Chapter 1

Part 1

Looking over the fence watching the two toddlers play, a familiar voice spoke from behind me.

"Well is there any sign of that passport yet" Helen asked standing at her back door with a s on her face.

"Not yet, but it can't be much longer" I added with a smile feeling the excitement start to build again.

"Only a week to go, are you nervous yet?" Helen asked watching me smile and shake my head.

"I think my parents are more nervous than I am" I added watching Helen smile then head out to the sand pit and talk to Jack and Ryan.

I stood leaning on the wooden fence watching the boys play happily in their grans sand pit without a care in the world, in less than a week Jack, Ryan, and I would be sharing a new experience. Our first ever trip on a plane.

Since the age of 7, I have grown up in the same neighborhood. At the age of 14, I even dated Helen's daughter Lorna. It was then that our families started to get to know each other.

Helen's husband had just left her when I started dating Lorna, at that time Helen didn't have much time for men. Her husband had been a womanizer, and Helen tarred all men with the same brush.

Lorna and I worked hard to try and prove to her mum that we would make a good couple, a little over a year later Lorna and I admitted defeat and broke up. It was only when the twins were born several years later that Helen started to warm to me.

Lorna and her boyfriend both had good jobs, but suddenly their world was turned upside down when Lorna realized she was pregnant.

When the kids finally arrived, Lorna suffered from postnatal depression;

Helen decided that the best thing for Lorna was to work part-time while Helen watched the kids.

It didn't take long before Helen was asking me to nip around the shops for her while she had the kids. A few weeks later Helen needed to head over to the doctors and didn't want to take the boys. Against her better judgment, she left the boys with me for an hour.

When she returned Jack, Ryan, and I were fast asleep on her living room floor; we had been playing and nodded off. Suddenly she was telling my parents that I was the most responsible 18-year-old guy that she knew.

A little over six months later, Helen and I were a double act, when Helen needed time alone she would hand me the kids and the house keys tell me what they needed, and help me with anything in the cupboards.

A little before Christmas, Helen decided that she fancied a summer holiday, the problem she had, was that she would either have to take the boys or Lorna would have to take time off work to watch them while Helen was away.

Helen thought that the boys would love a chance to go on a plane and see another country, the problem was taking two boys away by herself was going to be hard work.

Helen enquired about prices for the holiday and discovered that taking another adult wouldn't be much dearer than going herself with the boys. It was Lorna who finally came up with the idea.

"Why not take Craig with you?" Lorna said watching her mum think about it.

"Lorna, maybe the boy doesn't want to spend a week with me and two kids at his ankles" Helen replied.

"Well there's only one way to know for sure, ask him" Lorna added.

A few days later Helen asked my parents if they minded me going on holiday with her and the boys. Both my parents had a major fear of flying and didn't like the idea.

The moment I heard the idea, I was hooked. After much pestering from parents, they finally agreed to pay whatever it cost. Much to their surprise Lorna and her boyfriend offered to pay my flight cost, after all, I was going to help watch the kids while I was away.

Helen headed out to the travel agents and returned with brochures handing me a few then explained that as it would be my holiday too, then I should have a say in where we went.

A week later Helen and I sat talking about the places that we liked, while the kids lay sleeping on the sofa. Two hours later we had settled in Spain.

Helen liked the look of Majorca; I liked the Costa del Sol. Neither of us got our way. Two days later Lorna and Brian appeared and handed Helen a brochure.

"What do you think of there?" Brian asked with a grin watching us look at the fancy hotel.

"Yeah it looks nice, but where the hell is Salou?" I asked watching them grin then turn back a few pages.

"Northern Spain" Lorna said with a grin.

"The hotel looks cool but your mum likes Majorca" I added then listened to Lorna explain that Majorca was a couple of hours flight-wise, and Salou was just over an hour.

"Mum, two hours on the plane and the kids will be as cranky as hell" Lorna added watching her nod and agree.

"So what do you think?" Lorna asked listening to us both explain that we hadn't thought about Salou, but the hotel looked nice.

"Good, because your holiday is booked and paid for" Lorna added with a smile.