Rhyan tightens her arms around my neck. “Go faster, horsey.”
“I’m a defensive tackle, not a horse.”
“You’re whatever the queen says.” She taps my head.
Remy cannonballs beside us, sending water everywhere.
Presley shrieks as the splash hits her.
My head falls back, and I laugh.
“Oh, you think that’s funny?” she asks.
“Extremely.” I smile.
She stands slowly, and I recognize the look on her face.
“Presley … ”
She dives in, clean and smooth.
When she surfaces, she slicks her hair back, and I swear my brain briefly forgets there are children … and her parents present.
She sees me staring, and her mouth curves.
“You good?”
Nope.
I glare at her playfully. “I think you know what you’re doing.”
She swims toward me, and Rhyan immediately transfers herself from my back to Presley’s.
“New horse!”
Presley narrows her eyes at me. “You were goading me.”
I kiss her quickly. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“Uh-huh,” she says as she swims away with Rhyan and now Sera also clinging to her.
My chest warms as I watch her, wondering how I got so lucky that she came into my life. She didn’t know when she met me myfreshman year of college that she was helping me deal with the loss of my dad.
And she hasn’t left my side since I lost Savannah.
I’m not sure how I could ever repay her for pretty much putting her life on hold for me. For the kids. But she didn’t hesitate. She just did it.
That’s a heavy thought, and makes me wonder what would happen to the kids if she did walk away from not only me, but them, after she gets access to her trust. Would she want to get back to the life she was living before?
God, I can’t allow myself to think about it. I just can’t imagine her leaving us like that. But she could.
I love her so much it would kill me if she did. So I just need to make sure the thought of leaving never crosses her mind.
The past two days are a blur of sunscreen and saltwater. We go to the beach in the morning. Swim in the pool in the afternoon. Barbecue at night.
Sera and Rhyan build sandcastles that they call dragon fortresses. And Remy learned how to body surf and got knockedover more times than I can count, but every time he popped up, he would laugh so hard he could hardly breathe.
I want to memorize the sound of all of it.
