I looked up from my book still giggling at its content. "Yes, sweetheart, are you finished watching 4Life now?"

"Yes." She blushed. "Addison is going to be so jealous when I show her. Mum, can I bring my friends here?"

"Um, I guess..."

"Of course you can, Charlotte." Nate and Bryce walked out onto the balcony looking like new best friends.

"I kicked his b.u.t.t, Mum. Seven games to three!"

"He did, fair and square. Unlike his mother." Bryce gave me a cheeky look.

I dipped my sungla.s.ses to my nose. "I do not cheat, Mr. Clark."

"Mum, it's Bryce, remember?" Charli shook her head at me, then changed the subject rather quickly, as 6 year olds tend to do. "Can we go for a swim?"

"Yeah, did you pack your bathing suits?"

Charli's face dropped. "No."

"That's okay, I can get Mich.e.l.le..." Bryce was already reaching for his phone when I interrupted him.

"No, no. We can go downstairs to the shopping precinct and pick some out ourselves, then we can get some lunch."

Charli jumped up from the end of my sun lounge. "Can we have McDonalds?"

"Sure." I looked at Bryce who displayed a look of distaste, then quickly smiled.

We made our way down to Rip Curl and chose both Nate and Charli a new bathing suit. The friendly shop a.s.sistant smiled and said h.e.l.lo to Bryce.

"Can you please charge it to my account?" He replied.

"No" I said, handing over my credit card. Bryce turned to me and cupped my face.

"Hunny, you have to let me look after you and the kids, if in fact you want me to look after you and the kids." He leaned down and placed a soft quick peck on my lips. My eyes widened and so did his at the realisation he had just broken our promise unintentionally. He dropped his hands and we both quickly looked at the kids. Nate was smiling and trying to cover Charlotte's eyes. She was also smiling and peeping through the crack of Nate's not so big fingers.

My smile rose to match my children's. "Come on, let's get lunch." I gently pushed them toward the door.

"I'm sorry, my love, I just completely forgot and couldn't help it." he whispered into my ear.

I slipped my hand into his. "It's fine, didn't you see their faces? Anyway, now you owe me aanything'."

His eyebrows rose. "I've already pledged aanything' for you."

"Good, I hope you've got your Channing Tatum on."

"Channing what?"

I laughed. "Have you seen Magic Mike?"

"No."

"Best you Google it." I lifted his hand to my mouth, kissed it then pulled him along to catch up with the kids.

We stopped in front of McDonalds and Charli sat on a park bench which had a fibre gla.s.s, life-size statue of Ronald McDonald sitting on it. Charli draped her arm around him and posed. I pulled out my phone to take a photo.

"Go on, Nate, sit with her." He reluctantly sat beside his sister and pulled a stupid face. I took the picture.

"Come on, Bryce, you can sit here too." Charli smiled and pushed Nate across the seat, then patted the spot in between them. I looked up at Bryce, thinking what fantastic progress we were making in the s.p.a.ce of only a few hours. I had never dreamed the kids would be so great about this ma.s.sive alteration to their lives. He looked hesitant, which shocked me.

"Go on." I put my hand on his back and directed him to the seat. He sat down with a horrified look on his face, and my heart fell to the floor. What's his problem? "Smile Bryce." I glared at him. He forcefully smiled making me furious, but then I caught his ever so subtle sideways look at the Ronald McDonald statue. I screwed up my face then realised what his problem was. I couldn't help it, I burst into laughter. He shot me a deathly look, and I wouldn't have been surprised if he had sat there and crossed his arms. "Come here." He shot up. I handed him my phone. "I'll trade with you," I said as I continued to laugh.

"It's not funny, Ms. Summers." He whispered. I sat down in between Nate and Charli and put my arms around them hugging them in tight.

"What's wrong with Bryce?" Nate asked, a little sad and offended.

"Oh, it's nothing, Nate." I laughed again.

"Alexis, stop it." Bryce scolded. He tried to look serious at me, but he was starting to break.

"Mum, tell me." Nate pleaded.

