“Yes please.”
Smiling, I led him towards the sand pit but stopped as I considered Jayden’s outfit. Armani t-shirts were not made for getting dirty in a sand pit. Honestly, what kind of mother dresses their child in designer clothes for a play date? Perhaps I was just uneducated in the ways of how rich kids should be dressed. Jessica had a lot of expensive clothes, but I didn’t dress her in them for a day inside the house that would primarily be spent playing.
Screw it. If his clothes get dirty, I’ll replace them.
I kicked off my sandals and Jayden took his shoes off too before we all climbed into the unnecessarily large sandpit we’d also added to our garden. It already had buckets and spades inside, and a selection of other beach toys my parents had sent over for Jessica. The joy on Jayden’s face as he sank his butt into the sand made me laugh.
“Have you ever been to the seaside, Jayden?” I asked, as I put Jessica down, where she immediately reached for a spade and began running it through the sand.
“No. Mommy said she would take me but she didn’t.”
My mind filled with images of all of us on the beach together, playing in the sea, but it saddened me that Jen had promised to take him herself and still hadn’t. They’d been in L.A for weeks. When she wasn’t following Radleigh around, what the hell had she been doing?
“Maybe she’ll take you soon,” I said, handing him a bucket.
He took it but his eyes dimmed. “We have to go back to New York soon.”
“Oh.” Unsure whether to probe any further, I helped Jessica guide her spade full of sand into her pink castle-shaped bucket.
“My daddy in New York says we have to go home because he wants to see Harley. But Mommy said we can come here another time. My daddy in New York doesn’t want us to live here but I want to because my new daddy lives here and I have lots of fun with him. He plays soccer with me and one time at Nanna and Grandpa’s house, we built a fort out of cushions. At Nanna and Grandpa’s house, Grandpa let me play in his shed and he said I could help him build a boat!”
I laughed. Mitch had talked about building a boat for years, even before I came on the scene, but he’d never gotten around to it yet. I liked the idea that having Jayden around might spur him on.
I’d worried that it would be odd hearing Jayden calling Mitch and Deanna ‘Nanna and Grandpa’, but it was pretty sweet. Hearing Jayden call Radleigh ‘Daddy’ was a bit strange, but it didn’t hurt like I thought it would.
Radleigh walked into the garden carrying a tray containing two lattes for us, and two boxes of juice for Jayden and Jessica.
Jayden and Jessica. How cute is that?
Radleigh handed them their drinks then he and I moved away from the sandpit a little and sat on the grass, close enough to see them but far enough that Jayden wouldn’t hear us.
Holding my latte, I smiled as Jayden put his bucket down and shuffled closer to Jessica to help her with her sandcastle. The two of them carefully shovelled sand in the bucket, and I said, “This was easier than I imagined.”
Radleigh smiled too, mesmerised by his children getting along so well. “Yeah. They sure seem to like each other.”
Jessica beamed up at Jayden as if he was some hero who’d swept in to help her build her dream home out of sand
. I guess at nine months old, what more does a girl want?
“Jayden said they’re going back to New York soon.”
“That’s the plan. They’re leaving at the end of the week.”
“Are they coming back?”
“I think so, but maybe not until the summer. There’s a lot to sort out with the divorce and custody arrangements. From what Jen said, James is really against her leaving New York, and he’ll do everything he can to make sure she stays because he hates the idea of Harley and Jayden being so far away.” Radleigh took a sip of his coffee then wiped his lip to remove the froth. “I’d like to call him. I want to talk to him about what he plans to do, because if Jen moves back, it means Jayden won’t be here anymore. I could be a dick and try to exercise my rights to have my son living near me, but I want to do what’s best for him.” Radleigh cast his eyes back to Jayden. “I’ve loved him being here, but he hardly knows me. New York is what he knows.”
“Why isn’t he in school?” I’d wondered about this the whole time, but with my relationship in tatters, I hadn’t thought to ask. Now seemed like a better time.
“He’s home schooled. He has a private tutor, but that tutor is not here right now so I’m not sure how seriously they’ve taken his education. Jen said James wants Jayden in full time school, and Harley too when he’s old enough. Jen just likes the kids being at home. It stops her getting bored, I guess.”
“What do you think about it?”
Radleigh glanced at me. “I think I’m out of my depth. I didn’t expect to be worrying about this kind of thing yet.”
I reached for his hand and laced my fingers through his. “I know. It’s not just a child you’ve had dropped on you. Now there are decisions to make about things you never considered before.”
He nodded and squeezed my hand. “It’s easier with you. You can help me make sense of it all.”