Page 1 of NYE in The Cayman Islands

Chapter One

TATE

“What do you mean Las Vegas was a dumb idea, Bella? I thought it was perfect. I still think I should have booked it.” She thinks I’m joking, but it would have been a cool trip.

“I’m not spending my time away from the kids, stuck in a room with no windows, the air smoky and with the noise of all those machines. The sound reminds me of those damn computer games you play with Jessie and Dominic. If I hear one more noise that sounds like Mario Kart, I think I will lose my mind. So, if you had chosen that, you would’ve been going on your own,” Bella yells from the kitchen while she is getting dinner ready for the kids.

Millie is sitting in her baby rocker in front of me, smiling and gooing and ga-ga-ing at me as I try to keep her distracted and happy so it’s one less thing Bella has to juggle tonight.

I knew from the moment Dominic was born and we had two boys that there was no way we weren’t going to be trying again for a girl. My wife tried to tell herself that she could be happywithout a girl, but there was a big part of her lost connection to her mother that would only ever be healed through the bond with her own daughter. While Jessie is wild like me, Dom is more placid, and it gave us false hope that we could cope with a third child and still both work our crazy jobs as doctors. I had my doubts, but who was I to argue with my wife. And to be honest, she is like Super Woman, so I secretly knew that she would handle anything life throws at us.

The moment she found out she was pregnant again was such a relief. We had been trying for a while, and it hadn’t happened as easily as it did with the boys. Dom was only three months old when Bella declared that she wanted to try again. I almost choked on my coffee that morning, but her reasoning was sound. For her and her career as a pediatrician, the time when the babies are the littlest is the hardest for her to juggle everything. So, if she already had one baby, why not two at once, and then it wasn’t dragging out the hard stage for her.

Things didn’t quite work the way we planned, but let’s just say New Year’s Eve in Aspen last year worked like a dream.

I almost feared for the safety of our gynecologist Allison Fontain—who is Grayson’s associate because it just felt weird to have your brother be your obstetrician. The day we had our appointment, which was basically both of us quickly stopping off in her office at the hospital when all had a spare five minutes, she looked at us both and we knew she had the gender result back from the blood test. We had both said we would be happy either way, but I have never wished for something so hard in all my life.

Hearing it was a girl shocked me at first, because when you want something so desperately, you are also preparing yourself for the heartbreak. Or more that I was preparing for Bella’s sadness. But the moment the words left her mouth, Bella fell into my arms crying and laughing uncontrollably. She had finally gotten her heart’s greatest desire. She didn’t love the boysany less and is the most amazing mother to them all, but the day Millie was born, it was like Bella finally felt complete, even if she did come six weeks early. In a rush, just like her mother.

I was worried we wouldn’t make it to New Year’s Eve this year, but Millie is now four and a half months old, and Bella’s father Milton and his wife Annie are insisting we go. Even though it will be their wedding anniversary, they want to be with their grandkids on that night in what has now become a bit of a tradition for us all. We have a night nanny coming in to help them out because my boys wear me out, so I can imagine what they will do to their grandparents who are nearly seventy years old.

“Well, I wouldn’t have been in Vegas on my own, it would have just turned into a boys’ trip surrounded by Vegas show girls.” I duck my head down behind the couch as I wait for something to be thrown at me, but instead, I just hear her voice from behind me.

“Boys, Daddy wants to play wrestling.” I hear cheers coming from their bedroom, followed by the patter of their feet running toward me.

“You wicked woman,” I curse her as I get attacked from both sides, while trying to protect Millie from her brothers landing on her. Bella knew this was a punishment far greater than a wet tea towel being thrown at the back of my head from the kitchen. “You will pay for this later tonight.” I look at her with a smile, now standing with Jessie over my shoulder and Dominic in my other arm, both kicking and screaming with joy as I tickle them.

“You love it.” She’s laughing as she dishes up the chicken schnitzel and vegetables on the kids’ plates.

“Just like you will love your punishment later too, Tink.” Winking at her, I then proceed to be the tickle monster who kidnaps the kids and puts them in the dinner dungeon wherethey must eat everything on their plate to gain their freedom from the evil queen of the table, Mommy.

“I can’t believe we are getting on the plane this morning for our New Year’s getaway. This time last year we were a family of four and now we are five.” Bella zips up her suitcase where she has packed way too much, but who am I to argue that she doesn’t need half of it.

“We can do plenty of practicing to see if we can make it six after this year’s trip.” I wiggle my eyebrows at her from across the room where I’ve been waiting to take her suitcase to the car.

“That would be a bit awkward to explain since you had your vasectomy as soon as Millie was born. So, whose baby would it be, you idiot?”

“Oh, there would be no baby, I just wanted to make sure we got to the practicing bit. I might be a brain surgeon, but I’m still a doctor and understand how the human body makes babies, you know.” I’m just leaning against the door frame waiting for her reaction.

“I have been telling people all week how I’m looking forward to a few days away without the kids, but I forgot I’m still taking one with me. Seriously, some days I wonder how we even let you into the hospital, let alone touch people’s brains.” Walking past me, she kisses me on the cheek with that glint in her eyes she gets when she thinks her joke is better than mine. “Grab the bag, will you, dear.”

As she walks past me, I look over my shoulder to see her tight ass swaying just that little bit more exaggerated than normal, just for me.

Oh, I can’t wait to see that same ass in a bikini later today.

Even though we joke about it, leaving the kids was always going to be hard, especially Millie because she is so little. Not that she would know, and the boys were just so excited about being with their cousins and having their grandparents there, they didn’t care we were leaving them. Bella sheds a few tears in the car, but they soon disappear as we pull up to Mason and Paige’s private jet. It’s still so surreal that we can be flown wherever we want to go by my best friend.

Initially we talked about taking two nights away this year, now that the kids were getting older, but then Millie arrived and that squashed that idea. So instead, we are flying out at six am this morning so we can get a full day there and will fly home late tomorrow afternoon.

The snow on the ground is thick this morning, and as I’m walking up the stairs into the plane, deliberately turning up late to make sure we were last, I can’t help but smile at my plans for everyone to leave the cold behind for a couple of days.

“Here is the man of the hour, late as usual,” Lex declares, sitting back in his seat already sipping on a coffee, only because it’s too early for a beer.

“See, if I’m the one organizing this year, then I can set my own time. I am, in fact, three minutes early for my five forty-five am arrival time.” Bella and I do the rounds of kissing and hugging everyone.

“You told us five thirty, asshole.” Gray gives me the look of death for getting him out of bed so early.

“Yep, because I wanted to make my grand entrance. That’s how I roll.” Slapping him on the back, I take a seat, and everyone is laughing at how annoyed both Lex and Gray are.

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