"Bryce is afraid of clowns, and Ronald McDonald here was freaking him out." I choked again, mouthing the word asorry' to Bryce before burying my head in my hand. Nate looked up and replaced his concerned and offended face with a broad smile, then he too laughed. Charli on the other hand stood up and wrapped her arms around Bryce's waist.

"Don't worry, Bryce, I understand. I'm afraid of bees." She squeezed him tighter. He placed his hand on her head and gave it a light rub. My laugh pulled short, stopping in its tracks, then, replacing it was a smile filled with love, and relief. Nate rested his head on my shoulder and spoke quietly.

"She likes him Mum, and so do I." Oh thank Christ for that.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

Life hands out challenges that we all unwillingly accept. We have no choice in the acceptance really because that is essentially what life is; a series of unavoidable challenges thrown our way, and how we a.s.sess them, deal with them, and progress through them, shapes our life to be what it will be. Some of us a.s.sess challenges in different ways, either seeing them as a hurdle that one can easily jump over, or as a brick wall that seems impossible to climb.

Less than a year ago, I seemed to face brick walls a lot in life. Brick walls that I was able to climb over eventually, but not without reluctance, struggle and a strenuous effort. Now, after being dished a platter of challenges in a short s.p.a.ce of time, I hurdle over them with ease, ready for the next row, and the endless rows after that.

The latest hurdle I had to jump over was settling my children into a new life with Bryce and me. This hurdle at first seemed a bit higher than usual, but I didn't have to jump over it alone. As a family, we all jumped it together, and now that hurdle was behind me with the others. The one I approached this particular day though, was not really mine, it was Rick's. But because it involved my children, I had made it my hurdle to jump as well, and I intended on jumping over with Nate and Charli as quickly and as easily as we could.

"Stop scratching your head, Rick, you'll get dandruff." He looked at me slightly annoyed.

"I'm about to tell our children they have a brother they have never met, and you're worried whether or not I'm giving myself dandruff?" He scratched his head again.

"Rick, they are stronger than you think. They dealt with our break-up and me moving on with Bryce so much better than either of us could ever have antic.i.p.ated. So, try and relax and think about how you are going to break it to them. You need to choose your words carefully."

The school bell sounded, and the influx of children came barrelling out of their cla.s.srooms, filtering in all different directions as they escaped the confines of another day of education. I poked my head out of the window and waved, getting Charli's attention. She picked up her pace and skipped toward the car.

"Mum! And Dad!" She smiled but seemed confused at the idea of us both being here. She opened the back door and jumped in, then wrapped her arms around Rick and the driver's seat he was sitting in.

"Hi, princess, how was school?"

"Good, we made gra.s.s cups."

"You made what?"

"Gra.s.s cups, silly. You put some seeds in the cup, and you water it and put it in the sun and gra.s.s will grow. It's not ready yet, though, because we only put the seeds in today."

Rick muttered under his breath as he looked at me "How exciting, watching gra.s.s grow." I shot him a nasty look. Geez, he's a nightmare when his losing his s.h.i.t.

"Sounds like fun, Charli bear," I said encouraging her gardening aspirations.

I spotted Tash and Steph a few cars down. "I'll be back in a minute." I jogged down to them.

"Hey, Lex, did you have the day off work?" Tash asked.

"No, I finished early so I could pick up the kids with Rick."

"So, are things going well with Rick?" Steph asked, slightly disappointed.

"No, we have definitely split up. He really did have an affair five years ago."

Tash stumbled and nearly fell into the car parked beside her. "What? Since when?"

"Since he told me nearly two weeks ago."

"And you're here picking the kids up like nothing ever happened? Can anyone else see a problem here?"

"Again, Tash, it's a long story that I will fill you in on soon. We have split up and I have moved in with Bryce, well not completely moved in. I spend two or three nights at home still, to help with the transition for the kids. But, essentially they will live predominantly with me, but can stay with Rick whenever they like. It's actually been going really well." Tash was still shaking her head and blinking at me in astonishment. I noticed Rick signalling me to come back, so I touched her arm. "Hey Hun, it's fine. It really is. I'm a hurdler now." I kissed her cheek, gave Steph a quick hug, and jogged back to the car pretending to jump a couple of hurdles.

"You're insane!" she called out.

