Page 280 of Steeling Her
“I can swap you Logan,” he offers and I snort, brushing the hair off my face.
“Not a chance,” I say and bump his shoulder. I wiggle my toes so that they sink into the damp sand we’re both standing on, keeping an eye on the kids.
I can see Riley, our daughter, playing with Nick and Taylor in the ocean. Nick gave a lot of time to Taylor ever since they met. Taylor loves spending time with him, and Nick sometimes takes her and Riley out for dinner and ice cream to spend time with them, seeing as they’re the only girls in the family. They’re outnumbered with four little boys.
I look at my watch to see what time it is; it’s already lunch time.
“You guys hungry?” I ask TJ.
“Starving,” TJ responds while keeping an eye on Logan. He’s a lot to handle but is exactly like his mother. He’s a good kid, just crazy at times, often at the wrong moment. He just gets bored far too easily, that’s the problem. He’s always wanting to do something else, trying something different, be somewhere else. He cannot sit still. “Right, bud?” TJ strokes Reece’s, the younger of the twins, head as he makes his way over closer to his dad.
“I got some food ordered from the restaurant. It’ll come down in the next few minutes, that good?” I bend down to speak to Reece, who is super shy. “I got you some nuggets and pasta with some butter.” I smile and he grins back at me once he knows I got his favorite right. “And you, mister”—I face his twin, who is busy collecting shells in the sand—“I got you mozzarella sticks with red sauce and some breaded chicken strips with ranch and honey mustard sauce.” Those series of words hypnotizes them, until Nick comes out of the water.
“Chris!” Nick yells at my brother and holds up the football. “TJ?” He does the same to his best friend. I know what’s about to begin. They’re all going to play some beach football with the kids.
“I’ll get the food ready.” I roll my eyes and begin to walk back to the sunbeds where Danielle is now sitting with her book in hand, completely soaked from having a dip in the water.
“You can always come and play?” TJ teases me as Riley comes up to my side.
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to embarrass you guys,” I joke back as I walk with Riley back to the sunbeds. “You going to play, sweetie?” I ask her and she nods. I can see the sun has been beating down hard on her, her shoulders are beginning to turn a shade of bright pink.
“Yeah.” She’s breathing heavily because she’s trying to catch up with me after being in the water with Nick and Taylor for most of the day.
“I need to put more sunblock on your shoulders, okay? Just five minutes while you catch your breath.” I chuckle at the wet hair stuck to her red cheeks, tired from playing with Nick and her cousin in the ocean. She loves the water. If I can’t find her in the house, she’s most definitely in the pool. She is going to be one tired little girl later on tonight, and so will Aiden, but that makes them sleep better.
“Okay.” She exhales. She doesn’t want to do it but she knows it’ll hurt even more if she doesn’t put more on.
“Nick, I need to put some sunscreen on your shoulders and back too!” I walk past both of them to get the cream from the bag that has been kept out of the sun.
I wipe away the water from her shoulders with the towel so the sunblock sticks better and spray some across Riley’s shoulders. I lift up each strap of her bathing suit to get underneath too. I wipe her dark-blonde hair to the side as I try to get it everywhere for her so she can play the game. “Give it two minutes, okay? It needs time to dry,” I tell her before she’s allowed to do anything. She sits on the bed with Taylor as they drink some water.
“Nick!” I call him over and turn my finger around to tell him to turn his back to me. I spray a smaller amount on him, enough to get the job of protecting his skin done. He’s always telling me how much he doesn’t need sunscreen but I don’t listen to it. I still coat him with it and tell him to deal with it. He’ll thank me when he’s older.
I rub the cream onto his back, making sure I cover him enough as I feel the heat radiate from the burn on his upper back and shoulders. I reach up and kiss him on the back on his neck to tell him he’s good to go with letting it dry.
Chris is down near shore, setting the sand up for the mini football game they’re all going to play. The girls in the family all give them a run for their money too. Once the kids are ready, teams were picked.
Nick, Aiden, Logan, and Chris versus TJ, Taylor, Riley, and Reece.
Little Colton Steel is only a little shy of six months old, so can’t play with the older kids or be around them too much. He is always clinging on to Danielle’s hip. Right now, he’s resting in his portable bed beside his mom.
Colton was a bundle of joy when he was born. I couldn’t wait to meet him. He’s a good kid but he’s always in places he shouldn’t be in. Colton is the very definition of a curious child. A mini Chris, some might say.
Danielle continues to reach her hand across to the bed and rocks him ever so gently to coax him back to sleep thanks to the hustle and bustle the older kids were making.
“HIKE!” Nick yells and snatches the ball, handing it off to Aiden so he can run, although a little unsteady, to the end zone for the first touchdown of the game. I just know Nick is going to get him into a junior football team when he gets older despite me warning him to let him make the choice. I have a feeling he’ll be following in his father’s footsteps anyway. It’s in the kid’s blood from both sides of the family.
All the kids run around to get their hands on the ball before he reaches the end zone, but he has the protection of his dad and Uncle Chris. TJ doesn’t even bother to take the shine away from Aiden. When his little legs finally reach the line, he throws it down on the sand and raises both hands up to celebrate. A massive cheer lets out before they start it all over again. Haley calls for the ball to come back to the center for another round as referee of the game.
It isn’t long until the food I had ordered for everyone arrives. Large platters for the adults to share with a concoction of cocktails in large pitchers and smaller, individualized meals for the kids were coming down one by one. The waiters start to lay the dishes out on the small canopy table that is located behind us in the shade that we have rented for the day.
We wanted a place where we can cool quickly while still being quite private. We can draw the dark curtains to shield us from the cameras. I offer to help them out as more hands are better with this sort of thing.
I separate the food and drinks for the adults and kids on the large table for the whole family.
Once it’s ready, I call for everyone to stop the game and come over for some lunch. The kids race each other. Thankfully, they don’t fall over in the process. I place them in their seats and bring a highchair next to Danielle in case Colton wakes up and is hungry. When she brings him over with her, he’s crying after having been woken up from his nap. She starts gently bouncing him up and down to try and soothe him.
“Alright, you guys need anything else?” the waiter standing next to me with trays under their arm asks.
