“No.” He shook his head. “This might be the only time we’re ever here, and I’m not going to let us miss out. If she acts up, I’ll take her out onto the observation deck to look around. Every single person in this restaurant has been a kid once, Sammy. It’s not as if they were placed here by some alien force. They’ve all had their fair share of tantrums, meltdowns, and embarrassing behavior, but their parents survived it—just like we will—just like they will. It’s okay for Abby to be a kid. It’s okay for her to have her moments. No one is perfect. But if we stop doing things out of fear that we’re going to be judged, then we’re teaching her that fear. It isn’t right.”
“I’ve never considered that. Alright, Max, we can have dinner here, but let me talk to Abby first.”
“Okay, I’ll get us a table.” Max walked over to the hostess.
I crouched down in front of Abby and looked into her eyes. “We’re going to have dinner in this very special restaurant. Everyone is here because it is special. So I need you to stay sitting and keep your voice down, so that everyone can enjoy their dinner, okay?”
“Okay.” She smiled at me.
When she took my hand, I noticed the excited way she looked around the restaurant. Because I’d described it as a special place, she seemed to be very impressed.
Everything went well while we ordered, but as we waited for the food, we entered the danger zone.
Chapter 33
Abby wiggled in her chair. She kicked her feet. She stared at the other diners.
I could tell that she was getting impatient.
“Abby, what was your favorite part of our trip?”
“I don’t know.” She kicked her feet some more.
“I liked swimming, didn’t you, Abby?” Max smiled.
“Yup.” She started to play with the silverware.
“I liked riding horses. Did you?” I took the fork away before she could tap it on the table.
“Yup.”
“But what was your favorite?” Max looked into her eyes.
“I don’t know.” She craned her neck. “Where’s the food?”
“It’ll be here soon.”
Abby started to whine.
I winced and wondered how bad it might get. I tried to distract her with things from my purse—my phone, stories, even quiet games. But she was fixated on how hungry she was, and she only seemed to be getting fussier. I noticed a few people glare in our direction.
“Max, maybe we should go.”
“Sammy, it’ll be fine. The food is bound to be here soon.” He tried to signal the waiter, but he ignored Max and walked past him to another table.
I started to panic when Abby tried to get out of her chair. I reminded her how important it was to sit still.
She tried, but her little body needed to wiggle. She stood up as the waiter started to walk back toward us.
I jumped up to catch her before she could bolt, and in the process, knocked into a tray of food that a waitress was carrying. The entire tray spilled and the food and bowls crashed to the floor.
“Mommy!” Abby looked at me and wagged her finger. “You have to sit still!”
“Uh oh, here comes the manager.”‘ Max jumped up to steady me and help the waitress gather the broken dishes.
“I’m so sorry.” I kept saying the same thing over and over again.
The manager didn’t really seem to care about our apologies.
We paid for our meals and the meals we’d ruined and then hurried out the door.
By the time we got down to the street I was in tears. “Max, I’m so sorry I wrecked everything.”
“No, you didn’t.” He held the door for me, and Abby grabbed my hand as we stepped out onto the sidewalk.
There was a light drizzle and we had quite a way to go to reach the car.
Max pulled me close and kissed my forehead. Abby embraced as both. “Nothing’s ever wrecked if we’re together,” he said as he looked at us both.
Through the rain there was a flash.
I turned to see a man with a camera a few feet away from us.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist taking a picture—if you don’t mind. You three just looked so beautiful there. I can send it to you.” He offered his card.
I gave him one of mine in exchange.
“Thank you.” I smiled at him. It meant a lot to me that he saw beauty in a difficult moment.
I looked down and smiled at my little girl as she splashed in a small puddle. She didn’t intend to cause disasters; sometimes they just happened. I hugged her tight. “I love you, Abby.”
“I love you too, Mommy.”
As we prepared to drive home the next day I received an e-mail from the photographer with the picture attached. I liked it so much that I had it printed at a nearby photo shop.
Just before we got in the car to drive home, I showed it to Abby.
“Look at this, Abby.”
Her eyes grew as wide as her smile.
“It’s beautiful, Mommy! That was my favorite part of our whole trip!”
Her words melted my heart as I hugged her close. We’d visited so many beautiful places and had such an amazing adventure, but through Abby’s eyes, our family time together in the rain last night had been what meant the most to her—or it was simply the last thing she remembered.
I laughed, realizing that it didn’t matter so much. I wanted every day to be a string of wonderful memories for my daughter and our family. It was a goal that I wouldn’t give up on any time soon.
I smiled as I thought about approaching Max with my idea for our next big adventure.
He leaned across the seat to kiss me on the lips, and as I caught the gleam in his eye, I had the feeling that my husband was going to be just as excited as I was.
The travel bug seemed to have bitten us both once again!
