Chapter 22
Presley
Kayaking with three little girls was a lot different from kayaking alone at dawn.
Paddling by myself right after the sun rose was peaceful, centering, almost meditative. Watching nature come alive for a new day was a different adventure each time. A way to relax that kept me busy and involved at the same time.
Taking three girls out near sundown was loud, chaotic, and at times hilarious.
I wasn’t complaining. In fact, I seemed to have invited chaos into my life in multiple ways lately.
Like adopting three kittens, for example.
Told you. Chaos.
I’d been planning on a dog. When I’d visited the shelter yesterday, I’d filled out paperwork for a dog. And then I’d seen one of the volunteers holding the cutest little kitten, and something about its eyes had stolen my heart.
The mostly white kitten had a few dark spots and hints of gray tabby marks on its head.
The volunteer took me back to visit its two littermates, and I was a goner.
The second one was mostly white too but had more and bigger spots, as well as more gray tabby markings on its head.
The third one looked as if it’d been left in the color bucket even longer, with a white underbelly but gray tabby marks on its top half.
They’d just been cleared for adoption a few hours before, and now they were my roommates: Mocha, Latte, and Chai.
Today was Friday, and I’d invited West and his daughters over to see the kittens and go kayaking after the workday—and yes, I’d bought one more kayak, this one teal and royal blue.
Nova and I were in the tandem boat. The girls had insisted West use the pink and purple kayak, and he was helping Sienna and Scarlet, in their individual boats, whenever they needed it.
As we made our way back toward my dock, Nova’s paddling was slowing, as West had warned me it would.
“Miss Presley, look!” Nova said.
I looked where she was pointing on the shore and spotted a small animal, maybe raccoon size, but it wasn’t a raccoon. “I see it,” I said in a loud whisper, not wanting to scare it as it crawled over a large rock at the shore two lots down from mine.
“Daddy!” Nova whisper-shouted and pointed.
West nodded and pointed out the animal to Scarlet as Sienna said, “It’s a groundhog.”
“Hi, Hoggy,” Nova said, forgetting to whisper.
“Nova, are you helping Miss Presley paddle?” West asked gently.
She took her time pivoting to face the front of the boat, then dipped her paddle in just enough to have a braking effect instead, making me laugh as the boat turned at an angle toward the shore.
“Oops, sorry,” Nova said when she realized what she’d done.
“It’s okay,” I said. “We got this, Nova. Two more docks and we can visit Mocha, Latte, and Chai.”
“Oooh,” she squealed. “I can’t wait.”
We’d spent nearly an hour playing with the little beasts before heading out in the kayaks.
I was sure the girls were getting hungry in spite of the string cheese they’d snacked on.
West had promised them pizza from Humble’s after our boating adventure.
Since my kitchen was empty as usual, and it would look odd if I joined the four of them in public, I planned to get a pie for carry-out.
A lot had changed in the two weeks since my birthday.
My home construction project was entering the last stages, with the main floor mostly done, just in need of a final detail here and there.
West and his crew had a day or so of work in the bonus room above the garage, and they hoped to finish the boathouse and my new entertainment patio on the boathouse roof within the next week, weather permitting.
Since that first night at West’s house, he and I had managed to steal time together in secret as often as possible.
He was like an addiction. I couldn’t get enough of him.
It wasn’t just the sex, though that continued to be superlatively, mind-blowingly good.
We got along well even with our clothes on.
When we worked at the shop together, time flew by even though I was doing the most physical labor I’d ever done in my life and had the chronically sore muscles to show for it.
My shop was coming together, and I waffled between sheer excitement and utter terror that I’d fail at this venture. What business did I have opening a coffee shop in this small town I’d only just moved to? I might know financing and accounting, but I had no experience in retail or marketing.
I’d find a way to make it work soon enough, I supposed. West estimated we could finish by the end of next weekend.
Nova chattered nonstop about groundhogs and kittens and fish and turtles and I wasn’t sure what else the rest of the way to my dock.
She went a mile a minute, and before I could respond to one thing, she was on to the next, so I mostly laughed and inserted a comment here and there between gentle reminders for her to paddle when she could.
“We’re coming, kitties!” she shouted as we rounded the dock, and I guided the boat toward the shore.
“Stay seated while I get out and pull us farther in, okay?” I said to her.
Nova sang her affirmative answer, pulling yet another grin from me.
As I carefully climbed out, West and the twins were just passing the dock right before mine because Scarlet had tried to paddle closer to the groundhog—in spite of Sienna pleading with her to give the “poor baby” some space—then had trouble turning her boat around.
I pulled the nose of the kayak as far up onto the shore as I could get it, then helped Nova out into the ankle-deep water.
She was off like a shot as I worked to pull the long boat all the way out of the lake.
