“Daddy! Daddy, Daddy, you’re here! You’re here for my trip!”
She launched herself at Tyler, who caught her handily.
“I am. Are you surprised?”
“Sosurprised,” Isabelle said with glee. “YouandMommy are coming on my trip?”
Tyler flicked a glance up at Cadence, who gave him a gentle smile and a nod. It would likely be a bit awkward, not to mentiona little bit sad, to have them all together. But there was no way on earth that Cadence was going to diminish her daughter’s joy, not when it was practically pouring off her in waves.
“We sure are, button,” he said, tapping Izzy on the nose and making her giggle. “Pretty fun, huh?”
“More like the most fun in theworld!”Izzy exclaimed, making both her parents laugh.
Just then, Miss Elsa called the class to order.
“Okay, everybody,” she said. “Time to get moving! Please line up single file, then let me check your names off the list before you get on the bus. We’re going to have today go off without any issues, isn’t that right, children?”
“Yes, Miss Elsa,” the children chorused obediently.
Isabelle ran off to line up with her class, leaving her parents without their daughter as a buffer between them. Cadence couldn’t remember the last time she and Tyler had been alone together, even this highly questionable sort of alone, given that there were dozens of parents and children milling around the parking lot mere feet away.
“Thanks for this, Cadence,” Tyler said, voice low. “I’m sorry for stepping on your toes… I didn’t realize. But I really appreciate you being okay with it.”
He gave her a soft smile, and it reminded Cadence of a million happier memories. Her heart clenched in her chest.
“Of course, Ty,” she said, the nickname slipping easily from her lips.
He gave her a smile that was all softness, with just a hint of melancholy behind it, then moved toward the children to help herd them into proper order.
Cadence lingered behind for just a moment, wondering how, after all the heartbreak, pain, and loneliness, she still felt her pulse race whenever he gave her any kind of smile.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Tyler was no stranger to tiring days. His job often meant a lot of holding his arms overhead for extended periods, leaving aches in his shoulders that took hours to fade. There had been the day Izzy was born too, when Cadence had been in labor for what had felt like a million hours… and that was just from his perspective as the supportive husband, not the person actually doing all the work!
Then there had been those time-warp hours with baby Isabelle, rocking her into the night, certain he’d been at it for ages and ages only to glance at a clock and realize that, nope, it had only been about twenty minutes.
Despite all these experiences, Tyler felt that the morning of the cove outing was one of the most exhausting days that he’d ever experienced.
Not that he wasn’t havingfun.
He was having a blast, honestly. He wouldn’t have traded the time with his daughter for anything, for one. More than once he’d caught her bragging to one of her friends thatbothher parents were here today, and wasn’t that just so awesome?
Her classmates, being of an age with Izzy and therefore not yet too cool to want to be seen with their parents, agreed that it was, in fact, so awesome.
The other kids themselves were fun too. They were energetic and curious and extremely funny. He’d been practically in stitches when they had started an impromptu competition to see who could do the best crab walk, to extremely variable results.
But darn if those kids didn’t have endless energy!
After several hours of ferrying them to and from water games and other group activities, of making sure that nobody strayed too far down the beach or out of the designated section of the water, and of hearing cries of, “Hey, watch this, Mr. Meadows!” and racing off to interrupt some doubtlessly extremely dangerous action…
Well, Tyler was beat.
He was looking forward to lunch more than anything.
“Daddy! Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, come sit with me and Mommy!”
Isabelle appeared out of nowhere to snatch his hand. These kids werefasttoo.
