Page 115 of Grasp The Moment

Georgia kisses me like a woman on a mission, full of passion. I’m smiling in the kiss before full-on grinning when she smiles at me.

She immediately goes into the spiel she’s been practicing on FaceTime for the past week, holding her fist up to her mouth like an interviewer. Her beautiful green eyes glint under the lights as she says, “Derek Perez, you have just won the Frozen Four. What are you going to do now?”

I pause, taking a moment for dramatic effect, my eyes locked on hers as I say, “I’m taking my girls to WishWorld!”

What was supposed to be a family trip between Georgia, Delilah, and me has quickly become a familyandfriends pre-graduation and post Frozen Four vacation.

Blake, Jace, Ryan, and I stand behind the girls like a bunch of duds as they run around WishWorld, wreaking absolute havoc on the park.

My hands are filled to the brim with toys and stuffed animals that both Delilah and Georgia decided theyhadto have right now, because what if the major conglomerate sold out of Princess North crowns before we left the park?

“Papá, we need to get marshmallow delights!” My daughter yells at the top of her lungs as we pass a mobile food stand. She’s eaten fifteen times since we walked into the park five hours ago.

“How about we lay off the sugar? You just ate a cookie about thirty minutes ago.” I say, patting her hair as she frowns.

When her large eyes plead with Georgia, my wife immediately reflects that look back to me.

I can say no to my kid, but Georgia’s a different story.

Five minutes later, I’m standing next to the stand, holding everything as both Georgia and Delilah scarf down their snacks.

The rest of the gang is around here somewhere, but since Delilah is on the shorter scale, and she’s not able to get on the high-stakes rides that they’re getting on.

Both of the girls are donning the park's signature Starries atop their heads, courtesy of the StarCourt gift shop at the front of the park. I somehow got roped into wearing the ridiculous stars after about an hour here.

Georgia and Delilah are like two kids in a candy store. Only one is an adult who’s had three drinks with her girls and is now hyped up on sugar, while the other has been eating sugar since she woke up this morning.

They’re literally buzzing with adrenaline by the time we get off our last ride of the night, and I’m seriously considering kicking Blake’s ass for getting them each a cupcake the size of their heads because if Cleo gets a cupcake, theneveryonegets a cupcake, apparently.

But it never stops there; it started with ice cream. Ice cream slowly turned into two churros, two churros became three ice pops, and now I’ve lost track of how much sugar they’ve ingested in less than a workday.

And that’s not to mention the actual food they’ve eaten.

By the end of the night, I’m sure that both bathrooms in our hotel room will be occupied for the foreseeable future.

With a humorous sigh, I plop down on one of the park benches and look up at the sky. Delilah is off roaming the park with everyone else after they decided that Georgia and I needed time alone.

She comes over; her Starries tilted sideways as she plops down next to me, and the smile she gives me takes my breath away every single time.

“You know, there’s one thing we haven’t done before we leave the park tonight…” she says with a teasing tone as she looks up at me, her puppy dogs in full effect.

I’m not one of God’s strongest soldiers—I fold for her instantly.

“What do you want to do, darlin’?”

She pauses, pretending to think for a moment with her finger on her chin, and as if a lightbulb went off in her head, she pops up with her pointer finger in the air as if to say, “Aha!”

“We haven’t taken pictures in the photo booth, can we?”

Nodding, I stand and grab her hand, pulling her up with me.

“Your wish is my command.”

We set off for the nearest photo booth, according to the map of the park on her phone. Georgia leads the way, her hair billowing in the wind as she steers us about a six-minute walk to the other end of the park.

“It’s righttttt… there!” she exclaims.

I pause, tilting my head down to look at her and sigh.