Dear Reader,
The Single Wide Female and B.I.G. Girls Club books are written for every woman out there who has struggled with their weight, self-esteem and any number of issues that we all face as we work to become the best versions of ourselves that we can be.
They are meant to be light-hearted and fun, but I do hope that they will inspire you—to REALLY live your life to the fullest, loving yourself completely as you do so.
If you enjoy Toddler in Tow, I’d appreciate it if you would take a moment to leave an honest review.
And…
** I have a FREE book for you! **
Wanna know what inspired Sammy to write her bucket list? Visit my website below and get your complimentary copy of “Sammy’s Big Plan!”
LilliannaBlake.com
Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Lillianna
P.S. Also be sure to see the previews following this page for introductions to additional series by Lillianna Blake.
Coming Soon!
Christmas Down Under (Happily Ever After, Book 1)
* To be notified, be sure you’re on the mailing list at LilliannaBlake.com
- Signing up for the free book there puts you on the mailing list.
Please enjoy the following preview for
To Love Again (Forty and Free, Book 1)
Chapter 1
Every wrinkle met its match with the firm pressure and glide of her palm. Even though there were very few wrinkles in the shirt, Nicole was determined to make sure that there were none. Her hand trembled as she swept it over the next wrinkle.
How was she ever going to accept the idea that her children now had another mother in their lives?
She glanced over at the suitcase beside her. It was piled up with more clothes than any ten-year-old girl could possibly need for a two-week trip. But Nicole needed for everything to be there. In the back of her mind, she recognized her attempt to prove that she was, and had always been, a good mother—but that didn’t stop her from smoothing out the last wrinkle.
She set the folded shirt into the top of the suitcase and stood up from her daughter’s bed.
&n
bsp; So much had changed in the last year in unexpected ways. Perhaps—as some of her friends claimed—she should have seen it coming, but she didn’t. Divorce had hit her like a freight train and plowed right through her happily ever after.
Only—if she was being honest with herself—it hadn’t been exactly happy, not towards the end, anyway.
She walked out of her daughter’s room and picked up a pile of laundry that sat outside her twelve-year-old son’s door. She wanted to make sure that it was clean before she packed it. Since he seemed incapable of actually putting his clothes in his drawers these days, she just gathered all of the clothes from the floor to wash them.
As she walked down the hall to the laundry room, framed photographs—hung exactly two inches apart—stared back at her. There was the photograph of her ex-husband, Jack, as he cradled Jordan the day he was born. Beside it, another photograph of Jack, with Melody in his arms.
Once they were happy—she was sure of it.
At the very top of the rows of photos was the wedding portrait. With eager smiles and much smaller waistlines, the shiny faces in the photograph looked foreign to her, as if they were people she’d never met.
She reached up and loosened the frame from the hook on the wall. It wasn’t right to have it there—not when he was so obviously moving on.
She dropped the laundry off and carried the photograph into her room—what used to be their room.
The moment she sat down and sunk into the familiar give of the mattress, tears stung her eyes. She looked at the picture for a long moment. It was really over now. There was no special cement to put together what had broken many years before, and the fantasy that there might be was gone too.
While Jack had been falling in love, she’d been struggling to deal with the notion of being forty-two and alone. While he was considering adding new babies to his life with his young bride, Nicole was thinking about menopause and whether or not to dye her blonde hair, which had began to sprout silver streaks of reality.
Time marched on, and she didn’t know how to catch up.
Before the tears could begin to flow down her cheeks, she took a deep breath and grabbed her cell phone from the charger on her bedside table. She logged into her new favorite website. It was a support group of sorts, but in reality it was a place for women to be honest—to talk about their fears and their joys, and, most of all, vent about life.
Forty and Free was a website that she’d stumbled upon while attempting to figure out how to react to her divorce. She enjoyed the sisterhood that she felt there and the lively debates. As her heart ached, she typed out a message to post. It detailed her ex-husband’s destination wedding, how excited her kids were to be part of it, and how alone she felt because of it.
When she posted it, she prepared herself for whatever responses she’d get. Within seconds she had messages of support from an assortment of women. What heartened her was the fact that these women weren’t all moms or all newly divorced. Some had been divorced more than once, some had been with their husbands from the time they were in high school and some had never been married. Everyone had their own view of what a relationship should be and no one was shy about sharing it.
As Nicole sorted through the responses, she received an alert about a private message from one of the women she’d became close friends with, Ella.
Cielo Spa & Resort! Trust me. Book yourself a room and have some fun. You owe it to yourself to get out of this rut, and see what the world has to offer. It’s the perfect time—with the kids away—to get to know yourself again.
Ella’s words impacted Nicole more than she would have expected. She typed a quick response to thank her friend and let her know that she would consider it, then she logged out.
