CH 123
Calvin
The plane landed, and he spoke to Maeve about that trip to Virginia tomorrow morning, an early flight so she could be back here with her family for Christmas Eve dinner, and for her to come and collect him, probably the day after Boxing Day. Though he wanted her to wait for his call, he was hoping that Marilyn would see her way to agreeing to let him stay, and spend time with the boys for their entire school break, which if he could, she wouldn’t have to come and pick him up until the New Year on the 3rd.
Maeve nodded and stated she’d log the flight plan for 7am, which would see him get there just before lunchtime and her back in the late afternoon. She smiled at him and thanked him for being so considerate of her own family life. He just nodded. “You’ve been my loyal pilot for over a decade, Maeve. Of course, I will see you spending the holidays with your family.”
He stepped off the plane and headed for the car that was waiting for them. Wil was already texting, likely to Anabell. Now that they had a child on the way, he was very diligent about telling his wife where he was, and when he got on and off that plane. Wil had told him, “I don’t want her to worry about anything. Best she just knows.”
Clavin had told him to hook her up to the app, and she could watch his every move. Apparently, he’d already offered that to Anabell, and she’d shaken her head and stated, “I don’t need that, I also don’t want you to know my every move. How am I to surprise you with things if you can track me every moment of the day?”
Lou took his luggage and Calvin nodded his thanks as he got in the car, ‘one more day. He told himself and hoped that the package had made it to his mother’s already, so he could go and pick up the phone. It was nice to talk to the boys on their mother’s phone, but he’d limited himself with that, so it didn’t seem to Marilyn that he was bothering her too much.
He knew the boys had the other phone all the time, and so texting them any time he liked wasn’t bothering her, and the boys always answered him back. They liked talking to him, he was getting to know them and they him. He thought it was going well and wanted it to stay that way.
He frowned as he logged into the tracking app and saw the phone was out on the Texas coast. He zoomed it in and kind of just stared at it. As he realised, the phone was out at Cliffside. That was not his mother’s
address.
“Wil.” He held his phone out to him.
Wil looked at it and shook his head. “Perhaps your mother didn’t give her an address and she thought she
recalled it. Maybe what she recalled was the Cliffside address instead, or the courier delivering it has a
delivery out there.” He shrugged, “I’d wait and see if it moves, likely if it’s in a delivery van, it’ll move on in a
few minutes.”
He nodded slowly, had there been a mistake? He put a call into Denise, and she answered on the fourth ring, ”
Hi Denise, have you by chance taken delivery of a package addressed to my mother?”
“Hmm, not that I know of. There is a package here for you. It arrived just before lunch.”
“Oh, I wasn’t expecting anything.” He frowned, hardly ever did he send anything to Cliffside. “Does it say who
it’s from?”
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“Hmm, let me see… there was a long pause. “It’s from Callum and Vincent Riddley, Mr Reeves.” She told him. “Oh.” That surprised him. He’d not been informed about the boys sending him anything. Maybe Marilyn had let the boys send him a gift as well. “Thank you, I’ll come and collect it. I’m off to see Callum and Vincent tomorrow.”
“Alright,” she stated, and he clicked the line closed.
Wil was looking at him. “I think that phone was not only lost but put in the wrong gift,” he smiled. “Apparently, they sent me something too,” he liked that Marilyn was allowing them to send him things. Though he was curious as to what it was. Then he frowned. “It was sent to Cliffside, she knows I live in Houston at the apartment… Do you think she recalls Cliffside?” he looked to Wil, and even he heard the hope in his own voice.
“Anything is possible. You driving out there to get it?” Wil asked.
“Yes,” he nodded. If I don’t, I won’t be able to say thank you to the boys for what they sent me, or collect the phone. What do you think it is?” he asked curiously.
“I don’t know, what do you think a pair of seven–year–olds would want to buy their dad?” Wil smiled.
He smiled himself “I don’t know, it could be almost anything. Though I don’t think Marilyn would let them go overboard.“.
“Agreed, that would be very unlikely, I think.” Wil nodded.
He smiled as he sat and thought about it. He’d not been out to the house in forever, and didn’t like going there to many memories for him to deal with. But for this he would go, he’d put aside how uncomfortable the house made him feel. Something that was also his own fault. It wouldn’t be empty if he’d never gotten that divorce.
He arrived at his apartment and reached for the Cliffside keys on the hook, and they weren’t there. He frowned and looked about the room, patted himself down. Had he already picked them up when taking his luggage to his bedroom? No. They weren’t on him, not in the study or his bedroom. He sighed as he recalled Will had come here and ducked out to Cliffside in early December. He sent a text about if he still had the keys.
