Ready or Not (The Ready Series Book 4)(45)

“Me, me, me! Fun!” Noah yelled at the same time Liv said, “So excited!”

“Okay, stop placating me. Jerks.”

The laughter continued, and I just shook my head, pretending to be slightly annoyed. In reality, I was overjoyed at the relationship Liv and Noah had created. It wasn’t just the fact that he had grown close to the woman I was dating, even though that was an added bonus. It was simply that he had connected with someone—period. Since my parents had moved, I’d watched him retreat, almost refusing to allow himself to become overly attached to anyone—adults in particular.

I knew my parents had done what was best for them, and I loved knowing they were happy in their retirement, but Noah really missed his grandparents. Being with Liv slightly helped to ease the strain.

“So, what are we doing, Master of Fun?” Liv asked.

The laughter had died down a bit, but I could tell she was desperately trying to hold it in.

“I thought we could take turns on the inner tube.”

“Oh, man!” Noah yelled out in enthusiasm.

“See? Your old man really is the Master of Fun.”

“Hell yeah,” he answered.

When I gave him the death stare, he immediately amended it to, “I mean, heck yeah!”

“So, who wants to go first?” I asked.

“Me!” Noah called out, nearly bouncing up from his spot on the bench.

“Anyone?” I asked, pretending not to see my son wildly flailing his arms in front of me.

“Me, me, Dad! Please!”

“So, no one then?”

“Seriously, Dad?” he shouted.

He grabbed my waist in a bear hug and nearly tackled me to the ground.

I chuckled. “Okay, okay! All you had to do was ask!”

Although brief, that bear hug was the closest thing to a hug I’d had in weeks. When his arms left me, I nearly groaned out from the loss.

When Noah was born, everyone had warned me how quickly he would grow.

Enjoy each and every moment, people would say.

But no one had ever told me how much it would hurt, how much my chest would ache when he took his first step or finally wiggled his first tooth loose. Watching him grow up was a balancing act. I would feel immense joy, seeing someone I’d created and raised transforming into a young man. Yet, at the same time, I would mourn the child who was leaving me behind—the little boy who had jumped into bed with me when a thunderstorm rolled through, or the infant who only had eyes for his daddy because I was his entire world.

Right now, I was mourning hugs—good-night hugs, the hugs that came from nowhere, the just-because hugs, and those hugs that he sometimes seemed to need to settle in at night.

I really missed hugs.

“Come on, Dad, help me set it up,” he insisted, bringing me back to the present.

“Absolutely!” I answered, remembering that even though I’d mostly lost hugs, I still had Noah.

I’d blown up the inner tube before we left, and Noah and I carried it up from below the deck.

“You are seriously going to put me on that thing in the middle of the lake and drag me behind the boat?” Liv asked, looking at the tube as we dropped it into the water.

“Yep.”

“That’s insane.”

“No, it’s fun,” I corrected.

“You’ll be gentle?” She stood to glance over the edge of the boat.

“Of course,” I lied.

“Okay.”

Noah crawled over the side and made his way on top of the tube, moving around to situate himself. I knelt down, pretending to help him as I whispered in his ear. He looked up at me, nodding quickly, and added a grin.

“Oh. Well, that doesn’t look too bad. He didn’t even get wet,” Liv said.

She watched me as I stood, none the wiser to my little chat with Noah.

“Nope. See? Totally easy. You ready, buddy?”

“Yes!” Noah answered, giving two thumbs-up. Lying belly down across the tube with his feet hanging off the edge, he wrapped his fingers around the handles. He looked like he was prepared for anything.

“Give me a thumbs-up if you want to go faster and thumbs-down to slow down. Got it?”

“Got it!” he replied excitedly.

I pushed us forward, slowly at first, and I steered straight, making sure to keep Noah and the inner tube aligned with the boat. This would most likely keep him from tipping over. I turned around to check on him, and he gave the signal to speed up. I accelerated, the engine roaring to life, and I heard Liv’s laughter.

“That actually looks fun!”

Oh, just wait, neighbor.

Liv

“Okay, Liv, you’re up,” Jackson said.

Noah climbed back in the boat, almost as dry as the moment he’d climbed onto the inner tube ten minutes earlier. His hair was blown back and wet from the spray of the tube hitting the water, but he hadn’t fallen into the water. He’d stayed on that little raft-looking thing the entire time, which was what I intended to do as well. That water looked cold, and I was way too warm to plunge headfirst into frigid water.

“Tell me what to do.” I nervously walked toward the edge of the boat as Jackson handed me a life jacket.

My family had never been much into boating. I remembered a few elegant parties held on yachts, but that had been the extent of my boating experience until this morning. I much preferred lying out and being gently rocked back and forth by the waves than attending a stuffy party on a yacht circling the city.