Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 157175 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157175 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
‘Wait!’ Maddie yells, chasing after John-Boy when he decides that now he’d like to try the water. ‘John-Boy, no.’ She lifts him into her arms and returns to her spot. ‘Sorry. You may resume.’
I look at Ava, frowning, and she laughs. ‘Go on,’ I prompt, sliding my hand into my wife’s.
‘Do you, Jesse Ward, take Ava Ward to be your wedded wife?’ Jacob asks, a certain posh edge to his voice. ‘To have and to hold from this day forward. To love, honour—’
‘I thought we weren’t doing the official thing?’ Maddie interrupts, scowling at Jacob.
He leans into her, full of annoyance. ‘You’re ruining their special day.’
‘Seriously? They’ve had, like, two already. Who gets married three times?’ She rolls her eyes and starts bouncing John-Boy when he starts yelling impatiently, reaching for his new favourite friend, the Med.
‘Me and your mum do,’ I snap, giving her a face that dares her to argue. ‘You gonna argue with me? And before you answer, think carefully about who will be paying for your wedding when you find the one.’
She snaps her mouth shut, startled, and probably pleasantly surprised, and Ava cocks an interested eyebrow. ‘Get on with it, Jacob,’ I tell him, before anyone has the chance to ask where The Jesse Ward has disappeared to. Turning to Ava, I breathe in the salty air and wink.
‘Dad, do you take Mum to be your wife?’ Jacob spurts out the words tiredly.
‘I do.’
‘Mum, do you take Dad to be your husband?’
‘I do.’ She grins at me, yanking my hand when my eyes drift down to her boobs straining against the white material of her bikini. ‘Eyes up here, Ward.’
‘Sorry.’ I flash her my roguish grin, returning her gesture and yanking her hand when her gaze takes a casual jaunt down my prime chest. ‘Hey.’
‘Not sorry.’ She chuckles, diving at me, her thighs trapping me in their grasp, her free arm around my neck. And her gorgeous lips on mine. ‘Don’t ever tell me I can’t admire what’s mine.’ Biting my lip, she pulls back, just a fraction, so her forehead rests on mine. ‘I love you, Jesse Ward.’
‘Of course you do.’ Resealing our lips, I turn and run into the water with her attached to my front.
‘I now pronounce you man and wife!’ Jacob yells at us, his declaration only just heard over our laughs and the splashing water. ‘Hey, wait for me!’
As soon at the water is up to my waist, I take us under, rolling us around, our bodies and limbs twisting, the moment reminiscent. Except this time we’re not just us. We’re not just Jesse and Ava. We’re not just man and wife.
We’re Mum and Dad.
Only when I’m unable to hold my breath any longer do I push us to the surface, gasping for air when I get there. Ava soon reattaches herself to my front, breathing heavily in my face as she blinks her eyes open. ‘Fuck, it’s cold.’ She shudders in my arms as Jacob splashes his way to us.
‘Watch your mouth,’ I warn, landing her with a kiss before pulling the cuff off my wrist and pushing her away from me. I’m attacked from behind by Jacob crawling up my back until he’s standing on my shoulders. ‘Off you go, boy.’ I take his ankles and launch him into the air, just in time for Maddie to tackle me. ‘Amateurs,’ I mutter, taking her under the arms and throwing her away. She screams, I laugh, looking to the shore to see John-Boy standing just out of reach of the rolling shoreline.
‘Dada!’ he yells to me, quite put out that he’s missing all the fun. ‘Dada, gosh!’
I wipe my hair from my face as I trudge through the water. ‘Touch the sea,’ I tell him, laughing when his little head starts to shake furiously, knocking his blond curls about. ‘Dada come get you?’ I ask.
‘Dada!’ he yells, starting to pad the sand with his feet, making grabby hands for me.
I make it to him and lift him into my arms, his little padded nappy trunks dry as a bone. ‘You always swim in the swimming pool at home,’ I say, kissing his hair as I walk back into the water, the others up ahead dunking and splashing each other. ‘Hey, calm down, guys.’
They all stop with the larking around and start encouraging John-Boy in, clapping and singing excitedly as he starts to jerk in my arms. The moment his toe touches the water, he gasps, and I decide it’s now or never. So I quickly sink us in up to our necks.
‘Oooh, cold, Dada!’ He moves to my front, clinging onto my neck as he looks back to the others, clearly desperate to join them. I swim over as Jacob climbs onto Ava’s back, and as soon as I’m close enough, Maddie is on mine, cooing over my shoulder to John-Boy, who has adopted a chimp-style hold uncannily similar to his mother’s. With Maddie lying on my back, and John-Boy plastered to my front, I swim towards Ava until our baby is squished between her chest and mine, the twins dangling from our backs. The happiness radiating from my wife’s eyes is fierce, and I know mine is reflecting right back at her. This moment, this precious moment, is what any man should live for.