“Yeah, sorry I haven’t returned them to you. I’m headed out though, you’ve got that spare in the Bentley, right?
“Yes, I’ll use that, just bring them back to me when I get home from Virginia.” He sent and grabbed the keys for his Bentley and headed off to Cliffside, he could hardly stop the smile on his lips, as he thought about his present for his boys. He had bought them a gift while out in California. He’d gotten them both the same thing,” just different colours, blue and orange, a Segway Ninebot eKickScooter C2 Pro series.
It had all the bells and whistles, blue–tooth speakers and a light system that would play to the beat of the music, a good battery life that would allow for 8klm of travel before needing a recharge, and a large display screen that showed them all they needed to know about their scooter, how fast they were going and what it’s battery level was. It was also adjustable to let them keep using it as they grew up.
He’d heard them talk about riding their bikes and scooters at that first meeting. He’d gotten the impression they were just push scooters. Now they could have some real fun. They were currently still on his plane because there was no need to take them off, seeing as he would go to them tomorrow.
He pulled up at the gate and punched the code in, and drove through the gate, parked his Bentley in the
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driveway and got out, headed inside expecting that parcel to be on the foyer table. Where Denise left things
for him. It was right there, and he smiled as he picked it up a regular post he could see. He turned it over, and It had Callum and Vincent Riddley as the sender.
He opened the parcel and stopped at the sight before him. It was a photo album and on the front was a picture of who could only be the twins as newborns. He reached out and touched their picture; a very thoughtful gift and he couldn’t possibly have asked for anything better.
This he knew was created with love and care, and he knew Marilyn had put a lot of thought into it. She knew he’d missed everything in their lives, and here was likely a record of everything he’d missed with them. The woman had a heart of gold. Even after what had happened between them, she still wanted to give him the gift of seeing the boys grow up.
He sat himself down on the stairs in the foyer and opened it, and as he turned the pages one by one, he got to see them grow up, into the boys he now knew. Under each photo was Marilyn’s neatly printed handwriting. Their name and age, along with little things like first tooth. First time crawling, first steps, first birthday and so on. All seven years of their lives were covered in that photo album. And as he turned to the last page there were the words, but no picture yet, that stated “first Christmas with our dad.”
He sat and stared at it, touched those very words and felt tears well up. She was perfect, he didn’t even really know her anymore, but she was still such a brilliant, caring person who cared about everyone, even an i**** like him who’d wronged her. She’d even managed to write words that were truly meaningful, not only for him, but would be for the boys as well.
Marrin had always been good at writing on gift cards and putting personal touches on things. It seems so was Marilyn. He closed that album and reigned in his emotions, praying he could win her over. He knew just from those very words that not only did she wanted him to be a part of their lives; she was going to allow it.
She was never going to deny him his rights to see their children. Dad’s have rights, she’d told him, and he was their dad. He didn’t think anything could top this gift. Well, other than Marilyn agreeing to date him and giving him a chance to prove to her that they would work and could be a loving family.
He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there and looked at all those pictures, but as he got up, his eyes moved to the parcel once more, and he remembered he was supposed to collect the phone from it. He’d gotten waylaid by the twin’s baby picture. He frowned as he rummaged through the packaging, and then up ended it. There was no phone in that package. He sighed and put the album down on the table for a moment, to check his phone and the app. He’d not checked the app since the apartment.
He frowned even deeper when it showed it was here in the same location as he was. The phone wasn’t there though, so how could that be? He did something he’d never done before and called the phone. It rang but he couldn’t hear it. Turned and looked about the house as it rang out. No one answered it either.
His brain was now ticking on what exactly was going on. He’d not seen any other car in the driveway, but his keys for Cliffside were missing. Maybe Wil had given them to Marilyn? And she and the boys were here. Had it all been a–rouse so he wouldn’t see them coming this way?
He headed up the stairs and the place was quiet, checked all the rooms and stood before their bedroom, took a breath in and then opened the door, walked about in there and could swear he could smell her in here.
He looked out the window and stopped dead at the sight of her out there by the pool. She remembered and had come home. His heart hammered inside his chest as he made his way downstairs, and through the house, and out the back, she was standing by the pool watching the twins play on the grass.
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His hands landed on her, and he turned her around, “Marrin?” he gasped, and she looked up at him, eyes wide, and then she just shoved him with all she had, and he let go and staggered backwards, and fell right into the pool.
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