He slowly stepped out of the car. His tailored suit suddenly felt heavy, the tie tight around his neck. His phone buzzed repeatedly in his pocket—messages from partners, investors, urgent meetings. For the first time in a long while, he ignored it.
The laughter came again.
He walked quietly toward the backyard.
When he rounded the corner of the house, he stopped cold.
His four children were running barefoot across the grass, soaked from head to toe. Their T-shirts clung to their small bodies, their hair dripping with water as they slipped and slid across the lawn. They were shouting, pushing each other, collapsing into giggles.
Ethan couldn’t remember the last time he had seen them laugh like that.
Standing in the center of the yard was Maria, the woman he had hired only three days earlier to help care for them. She held a garden hose like a magic wand, spraying wide arcs of water into the air. Sunlight caught the mist, creating tiny rainbows while the kids jumped and tried to catch them.
“Again! Again!” they shouted.