Page 8 of Maldives & Mistletoe

FIVE

Lily and Damian

DAMIAN

No shame, and all, but Damian had learned over the years that having kids was nothing more than a battle of the survival of the fittest. If someone was stupid enough to give kids an inch, the kids didn’t just take a mile when they ran with it, no. They took ten, and laughed the whole way like you should have known better.

And you should have.

Even knowing this, Damian had somehow convinced himself that it would be a good idea to put his kids on a plane, fly them to a whole other country for the holidays, and everything would be just fine. Because that’s also what kids did to you—they made you fucking delusional.

“Slow down, Cory!”

His youngest son glanced back at his father down the boardwalk connecting the vacation huts spread across the scenic spot. Each hut was suspended over the water—glittering, crystal blue water that was as clear as the sky above their heads. The Maldives really were quite a fucking place. Beautiful, and peaceful. This particular spot where they had all chosen to spend their vacation was a well-known resort, although more expensive, and far more private.

All things Damian liked.

He still couldn’t have his son running that far ahead of him, though. Especially given the fact Cory, far more than Joe, really, found trouble like nobody understood. All it took was someone looking away from that kid for a second too long, and he was gone. They couldn’t afford for their kid to find trouble here.

Too much fucking water.

“Cory!”

Damian dropped his oldest son’s hand, but Lily was quick to grab it before he darted ahead. Cory had only really skipped ahead about ten feet, but it didn’t matter. It still made Damian nervous. People didn’t understand that drowning was a silent fucking death. Especially in children. They didn’t shout and flail … they just slipped under before you even noticed it was happening.

He could tell already—given how fucking paranoid his thoughts were—that most of this vacation would be spent with him in a panic about his sons, and keeping them away from the water, or the boardwalk …. or doorways considering their huts were right over top of the goddamn water.

Once he caught Cory around his little waist, he didn’t really scold the boy. He just threw him over his shoulder like Cory was a sack of potatoes, and turned around to wait for his wife to catch up. Lily, still smiling sweetly and as pretty as ever even after a long flight where she barely slept at all, gave him a sigh.

“Keep a hold of him,” she said, “we’re almost there anyway.”

“There better be locks on the door, or I am fucking killing Theo,” he muttered.

Joe looked up at his father, and in all his three-year-old wisdom, said, “Can’t kills Uncle Theo. He’s family.”

Lily smiled again.

Damian sighed that time.

He patted his oldest boy on the top of his head with the hand that wasn’t locked around a kicking and giggling Cory. “Yeah, that’s right, little man.”

Joe nodded, still holding tight to his mother’s hand. Quiet and a loner, the kid was easy to please and almost always followed the rules as long as people were willing to give him his space. Everyone liked to say that Joe reminded them of Damian. That his moods and demeanor, even at his age, reflected his father’s in a lot of ways.

Damian didn’t always know that it was true.

Sometimes, Joe reminded Damian of someone else entirely.

His uncle—Dino.

But that was a discussion for another day, and today was not that day. This was supposed to be a happy trip—relaxing for the girls, fun for the kids, and a mix of the two for the guys, even if they did have a bit of work involved while they were here. It wasn’t the time to be bringing up old wounds, even if they were mostly healed.

“All right,” Lily said, peering down the way, “I think that’s ours right there.”

Further down the opposite way, Damian watched as Tommas and Abriella slipped inside their hut with Tommaso hanging over his father’s shoulder. Alessa and Adriano were closest to them, while Theo and Eve’s place was closest to Damian and Lily. But really, they were maybe a couple of minutes apart walking distance.

“You got the keys?” Damian asked, following behind his wife while still holding Cory tight. He was really going to have to have a conversation with that kid about safety while they were there, although he didn’t know how much good it would do them. Lily flashed the keys over her shoulder, causing them to jingle at the same time. “Good, let’s get these monsters inside the safety of four goddamn walls.”

“Language,” his wife murmured.