Nova galloped out onto the dock, ushering in the other three kayakers. “Daddy! Hurry up! The kitties are—”
A shriek rang out, and then a sickening thud sounded as Nova’s head hit the dock.
I sprinted to the spot where she lay on her back, crying for all she was worth.
“I’ve got her,” I called to West, who swore and paddled the last few feet to the shore in high gear.
I kneeled beside Nova, who rolled onto her side toward me, howling in pain.
“I’m here, sweetie,” I said. “I’ve got you.”
As I pulled her into my arms, I noticed the blood on the dock. Lots of blood.
“West!” I yelled, then asked in what I hoped was a more soothing, less panicked voice, “Where do you hurt, Nova?”
She wrapped herself around me and clung to me, sobbing too hard to reply. I found my answer when I cradled her head to me and felt the blood coming from the back, her hair soaked with it in one spot.
West hollered to the twins to paddle in and wait for him to help them out, then came up beside us and crouched down.
“I think she hit her head on the cleat,” I said as I pieced it together.
“Oh, Nova, girl,” he said, his tone full of love and concern as he checked out the wound I couldn’t see.
I met his eyes over her head, my heart pounding. There was so much blood.
He inspected the wound. “That’s a big one, baby girl,” he said. “Come here, princess.” He shifted so he could take her from me.
Nova clung harder to me, still sobbing, her head burrowed into my shoulder as she shook it just enough for me to discern.
“I’ve got her,” I said, holding on tightly, wishing I could make her pain go away. “Do we need to take her to the ER in Nashville?”
“I suspect she needs stitches,” he said. “Doc Julian can do it in his office here in town.”
“Daddy, we need to get out,” Scarlet called out. “Is Nova okay?”
“She’s gonna be okay,” he said, which made Nova cry harder. “Just give me a couple more minutes, girls. Nova, did you hurt anything besides your head?”
He had to coax an answer out of her, but she eventually shook her head.
“Let’s get you standing up,” he said to me. “You sure you won’t come to Daddy, princess?”
Nova continued to sob but snuggled in closer to me. I lifted my brows at West, feeling a little bad that she wouldn’t go to him, but not because I didn’t want to comfort her. That she trusted me so completely was weirdly gratifying. I just wanted to help her feel better.
With a lot of help from West, standing behind me with his hands under my elbows, I stood with his daughter wrapped around me. Still behind me, he leaned over my shoulder and kissed his daughter and whispered comforting words to her, his hand on my back.
“Let’s get her up to the house and get her life jacket off,” he said.
The twins appeared at the end of the dock, their big eyes filled with concern. Their kayaks were pulled halfway onto the shore.
“Thanks for moving your kayaks up, girls,” I said to them. “That’s so helpful.”
“Even if I told you to wait for me,” West said, planting a kiss on Scarlet’s head as he reached her, then doing the same to Sienna.
“I held Si-Si’s boat. Then she held mine,” Scarlet reported. “Then we both pulled them up as far as we could.”
“You did good,” West said. “Take off your life jackets, head up to the house, and open the door for Miss Presley while I get the boats all the way out of the lake.”
With Nova in my arms, I made my careful way up the path toward the house. The twins raced by me, giving us a wide berth.
“Are we going to Dr. Julian’s office?” Sienna asked.
“I think so,” I said.
Scarlet reached the house first and slid the door open.
“Can you go in the kitchen and grab a bunch of paper towels?” I asked her, hoping to clean some of the blood and staunch the flow.
Both twins raced inside.
As I reached the patio, West came up behind me and put his hand on my back.
“How are we doing, princess?” he cooed to his youngest, whose cries had lessened slightly in intensity.
“It…hurts…Daddy,” Nova said between shaky inhales. “It hurrrrts.” She cried harder into my shoulder.
West said into my ear, “I’m going to call the doctor’s office so he and his nurse can meet us.”
Scarlet brought us a handful of paper towels. West thanked her, pulled out his phone, dialed the doctor, and then gently dabbed at Nova’s head as the call rang on speaker.
Eight minutes later, he helped me out of the back seat of his SUV, Nova still in my arms, the twins emerging from the other side.
“Do you want to take my keys and go home?” West asked me.
I shook my head. “I’m good. Let’s get this little girl some relief.”
With his hand on my waist as he stood behind me, he said into my ear, “Thank you. You’re incredible.”
To be honest, I was more than a little shaken, but I wasn’t about to desert him. He had his hands full, and he had to be freaking out, even if he hid it.
He had a lot to handle all the time with these three but particularly so when something awful like this happened. But West didn’t waver. He was the pillar of strength and comfort his daughters needed.
I couldn’t help but wonder who was there for him when he needed a backup or extra reassurance.