Each message of support reminded her that her life was not over.
Just like Jack, she needed to find a way to move forward. She picked up the wedding photograph and carried it over to her dresser. With one last look she shoved it into the bottom drawer.
“That’s enough—enough tears, enough questions—just enough.” She closed the drawer and returned to the laundry room to get the load started.
No, it wouldn’t be easy, but she was ready to live again.
There had once been a time in her life when there were more important things than laundry and a broken dishwasher. A spark of eagerness drew a smile to her lips. Like an old but treasured friend, her desire began to resurface.
For many years the only question in her mind was about what she could do for everyone else in her life. She’d trained herself not to think about what she might be missing out on, or how she might prefer things to be. It didn’t matter what she wanted, as long as her husband and kids were happy.
That method hadn’t worked out very well. She’d sacrificed her needs, and in the end, her husband wasn’t happy. The family life that she’d expected to have had crumbled, no matter how hard she had tried to hold it together.
What was left was a lonely soul—long overdue for some real fun.
Chapter 2
Gavin Bell leaned forward in his chair so that his elbows rested on his desk while he spoke into the phone. “You’re not making sense to me, that’s all I’m saying. What I’m offering you here is a golden opportunity to launch your brand in a way that will get the attention of modern consumers. I understand that you promote tradition, and I assure you that we can create a mixture of tradition and modernization that will retain your current customer base as well as gain the attention of many other demographics. So what’s to lose?”
He pressed the phone closer to his ear and leaned back in his chair. As he listened to his client describe his apprehension, he smiled. He loved a challenge, and more than that, he loved creating solutions. Every time a client gave him a reason to turn down an offer, he enjoyed solving the problem.
“I hear you, I do. And that’s important to you too, isn’t it? If you agree to this deal, you have Gavin Bell on your side. I respect how passionate you are about your brand, which is why I intend to walk you through every step of the process. You will have a say in everything—before the posters go up, before the commercials get made, before the actors are even hired. This is your baby and I get that. All I want to do is dress it up a bit for you.”
He looked up at his computer screen for a quick review of the client’s information. He always kept personal notes about the clients on hand so that he could speak to them as friends rather than business associates.
“Great, Ted. You’re making a wonderful decision, which I can promise you won’t regret. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. I’ll have my assistant fax you all of the paperwork by the end of the day. Give my best to Karen and the kids.”
He hung up the phone and pumped his other fist through the air in the same motion. The door to his office swung open and Lance Tavish stepped inside.
“How did you get here so fast to congratulate me?”
“I’m not here to congratulate you, Gavin.” Lance pushed the door shut.
Gavin arched an eyebrow.
Lance held his shoulders straight and his hands were tight at his sides.
“What’s wrong? I just landed Ted Bramley. We’ve been trying to get him to agree to a new campaign for over a year.”
“That’s great. It really is.” Lance narrowed his eyes. “But you’re not supposed to be here, are you?”
Gavin rolled his eyes up toward the ceiling and sighed. “I know, I know. But Ted was only in the country for a few days and I wanted to catch him while he’s here so he can sign all the paperwork.”
“There’s always an excuse, isn’t there, Gavin? I mean, there are people who would kill to have a boss that insisted they take a vacation.”
“And there are just as many bosses that would be thrilled to have an employee as skilled and dedicated as me.” Gavin rested his hands on his desk. “Why are you trying to force me to do something that isn’t necessary?”
“Because it is necessary. Because yes, you are
my best asset, and I want to keep you for as long as I can. You’ve been going full tilt ever since you left Amy—”
“—This isn’t about Amy.”
“Yes, it is.” Lance grabbed a chair and pulled it up in front of Gavin’s desk. “I’ve watched you for the past five years. You’ve done nothing but work. You don’t even bring a date to the office party.”
“So what?” Gavin cleared his throat. “I tried it once, it didn’t work out. I don’t see why that’s a problem.”
“Because one of these days it’s going to catch up to you, Gavin. It’s going to hit you in the gut and knock you back. You’re not getting any younger, you know. You’re losing your hair and your trim waistline.”
“Hey, I’m not losing my hair.” Gavin reached up and touched the waves of thick brown hair that rested on the top of his head. “Am I?”
“Even if you’re not now, you will be soon. You’re forty-four, Gavin. You know what comes next?”
“Forty-five?” Gavin smirked.
“Seventy. That’s what comes next.”
“I think you’re a little off on your math there.”
“I’m serious. You know how much I care about you. You can’t live your whole life like this. What will you have when you retire?”
“Lance, give it a rest, alright?” Gavin looked back at his computer screen as another e-mail from a client came in. “I have work to do. I can’t take a vacation right now. Besides, all I’m going to do is work at home. What else would I do?”
Toddler in Tow (Single Wide Female & Family #3) Page 11