“Does Arthur know how to swim?” Zayer questions, spinning around in his floaty, and I don’t know how to respond.
“I think so.” I half shrug. “I think he’s just being careful,” I tell him.
“Arthur, come back!” Zayer shouts. “Come swim with us.”
“He will,” Phaedra tells him, trying to do somersaults in thewater though it isn’t that deep. “Being a royal is a lot to learn. I should know. I’m going to be queen one day.”
I snicker and so does Sebastian.
A look must cross my face because suddenly Sebastian whispers, “Go on, join them,” in my ear. He even takes it a step further and gives me a gentle nudge.
I don’t know why I’m hesitant. Then again, everything about me has been off or twisted since my dad died. Taking a deep breath, I step up to the edge of the pool and sit on the narrow deck so I can dangle my feet in. The cool water laps at my toes and crawls up to my calves, sending a shiver up my spine.
“Bellamy! Swim with us?” Phaedra asks. “None of the other grownups ever swim with us. Please.”
“Ah! Okay! I’m going in. But it’s cold!” I laugh as I jump into the pool, the crystal-clear water enveloping me as I sink to the bottom since it’s not even four feet deep.
As I surface, laughter and playful splashes fill the air, and I realize that this is exactly what we all needed. I never would have considered another vacation. First we had our honeymoon and then Switzerland—though I’d hardly call that a vacation, but this is, well, this is everything. To be together as a family, reveling in each other’s company and finding joy once more is what I needed even when I didn’t know it. Sebastian did this for me. For the children too, but he did it for me.
I don’t have words for what this is in my heart.
For the first time in weeks, I feel alive and whole, and I know my father would have wanted nothing more than to see me happy again.
After dinner, as the sun dips lower in the sky, casting a warm hue over the yacht and the sparkling water, I can’t help but chuckle as Arthur darts around the deck, his sleek body weaving in and out of the children’s grasps. Phaedra, Sabrina,and Zayer squeal each time he narrowly escapes their fingers only to plunge into the pool and swim to the other side.
Clearly, he can swim when needed.
“Little menace,” Sebastian murmurs, a glass of bourbon in his hand, still wearing his swim trunks, but he’s added a blue T-shirt that makes his eyes look like rare sapphires.
“You can pretend all you want, but you’re not fooling anyone.”
He grumbles and Rowan reaches out, giving me a fist bump as he sips his own drink.
“Rowan, when are you going to go off and find a woman to name as your princess?”
He grunts, throwing me a glare. “Don’t start.”
“But, aren’t you known as an international playboy?”
Althea chokes on her brandy.
“He’s hung up on the woman he’ll never find again.”
“Shut it, brother. We don’t all have willing, beautiful women fall in our laps.”
I hold up my hand. “Oh, hey now. I definitely didn’t fall in his lap.”
Rowan smiles like the devil. “No? How did it go then?”
I think about it for a moment, a blush hitting my cheeks in full force. “Fine. Maybe I did fall in his lap, but no more than he fell in mine.”
“True. I can’t argue that.” Rowan laughs. “Sebastian fell hard and fast for you. I had never heard him speak of any woman the way he spoke about you.”
I snort. “Oh, you mean by calling her a hot pain in his ass?”
“Something like that. The fact that he was speaking about you, that you elicited genuine emotion from him, was masterful.”
“I’ll take it. But where is your woman, Rowan?”
