Page 13 of Finding Forever

“Is everything okay?”

I thought about the answer to that for a minute. Despite how nice he’d been to me, Maverick was a stranger, and maybe I should brush off how I was feeling. But it was the fact that he was a stranger that made me feel comfortable confiding in him.

I wouldn’t have to face him after this vacation, so I answered truthfully. “No.”

“I just put Penny down for the night, so I have time. Want to talk about it?”

He didn’t crowd me but hovered just close enough for me to pull comfort from his presence. It worked wonders at helping me let my guard down because the next thing I said was, “I feel like a failure.”

Maverick sighed. “What brought this on?”

“I’m sure as a parent you understand this. But when it comes to Mycah, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to make sure he gets a normal life filled with love. Well, as close to normal as he can get with divorced parents.”

“I get it. Trust me.” His voice was quiet, but his words held a lot of weight.

“The hardest part of all this is realizing that you can have the best intentions and things can still go so wrong because there are two parents involved in co-parenting. And when we’re not on the same page, the child suffers.”

“It’s not fair,” Maverick said before I could.

I’d never felt so validated. It was nice knowing that he understood the struggle. I wondered how he coped with the state of things between Victoria and Penny.

“I know in the moment it sucks and nothing I say is going to change that,” he started. “But you’re not a failure. I haven’t known you very long, but I don’t need to in order to see how much of a loving and dedicated mother you are to that boy.”

Touched, I sniffled and wiped a stray tear. “That means more than you know. Thank you.”

“Ah, Gina,” Maverick said, and I loved the way my name sounded on his tongue. “You don’t have to thank me for stating the obvious.”

Maverick

Over the next few days, Gina and I fell into a sort of routine with one another and the kids. After Chris’ little stunt, he and Victoria disappeared again. But this time for longer than a day.

Gina had tried—and failed—to hide her frustration about the situation. Her desire to have normalcy for Mycah showed in every action she took. I felt myself empathizing with her.

Even though this vacation wasn’t turning out the way I planned, I was actually kind of grateful for that. I hadn’t realized, until now, just how dependent I was on the nanny. While it was true that Penny spent most of her time at my house, I couldn’t pinpoint how much of that time was quality time. If she wasn’t away at school or an extracurricular lesson, then she was probably with the nanny doing her homework, having dinner, or getting ready for bed.

Getting to do all those things with her for the past week had made me aware of just how much I’d been missing. For too long, I’d used work as a ready excuse for my absence, but I wanted to change that moving forward. It was the least Penny deserved.

Our exes had obviously deemed us worthy of figuring out the rest of this trip on our own. So, I switched gears and put the problem-solving skills I used in the boardroom in play to come up with a solution. We’d have to give the kids the vacation they deserved, together.

It was a team effort I was enjoying more than anything I’d done in a long time. I told myself it wasn’t because Gina was so easy to get along with and even easier on the eyes. But I was lying. I didn’t believe that.

Everything we’d done with the kids over the last three days had only been better because I was doing it with her.

Hell, I was growing so used to her smile that I wanted to do whatever it took to keep it painted on her face. I didn’t know it was possible for her to look better. But the way her features transformed when her eyes lit up with a smile was quickly becoming my new addiction.

Which was why I made sure my day was completely free of meetings. I woke up and got Penny ready after breakfast because I had plans for us in place. I just hoped Gina liked the plan as much as I was betting on it.

Penny and I found ourselves, as we always did, standing in front of Gina’s front door. It had become commonplace over the last three days. Instead of letting her come to me, I found myself drawn to the way she looked whenever she opened the door and realized it was us.

“Daddy, we always come here. Why can’t we sleep here?”

Penny’s innocent question caught me off guard, and my forehead wrinkled as I looked down at her. The last thing I needed to be thinking about when Gina opened the door was spending the night with her.

If this vacation had taught me nothing so far, I was quickly learning that my daughter had a penchant for asking shocking questions or bombshell statements in the most casual tone and then going back to her routine like nothing happened.

She didn’t inherit that from me. I had Victoria to thank for that particular trait.

I opened my mouth to tell her that’s not how this worked, but Gina and her impeccable timing swung open the door with Mycah at her side.

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