Parenting was always hard, especially with me doing most of it as a single parent. My first wife and I had one child, a boy named Dylan. The marriage only lasted three years, and my ex ceded custody of Dylan to me in the divorce. Motherhood was not for her, and neither of us ever saw her again. I Raised the boy on my own for the next two years. On his fifth birthday, fate intervened.
I had planned a birthday party for Dylan, and ten friends, at the local Six Flags with the help of the parents of one of his friends co-chaperoning. While we were there, they received a call about a family emergency and told me they and their son would have to go. They offered to take some of the kids home, but I thought I could handle it and didn't want the other kids to be disappointed by something out of their control. I quickly realized that herding ten boys by myself was beyond my abilities. As I tried to wrangle the kids into a line for one of the rides, a beautiful woman with two young girls offered to help.
"You look like you have your hands more than full," the woman, who introduced herself as Jennifer, said, "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but it looks like you're on your own. Would you like some help?"
I smiled and looked at the woman and the girls. "Well, if you don't mind, sure, it's not like you're not busy with your kids, so I wouldn't want to impose" he paused. "Is your husband here to help you?"
"No," Jennifer replied, "I'm not married, and my girls' father was not the parenting type."
I chuckled, and when she looked alarmed, I explained my situation and how much of a coincidence it was that we were in a similar boat. We made small talk before she realized she hadn't introduced her daughters.
"These are my girls, Anna and Shelby," She said smiling, "you probably noticed they're twins. They're two and a half."
The boys, including Dylan, could not have been less interested but fortunately had formed a semblance of a single file line with the rest of the kids waiting on the ride. The girls, who could not have been more adorable, smiled at me.
"This ride is too grown up for them," Jennifer said, "but we'll wait here with you while the boys ride, and then we'll figure out how to maneuver around the park with twelve kids!" She laughed.
I was incredibly relieved. Not only did I have newfound help, but Jennifer was gorgeous. She was about 5'6", with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and incredibly physically fit. She was wearing a red floral sundress that showed off some impressive cleavage from what looked to be C-cup breasts. The girls looked like mini versions of their mom, even at two, with blonde hair and the same piercing blue eyes.
With Jennifer's help, we all survived the theme park, and she and I enjoyed each other's company. Her smile was contagious. Before we left the park, I had asked her out on a date.
She initially frowned slightly, which caused my heart to sink, but she explained, "I'd love to but finding a babysitter isn't easy."
"Not a problem," I smiled, "I have a part-time nanny for Dylan, and the girls can stay at my house while we go out. Maria is terrific and will love your girls. More importantly, you can trust her."
Jennifer beamed, "Well, in that case, Charlie, I accept!"
At that point in my life, I made a good living as an engineer for a major appliance manufacturer while building a small company making Bluetooth and WiFi temperature controls for outdoor cooking. I took care of Dylan, helped out with the girls, and treated Jenn to excellent restaurants and the occasional weekend getaway. After only six months, we married with all three kids participating in the ceremony.
The next ten years were almost perfect. Dylan loved his new mom, and I adored the girls and spoiled them rotten. Being the only dad they had ever known, they were daddy's girls. After hiring a law firm, Jennifer and I adopted each other's kids. My side hustle had become my full-time job, and Jenn had continued her career as an ER nurse at a local hospital.
The week after the twins' twelfth birthday, I received an offer from a significant outdoor grill and cooking supply company for my not so little any more company.
I was to stay as a consultant but gradually move away from the day-to-day operations. I had earned enough money to semi-retire at forty-three years old. It meant more time for Dylan's football game, Anna and Shelby's soccer games, and more time for family vacations, which we began to plan immediately. Then tragedy struck.
I had finished my coffee and was about to check my email when I received a call from the
ER, where Jennifer worked. They asked me to get there as fast as I could. Unfortunately, I was too late. Jennifer had suffered an aneurism right after finishing her shift and had died almost instantly. The kids and I were devastated. I ensured that all three kids received the help they needed to cope, and we persevered as a family the best we could. Suddenly, I was a single dad again, with two adolescent girls and a teenage boy. Maria had been with us full-time for years at that point, and she was a godsend. Especially with the twins. What did I know about teenage girls?
The thing is, nobody knows enough about teenagers, maybe, especially teen girls. As I said, though, we survived, and the kids thrived. When he graduated, Dylan had his pick of colleges, eventually settling on North Carolina. The girls did even better three years later, with Anna graduating high school as valedictorian and Shelby as salutatorian. They both chose to attend Duke. If you think that was easy, you don't know girls but, again, we survived.
Shortly before Shelby and Anna graduated high school, I bought a house on a big piece of land in the mountains outside Asheville. I had figured if I were going to be an empty nester before I hit fifty, I would love some space to stretch out. I built a large workshop and focused on the backyard and garden space. On graduation weekend, I threw the twins a spectacular party. We had almost no family, especially not in North Carolina, but the kids invited friends, and Maria and her relatively new boyfriend, Marco, were there too.
Everything turned out beautifully. The backyard was the ideal party spot, and the caterer I had hired seemed to have something to please everyone. I also had an announcement.
"For her years of service, I have offered to deed our house in Charlotte to Maria for her years of service to this family." Everyone clapped, "She has asked instead if I would sell it and let her keep the proceeds, as she and Marco would like to move to Texas, and why is that Maria?" I motioned to her.
"We're getting married!" She said, leaning over and giving Marco a smooch.
Everyone clapped again and raised their glasses. "To Maria and Marco!" everyone said in unison. Everything was changing. Keep in mind that this was May of 2019. No one had any idea what was coming.
As we all know now, all hell broke loose the following March. Both UNC and Duke went remote for the duration, and all three kids returned home. It was the first time we lived together at the mountain house.
