My Saving Grace (book 2)

June 14, 2025

"Good morning, beautiful." Scott whispered as he opened his eyes. Alex was already awake. He was just revelling in the fact that non of the kids had thought to bother them yet that morning. It was 9 am and he hadn't heard a peep from them.

"Hi." Alex said, smiling and rolling over onto his side to face Scott. He connected their lips briefly before pulling away. "We should go to the beach today." Alex suggested and Scott nodded in agreement. They hadn't been to the beach in a while so that would be fun. Scott smiled when he felt their lips connect again.

"Dad!!!!! Jess is trying to burn down the house!!!!!" Scott and Alex heard the shout and immediately ran towards the kitchen. Their eyes widening when they were met with the smell of burning. They stopped in the doorway where they saw Jessica at the hob with a pan of bacon in her hands. Noah was sat on the counter with a plate of burnt toast in his hands and Toby was sat at the table.

"What have we told you about touching the cooker without an adult there?" Alex scolded taking the pan of smoking bacon off of the cooker and throwing it in the trash. Jessica stepped back as Alex turned the cooker off and threw the pan in the sink.

"But the boys wanted breakfast and you weren't awake and I said I'd make them some." Jessica said. Scott took the plate of burnt bread from Noah's hands and inspected it.

"You cremated this didn't you?" Scott commented, throwing the near ashes in the trash.

"We just wanted you to be able to sleep in." Noah stated.

"I told them not to." Toby said.

"There's cereal in the cupboard. You could have used that. Just don't use something that could possibly burn the house down, okay?" Scott said, ruffling Noah's hair. He lifted him into the air and over his shoulders. Noah giggled loudly.

"We're going to the beach today. So you guys better get ready." Alex told them as Scott placed Noah back down on the ground.

....

When they were all ready to go they got int he car and drove through the heavy LA traffic to the beach. The sun was shining brightly and the heat was bouncing off of the sand. It was relatively quiet but there was still families and couples sprinkled here and there.

They placed down their towels about halfway between the water and the parking lot. Alex and Jessica took a ball and walked down to the waters edge. They began to through it back and forth as Scott sat down and covered the twins in sun screen. He smiled as he watched Jessica catch the ball and throw it back to Alex. Suddenly he got an idea.

"Watch this." He told the boys. They both turned and watched as Scott pulled off his shirt and stood, wiping the sand off of his shirts.

He suddenly broke out into a sprint, running as fast as he could towards the water. Not stopping until his arms came in to contact with Alex's waist. He caught him off guard and lifted him off of his feet, still running as his feet met sea and they both fell into the water. Both heads going under as the kids laughed loudly.

Alex dived forward as Scott came up to the surface. "I'm going to kill you!" He laughed, jumping onto Scott's shoulders and pushing him under.

The kids came running down to the water and jumped in, splashing around their dads. Jessica grabbed the ball and threw it towards one of her brothers. "Piggy in the middle!" Toby squealed. Scott lifted Toby up onto his shoulders, Alex doing the same to Noah. Jessica was in the middle as the boys threw the ball over her head.

Alex winked at Scott, smirking and making a falling gesture with his hand. Scott nodded in understanding and mouthed "one, two, three." They both let their feet fall from under them, sending the boys crashing down into the sea.