Chapter 7
Seven
X arielle
I was up early on Monday morning. I knew part of it was nerves.
It was my first day having the girls alone, and I wanted everything to go smoothly.
But the other part was that my bedroom was east facing, so I awoke to the sun shining into my room every morning since I refused to use the blackout shades.
I’d never lived so close to any body of water, especially the ocean.
I wanted to experience everything about island living, even if it meant waking with the sun blazing brightly in my face every morning.
Waking up to the surf and the sand inspired me, and since Kept wanted me to teach a weekly memory verse to the girls, I did a bible devotion.
Once I was dressed, I walked into the kitchen just in time to see Kept walking in the French doors from the deck, carrying a travel cup in his hand.
“Good morning. You have coffee while you watch the sunrise?” I questioned.
“Good morning.” He held out the travel cup. “Nah, I have my pre-workout while I watch the sunrise. Then I swim for forty-five minutes to an hour.” He checked his watch. “You’re up early. The girls won’t be up for about another hour.”
I tried to hide my smile by lowering my head. “Yeah, I’m excited about today.”
“What’s on the agenda?”
I consulted the Notes app on my phone. “We have Music & Me class over at the community center. Then we’ll head to the park and have a picnic lunch. Nap back at the house. We’ll spend some time on the deck in the afternoon, coloring, reading books . . . stuff like that.”
“Sounds like a full day.” He grinned at me.
I couldn’t help grinning back because the man was a walking toothpaste commercial.
“Yeah.” I pulled myself from the eclipse that was his brilliant smile. “Oh, just FYI, you’ll never have to worry about me taking them swimming. I’m not a swimmer. If they ever want to get wet with me, I feel most comfortable with the thought of spraying them with the hose or something.”
He watched me silently for a moment. Had my employer been anybody but Kept, it probably would’ve made me uncomfortable. But Kept was quiet and introspective. He wasn’t the type to waste words. I figured he was probably sorting out what he wanted to tell me.
“So,” he said finally. “I’m having a private instructor come to the house to teach the girls to swim. I’mma see if he can teach you too.”
“What?”
“You heard me. We live a few feet from the ocean, Xarielle. I?—”
I interrupted him before I could catch myself. “Can you please call me, Xari? Every time you call me Xarielle, I feel like I’m about to get in trouble.”
He chuckled. “I like Xarielle. And if you’re ever in trouble with me, I’ll call you Miss Simpson. Okay?”
His voice was so deep, and his words didn’t really leave room for debate. He liked Xarielle, and he was going to call me Xarielle. I got it.
“Okay.” I conceded.
“Like I said, my house is too close to the ocean for anybody in here not to know how to swim. I’m paying for you to have private lessons.”
I sighed heavily. “I guess so.”
“Cool. I need to get my swim in if I’m gonna be out of here by seven-thirty.”
“Okay.”
I moved on to preparing the things I wanted to include in the picnic lunch that the girls and I were having.
I was spooning fruit into bowls when Kept reentered the kitchen.
A towel was slung around his neck, his muscular, tattooed chest was bare, and a pair of swim trunks were slung low on his hips.
I never had a crush on Kept as a kid. He was too damn quiet and mysterious for me.
Back then, I liked my men loud and rowdy, but I never would’ve denied his attractiveness.
He had always been a good looking guy. But looking at him through fresh eyes, eyes with some growth, maturity, and wisdom in them, what I saw was a beautiful, sexy, upstanding man.
The girls and I arrived at the Dorothy Jackson Community Center about twenty minutes before the class was supposed to start. I checked the girls in at the reception desk where two pretty young black girls sat, wearing smiles.
“Hello,” I said. I held the hand of each of the girls. “I’m here for Music & Me. Today’s our first day. I registered Dakota and Destin Boudreaux.”
“Hi. I’m Teegan.” She checked the computer.
“Got them. Today is only the second class of this session, so they haven’t missed much.
And there will probably be a lot of new attendees today.
” She waved at the girls. “Music & Me is in room number twelve. Follow this corridor to the end of the hallway and make a left. Have fun.”
“Thank you.”
I took the directions that Teegan gave me and found the room pretty easily. A black woman about my age met us at the door. “Pick an instrument, any instrument you like,” she instructed. “There’s some in the baskets along the back wall and some on the shelves.”
I walked the girls over to the baskets. Destin immediately started rummaging around in the basket.
