CHAPTER TWENTY
Naomi
It was Friday again before we knew it, and Mabel was over at Gabrielle’s with Damon.
They must have finished their birdwatching and homework because they made their way into the tasting room where I was sitting behind the counter, working on the computer.
As always, we had bachelorette parties, anniversary parties, birthday parties, and engagement parties emailing us trying to book tastings and make reservations.
We could accommodate most, but sometimes a bride or wedding planner would email hoping to book the entire venue for sixty plus people, and we just couldn’t do that.
Not for long, of course. Once we had Bonn Remmen’s land all developed, we could easily accept these larger party requests. I was pouting and staring at the screen when my nephew and Lennox’s daughter walked in.
“Why are you making that face?” Mabel asked.
I sighed and broke off a square from the caramel and sea salt chocolate I was munching on. “Oh, we just had a reservation request for an engagement party, but I’m going to have to decline. We just don’t have a space big enough for that many people—”
“Yet,” Damon said. “But we will.”
I grinned at him. “Yes, we will.”
“How many people?” Mabel asked.
“Eighty-five. And of course, I’m thinking about the money we are going to be missing out on by declining this reservation.” I sighed again and glumly rested my chin in my hand.
“Can we have some of those mini quiche things from the bakery?” Damon asked. “I was telling Mabel about them.”
A small, knowing smile curled my mouth, and I nodded. “They’re in the freezer in the back. Just pop them into the toaster oven for a few minutes.”
His eyes lit up, and the two of them ducked into the back room.
I was just about to finish my email to the wedding planner, regretfully declining their request when Gabrielle came busting in through the front door. She looked equal parts pissed off and worried as she clutched her phone in her hand.
I stood up from my stool and came out from behind the counter. “What’s wrong?”
Her eyes darted to the swinging door of the back room when she heard the soft murmur of Damon and Mabel’s voices. “Who’s here?”
“Damon and Mabel. Why?”
Her face fell. “Shit.”
Gripping her arm, I tugged her out to the patio under the honeysuckle-covered pergola. “What the hell is wrong?”
She unlocked her phone and held it up to my face. “Jolene Dandy is what’s wrong.”
My mouth dropped open, and I took her phone from her to study the Facebook post. It was a photo of Lennox and Mabel standing in line at the farmers market for a snow cone.
The text below the photo was asking if anybody knew more about Lennox Paul and his daughter, Mabel Paul.
That they’re being cagey and he seems way too young to be her father.
As a concerned citizen and member of the Island Elders on San Camanez Island, Washington, Jolene needed to know if they are who they say they are, or if the islanders need to be worried about the new principal at their elementary school.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I blurted out. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I started a deep dive to see just where Jolene posted this. She’s posted it in all kinds of Florida parent and school groups. She’d even posted it in something Tallahassee specific.
“Does Lennox know about this?” I asked her.
“Does Lennox know about what?” Mabel said behind me.
I whipped around, still holding Gabrielle’s phone. “Uh …”
Her brown eyes narrowed, and she stepped closer. “What’s going on?”
Gabrielle took her phone from me and approached Mabel, who held a couple of mini quiches on a napkin in her palm. “Honey … Jolene, she posted a picture of you and your dad on social media.”
Mabel snatched Gabrielle’s phone from her and her eyes went buggy as she read the caption.
Then her hands started to shake so badly that Gabrielle had to take the phone back from her.
“Wh-why would she do this?” She started to stim her fingers at her side like she had before, like she was trying to snap them.
Gabrielle rested her hand on Mabel’s shoulder, but Mabel flinched her off.
“Don’t touch me,” she said abruptly. Then she glanced at my cousin. “Sorry.”
Gabrielle shook her head. “No, honey. I should have known better.”
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and shot off a text to Lennox. He was still at the school, since it was only just after lunch, so I wasn’t expecting him to reply as fast as he did.
(Lennox) Where is Mabel?
(Me) Here. Shaken up.
(Lennox) I’m on my way.
