Page 4 of Finding Forever

“You carried all of this out here alone?”

She appeared confused by my tone and shrugged. “It was no trouble, really. As a mom, I’ve gotten used to carrying a ton of things at once.”

Her words were accented by that light and airy laugh that was growing on me. To change the direction of my thoughts, I looked around and noticed a few other families nearby. Their setup was similar to that of Gina’s. One family even brought their grill and was making good use of it if the smells of the different meats were anything to go by.

“So, Maverick, tell me what you’re doing on vacation with your ex-wife,” she prompted after we got comfortable in the chairs.

Laughter erupted out of me at how casually she had uttered the words.

“You first,” I volleyed back.

And I wasn’t just deflecting. I was genuinely more intrigued by her arrangement. The clause in my divorce settlement guaranteed this yearly vacation for me. Did she have a similar clause when her marriage fell apart? It seemed unlikely that a driver would go to such lengths, but then again, that was none of my business.

Whatever the reason, I was happy it led to our paths crossing. It was evident from our brief interaction that Gina was a great mom and had probably shown up just for Mycah’s sake.

“Chris mentioned months ago that he wanted to bring us out here since his boss would be needing him to work and since the dates coincided with his time with Mycah, he thought it the perfect chance to vacation with him,” she answered as her shoulders moved up towards her ears and then back down again. “I never expected the trip to pan out. But here we are. Your turn.”

From what Gina said, it would seem that my ex-wife had this planned out for months? Why would she need her driver here?

“This vacation is a condition of our divorce settlement and child custody agreement that I personally stipulated. I thought yearly family vacations would be an excellent way to give Penny something to look forward to. I figured it would be a good way to portray to Penny a combined family, even though her mom and I were no longer together.”

“That was prudent of you. Not many people would want to spend vacations with their ex. I sure don’t.”

“Me either.”

“But I’ll do anything for my kid,” they both said at the same time and then chuckled.

My eyes wandered back to Penny and Mycah, who had abandoned their sandcastle and were now splashing each other with the shallow water near the shore. Penny hadn’t stopped laughing once since she’d laid eyes on Mycah and if the kid held any of the allure his mom did, I was starting to understand her fascination.

“We got here a couple of hours ago and the first thing Mycah wanted to do was come to the beach,” she said with a small smirk as her eyes traveled over to where Mycah and Penny were busy entertaining themselves. “He couldn’t stop going on about Penny and I guess I see why. She’s a sweet girl.”

“What do you do when you’re not chasing your daughter on the beach?”

“Believe it or not, I do that professionally as well. I am contracted by parents to chase after their errant kids.”

She snorted through her laughter.

“Do you need a partner?” She responded cheerily. “If you’re able to do paid vacations for your ex-wife, her driver and that driver’s family from simply chasing kids, I definitely wanna get in on that.”

“And I would hire you in a flash. I would catch’em and you could calm’em. But alas, studied Civil Engineering in school and now run a company with my best friend Leon.”

“Impressive!”

“What about you?”

“I’m a boring office manager at a small dental clinic.”

“Do you like it?” I asked.

“Very much. My boss is really nice and understanding. He hired me straight out of trade school, even though I had no experience.”

“Those dogs smell good!” A stronger scent from the grill had carried over to our side.

“I know. I wouldn’t mind eating one right now with only a bit of mayo.”

“Just mayo? What about relish, ketchup and some dill pickles? Yum.”

“First of all, dill pickles are nasty.” Her mouth was scrunched up to further display her disgust. “And second, hotdogs don’t need much else except a few drops of mayo.”

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