She shrieked, and the two of them engaged in a playful splashing match. Tommy found himself caught in the crossfire of their antics and laughed so hard he needed to hold onto his stomach. The movement sent the giant float teetering over, and the three of them landed in the water.
Tommy fell right into Angel’s arms. He floated in his husband’s strong embrace, aided by the buoyancy of the water. Those warm Latin lips landed on Tommy’s with enough heat to melt Antarctica. He leaned into Angel’s hard pecs and scraped his mouth against the light razor stubble on his husband’s cheek as they kissed. He reached for Jessi, but she was no longer next to them. “Hon? Where’d you go?”
“I’m over here.” While Tommy and Angel had been engaged in a serious lip lock, Jessi returned to the float. She was on her stomach, leaning on her elbows with her chin propped up in her hands. She waved to them with her fingertips, and then sighed as she continued to watch them. “Don’t stop on my account. You know I love to watch.”
And they loved to put on a show, but, right now, it would have to wait, because two little ones were running out of the house in their swimsuits.
Tessa, five years old and fearless, jumped in the pool before her brother. She didn’t ease into the shallow end. Instead, she took a bold leap into the middle of the pool and swam like a fish toward her mother and climbed onto the float.
Lucas chose a more whimsical entrance than his little sister and climbed the slide. With his hands in the air and his blond curls bouncing in the breeze, he sailed down the slide and splashed into the pool. He swam under the water with the ease of a dolphin and popped up right next to Tommy and Angel.
“I learned a new song!” Lucas’ bright blue eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. “‘Nother One Bites the Dust.’ Mason and Uncle Jimmy taught me.”
Jimmy and his son were drummers. Neither played the guitar, so Tommy was confused as to how they taught Lucas a song. “How’d they do that?”
“They played it for me. On the speakers in the ceiling. I had to listen to it a bunch of times before I figured it out. Then they played the drums while I played the guitar.”
“You picked up the melody just by listening to it? Without sheet music?” There was no question that Lucas was a gifted guitarist. He’d strummed his first guitar before he was two. By the time he was four, he was reading music. Now, at seven, he had the skill of a seasoned musician. But he’d never picked up a song by ear before.
“Yeah,” the boy replied. “Uncle Jimmy helped me a little. And Mason. Mason is my best friend in the whole world. I wish he was my brother.”
“I’m sure he feels the same way. But you’re like brothers,” Tommy explained. “Just like me and Papi are like brothers with Jimmy and Damien. But don’t worry about that. You learned a song by ear! That means you figured out the chords just by listening to it. That’s amazing!”
Angel picked up Lucas and carried him on his shoulders across the pool to Jessi. “Our boy learned his first song by ear today.”
Jessi’s face lit up with a mother’s smile, and she reached up to touch Lucas’ hand. “That’s wonderful, baby. I can’t wait to hear it. We’re so proud of you! Did you hear him play the song, Tessa?”
Tessa shook her head. “The drums were too loud. I went with Aunt Audra and Aunt Kira to get manny paddy.”
Jessi chuckled. “A mani/pedi?” She picked up the little girls’ hand, which showcased pastel pink nails. “How beautiful!”
“Let’s see, princess” Tommy said, taking a step closer.
Tessa held out her hands and pulled her legs out from under her to show off her matching pink toes.
Angel gasped dramatically. “They’re gorgeous.”
“She had her hair done, too,” Lucas said. “It looked pretty, but she didn’t like it.”
“Why not?” Jessi asked. “I didn’t even get to see it before you got it all wet.”
“Because it was curly.” Tessa pouted. “I have straight hair.”
Jessi chuckled as she ran her hand over the crown of Tessa’s head. “Well, they’re all gone now.”
They spent the next hour playing with the kids in the pool and then sunbathing on the floats before Sofia, the kids’ nanny, brought Lucas and Tessa into the house to get cleaned up before dinner.
“I guess we should do the same,” Angel said, climbing out of the pool.
On the way inside, Tommy stopped to pick up his things that were still on the lounge chair, and then followed Jessi and Angel upstairs to their suite of rooms so they could shower.
He threw everything onto one of the small couches in the bedroom, and his stomach rumbled. Hungry from playing in the pool with the kids, he asked, “What’s for dinner, A? I’m starved.”
“I was thinking either pulpeta or ropa vieja. Which do you prefer?”
Tommy sometimes mixed up the Cuban dishes that Angel prepared, so he needed clarification, although anything Angel made satisfied his appetite. “Pulpeta is meatloaf. Right?”
Angel looked horrified. “Tommy Blade, did you seriously just call my pulpeta meatloaf? Meatloaf is an American dish that’s almost as dry as a hockey puck and covered in ketchup. Pulpeta is seared to perfection, and then gently simmered in a savory tomato sauce with garlic, peppers, onions, and wine.”
