“I’m fairly certain I could do nothing but watch you lie there in that bikini for the rest of my life,” I answered back with a devilish smile.
Her eyes peeked opened as her hands cupped her face to block the sun. “No, you’d eventually cave and fall prey to my beguiling beauty.”
I rose from my spot across from her and knelt down before her. The smells of coconut and the tropics assailed my senses, making my mouth water, as my eyes took in Liv’s nearly naked form in front of me. Bikinis really were an amazing creation.
“Definitely beguiling,” I agreed before placing a tender kiss on her shoulder.
“Gross,” Noah said, announcing his arrival from down below where he’d gone to forage for snacks and drinks.
Mark couldn’t have just bought a regular speedboat. He practically had a yacht with a cabin below that was big enough to sleep an entire family and decked out with a gourmet mini kitchen and full bathroom.
Who needed a hotel when we had one that could float?
“You’re just jealous,” I answered.
He tossed me the soda I’d requested. Being the gentleman I’d taught him to be, he politely handed Liv her bottle of water. She thanked him, and he quietly replied as he took a seat next to her. She sat up and twisted off the top of her water bottle.
“Who’s ready for some fun?” I asked as I stood and settled back into the seat across from them.
Both looked at me with blank faces.
“I thought we were already having fun?” Liv challenged.
“Okay, let me rephrase. Who’s ready for more fun?”
Liv turned sideways to meet Noah’s gaze. They both lifted their eyebrows and broke into laughter. I watched in complete bafflement as the two continued to laugh, and then they finally turned toward me and raised their hands like kindergartners. Both hands shook in the air as if they were children begging for restroom passes. Soon, pleading followed.
“Me, me, me! Fun!” Noah yelled at the same time Liv said, “So excited!”
“Okay, stop placating me. Jerks.”
The laughter continued, and I just shook my head, pretending to be slightly annoyed. In reality, I was overjoyed at the relationship Liv and Noah had created. It wasn’t just the fact that he had grown close to the woman I was dating, even though that was an added bonus. It was simply that he had connected with someone—period. Since my parents had moved, I’d watched him retreat, almost refusing to allow himself to become overly attached to anyone—adults in particular.
I knew my parents had done what was best for them, and I loved knowing they were happy in their retirement, but Noah really missed his grandparents. Being with Liv slightly helped to ease the strain.
“So, what are we doing, Master of Fun?” Liv asked.
The laughter had died down a bit, but I could tell she was desperately trying to hold it in.
“I thought we could take turns on the inner tube.”
“Oh, man!” Noah yelled out in enthusiasm.
“See? Your old man really is the Master of Fun.”
“Hell yeah,” he answered.
When I gave him the death stare, he immediately amended it to, “I mean, heck yeah!”
“So, who wants to go first?” I asked.
“Me!” Noah called out, nearly bouncing up from his spot on the bench.
“Anyone?” I asked, pretending not to see my son wildly flailing his arms in front of me.
“Me, me, Dad! Please!”
“So, no one then?”
“Seriously, Dad?” he shouted.
He grabbed my waist in a bear hug and nearly tackled me to the ground.
I chuckled. “Okay, okay! All you had to do was ask!”
Although brief, that bear hug was the closest thing to a hug I’d had in weeks. When his arms left me, I nearly groaned out from the loss.
When Noah was born, everyone had warned me how quickly he would grow.
Enjoy each and every moment, people would say.
But no one had ever told me how much it would hurt, how much my chest would ache when he took his first step or finally wiggled his first tooth loose. Watching him grow up was a balancing act. I would feel immense joy, seeing someone I’d created and raised transforming into a young man. Yet, at the same time, I would mourn the child who was leaving me behind—the little boy who had jumped into bed with me when a thunderstorm rolled through, or the infant who only had eyes for his daddy because I was his entire world.
Right now, I was mourning hugs—good-night hugs, the hugs that came from nowhere, the just-because hugs, and those hugs that he sometimes seemed to need to settle in at night.
I really missed hugs.
“Come on, Dad, help me set it up,” he insisted, bringing me back to the present.
“Absolutely!” I answered, remembering that even though I’d mostly lost hugs, I still had Noah.
I’d blown up the inner tube before we left, and Noah and I carried it up from below the deck.
“You are seriously going to put me on that thing in the middle of the lake and drag me behind the boat?” Liv asked, looking at the tube as we dropped it into the water.
“Yep.”
“That’s insane.”
“No, it’s fun,” I corrected.