“I know.”
Footsteps came toward the room, and I popped my head up to see Gina pushing our door open and standing in the doorway.
“Are you up?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.
“We’re up,” I said.
She shuffled over to my side of the bed. “It’s cold in here, Daddy.”
I lifted my covers and indicated for Gina to crawl in. She burrowed under and came up between Jess and I. Jess turned around and snuggled close to Gina, her eyes fluttering closed again.
Gina yawned and closed her eyes too. Jess lightly traced her fingers through Gina’s hair and before long, both of them fell back asleep. Without anyone in my arms, I was free to watch my two favorite girls in a peaceful state of mind. They were the most beautiful beings I’d ever laid eyes on.
How could I almost have missed out on this? If I’d stayed married to my work, I would have lost small moments like this. And even though they weren’t significant events in any one of our lives, they were important. They reminded me to make every second count while I could.
I watched them until my eyelids got heavy and I fell back into a peaceful rest lying next to the entirety of my life.
Unlike most days, the three of us woke closer to ten that morning. It was the weekend, not that that mattered much anymore since Jess and I weren’t working, but we’d traveled a lot in the past six months. I wanted to know everything about the new place I lived in, which included day and weekend trips up the coast. Chloe had been happy to accompany us on a few of the day trips, giving us more of insight into the place we all called home.
I guessed I hadn’t realized how much time we spent out of the house.
“How about we spend the day at the beach today?” I said to the girls over breakfast.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Jess said. “The forecast is saying the weather should be nice for today. I can’t say much about the rest of the week.”
Even though it took a little getting used to the flipped seasons where we were, I looked forward to the change in weather. It was something new I’d be able to experience in my changed lifestyle.
The water was cooler than we were used to, so we decided to stick with sand activities for the day. Jess and I set up some chairs and two blankets. Over the summer, we’d fallen into a routine when it came to the beach. We moved through our tasks like second nature.
Within a few minutes, Jess and I were lying out on the lounge chairs while Gina sorted her sand castle molds.
“Did you invite your Mom over?” I asked Jess.
“She’s on a weekend trip with David,” Jess said.
David was a long-time friend of Chloe’s. He had been divorced for almost five years. Jess played matchmaker for the two, and they quickly moved up their relationship ranks in the past three months.
“Is that too fast?” I asked.
Jess shrugged. “It’s different with older people. They know what they want and when they find it, they hold onto it.”
“Are you calling me old?” I teased.
Jess looked at me over the brim of her sunglasses. “Not at all.”
I had moved quickly with Jess. Only two weeks after our break up all those months ago I moved to her hometown and invited her to live with Gina and me. But from that point, our relationship stayed at a plateau. It was the happiest plateau, but I wasn’t ready to shake that up with the next step. And I knew Jess wasn’t either. Sure, we got the “when are you getting married?” question all the time. And sometimes from Gina. But we were happy. Neither of us needed to show anyone that as long as we knew it deep down.
“Are you hungry?” Jess asked some time later.
“I could eat,” I said.
Jess stood up from the chair and kissed the top of my head. “I’ll bring down the sandwiches.”
With our house within twenty feet off the beach, it was nice that we didn’t have to worry about food to pack for any beach trip.
When Jess was inside, I went over to Gina. “How’s the castle coming?”
“Good, Daddy,” she said. “Help me dig the moat.”