All That Matters

Chapter 35

June 26, 2019
Anoa'i House
Tampa, FL

Galina and I walk down the stairs with both the twins and get ready to go to the family room, when the doorbell rings.

"Expecting anyone?" Galina asks. I shake my head. I go to the door and see it's my parents.

"Mom. Dad. What are you two doing here?"

"I will take him." My mom says, taking Leati out of my arms. "And you will take this." She hands me an envelope.

"Where's my granddaughter?" My father asks.

"In the family room with Galina. Mom, Dad what's going on?" I follow them into the family room.

"Everything you need to know is in that envelope." My mom says.

"Ok... suspect." I open the envelope and there's a letter.

"Mommy who was at the door— Grandpa!" Joelle yells and she jumps into my father's arms.

"Hello beautiful!" He says happily. Anjali comes in holding Boo and Mark walks in behind Bonnie.

"Who's this letter from?" Galina asks.

"Joe." I say. "I recognize the handwriting. It's addressed to both of us."

"Go read the letter." My mom says. "We'll stay here with them." Galina and I look at each other before she hands Lilo to my dad. The two of us go into the living room.

"So what does it say?"

Malaika and Galina,

I'm sure with all the chaos going on in the house with the kids, you probably didn't even notice that I haven't been home for a few hours.

"I thought he was at the gym." I say.

No, I wasn't at the gym. Since we came up with our schedule for our... playtime, I've decided that I wanted our first time to be special. So as soon as you finish reading this letter, you two will go upstairs and pack a suitcase because we will be in Miami for a couple days.

"He didn't..." Galina says. "Is he serious?" I nod.

"Joe does not half ass anything."

We'll be gone from today, Wednesday, and we're coming back Monday. Please bring swimsuits and dress up clothing as well. It's gonna be lovely. Below is the address for the hotel. The reservation is under my name. See you ladies in a couple of hours.

Joe

"He can't be serious." Galina says.

"He's totally serious. We're going on vacay. We have bags to pack! Come on!" I happily go upstairs and start to clothes in my suitcases.

Galina and I drop our bags at the door and go into the family room to say goodbye to the kids.

"Have fun." Joelle says.

"You call later?" Anjali asks.

"Of course baby." I say.

"You guys deserve a vacation from us." Mark says.

"You're the man of the house for the next couple of days. Hold things down for me?" Mark nods.

"Of course mom." I hug and kiss my son. We say goodbye to the twins and get ready to go.

"What grandma and grandpa says, goes." Galina says.

"Don't worry you two." My dad says. "We'll be fine. You two just need to have fun." We say one last goodbye before getting into Galina's car and going to the hotel.