It wasn’t like I’d been celibate for the last eight years. I’d genuinely never expected her to come back to me, so I’d tried to move on, but not even the supermodels on my cousin’s yacht years ago had gotten to me the way she was right now.
“Jump, Mommy!” Lu cheered when Adeline dropped the cover-up on the lounge chair and started moving toward the stairs. “We want a cannonball.”
Adeline groaned. “There’s no way.”
The sporty, competitive edge that lived deep inside me that I’d been suppressing for a long time started showing when Lusuddenly spun in the water and turned to me. “Throw her in, Zach.”
“Yeah, throw her in,” Jennifer agreed immediately, backing up her sister without skipping a beat. “Please. Please.”
“You better not.” Adeline slid her sunglasses into her hair to give me a stern look, but the playful glint in her eyes had me losing my mind.
Before I even knew what I was doing, I caught her around the waist and cradled her against me. Touching her warm, soft skin was like coming home, both of us only in swimsuits, and I squeezed her tight while she wriggled, trying to break free.
“Zach! No! Let go of me,” she squealed, laughing. “Now, Zach.”
It said something about how hung up I still was on her that even this was exhilarating. She just really was warm and soft in all the right places though, and the wriggling wasn’t helping my situation at all. I was desperately close to losing it, hauling her over my shoulder and carrying her to my bed, but her kids were here, watching every move we made, and we didn’t have that kind of relationship anymore.
“Do you really want me to throw her in?” I asked, looking at them over the top of her head. “You’re sure? Because we’re all going to pay the price for it.”
“Yes!” Lu shouted.
“Throw her in,” Jennifer cheered.
I acted like I was about to, walking her right up to the edge. Shaking with laughter, she wound her arms around my neck, her head shaking so hard that her entire body was moving with the force of it. “No! No, don’t you dare. Stop, Zach.”
A second later, I made my decision and jumped, holding her tight as I sent us both crashing into the water. Just before we hit, I heard her screech, but then we were enveloped by the cool water of the pool and I still didn’t let her go.
Bear went crazy nearby, so panicked that the sound of his frantic barking reached my ears even underwater, but as soon as we resurfaced, he calmed down. We were both laughing when I brought her back up, nose to nose while the girls swam around us.
Genuine happiness spread through me. Actually, it was more than that. I was honestly thrilled. Until I turned my gaze down to Adeline’s and looked into her eyes, finding her already staring.
For a moment, it felt like I was dreaming. This was everything I’d thought she and I would have one day, the house, the dog, the kids, and the joy of long, sunny days in a pool. I bent my head a little further down just as she lifted hers, apparently just as transfixed by the moment as I was.
I was about to throw caution to the wind and kiss her, but then a weight on my back snapped me out of it. Lu’s arms wrapped around my neck, doing her best to drag me under. “You’re going down, Zach.”
Letting go of Adeline, I bent my knees and let her win, honestly grateful for the moment underwater. God knew, I needed to get myself together.
When I finally popped up again, Adeline was playfully admonishing Lu. “You can’t drown him, baby. If you do, we’ll have to go home. It’d cut the vacation short by a lot. Almost the whole thing.”
She caught my eye as I slicked my hair back, flashing me a bright, real smile. I held her gaze, a flicker of something both new and old sparking in my chest, but most of all, I felt hope.
We were off to a good start. If we could just keep up this trajectory, maybe our marriage wouldn’t turn out to bethatbad, after all.
CHAPTER 26
ADELINE
Something big had shifted today and it was hard to ignore that as I tucked the girls into bed. We’d spent the entire day in and around the pool, laughing and having fun with Zach. He had disappeared for about an hour this morning, but once he’d joined us outside, he had stayed.
The whole day.
“Are we going to live here forever?” Jennifer asked as I tucked the blankets tight around her. “I like it here. I like the pool, and having my own room, and playing with Zach.”
“I like having my own room too,” Lu shouted from the bedroom next door. “I don’t want to leave. Ever.”
A pang of guilt and uncertainty shot through me, but I shook my head and offered Jennifer a soft smile. “No, baby. It’s just a vacation.”
“I’m not leaving,” Lu insisted loudly from the other room. “I’m staying here forever and swimming all day.”
