Mum Runners Florida Vacation: Mum Runners, #2

By Kathleen Kirkland

Samantha, Suzie and Sharon, new best friends after training and running the London Marathon together, are off on holiday to Florida with their families.

The holiday brings, lots and lots of laughter and many, many tears. The main reason for the holiday is Brett proposed to Suzie as she crossed the finishing line of the London Marathon. The thirteen of them, hire a villa together for ten days, what can possibly, go wrong?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kath Kirkland
• Release date: Sep 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393324591

Kathleen Kirkland

Kathleen's late Mother was a sucessful author and she has followed in her footsteps. Kathleen enjoys writing many different genres; TV Scripts, fiction, childrens and short stories.

Book preview

Prologue

Samantha, Sharon and Suzie had never run any distance in their lives. Somehow, they’d all found themselves committed to running next year’s London Marathon – not realising that there were any other marathons. Samantha tried to impress a new work colleague. Sharon had asked her husband, Gary, for another baby and he had said only if she ran the marathon. Suzie wanted to improve her life and had enrolled on a fitness training course.

They realised that it must be possible to train for and run the London Marathon, and so they joined Joggingbuddy.com. They met and discovered that they only live a few miles apart from each other. They became running buddies and firm friends, and they achieved their goal of crossing the finishing line of the London Marathon, arm in arm.

Chapter One

‘Have you got everything?’ Brett called to Suzie, who was busy rummaging in her huge holdall.

As Suzie rummaged, she muttered to herself: tickets, money, passports. ‘Chelsea?’ Suzie screamed. ‘Are you ready?’

‘One minute, Mummy. I am just finishing my level,’ Chelsea called back from the sofa, playing on her handheld gaming machine.

‘Well, we will have many hours to play games on the aeroplane, so please, get your coat and shoes and we need to get going. The taxi will be here any minute.’

‘Suzie, calm down.’ Brett tried to pacify her. ‘The taxi is not due for another ten minutes.’

‘I am ready, Mummy,’ Chelsea announced, walking towards Suzie all dressed up in her best dress, with her hair beautifully braided by Brett.

‘Good girl. Have you got your case?’ Suzie searched the hallway and counted the suitcases that had been packed and ready for weeks.

‘Taxi’s here,’ Brett called. ‘I will go and tell him we will be a few minutes; you can get your stuff together. Also, I think you need a minute to gather your thoughts – you will end up having a nervous breakdown before you get to the airport.’ Brett laughed.

Suzie held her head as she searched around. ‘I am panicking.’

‘No shit, Sherlock, that is obvious. We are going on holiday, so you should start to enjoy it now.’ Brett gathered up several suitcases and started walking outside towards the taxi.

‘Once I am on that plane, I will relax; until then, I will stress,’ Suzie called after him.

‘Mummy, Lucie at school said that you get meals on the

aeroplane. Is that true?’ Chelsea asked whilst playing on her, handheld gaming machine.

‘Yes, they do feed you. It is a long flight to be without anything to eat,’ Suzie reassured her.

‘Lucie said you get a little tray with all your food on. Is that true?’

‘I have no idea, sweetie, as I have never been on an aeroplane before either. It will be an adventure.’ Suzie riffled through her huge holdall one more time to check she had everything, trying to ignore the distraction of Chelsea and her questions.

Brett came back into the hall and grabbed the remainder of the suitcases. ‘Come on, the taxi is ready to go. We don’t want to miss our flight.’

Suzie checked around the flat one more time before slamming the door and letting out a huge sigh of relief to be finally going.

Chapter Two

‘Garth!’ Samantha shouted up the stairs for what felt like the hundredth time. ‘The taxi will be here in ten minutes.’ She climbed the stairs and knocked on Garth’s bedroom door. When there was no reply, she opened the door and peered in. There she found Garth sleeping soundly.

‘Heavens above, Garth,’ Samantha shouted at the top of her voice.

