“Mommy!” Lily shouted, holding up a seashell like it was treasure. “Can we put this on the castle door?”
“Only if it’s the royal door,” I grinned, brushing sand from her curls.
Kylie and Jason snorkeled with Wyatt just offshore, while Travis checked in with us every few minutes between chasing Finley and Elliott around the tide line.
---
After a salty lunch and a long stretch of quiet during nap time (miraculously!), we split up again. Kylie and I took Elliott and Wyatt for a mini shopping adventure at a breezy outdoor market while Travis stayed behind for pool time with the younger ones.
Elliott was in heaven, flipping through racks of beachy dresses and trying on sunglasses. Wyatt picked out a seashell bracelet for Finley “because she’s my best sister today.”
Kylie whispered to me as we browsed. “I don’t know how you’ve been doing all this with a baby on your hip.”
I laughed. “Delusion. Caffeine. And, like, sheer force of motherhood.”
---
We reunited on the villa’s back patio as the sun dipped low. Everyone was sticky and sandy and sun-kissed and exhausted.
Jason passed out cones while Travis carried Mira around on his shoulders, and Lily plopped into my lap with a rainbow sprinkle-covered mouth.
“Best. Day. Ever,” she whispered through a yawn.
I looked at the mess around us—shopping bags, towels, sunscreen bottles, a pair of goggles hanging from the hedge—and smiled.
“Yeah,” I whispered back. “It really was.”
---
The kids were finally down—all of them. That in itself felt like a small miracle. The adults gathered outside around the crackling firepit, the air still warm from the tropical evening breeze. The ocean was just a hush in the distance, and for the first time all day, no one was yelling "I have to pee!" or asking for snacks.
I sat curled up in one of the Adirondack chairs, a blanket thrown over my legs and Finnley snuggled in my lap, half-asleep with her thumb in her mouth and her soft curls against my collarbone. She had wandered over from Kylie’s side of the villa about thirty minutes ago and hadn’t left me since.
“I can’t believe she’s almost four,” I murmured, brushing her hair back gently. “Feels like I was holding her as a newborn just yesterday.”
Kylie smiled, leaning into Jason’s shoulder. “You basically were. She’s always been obsessed with you.”
“Join the club,” Travis grinned, reaching over to squeeze my knee.
Jason mock-gagged. “Okay, calm down, lover boy.”
We all laughed, and the conversation melted into random topics—celebrity gossip, weird dreams, the most chaotic vacation moments so far. Then Kylie perked up suddenly, clearly up to something.
“Okay,” she said, sitting up straighter, “Grown-up game time. Truth or dare—but like, a tame version. No one needs to be streaking past security or revealing childhood trauma.”
“Speak for yourself,” Jason muttered with a smirk.
“Who’s starting?” I asked, adjusting Finnley gently in my arms so I could sip my wine.
“Taylor,” Kylie said immediately. “You’ve got a sleeping child on you. You’re safe. Truth or dare?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Truth. I’m not moving.”
BINABASA MO ANG
Invisible String
FanfictionWe always thought it would be easy - or at least, easier than this. Starting a family was the next chapter we were so ready for. After years of tour buses, locker rooms, sold-out stadiums, and quiet nights tangled up on the couch, we finally looked...