“What do you think, Kota?” I asked her. “You want something loud or something quiet?”
“I want sometin’ loud,” Destin informed me, which came as absolutely no surprise.
“You want maracas?” I pick up two maracas and shook them. “Or you want something louder?” I picked up the cymbals and clanged them together.
Destin wasn’t impressed. She went to the basket, so I went back to Dakota. I picked up the triangle. I always thought of it as a classy instrument . . . if an instrument could be classy. It had decorum. You tapped it with the beater, and it gave you a little chime. I demonstrated it for her.
“Yes.” She took it from my hands.
I watched Destin ditch the basket and make her way around the room. Somewhere she found a drum and two sticks, which she brought over to Dakota and me.
“That tracks,” I mumbled to myself.
We found seats on the oversized fluffy rug in the back corner of the room.
“Your girls are beautiful,” the mom next to me said. She was holding a little boy about Destin’s age in her lap.
“Oh, I’m the nanny, but they are beautiful girls. Your son is absolutely gorgeous.”
“Thank you. We just moved here from D.C. We’re trying to figure out small town living and acclimate to living on an island.”
“Same. I just recently relocated from Kentucky. Living this close to the ocean is magical.”
“It is. Do you guys live nearby?”
“We live in the Harbor Mist area.”
She grinned. “We do, too I’m Amanda. This is Liam.”
“I’m Xarielle, but please call me Xari. This is Dakota, and this is Destin.”
It was day four, and I had already made my first acquaintance.
Kept got home about 5:00 p.m. just as he’d promised. The girls and I were on the deck. They were coloring while I did some research on my phone about an upcoming project that I wanted to do with them.
“Daddy!” Dakota shot up from the child-sized picnic table and wrapped herself around his legs.
“Daddy!” Destin followed suit.
He picked up one girl in each arm and plastered kisses on their cheeks. “Hey. Daddy missed you today.”
The girls returned the sentiment, Destin babbling about getting a chance to play the drums, and Dakota simply resting her head on his shoulder.
I couldn’t help but smile at the picture of love that the three of them created. Those were two very lucky little girls.
“Hey, Kept. I hope work was good.”
“Work was good. The models are almost finished on the current project. It’s much easier to sell lots when people can walk through a model. The inspector came through today. We passed the plumbing and electrical.”
“Congratulations.”
He grinned at me. “Thanks.”
I watched him set both girls down on their feet gingerly. He was so gentle in his handling of them.
Are you really trying to develop a crush on your employer?
After being with the girls all day and eating dinner alone, I found myself craving adult conversation by nightfall. I knew Kept wasn’t a big conversationalist, but I figured he could provide at least a little interaction. As expected, he was already on the deck when I got there.
“Hey,” I said, moving over to the sofa where he lounged.
“What’s up?”
“Not much.”
He chuckled. “The girls didn’t wear you out too much, did they?”
“Not at all. We did a music class today. There were about twenty or so toddlers there, singing songs and playing instruments.” I snickered at the memory. “It was cute. Destin was very into it.”
“Destin’s very into noise. If it’s noisy, she’s there for it. She told me that she chose the drum. Bet she was beating the hell outta that thing.”
I cracked up. “Leave her alone.”
“How did Dakota do? Loud noises aren’t always her thing.”
“They didn’t seem to bother her at all. Initially, she had the triangle, but she traded that in for the tambourine. Next thing I knew, she was pounding her tambourine along with the rest of them.”
He laughed. “And the picnic?”
“Good. The park was a hit too. Even though I had to chase Destin down a few times, that girl likes to take off, and she does it on purpose?—”
“To see if you’re gonna chase after her.” He finished my thought. “Yeah, I should’ve mentioned that. I used to keep her on one of those leashes, but my sister fussed too much saying Destin isn’t a dog . But hell, she’s not the one chasing her through parking lots and stuff.”
“Facts. Anyway, it was a good day. I really enjoy them. They’re such sweet girls.”
“Thanks.”
“So, I know you’re probably ready to go back into your shell now.” He chuckled. “But I really want to hear more about what you do, Kept. Now, I remember when Mama Reese used to drive us to the well-to-do neighborhoods in Londynville.
She used to find open houses and take us to see the model homes.
We would fantasize over what it would be like to live in such a fancy house with all the amenities of life at your fingertips.
That’s what you actually do for a living?
Build the same fancy and super expensive houses that Mama Reese used to take us to look at? ”