I took the phone from the girl. “Gracias.”
She gave me a small smile and ran off.
My own phone buzzed. I held it up and saw a text from Taylor.
Hey, babe, what’s your ETA? Getting hungry around here.
I felt my throat catch. How should I respond? I couldn’t tell her about this over the phone. I had to be there with her in person.
A second text arrived from Taylor. A heart emoji along with a photo of our girls playing dress-up with three similar-age girls from the orphanage. Olivia and Nicole had insisted on bringing an entire duffel bag filled with their Disney Princess outfits. They’d made good use out of them this week. I had a feeling we’d be leaving the costumes behind for the kids at the orphanage and buying all new ones when we got back to Austin.
Looking at Taylor’s second text nearly brought me to my knees again. I had talked her into coming here. I had created this nightmare. One she didn’t even know about yet. I already felt my heart breaking at having to tell her this news. If we didn’t get Joe back, would she ever forgive me? Would I ever forgive myself? How had this happened? Just a few hours earlier, we were the happiest family you could find anywhere, splashing around together in the hotel pool. The day had started perfectly, but then everything had unraveled on me so fast.
“We really need to go, Alex,” Taylor had said to me that morning, frowning while she stared down at me in the water from the edge of the hotel pool. “I told them we’d be there by ten.”
Taylor and I had been together sixteen years—ten married—and she still took my breath away. Even while wearing plain jeans, running shoes, a simple white T-shirt, her brunette hair in a ponytail, and very little makeup.
“Come on, Mom!” shouted Olivia. “Five more minutes!”
“Please, Mom, please!” echoed Nicole.
Both girls were splashing around in the shallow end of the pool next to me in their cute pink-and-purple matching swimsuits.
“Yeah, Mom, don’t be such a party pooper.” This came from Joe, who was also in the pool with us. We’d been taking turns throwing the girls as high as we could and watching them shriek with absolute joy.
“Don’t encourage them, Dad,” Taylor said, rolling her eyes.
“Where’s the fun in that?” he replied with a wide smile.
We’d had the hotel pool to ourselves. It wasn’t much. This wasn’t a luxury resort. But we were making the most of it.
“We have time, babe,” I said to Taylor, wading over closer to her.
“But we have to pick up paint supplies, remember?”
“That’s true.”
I heard more squeals from behind me, turned. Joe had launched Nicole into the air again, and she’d done a little cannonball into the water. She’d been working on perfecting her cannonballs in our pool back in Austin. She was so proud of them, even though her tiny splash barely rippled more than a couple of feet.
She popped up out of the water, the biggest smile on her face. “How was that, Papa? Was that even bigger than last time?”
Joe’s eyes lit up. “It was huge!”
“My turn! My turn!” yelled Olivia, swimming over to Joe.
My mother-in-law walked out to the pool area toward us. Carol was tan and trim with short brown hair. She played tennis in a senior league three times a week. She and Joe had been married thirty-two years. They’d wanted more kids, but Joe told me complications during Taylor’s birth had prevented that. So our family of four was all they had. Our lives were completely wrapped up in theirs, too. My in-laws lived only two blocks over from us. While most sons-in-law might be wary of living so close to their in-laws, I welcomed it. Joe was a mentor to me in every way. Carol was of great help to Taylor with the kids. She was readily available without being overly intrusive. And my girls adored Papa and Nanny, as they liked to be called.
Carol stood next to Taylor, crossed her arms. “What’s going on out here?”
“Dad’s being a troublemaker again,” Taylor said.
“Of course he is. Joe, we really need to get moving, honey.”
“All right, all right,” Joe relented. “Sorry, girls, playtime is over.”
Joe climbed the pool steps, found his towel on a patio chair, and began drying off. Carol walked over to the steps and helped the girls out while I searched the bottom of the pool for their swim toys. I collected them all, moved back to the side of the pool, and held them up for Taylor. She reached down and grabbed them with both hands. When she did, I quickly slipped my right hand around and clutched her wrist. A small grin touched my lips. Taylor’s green eyes flashed on mine.