Chapter 2 #2
“Hey, JJ, can I come in?” I ask and wait for his response. My use of his nickname has him softening, knowing I’m not mad at him.
“Sure,” he replies as he continues to write something down and then sits up, leaning against the headboard, and drops his journal on the bed beside him.
Sitting at the end of his bed, I try to make sure I have the words right before I say them.
“You seemed a little upset at dinner about the trip.” I place my hand on his ankle and give it a squeeze just to show this is a calm discussion.
“Sorry.” And he genuinely looks it.
“I get that hanging with us isn’t that fun for you anymore, but I just wanted to check in and make sure you are okay. Anything you want to chat about?” I can see him thinking about what’s going on his head and whether he wants to share it.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to, but just know that I’m always here if you need me.” I give him a minute, and when he doesn’t say anything, I push back up off the bed and smile as I step toward him, lean down, and give him a hug.
“Night, buddy, love you.” Walking toward the door, I pause with my hand on the doorknob.
“Dad.” His voice is no more than a whisper wrapping around his uncertainty.
“Yeah.” I turn back and face him.
He just pats the bed with his hand, and I walk back and sit closer to him this time.
I give him time, but it doesn’t take long before he blurts it out.
“I’ve met a girl, and she’s really great and cute and likes music, and she’s nice to me, and she’s at my music workshop, and if we aren’t here then I won’t see her and then Baron will ask her out because he likes her too, and then I won’t ever get a chance because he is better-looking than me.”
“Whoa, buddy, take a breath. I’m not sure there are meant to be that many ‘ands’ in one sentence.” I chuckle at the redness on his cheeks at the embarrassment of telling me about this girl—or the lack of oxygen, one of the two.
“Let’s start at the top. I guessed it might have been a girl.
And don’t worry, we all feel nervous and uncoordinated when we meet a girl we like.
You don’t remember, you were too little, but I was a mess the day I met your mom.
I almost bought out the whole of Target trying to keep you all safe, and in some subconscious way to also impress her.
But if I can give you one piece of advice, money is never the answer.
Friendship and just talking, getting to know a girl, is the perfect way to start. ”
Thinking back to when I was his age, I was awkward as hell and none of the girls looked at me.
They were all after Tate and Mason to start with, then Gray.
My father wasn’t someone I could confide in, but I remember an afternoon sitting out in the gardens with our butler Charles and having a chat.
I was lucky to have such great staff at the house who really were the ones who raised me.
My relationship with my father is better now, but it’s taken a lot of hard work on both sides to get here.
“I can’t even talk to her.” He rolls his eyes and slaps his hand on his forehead.
“What’s her name?”
“Charlotte Emerson.” And the moment he speaks her name, his face lights up, and I can tell he is hooked.
“Does she know you exist?” I ask, trying to establish whether he is just admiring from afar.
“Yeah, I’m not a creep, Dad. She is in my songwriting class. I sit next to her, but we only talk about music and lyrics.”
“Well, that’s a good start, let’s work on that.
And who is this Baron guy? Do I need to send the uncles around to sort him out?
” We both start laughing, knowing full well I’m joking, and then he moves over on his bed, and I get comfy next to him, leaning on the headboard, settling in for a good chat.
These are the times I’m so grateful for, feeling like I’m making a difference in their world. Memories I hope they will look back on one day with love and forget the times we butted heads arguing about things.
“This is your captain speaking. Well, actually I’m one of a few captains on this flight, but I’m the one who has permission to yell at every single kid on this plane.
Now listen up. Seatbelt sign is now on, so that means sit down, buckle up, and turn off your phones.
I know there has been a lot of commotion just to get on the plane this morning, so sit back, relax, and enjoy.
Lex, over to you, buddy.” Mason’s voice cuts off, and the jolt of the plane signals we are starting to taxi to the runway.
Looking around, I wait as every parent checks on all the kids’ seatbelts and makes sure everyone is safely settled. Once Mia takes her seat in between the twins and I see her tighten her belt, I start.
