“That sounds good,” Jess said and gave me an appreciative look. Over the past week, I started to realize that Chloe’s digs weren’t really digs at all. Her personality made her blunt and sometimes without tact. But at least she was consistent. I hoped the time alone would help draw the two of them together so when we returned home, they would have a better relationship than before.
At the beach, Gina and I built another sandcastle. She was very precise in how she filled the buckets and slowly turned them over to form the perfect structures. Several times, my mind wandered, and I found myself staring out at the ocean, trying to hold onto these moments with Gina. These little snapshots of our time together weren’t going to continue when we got home. My vacation had come at a strange time for work, and I had a lot to make up for when we got back. I briefly glanced at my emails that morning and saw they had doubled in number since the last time I’d checked. I’d quickly closed my laptop and shoved that out of my mind. It wasn’t something I normally did, but I wanted to be in the present with Gina and Jess for one more day.
“Daddy!” Gina’s voice broke through my thoughts.
“Yes, honey?” I said, smiling over at her.
She made a show of rolling her eyes. “You’re doing it again.”
She’d already caught drifting off into my own head twice that morning.
“Sorry,” I said, patting down the sand in the bucket in front of me.
“I wish we could be together like this all the time,” she said.
“Me too,” I said, flipping over the bucket and slowly lifting it from the ground. “But you know that when we get home, I do have to catch up on work.”
“I know,” she said.
“You do know I work this much so we can have everything we want.”
Gina sighed. “I know. Sometimes I really miss you though.”
“I always miss you,” I said, rubbing her cheek. “And one day, we’ll be together as much as we were on this vacation.”
Her eyes lit up. “Promise?”
“Promise,” I said, and I hoped I wouldn’t break my word. I’d figure something out.
Later that day, Gina and I returned home in time for tea. Well, in my case, coffee. I never liked the taste of tea, no matter how many different combinations I tried.
Chloe and Jess were already on the porch chatting when we arrived.
“You two look like you had fun,” Jess said, putting down her mug.
Gina raced over to her. “We did! Look at all the shells I got!”
After building our castle, Gina and I walked along the surf and collected all the “pretty” shells. They spilled over the top of the bucket, and I wondered if we’d left any of them on the beach.
“Those are lovely,” Jess said, looking into the bucket. “I like this purple one.”
“I got that one for you,” Gina said.
“You did?”
“Uh huh!”
Chloe stood up and patted the seat where she just got up from. “Take a seat, and I’ll get you some coffee.”
I sat next to Jess while Gina sorted through her shells on the front lawn.
“I’m really going to miss this place,” I said.
Jess nodded. “Yeah, I forgot how calm it is here. And the people aren’t running about as much as in the city.”
“It’s definitely different,” I noted.
Chloe returned and handed me a mug of coffee.