Garth shot up in bed. ‘Where’s the fire?’

‘There isn’t one, but we may miss our flight if you don’t get your backside ready.’

‘I am ready,’ Garth announced, diving out of bed, standing and showing his mum he was ready.

Samantha looked him up and down. ‘If you try and board a plane dressed in only your boxer shorts, you may be arrested.’

Garth looked down and blushed. ‘True. Ten minutes and I will be downstairs.’

‘The taxi will be here in eight minutes, so you had better rush.’

‘Why didn’t you call me earlier?’ Garth grunted.

‘I did. I’ve been calling you for an hour. I am hoarse from shouting so much.’

Garth gave his mum a sorry look and glanced at his watch. He searched his room for some clothes.

‘Seven minutes now.’ Samantha turned and left.

Garth appeared all washed and dressed in six minutes. It must be all that time at university, getting up five minutes before a lecture and running out of the door.

‘All ready?’ Samantha asked.

Garth nodded.

‘Have you got everything? Ticket, money, passport and bags?’

‘You said you have the important stuff; I have just got

my bags.’ Garth looked shocked.

Samantha gave a sarcastic smile. ‘Because you can’t be trusted.’

‘I am not five years old anymore, Mum. I am studying for a degree at Cambridge University.’

‘You will always be five years old to me.’ Samantha hugged and kissed Garth.

‘Thanks, Mum. I love you too.’

The taxi pulled up. Samantha asked Garth to help carry the suitcases.

Chapter Three

‘Where are we meeting everyone?’ Sharon called to Gary as he struggled to push the trolley, which didn’t want to go in the direction he told it to. Sharon kept turning and counting six children, as she didn’t want to lose any, like the nightmare of the movie Home Alone.

‘Who invented these stupid things, anyway? Whoever it was is having a great laugh at everyone now.’

‘It was a businessman called Sylvan Goldman,’ Sharon informed him.

‘He must have been drunk, then it would have looked as though it was going in a straight line.’ Gary snarled. ‘How do you know that anyway?’

‘It was on a quiz show the other day. I always wanted to know who invented it, so I made a mental note to remember,’ Sharon replied smugly.

‘All those quiz shows are not rubbish, then; it doesn’t help me right now trying to steer this bloody thing.’

Gary tried to stop the trolley crashing into a shop entrance. He failed. The beautifully placed make-up display erupted like a volcano and the contents spewed like lava in every direction.

‘Run!’ Sharon called to the boys. The boys all ran with Sharon, except Michael, who used his phone to take a picture of Gary surrounded by the scattered make-up. He laughed and then followed the others.

Gary tried to push the trolley, but a mascara got wedged under a wheel and the force sent all the suitcases sideways. Every one of the seven suitcases fell onto the floor. Gary wanted a great big hole to open up and swallow him. Airport security came running and all of the staff from the surrounding shops looked in horror at the devastation at Gary’s feet.

‘Are you okay?’ a concerned shopworker asked. ‘Are

you hurt?’

‘Only my pride.’ Gary tried hard not to cry.

‘What happened?’ the security guard asked.

‘Someone called Sylvan Goldman was drunk when they invented this crazy piece of shit,’ Gary screamed.

‘Oh my gosh,’ the shop assistant cried. ‘You are bleeding!’

Gary looked down and saw a huge red pool on his knee. He put his hand on it to stop the blood oozing further, and his hand stuck to it. It wasn’t blood; it was bright red nail varnish. ‘Shit,’ Gary shouted.

‘Does it hurt?’ the concerned shop assistant asked.

‘No, it’s bloody nail varnish.’ Gary held his hand to the shop assistant’s face. ‘Who wears this colour on their nails?’

The shop assistant held out her beautifully manicured nails. ‘It’s our new colour, blood red.’ She was turning the same colour as her nails. ‘I have some nail varnish remover in the shop. Please come with me.’

‘I will stay with your bags, sir,’ the security guard said.