"I'll ring you tomorrow." I called back to them, blowing them a kiss.

We drove the kids to St Kilda and ate Fish an' Chips on the beach. Rick was silently stewing on how and when he was going to break the news about RJ. I didn't want to probe him, but if he didn't man-up and let it out soon, the seagulls would not be the only things annoying us. The mosquitos were soon to venture out as they always did when the sun dipped into the horizon, and they would be conducting their ritual of blood theft and saliva distribution resulting in a red welt which was as itchy as h.e.l.l. Charli had been tossing our leftover chips to the seagulls and watching them turn into vicious crazy potato, salt and oil devouring machines. Nate was more particular with his chip tossing, trying to bounce them off as many of the bird's heads as possible.

"Nate," I warned him, but smiled to myself at the funny desperation of the seagulls that still had to get the d.a.m.ned chip even after it bounced off their heads.

"What? I'm not throwing it hard." Fair enough.

I slapped my leg. "b.i.t.c.h!" f.u.c.king mosquito. Nice Language, Alexis- Mother-of -the Year. "Sorry for the language guys." I put my finger to my mouth.

"Why's it a b.i.t.c.h?" Rick asked, his voice dripping in gloom.

"What?"

"Why's is the mozzie a b.i.t.c.h? Why is it not a p.r.i.c.k?"

"Rick, seriously?" I screwed my face up and looked at him annoyed.

"If you must know, only the females bite." I leaned over and whispered. "And if you don't hurry up and say what you have to say, this female will bite too, and it won't be pretty."

He took in a deep breath. "Nate and Charli, come here please." The kids sat in between us. "Listen I have something really important to tell you both."

"I knew it. I knew something was up when you both picked us up from school."

"Nate, let your father speak." I pulled my asmart son' closer to me.

"This might come as a shock at first." Really Rick? Don't tell them it's shocking before you've even b.l.o.o.d.y said what it is. Men, hopeless! "But, it is also really cool, too." Ugh, it's so not acool', it might be anew' possibly even agood', (possibly not), but definitely was not acool'. He was struggling big time, but I had no intention of doing it for him. He had to get it out. Then, as aMum', I would smooth it out. "A few years ago, Mum and I had some problems..." Pfft, that was news to me. "I met a nice lady..." f.u.c.king nice my a.r.s.e! Alexis shut up and let him do this. "And well, we had a baby together. His name is RJ and he is now five. He's your half-brother." Nate stiffened against my side. Charli went red and scratched her head. I know she gets that from her father now. "So, do you want to meet him?" Oh, Rick.

Nate got to his feet and stared at his father. "I hate you." Then he took off toward the car.

I screamed out after him, "Nate!"

"I'm waiting by the car." He turned back around and walked off.

"Come on," I said to Rick and Charli, "We're leaving." We all followed Nate to the car.

"Nate, I'm sorry. I made a mistake five years ago when I met that lady. But, I can't change that. You have a half-brother now, and he is really a sweet young boy. You would like him."

"I hate him and I hate you." He yelled at Rick. "Mum, I want to go home."

I looked at Rick and shook my head slightly as if to say alet it go'. "Okay, sweetheart, we'll go back to the house."

"No, not that home, my new home." Tears filled his nine-year-old eyes, and it tore my heart to shreds. I gave him a strong hug then opened the door for him. Charli, I think had no idea what this all meant, but was concerned by Nate's reaction.

"Hop in, sweetheart." I helped her into the seat and closed the door. Rick had damp cheeks and white knuckles. I lowered my voice and turned my back on the car. "Rick, calm down and get yourself together. He is in shock, and he is hurt. Give him some time to process all of this. I will take the kids to the apartment tonight and talk to them. Nate will come around eventually Rick, I promise."

We drove back to the house in silence, it was horrible. Nate went straight to his room and packed a bag. It was the weekend the next day so at least he would not have to go to school in the state that he was in.

"Charli, sweetie, can you go and pack some clothes in your bag?"

"Mum, can I stay here tonight?" She almost looked scared to ask.

I glanced at Rick, then back at Charli. "Yes, but don't you want to come with Nate and me?"

"I do, but I think I'll stay here with Dad. He looks sad."