Page 45 of The Homewrecker's Fate

“That’s where you’re wrong. They want you here, but more than that, they want you to want to be here with them. Kids aren’t stupid. They can tell when you’re phoning it in, Rich. If all you have to offer them is a half-assed attempt, they are certainly better without your presence, and we’ll make sure they forget how disappointing your couple hour visit was.”

I walked away from him and moved to join Gavin, who was sitting on the sand watching his sister and Brax paddle further out into the water. “You ready to build the best sandcastle in the world?” I asked in a cheerful voice.

“Really?” Gavin asked hopefully.

“Absolutely! We’re going to make everyone else so jealous of our skills.”

Gavin laughed and shook his head as if he didn’t believe me, but he played along as we gathered enough wet sand to start building the base of our castle. Before long, Mel came and joined in after whispering a “Thank you,” to me. It was unnecessary, but I understood why she felt it was.

“Auntie Avi, look at me!” Gwen yelled from the water as she doggy paddled closer to shore.

“Brilliant, Gwenie!” I called back to her.

“Mom!” She screeched after she realized Mel was down close to the water, too. “Come swim with me! Uncle Brax is boring!”

“Thanks, little G,” Brax huffed in a playful way before he splashed her.

“No splashing! That’s cheating, Uncle Brax!”

“Well, that’s what boring people do,” he teased and let loose another round of splashes. Gavin stared longingly at them before I finally said, “Why don’t you go out there and show Uncle Brax how to really splash. Get him back for your sister!”

“Yeah?” He asked excitedly before looking at our sad sandcastle base. “You sure?”

“Positive! Go, your mom and I will work on this for a little bit. I think lake sand is just all wrong for castles,” I hedged.

After he took off Mel laughed at me. “Lake sand is all wrong huh?” She asked through her laughter.

“Fuck me, Mel! Who knew building a sandcastle required an engineering degree?” She had to grab her belly that shook as she threw her head back and laughed even harder.

“Sounds like you ladies need a hand with this,” a gorgeous, tattooed man in board shorts said as he strolled over and plopped his butt down beside my miserable attempt at a castle.

“Are you an engineer?” I asked.

He grinned at me and shook his head before he turned to Mel and seemed to glitch right there before our eyes. He stuttered, took a double take, and then allowed his eyes to take a long, lazy stroll up her body. She was more covered than I was, as she wore a one-piece bathing suit with a sarong tied around her hips, but there was no mistaking she was pregnant.

“Figures, I finally meet the woman of my dreams and she belongs to someone else,” he mumbled.

“Actually, she doesn’t.” His eyes went down to her belly and then back to me in question. “She’s in the middle of a divorce and we have the same baby daddy, if that tells you anything.”

He turned his attention back to Mel. “You’re on the beach with your ex-husband’s girlfriend?”

She shook her head and offered a small smile to the far-too handsome man. “No, I’m on the beach with my ex-husband’s ex-mistress and she didn’t know he was married. I prefer her company to his.”

“Smart lady,” he stated before glancing at my messy attempt once more. “Let’s see what we can do with this while your…” He glanced over at Brax in the water with the kids and noticed he was eyeing the man skeptically. “Please, tell me that’s not the ex.”

We both laughed. “Nope. That’s her boyfriend,” Mel stated without giving away that Brax was also her life-long bestie and possible baby daddy. I couldn’t blame her for that.

“Good. Okay, well, let’s see what we can do to salvage this. I’m Trent, by the way.”

“Mel and that’s Aviva,” my friend introduced. Trent’s eyes never wandered back my way. I wasn’t the least bit put off by that. The man was obviously infatuated with Mel, and I hoped like hell she gave in to the opportunity to see that she was still a desirable woman, despite the way Rich had made her feel.

“So, how do you know so much about building sandcastles?”

“I had to learn for my son’s sake.”

“Son? Do you also have a wife?” Mel wisely asked.

“Nah. We were best friends growing up and never really dated at all, but had one wild night of curiosity when we were in the beginning of our senior year of high school. By the time I turned 18, I had a kid with my best friend. We’ve never been together romantically.”

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