Page 4 of NYE in The Cayman Islands

Dinner and fireworks for midnight, yep.

Then my eyes nearly pop out of my head when I see the list of what he intends on doing to me after everyone leaves us after midnight.

I can feel the blush on my cheeks.

“Tate McIntyre!” I call to him in the bathroom where he is getting changed.

“What, Tink?” He walks toward me with the biggest smile on his face, looking very pleased with himself. “Would you like to add something to the list?”

“Add something.” I roll my eyes at him, but on the inside, I’m excited for a night alone with no kids. “I’ll be lucky if I can walk tomorrow after this,” I say, flapping the piece of paper in the air at him.

“Oh, you’ll be lucky, alright.” Walking past me, he smacks me on the ass. “Now get that perfect little ass into your bikini so we can get moving.”

Standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, I make sure everything looks okay. Part of me still feels like I need to hide my body. This resort we are at is where the rich and famous come to play, and with all their nips and tucks and glamourous looks, I know I’m going to feel out of place.

I don’t know why I’m feeling this way. It hasn’t really hit me this hard before, but after Millie was born, my hormones haven’t been kind to me. I have tried to push aside the negative thoughts, the exhaustion and the self-consciousness, but it doesn’t seem to be going away. I haven’t spoken to anyone about it, not even Tate, and I’m very good at appearing fine. I’m sure I’ll shake it soon, I just need to keep pushing through.

Pulling on the linen shirt that is long enough to be a dress, I take a deep breath and head out to where Tate is pacing, waiting for me.

“I just can’t get used to you being the one who is panicking about being on time to get anywhere. Normally it’s me yelling at you.” Pushing him in the chest with my finger as I walk past him, I grab my phone and the beach bag that he has packed us.

“Have you got the sunscreen?” I ask as I start to rummage in the bag.

“Obviously, and hats, and yes to the towels.” He scowls at me for doubting him, but it’s the mother in me, and I’m not used to the fact that the roles seem to have been swapped today.

“Wow, where did this responsible adult come from?” I laugh as we head out the door, and he’s complaining behind me that I should trust he has everything under control for the next few days.

Paige laughs as we make our way down to the water to pick up our stand-up paddleboards. “We should have guessed that Tate would plan an action-packed getaway. I don’t know how you cope with his hyperactivity, Bella.”

“He’s not the problem, it’s the genes he passed on to his children that are the problem. When he has too much energy to burn, I just send him to hang out with your husbands. But the kids are another completely different problem. Although I guess leaving Tate unsupervised can also be a problem.” I laugh as the boys are already walking out into the ocean and all us girls are still standing on the edge.

“He does know how uncoordinated I am, right?” Mia looks terrified. These boards are big, and she is so tiny.

“Okay, let’s make a plan. We head out there and try to stand up a few times, maybe paddle for ten minutes, and then we just leave them to it, and we sneak back to the sand and relax in our cabana on the beach.” Tilly looks at us all like she is worried we won’t agree.

“I’m in.” Paige high-fives her.

“Me too, I’ll order the cocktails,” I say, laughing with them all.

“Like you think I won’t be the first to fall off, so count me in.” Mia gently places her toes in the water, and we all start trying to juggle our boards and head out into the waves. “I swear to God if Lex plans anything like this next year, he will be sleeping on his own.” She’s still grumbling as we start getting out into thedeeper water. It’s not like there are huge waves, but it’s just the rocking of the ocean and the fact that water is not stable that is going to make this interesting for all us non-sporting people.

I don’t want Tate to be upset that we aren’t trying, so I hang in until I’m the last woman out here. The boys, although attentive, I can see they are longing to just paddle off and enjoy themselves.

“I’m going to head in and rest too, babe. Go have fun with the boys,” I call out to Tate as I drop into the water beside the board.

“No, you’re doing so well, Tink. Paddle out with us, it’ll be fun.” For him maybe, not for me. I can see he is pleading with his eyes, but I just want to get back onto the beach where no one is looking at me.

“I don’t want to show you up in front of your friends with how much better I am than you. So go, have fun, and I’ll spend some gossip time with the girls.” I start to wade back into shore.

“Keep kidding yourself that you are way better than me, we all know I’m awesome at these things.” We both laugh, and inside my head, I knew that if I threw competition into the reason for why I was leaving, he would be happy to prove to the boys that what I said was wrong.

Flopping down onto the day bed after I had wrapped a towel around myself, the waiter appears beside me with a tray full of mojitos.

“Now this is what vacation should be about; cocktails by the ocean while watching our hot husbands out there doing their man thing.” Paige takes her drink and raises it for the rest of us. “Cheers to another year of being together for a couple of days, minus the kids.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Tilly smiles as we all clink our glasses and settle in for the next hour while they float around out there trying to impress each other.

“Do you think they will ever grow up?” Mia asks quietly, breaking as all from our own thoughts.

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