‘Thanks, and sorry,’ Gary mumbled as he followed the shop assistant.

Gary spent over thirty minutes trying to remove the bright red nail varnish from his hands and his cream jeans, whilst the shop assistant could only look on. ‘That’s as good as it’s going to get,’ Gary said as he was rubbing the nail varnish, which was only making it worse. ‘I will change into something else; I have a suitcase full of clothes.’ Gary turned to leave. ‘Thank you for your help. Again, I am sorry about your display.’

When Gary finally reached the McDonald’s, everyone else was enjoying their breakfast.

‘Gary, there you are. I was beginning to think you were lost,’ Sharon called.

‘No, not lost, I just got covered in bright red nail varnish.’ Gary showed his knee to the group. ‘I need to go and

change into something clean; it looks like I’ve been in a fight.’

Gary opened a case and, after a few minutes of rummaging, found a clean pair of black jeans. ‘Can’t take any chances, black will hopefully be more practical.’

‘I told him not to wear cream jeans,’ Sharon told everyone.

‘Get me a large breakfast meal, please,’ Gary shouted from the other side of the restaurant as he walked towards the gents’ toilets.

Michael followed Gary into the toilets and took a photo of him and his bright red knee, before Gary told him to get lost and took shelter in a cubicle. He changed into his black jeans and put the now ruined cream pair in the bin.

When Gary returned, in his clean black jeans, he sat down and ate his breakfast in silence.

‘Where are your dirty jeans?’ Brett asked.

‘In the bin, bloody ruined,’ Gary grumbled.

Sharon mouthed the words, ‘Leave him.’

Chapter Four

‘How long until our flight, Mummy?’ Chelsea asked.

Suzie looked at her watch. ‘Three hours.’

‘Why have we got to wait that long? We don’t wait that long for a bus?’ Chelsea sulked.

‘That’s what happens when you go on an aeroplane. We have to put our bags in the aeroplane and then wait.’

‘Wow, how do we put them on the aeroplane?’

‘Someone else does that. We hand them to the airline.’

‘Do they go down a ramp, like in Toy Story?’

Everyone laughed.

‘What’s so funny?’ Chelsea asked.

‘My favourite film of all time,’ Sharon said, hugging Chelsea.

‘Shall we go and check in now?’ Samantha asked. ‘We can lose the bags and go and look in the duty-free shops.’

‘Free shops, cool,’ David called.

‘Sick,’ Roger muttered.

‘Not quite free, just cheaper,’ Samantha said.

‘So why do they call it duty free?’ Dennis asked.

‘Duty is a government tax, but when you are in an airport, you don’t have to pay the tax,’ Samantha replied calmly.

Sharon stood up. ‘Right, everyone, gather your things. I need to count heads. One, two.’ Sharon counted to eight. ‘Eight children and five adults.’

‘Eight children? I can only see seven,’ Garth said.

‘Who have we lost?’ Sharon started frantically searching around.

‘Eight children... are you counting me as a child?’ Garth asked.

‘I know I am, sorry. Just in my head you are a child, not

in age but a child of Samantha’s.’

Garth lay down on the dirty floor and rolled under the dirty table.

‘Garth,’ Samantha called. ‘What on earth are you doing?’

‘If I’m a child, I will just lie here and have a tantrum. Don’t mind me.’

‘Get up. You are not funny.’ Samantha tutted. ‘If you don’t get up we will leave you here all by yourself.’

‘See, I am being treated like a child,’ Garth said from under the table.

Samantha shook her head.

Everyone turned and left Garth on the floor, except Michael, who took a photo of him, lying on the floor, behaving like a five-year-old. Sharon went back to check the area four times to be sure nothing had been left behind. Garth struggled up and realised that the whole restaurant was watching him.

In the checking-in hall the queue was snaking around the hall.

‘Blimey, I hope the aeroplane is big enough for all of us,’ Gary said.

‘They are not all going with us. This is the check-in for the airline,’ Brett told him.

