Page 9 of Maldives & Mistletoe

Damian just rolled his eyes.

Lily had the right hut, although … he didn’t know if that was an accurate description for the place when she unlocked the door, and they stepped inside. Oh, sure, from the outside it resembled something of a hut suspended over the water, but inside was something else entirely. The walls facing the front were solid, and private. But a good portion of the walls facing the water were made of glass, including two sliding doors that led to a hot tub in the back, and a deck to lounge on, or jump off to swim in the crystal clear water. Modern furniture, hardwood floors, and rooms that … well, weren’t really rooms.

The sections were mostly made into rooms by sheer fabric hanging down to separate them, but it looked like there were darker curtains at the ends to pull too to make it less see through.

An inverted section of the floor was covered in large white pillows—a sitting area. The kitchen was small, but the dining area was large enough for all of them to eat, plus have the others come over, likely. A woven, bright colored hammock hung in front of a section of windows overlooking the ocean. Damian never did understand the appeal of hammocks, he always felt like he was going to fall right out of one. But to each their own, he supposed.

All in all, it was beautiful.

And comfortable.

“And not kid friendly,” Damian muttered to himself.

He put Cory to the floor, a little less worried than he had been outside. At least he could see practically everything but inside the bathroom, so it wasn’t like his son could get too far before his father would find him or catch up to him.

Lily glanced back at him after she had let Joe go. “Tommas said they put in those requests for all the safety gates and locks, right?”

They had.

“Supposed to be under the sink in the kitchen, from what I understand,” Damian said.

“Well, once we get all that up, it’ll be better.”

“Slightly,” he corrected his wife. “It will be slightly better.”

“Damian—”

“This much water makes me nervous, Lily.”

“Yeah, I know.”

He’d had an incident as a kid—almost drowned when he fell off the end of a dock when the adults weren’t paying attention. Not that anybody had ever paid any attention to Damian when he was younger. Fact was, he’d never learned to swim until he was a teenager, but that almost-drowning when he was ten stuck with him.

Damian blinked, and Lily was standing right in front of him. Her soft hands came up to cup his face, and like this, he had no choice but to stare at her. Only her. Not the water, or the unlocked doors. He didn’t have time to go inside his head and wallow in his currently unfounded fears because his wife was looking at him, and everything was always better—no excuses or exceptions—when Lily was looking at him.

Dragging in a hard breath, Damian offered her a smile.

She smiled back, then leaned in and kissed him on the mouth. “It’s fine, Damian. It’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“But we’ll be safe, take extra precautions …”

“I’m going around to lock everybody else’s fucking shit up, too.”

His wife nodded. “Okay.”

“Ow, Cory, don’t hit!”

“I nots!”

Lily turned around, giving Damian a good view of their two sons. Apparently, Joe had climbed into the hammock to lay down, and then must have helped his brother inside as well. Except the two were now fighting again, smacking each other and making the hammock rock dangerously.

Story of his life with those two.

He doubted that was ever going to change.