Page 74 of One Bride for Three Single Dads

The first few days, I admit I encouraged us all to stay in the house. After all, there were so many interesting things to explore and all the cabinets! And so many ways to roll off the end of the cliff and die outside!

So it seemed to me that the safest thing to do was to keep the kids inside. After all, the main point of the job as it was explained to me was “don’t kill the babies.”

Cliffs. Scary.

But gradually, they got fussy and bored, the way children do. There are only so many crayon portraits we can make of each other before we start to go stir-crazy.

Alexis is a great help, as always. She is always willing to chat with Cole or sit for one of his portraits. I feel like he is getting very good at it.

I may be biased.

But sometimes I see her sitting at the front window, staring out at the ocean. I did promise her to see the ocean.

The scary, scary ocean.

“Hey, should we explore the garden?” I finally get up the courage to ask, walking up behind her.

Alexis turns around, her eyes gleaming with excitement. When she realizes that Harmony is already bundled up and Cole already has his boots and jacket on, Alexis yelps with excitement and dashes past us toward the kids’ bedroom.

She returns in just a moment with a jacket and a cap pulled over her ears. Smart girl. Wind like this can give you an earache.

I’m not courageous enough to let Harmony crawl around the yard. Maybe Harrison is right, and the squirrels in Ireland are actually more of the demon-groundhog variety.

Instead, I just hold her against my hip as we shuffle around the garden, poking at every plant, pointing at the little semi-familiar bugs that scurry under the shrubbery.

As always, the ocean is in the background. It’s much louder out here. I can see why the house was built so soundproofed. The ocean is just really frickin’ loud. There’s no other way to explain it.

Every time Cole takes a quick step in an unexpected direction, my heart clenches. Truly I am afraid he’s going to run for the sea. There is part of me that just thinks that every little kid is determined to hurl themselves into traffic. The ocean is basically the “traffic” of this environment.

I mean, they are dangerous little people. And I am responsible for them.

It makes me want to go back inside.

But when Alexis turns around with her cheeks all red, grinning like crazy as the wind whips tendrils of her hair out to the side, I convince myself to stay out here a little bit longer.

Harmony begins to get heavy, so I bring myself to the edge of the garden bench. Just the edge. I could leap up and save somebody’s life if I had to.

Alexis takes Cole by the hands and starts reciting a nursery rhyme, something that she knows that he knows. He dances along with her, holding her hands as they move in a circle in the garden. It’s the old “Ring Around The Rosy” rhyme, so it ends with them dropping on their bottoms, laughing hysterically.

Then they get up, and start all over.

And I realize again, here I am, in heaven.

All I have to do is forget to be scared.

Chapter 32

AMBROSE

Iwas expecting decent carpentry skills from the Irish, but I wasn’t expecting this.

There are amazing. They show up every day early. They talk constantly, and I can’t understand a word of it. But they are talking to each other, getting things done.

Since Patrick’s crew is familiar with the job, they already know the plans. They even pointed out some extra materials we didn’t notice on our first time through. It turned out the roofing tiles are stacked in the backyard behind the greenhouse. Clay tiles. Great for the ocean air.

With all the crew in place and the majority of the materials, we settled in to work the first week, achieving an easy rhythm in short order.

Patrick runs his own crew. That is just as well. We appear to have a bit of a language barrier. He talks slower for my benefit. We discuss the work that needs to be done. Then he returns to his guys and gets it all going.

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