‘Oh, I see. You can tell I’ve never flown before,’ Gary replied, embarrassed. ‘Where’s the pub?’

‘It’s 7 a.m.,’ Sharon cried.

‘I’ve been up for hours. It feels like twelve o’clock in the afternoon. I am on holiday and I am having a beer.’

‘Not too much,’ Sharon pleaded.

Gary frowned.

‘I didn’t say you can’t have a beer, just not too much, otherwise you won’t be allowed on the flight,’ Sharon advised.

‘Not a bad idea,’ Gary muttered under his breath.

Sharon stepped forwards first when they reached the front of the queue.

‘Morning,’ Sharon sang.

‘Good morning. Who are you checking in today?’ the assistant asked.

‘Eight of us. Myself, Sharon, and Gary, David, John, Daniel, Roger, Michael, and Dennis.’

‘Can I have your passports, please?’

Sharon removed the large bundle of eight passports from her handbag and placed them on the desk. The assistant called out each person in turn. When she got to the passport that was for Gary, she read out, ‘Pookey? Who is Pookey? Is he travelling today, too?’

Gary’s face turned from happy to angry. ‘Why did you bring the passport for the teddy?’ he asked.

Sharon went as white as a sheet. ‘Shit, I picked up eight passports.’

‘Please, please tell me you haven’t picked up seven passports for humans and one for a bloody teddy bear?’

‘I am sorry.’ Sharon started to cry.

The assistant looked worried. ‘Do you live far?’ she asked, trying to make good of the situation.

‘Not far enough,’ Gary grumbled.

‘I’ll go,’ Sharon said.

Gary shook his head. ‘What if you don’t make it back in time? I’ll go, I will be quicker.’ Gary turned and began to run out of the airport. ‘I will see you on the plane.’

‘Just seven of us for now, then,’ Sharon said with an embarrassed tone.

‘This is a great start.’ Garth tutted. ‘Can things get any worse?’

Once everyone was checked in, they made their way through to security. The queue was even longer. The heat in the security hall was unbearable and Samantha started removing clothing and fanning herself.

‘Calm down, Mum,’ Garth said. ‘There won’t be anything left if you go any further.’

‘I’m having a hot flush. I can’t believe this place is not air-conditioned,’ she complained.

‘It shouldn’t take too long,’ Brett said. ‘The queue is moving quite quickly.’

‘Thankfully. I need a gin and tonic now.’ Samantha motioned swigging a drink.

‘Let’s all go and get pissed,’ Suzie called.

The seven children looked at Suzie, confused by her suggestion.

‘Can I get pissed, Mummy?’ Garth asked in the voice of a five-year-old.

‘Behave yourself.’ Samantha glared at Garth.

Garth and Brett were asked to remove their shoes and belts. Brett walked through the scanner whilst hanging on to his trousers.

Sharon went through and the scanner sounded the alarm.

‘This way please, madam,’ the security guard said.

‘Shit, I haven’t done anything,’ Sharon cried.

‘I know. You just have some metal that is setting the alarm off,’ the security guard advised. ‘Have you got any metal implants?’ He waved his wand over her.

‘Oh yes, I have had some metal implanted.’ Sharon was relieved that she had found the reason for the alarm.

‘Okay, you can go through,’ the security guard informed her once he was satisfied.

Brett gathered his belt and shoes. ‘Why do you have to take your shoes off?’

‘There was a bomber, who placed a bomb in his shoes,’ Garth replied.

‘Bloody hell. People go to a lot of bother to conceal a bomb,’ Brett said.

The children took ages to get through as they were all asked to turn their tablets and game machines on.

‘Let me guess,’ Brett said. ‘Someone has concealed a bomb in a Nintendo.’

‘Maybe,’ Garth replied. ‘Let’s find the bar and the women can go shopping.’

‘Plan,’ Brett said.

Garth almost broke into a run towards the nearest bar.

Chapter Five

Gary sat tensely