near the hotel, which Zoe wanted to explore, and Austin just wanted to relax and enjoy his wife and daughter. He was exhausted by months of hard work, and had won two of the custody cases he was handling for the shelter.
They changed into their bathing suits as soon as they arrived. Zoe slathered sunscreen on Jaime and Austin, and they went out to the pool, where Jaime insisted her father take her swimming immediately. She was wearing floaties, inflatable armbands, since she couldn’t really swim yet, and Austin held her and showed her how to kick while holding on to the side of the pool. She’d had a few lessons, but all she could do was dog paddle while her armbands kept her afloat. She started to run when she got out of the pool, and Austin stopped her instantly and told her she’d have a time-out if she ran at the pool.
“Let her have some fun,” Zoe said, lying in the sun in a bikini that showed off her figure.
“It won’t be fun for any of us if she falls and hurts herself,” he answered Zoe. “You can’t be lenient with her here. One of us has to have our eyes on her at all times,” he reminded her.
“Obviously,” Zoe said and closed her eyes as she lay in the sun, since she knew that Austin was watching her. And later that afternoon, they went for a walk on the beach, with Jaime running ahead and then coming back to them as Austin and Zoe walked hand in hand, and Jaime stopped to pick up shells.
Austin promised to buy pails and molds and shovels at the gift shop the next day and build a sandcastle with Jaime. She was already having fun on the first day.
The next day, Austin and Jaime got up early and went down to the beach. After a stop at the gift shop, he built a sandcastle worthy of a princess, and then waded into the ocean with her, holding tightly to her hand. There were lifeguards both at the pool and the beach, and dozens of children everywhere. It was the perfect place for a family vacation, and by the end of the second day, Jaime had made several friends her own age. They played in the pool together, with their mothers standing next to them, and while Zoe took her turn with her, Austin lay in the sun and went to sleep. It was the perfect vacation for tired, busy people from New York.
At night, they explored nearby restaurants, and Jaime joined them for dinner. Austin arranged an outing on a glass-bottomed boat, so they could see the fish.
They put Jaime in an arts and crafts class for three-to-five-year-olds, making shell necklaces, and Austin and Zoe went snorkeling in the ocean while she was busy. They hadn’t had as much fun together in years. It reminded them both of their early days together where they’d been carefree and madly in love. And now they had Jaime to make it even better.
“We should have invited Grandma Connie and Grampa George to come with us,” Jaime said generously, and Austin and Zoe smiled at each other. They loved being just the three of them, and they bought postcards for Jaime to show her class when they went home.
They spent an afternoon at Seaquarium, and then went back to the pool at the hotel so Jaime could meet up with her friends again. Two of them were from New York and Jaime was already clamoring to see them again. They had to remind her every day not to run at the pool, where the wet surface was slippery, and several children had already fallen and gotten hurt, but with Austin’s stern warnings and close supervision, Jaime had been pretty good. And he was proud of the fact that Jaime had been well behaved at the hotel and the restaurants they went to, she had gotten much more manageable since she’d started school, and used to following directions. She was more grown up and reasonable than she had been at two. She was a pleasure to be with, and all three of them had enjoyed the trip. There were even several couples they’d met around the pool with children the same age that Zoe and Austin hoped to see again. Zoe rarely had time to meet up with other women, except at work. And it was nice meeting people away from their jobs, and