Single Parent

Chapter 17

"Nate honey..." I turned over in the bed to see that Rosie was stood in the doorway. "Are you getting up today?"

"What time is it?"

"Eleven. I've been up a few hours. I went into town with Tom."

"Why?" I pulled myself out of the bed and walked into the bathroom to clean my teeth, and Rosie followed behind me.

"Because he wanted to get away from..."

"Millie?" I suggested, unsure if that was her name since we didn't really speak to her.

"Maybe. Anyway, I woke up and went to get a drink, and he was just leaving, so I told him to wait for me to get dressed, and I went with him. We just took a walk around, had some breakfast, bought some stuff for you." That got my attention.

"What?" I walked back out of the bathroom and Rosie smiled at me secretively. "Rosie love..."

"Here." She passed me a bag and I opened it, glancing at her suspiciously. "Don't you love it?"

"A hula skirt?" I pulled it out and she laughed. "This is for Sophia right?"

"Yep, but it was fun playing with you. You're more awake now." She laughed as I dropped the bag and scooped her up, dropping her on the bed under me. "Nate...you kept me up all night already, not all day as well."

"I don't see the problem with it. I can keep going all day babe..."

"Don't I know it. Come on, you promised me that you were going to show me that place today. We only have a couple of days left."

"If we go out today, tomorrow we can stay in bed?"

"Fine." She laughed at my happy face, and I pulled her up to her feet and grabbed my shorts and a shirt and some sneakers. "What am I wearing?"

"Swimsuit, shorts, shirt, shoes with proper soles." She nodded and went to get dressed, trusting me since I wasn't telling her where we were going.

I got us a cab over to the other side of the island, and then followed the beach around and pulled her off into the trees and followed my instincts. It was somewhere that we had found when we were about sixteen and ran off to explore the island behind our parents backs, and once I had Sophia, and the few times she had been to the island, I took it as my escape place, to just think.

"Oh my gosh..." Rosie stopped when we stepped into the clearing. "Nate this place..."

"Is amazing? I know." I laughed and walked to the edge of the water, watching the real waterfall spill down into the pool below. I pulled off my clothes and dived into the water and when I looked up, Rosie was just diving in.

"I can't believe this Nate...this whole trip."

"I know. I wish I could change the order of things, so that we got five years alone together, enjoying this, and then Sophia would be in our lives, because I want her like crazy, but I wish that we could do more of this. I know why people wait a while before having kids." I pulled her against me sadly and kissed her softly, she pulled back and smiled at me, even if it was slightly sad.

"I know. We'll just have to take more time to ourselves. You can start accepting those deals that mean leaving home for a few nights. We can work it out so that once a month or something, we take a few days just for us, to just be together. I like it too, but maybe we can find some way to make our room more soundproof so we can just be more at ease at home."

"Actually babe, maybe we can just move house. My house is great, for Sophia and I, but not for a family, not really. We can buy it with our own money, or I can just use some of my inheritance to pay for a new house, and I'll sign it off in both our names, so you still get half."