All heads are turned, even if their seat is facing away from me.
“This year’s New Year’s Eve trip is a little different, but I just want to preface, kids, you won’t always be coming with us, but this is something I’ve been thinking about for a while.”
“Get on with it, are we going to a beach?” Tate yells from behind me.
“I hope he takes us to the Arctic just to shut you up.” Gray laughs out loud.
“Yes, we are off to the beach. Manly Beach, in fact, in Sydney, Australia,” I declare, and the silence on the plane is almost deafening.
The adults are all stunned, and it’s the kids that react first.
“Dad, are you for real? Like, as in the land down under?” Jack is looking at me like I’ve hung the moon.
“I love the beach, and Trudy in my class said when she came back from Australia that the waves are big and you have to watch out for all the surfers.” Kayla grabs my arm from where she is sitting next to me.
“What’s not to like about a bunch of bronzed, shirtless Australian surfers.” Mia joins her daughter’s excitement but for a completely different reason.
“Exactly!” Tilly cheers, along with Paige and Bella.
And then everyone erupts with laughter, talking over the top of each other, and the excitement bouncing off the walls has my heart beating that little bit harder.
I can’t believe I’m about to pull this off.
But I’m not getting too confident yet. We have a very long flight ahead of us, and I doubt I’ll get any sleep on it.
Between the kids and trying to contain the excitement, my OCD anxiety levels are high, trying to run through the plans in my head and hoping like hell I’ve covered everything.
After we make our short stopover in Hawaii, I’ll be handing out the itinerary for the time we are there.
And then I’ll pray like hell that everything comes together like I want it to.
As the plane is taxiing to the terminal at Sydney Airport, I look around at all the kids, hands on their seat belts, ready to release them as soon as they can. They’re all peering out the windows, looking for kangaroos.
Twelve hours ago as we sat in the transit lounge in Hawaii as they refueled the plane there was a lot of discussion about the kangaroos that apparently are just hopping around the streets of Sydney.
Then Jessie, Tate’s oldest son, mentions that Australia has all the venomous snakes and spiders.
Well, didn’t that start a round of screams through the terminal.
Thankfully all the girls managed to calm the craziness and convince them we will be safe.
Part of me is second-guessing the zoo booking I made, but maybe we can just skip the reptile enclosure.
Mason’s voice comes through the speakers into the cabin, telling everyone the seat belt sign is being switched off, and the kids scramble to be the first off the plane, and I can’t stop laughing.
As we start grabbing all our cabin luggage, Mason walks from the cockpit of the plane with a grin as big as the ones the kids have on their faces and comes straight to me.
“Lex. Thank you, that’s a huge bucket list item ticked off for me, flying in over the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House.
” You don’t often see a lot of emotion from Mason, but I can tell this was something big for him by the way his eyes are sparkling, the strength of his handshake, and his other hand on my shoulder squeezing it.
“My pleasure, and don’t worry, I think it was pretty special for all of us too.
But don’t think I didn’t notice you deliberately dipping the wings on each side on approach so everyone got to see the view.
” I know he would never do anything that would put us in danger, and the way he handles this plane is with pure professionalism.
“I can neither confirm nor deny that.” He just laughs as he turns to help Paige with the bags and to wrangle the kids. The other pilots will sort the plane out now. Mason has signed off and is officially on holidays.
My travel consultant, Nerida, greets us in the terminal and directs us to the fleet of vans that are waiting for us.
I can feel eyes on us from bystanders as we all start piling into the row of black vans.
People probably think we have some kind of celebrity in our group or that we are VIPs of some sort.
Little do they know we are just a rather large group of loud American tourists.
Driving from the airport to the house we are staying in, there is one thing that never changes the world over. No matter what major city you visit, the traffic always sucks.
MIA
“Lex!” I gasp as I walk out onto the balcony of the entry level of our accommodation and look out at the view in the soft light of the early evening.
My husband calls it a guest house; I call it a mansion.
I have seen some big places over the last few years, all dripping with wealth in every room, but they have nothing on this place.