“Sienna and Jacob, please stop climbing on the table,” Nina called out to the kids who looked very invested in trying to break their little necks, or the table, or both.
The tension behind my eyes wrenched tighter. The stress of the first voyage, the supply and maintenance issues, the magnifying glass that the cruising community would hold up to this first trip…I was ready to explode. A nice big burst of profanity was usually enough to let me vent off some pressure, but thanks to the little ones, all I could do was seethe.
The ever-increasing volume wasn’t helping my state of mind.
“Well?” Nina asked, splaying her hands in front of her. “We don’t have a ton of options, you know. We need to be busy and contained until the next activity, and business center Pictionary feels like the best option.”
“Not happening. I’m already set up in here and in the middle of a delicate negotiation.”
She snorted. “That’swhat you call ‘delicate’? I’m not sure you actually know what that word means.”
I heard a rhythmic banging and turned to find one of the kids spinning on a chair and kicking a desk with each go-round. I jabbed my finger toward him and glared at Nina.
“Brock, please don’t,” she scolded gently. “Feet on the floor.” Nina looked back at me. “Everyone is a little unbalanced and excited since we just pushed off. We need to find an activity, and if you won’t let us use the whiteboard we could always…I don’t know, head down to the yoga studio and play in there?”
I pictured the dozen kids turning the expensive Pilates reformers into a jungle gym.
“Now why would you think that’s a good idea?” I demanded.
Nina shrugged. “Because I’m not hearing any better ones? Maybe we could interrupt the film already in progress in the media center? I believe you have a full house of folks who are learning the history of Ashford Cruise Lines? Or, I know! I could bring them to the spa. Yeah, that’s perfect. They can hang out in the lounge area while they wait to get manicures and scalp massages. I’m sure the other guests wouldn’t mind us barging in. A bunch of manic kids is exactly the vibe they’re looking for, don’t you think?”
“You havegotto be kidding me,” I fumed.
She squared up in front of me, her back straight and eyes burning. “I’m open to other suggestions, but I’m not hearing any. Got any better ideas? Because you’re making my job much harder than it has to be. We need that whiteboard.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the impressive conference room behind me. “There’s alotof glass in here. And tech equipment. It’s not set up for free play.”
“They’re kids, not wild animals,” she whisper-scolded me. “Once I get them on task, they’ll be focused and fine.”
“Oh really?”
I pointed to where two little boys were hitting every button on the copy machine, causing it to blink and beep nonstop.
“That is because they’renoton task yet,” she pointed out, before turning to the kids. “Ryan,” Nina scolded gently. “Brayden, hands off please!”
“You need to get everyone under control,” I said through gritted teeth. I noticed a few children throwing nervous looks at me. “This ischaos.”
Okay, that was a full-on growl. But I couldn’t help it.
“Hey, Noah, when is your daddy going to stop yelling at Miss Nina?” A little voice called out. “He’s being mean.”
I immediately glanced over at Noah and watched as he gave a little shrug and shrank down, avoiding looking at the rest of the kids.
Or me.
The last thing I wanted was my son to think I was a grumpy asshole. On some level, he had to know that this wasn’t the real me. Up until recently, I hadn’t lived full-time with him since he was a baby, but while the weekends we’d spent together hadn’t been as frequent as I would’ve liked, we always made them fun.
At leastIthought so.
This trip was supposed to help bridge the gap that had sprung up between us since the tragedy. It hurt to see my formerly sunny child looking so haunted. Not that I blamed him.
Now, thanks to Nina, I was going to have to work doubly hard to make everything right with Noah.
“Oh, Teddy, Mr. Ashford isn’t being mean,” Nina said. She rolled her eyes so that only I could see, belying her words. “He just has a lot on his mind right now. This is the first time this boat is going out on the ocean. So fun, right?”
The cheers were ear-splitting.Howdid she do this for eight hours a day?
She seemed to sense I was at my breaking point, and based on the little grin, she liked it.
