but you and I both know that’s a small chance. She is a person in her own right. I think a big part of who makes that decision needs to be her. Julia, she isn’t the little girl you left behind. Amy has been with me for the past five years. Are you suggesting I give that up?”
“Never!” I said in shock. “I was just wondering if she could stay with me every once in a while.”
“Julia,” he said, his tone warm and loving. “You’re her mother. I would never keep you away from her. I don’t know what our relationship is going to do, but that fact will never change. I never wanted for her to be without you.” He paused again. “Does this mean that you’re thinking that you will come back with us?”
I shot him another cold glance for bringing it up again, but before I could say something to him, he interrupted. “I know that you need time. I just hate walking on eggshells right now. So much has happened in such a short span of time. It’s still a little tricky to navigate around everything. Please, continue.”
Shrugging, I smiled at him. “I don’t really have anything else to say.”
“You can go back to telling me just how amazing I am as a parent,” he joked.
I pulled him down on top of me. “I have a better idea. Why don’t I show you just how hot I think it is that you’re a good dad?”
He glanced at the thin but impenetrable fabric separating us from Amy. “We’ll have to be quiet. I swear that kid either sleeps like the dead or wakes up at a raindrop. I can never tell which it’s going to be.”
“I can be quiet if you can go slowly. Last night, you nearly snapped me in half,” I whispered.
Aaron’s finger ran up my leg. “I can’t be held responsible for that. It’s been too long.”
Chapter 12
Aaron
“What do we know about this guy?” Julia leaned over and asked me as we waited for my mother at dinner.
“Not much,” I muttered. “She waved me off before I had a chance to meet him. If I had to guess, I would say young, pretty, and willing to give her everything she wants—for a price, of course.”
“Wow,” she said. “You make everything seem so somber. You don’t think she would expose Amy to something like that, though, do you?”
“Normally, I would say ‘no’, but she was really into this guy. You should have heard the way she talked about him. I wouldn’t be surprised if they announced their plans to get married tonight.”
“Gross,” whispered Amy from across the table.
I’d forgotten what good hearing she had. She was sitting at the far end of the large table, pouting with her arms crossed as her eyes darted between me and Julia. So far, everything for Amy had been pretty fun and easygoing, but after an argument earlier about leaving the suite without an adult, she was busy sulking in the corner. I’d been impressed with the way Julia had handled the situation. She never once stepped in but gave us the space we needed to work through the problem.
A stronger woman would have struggled to stay out of the situation, especially when Amy started to cry rather dramatically. We couldn’t let ourselves forget that despite her upbeat attitude, she was still just a nine-year-old girl going through a huge adjustment. It was decided that we would be calling it an early night after dinner. I didn’t want her to think that her behavior didn’t have consequences, even while on vacation.
“What if it’s the real deal and he does care about her? Won’t she be heartbroken when they separate?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I didn’t think that far ahead. My mom is many things, including a hopeless romantic. If she does end up caring about this guy, then we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
“Well, it looks like we’re going to find out soon,” she whispered.
I saw my mother heading our way, the broad smile an indication of how the night was going to go. Her new friend wasn’t in tow, at least not yet, as she sat down. We waited and watched as she took her time getting settling in. Julia and I were sitting on the edges of our seats, but Amy didn’t let the mood affect her any. She was just thrilled to see her grandmother, the only sane one out of all the adults, as far as she was concerned.
“Mom,” I whispered through clenched teeth. “Do we get any details before this song and dance? Poor guy is going to walk into a dozen questions.”
“It’s okay,” said Julia soothingly. “She just wants to keep it a surprise. Let her have that.”
“Or she doesn’t want me to make a scene when he does show up,” I grumbled. I muttered under my breath, “I’ll still make a scene though. No kid is going to rip my mother off.”
“I assure you,” a deep, masculine voice came from behind us. “I have nothing but good intentions.”
Julia and I both spun around as my mother’s face beamed. The greying African-American behind me smiled down at us and held out his hand. I took it in my own, though I felt like a dwarf in doing so. My mother’s idea of a ‘young man’ had to be past fifty. His smile was captivating and I instantly felt at ease.
“Marcel,” he offered.
“I’m Aaron,” I said. “This is my wife, Julia, and my daughter, Amy.”
“Wow. You’re super tall!” said Amy.
My mother laughed. “He is a big man. Come, darling,” she invited, tapping the empty chair between herself and Amy. “Why don’t you sit down?”
“As y
ou wish,” he said playfully, shooting me a wink as he wedged his way past the tightly packed tables.
“I’m so happy that you finally get to meet each other,” my mother cooed.
Marcel took her hand in his. He was enamored of her. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. So,” he said as his attention turned back to me. “I understand you’ve had some trouble with rapscallions going after your mother in the past?”
I nodded my head. “Yes. Given how her art has taken off, men seem to think that she’s easy prey.”
“Well I, for one, think it’s great that you’re so protective. She is a wonderful woman.”
“I think so too, so you understand if I’m a little skittish around new friends of hers,” I said.
Marcel smiled at me again. “Son, I think it’s great that you care. Not many kids make sure that their parents are safe nowadays.”
“Do you have any kids of your own?”
He nodded. “I’ve got six of them. Five of them, though, are the four-legged kind. You don’t know how excited I was when I recognized your mother at the bar.” He laughed at the memory. “I thought I was going to faint!”
Julie laughed as Amy’s eyes lit up. “You like dogs? Nana loves dogs too! She paints them!”
Marcel instantly transformed into a doting grandfather when he turned to her. “I know she does. I have two of her paintings hanging up at home. Of course, I can’t buy them now, but she sure is talented. Don’t you think?”
Amy nodded. “Why don’t you want any more?”
“Oh, Cher. I will have more, but since she’s so popular now, I have to share them with others. That’s always hard, isn’t it?”
“Yes sir. I hate sharing,” she said, reverting to her pout. “So is waiting around for adults.”
“Amy,” warned Julia.
Marcel didn’t miss a step. “Rules are important, though. It’s how us old people keep you safe.”
One More Kiss: A Second Chance Romance (One More Series Book 1) Page 7
