Chapter 49

David
Spending time with family had been precisely what David had needed for the past week. During the day, he’d played Dad, and during the evenings, he’d caught up with his parents and the mothers of his children.

David had pulled his children out of daycare for the week as he’d planned outings to reconnect with and entertain the ankle-biters. Each day he asked someone to help him on his excursions because, let’s face it, Manaia wasn’t very good at watching two-year-olds.

On the first day, his dad was the chosen victim. They’d taken his five munchkins to Malibu Lagoon State Beach. They started out building sandcastles. That had been a genius activity because they were occupied playing in the sand while he and his dad caught up.

Rob shared information on David’s businesses. The merger with the predatory wealth-management company was going well. His other companies were all on track, including the restaurants, real estate company, farms, and horse breeding (in which he’d partnered with Zoe). He liked it when his dad brought him good news instead of problems.

Rob also showed him he had a lot to learn about child-rearing. He’d packed a picnic instead of David’s plan to take everyone to a local diner for lunch. His words of wisdom were, “Are you crazy?! Take this bunch to lunch when they’re hungry and tired, and you’re asking for trouble.”

Instead, he’d brought cut-up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apple slices, and celery sticks. The secret for the celery sticks was the can of Easy Cheese. Yes, they were horrible human beings for feeding the kids something as void of any nutrition as aerosol fake cheese, but the munchkins loved it. Leave it to Coby to figure out that he could simply lick the cheese off so he wouldn’t have to eat a vegetable.

Then they all lay down on a blanket in the sand for naps.

While his dad and Manaia watched them, David went to the van and grabbed the eFoil surfboard he’d gotten for doing a video in Greece. He put it in the water and tested it to ensure it was safe to give rides on. As his kids began to wake up, he would quietly take them out onto the water to skim above the waves.

Dawson, his little athlete, mimicked his dad. David predicted he’d be surfing when he got older. Carol got bored, stood up, and promptly stepped into the water to totally give her dad a heart attack. Luckily, there was no thinning of the herd that day (i.e., no one died), as the little girl thought it was great fun.

When he and his dad got home, the baby mamas all commented on how well-behaved their children were that night. David and his dad just took the compliments. The real reason was they’d worn the munchkins out, so the little monsters didn’t get up to any mischief.

Day 2 found him with his mom as his helper. She had some real-estate deals going, so she wanted to stay at home, which was fine.

In the morning, David took them into the backyard, where they all climbed on Dad. When they all got hot, they changed and used the pool. After lunch and naps, it was riding tricycles in the driveway until David broke out the sprinkler and slip-and-slide. Duke might have had the most fun with the water.

As the moms came home, the kids gravitated to them to share their day. They went to the kitchen, where Rosy was making sincronizadas as a quick snack. It gave him and his mother a chance to catch up.

Sincronizadas are, in essence, quesadillas. The only difference is that in between the two tortillas with cheese is ham. It was sort of like a toasted Mexican ham-and-cheese sandwich that you could put sour cream, guacamole, or pico de gallo on as toppings. His mom grabbed them a plate to share before the rug-rats discovered the goodies.

“Watching you with them today makes me think it’s time you got serious about settling down.”

Sometimes the filter got clogged, and instead of firing back a witty comeback, David ran out of smartass responses.

“Uhm.”

“I talked to Tami today, and she told me that she couldn’t find any guys she wanted to date at school,” Mom elaborated.

Like he’d asked her for more details on how he should settle down. Better yet, with whom.

David stuffed an emergency sincronizada into his mouth because he had nothing.

His mom’s phone rang. She gave him a look that told David he should sit still because their talk wasn’t over.

“I bet your ears were ringing. David and I were just talking about you,” Mom said.

David reached for the plate so he could make his escape when she handed him the phone.

“Be nice,” she warned, grabbed the platter of goodies for the kids, and went downstairs.

“What did you do?” David finally asked.

“What do you mean?” Tami asked with amusement dancing in her voice.

“I just got ambushed with ‘it was time I should settle down.’ And, oh, by the way, my buddy Tami couldn’t get a guy to go out with her. I think she’s worried you’ll end up an old maid,” David said, finding his humor had returned.

“Do you really want to go there, stupid boy?”

Even though they hadn’t really hung out in a while, David knew Tami had enough dirt on him that she could take him down.

“I was just trying to be a good friend and offer my help in finding you a guy. If you need some tips on how to dress or what to say, I’m here for you,” he chuckled.

“Someone’s in a good mood.”

“What’s not to like? I don’t have any classes or practices to go to; I spent the last two days with my kids; and I’m talking to you.”

“Nice save.”

“So, no guys, huh?” David asked.

“No time. Stanford is super competitive.”

“More like you finally find yourself surrounded by smart people, and you have to work to prove you’re the top of the heap.”

“Like you’re not competitive?” Tami asked.

There was no point in denying that.

The two of them fell into a familiar banter as they shared what was going on in their lives. They were finally at the point where they’d been apart long enough that neither of them felt the desire to push the romantic side of their relationship. They’d become friends who could be apart for extended periods, but when they saw or talked to each other, they easily picked up where they had left off.

She finally had to go, or they might have talked all night.

David spent the evening basking in intimate conversations with different household members. By the time he staggered up to his apartment, he was drunk on family gossip, the shrieks of children, and a bellyful of chicken wings. David was asleep before his head hit his pillow.

Day 3 at sunrise, David was awakened by shrieking children on the back lawn. He was with Ashley today. They, plus Duke, went to Tapia Park within Malibu Creek State Park. They spent the day hiking and playing in the creek. David was the best dad ever when he brought bubbles. He noticed that Ashley snagged the leftover bubble bottles so she could be the best mom ever sometime in the future.

When they returned home, the ankle-biters were tuckered out and went down for long naps. That gave David and Ashley a chance to talk.

“That new system we’re using has made me a lot of money this summer,” Ashley shared.

Alyssa, the computer and business major he’d met in Financial Accounting, had helped him with a stats project. It involved using public records to find potential buyers and sellers for his mom’s real estate business. Alyssa had worked for his mom this summer honing the predictive software, and by all reports, it was working.

His mom was currently looking for larger office space to house the new agents she wanted to hire to handle the number of leads. Ashley had been cherry-picking the ones that demanded immediate attention.

“My dad was telling me how well that was going.”

“I wanted to talk to you because I’m thinking about buying my own place.”

“And your first thought was about Allen and Dawson,” David guessed.

He’d known all along that having the kids all together for any length of time was probably impossible. With Peggy getting married, he figured that Dave would leave first, even though the psychic had said she would leave him with David.

“Fiona Beckham contacted me because she needs to sell her condo. And get this, Lexi gave her my name.”

David had to take a moment to wrap his head around the last comment. He wondered what Lexi was up to.

“I don’t know what to say about Lexi, but I’ve seen Fiona’s place. I absolutely loved it and remember thinking I could live there and be a happy boy.”

“You see my quandary,” Ashley said and then got serious. “What would you think if I bought it and left the boys here?”

“What are you thinking?”

“That I would split time between Beverly Hills and Malibu. I’ve decided I want to start dating again, and I don’t want to expose the boys to that until I get serious with someone,” she explained.

“You know who you have to talk to,” David said, referring to his mom.

“She said it was up to you.”

“Bullshit,” was David’s automatic response.