“Your dad’s on his way here,” I said, guiding her toward a chair, but not touching her. “Damon, can you run and find Danica and ask her for the weighted blanket, please? She should be in her home office.”
All he did was nod, then took off using the patio gate.
Mabel’s eyes darted wildly and her knee started to bounce. She was up out of her chair and pacing as her fingers stimmed faster and faster.
“Do you want to do the senses thing again?” Gabrielle asked. “Would that help?”
“No,” Mabel said, shaking her head. “No. She’s going to find me.
She’s going to find me, and she’s going to take me away from my dad.
She’s going to kidnap me. I need a tracker implanted behind my ear like a dog.
” She met my gaze with frantic, wide eyes.
“That’s what we need to have happen. I need a tracker that can’t be removed.
These shoe and backpack chips are stupid.
” Then she removed her shoe and pulled a small tracker out from beneath the insole.
“It’s useless. The same with the Find My Friend app.
If she throws my phone away or breaks it …
gets me new clothes and shoes … he’ll never be able to find me. Nobody will.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Gabrielle said. “Your dad won’t let that happen. We won’t let that happen. Just because Jolene posted a picture of you and your dad doesn’t mean Kyla is going to see it.”
“Doesn’t mean she won’t,” Mabel snapped back. “She posted it in Florida groups. In Tallahassee groups.”
“Yes, but Kyla has moved to Cedar Bluff in Alabama,” I offered. “I doubt she’ll be keeping up with Florida news when she’s trying to start a new life.”
Mabel’s head shook and her eyes just continued to get wider; her chest rose and fell quickly and before we knew it, she had collapsed to her knees on the rectangular pavers, shoved her hands into her hair, and started to pull—hard.
“Got it,” Damon said, rushing back, slightly out of breath. He placed it over Mabel’s shoulders, but before he could step back, she grabbed his hand and tugged him to his knees with her. “I … I need deep pressure.”
My nephew glanced at me and his mother in confusion.
Gabrielle and I were equally shocked and confused.
“Uh … you need to just wrap your arms around her and squeeze,” I said.
Damon did so, cautiously, as Mabel rocked back and forth a bit.
“Harder,” she murmured, leaning into him.
He adjusted his position on his knees, inching closer to her, and hugged her tighter. “Like this?”
“Yeah.” After a full minute of nobody saying anything, and the two of them just kneeling on the ground, Damon hugging her, Mabel’s body gave a tremendous shudder, and she sighed, relaxing into his arms.
They stayed like that for a while, with Gabrielle and me just standing there over them, not sure what to say or do. Damon didn’t say a word. He didn’t make a face of discomfort, even though I was sure his knees hurt. He just held her tightly.
Gravel under tires pulled our attention away for a moment, before the frantic slam of a truck door and shoes on rocks. “Naomi?” Lennox called.
“On the patio!” I replied.
He found us and sank to his knees beside his daughter. Damon released her and gave a little groan as he stood up.
“I’m here, Mabes,” Lennox said softly, rocking her a little. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. She’s not going to take you away from me. I promise.”
Mabel lifted her head off his shoulder. “You can’t make those kinds of promises.”
He frowned and nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. But I can promise to do everything in my power to try to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
“That photo needs to come down. It has to,” Mabel said.
“It will,” Gabrielle said, using her best lawyer voice.
Lennox glanced at her.
“It was in a public setting, so she didn’t do anything illegal by taking the picture and posting it. However, because of the ramifications something like this could have, we could threaten her with a restraining order. And demand that she remove it. Mabel is, after all, a minor.”
Lennox hesitated for a moment. I could tell he was weighing the pros and cons of doing something so drastic.
They hadn’t even been on the island a month, and he was the new principal; the last thing he wanted was to make waves with someone as loud and influential as Jolene Dandy.
But he was a dad first, and his daughter’s safety—just like me with my kids—was priority number one.
He nodded at Gabrielle. “Okay. Do what you have to do.”
“I’m going to pay Jolene a little visit,” my cousin said. “Order her to take down the post.”
“She’s going to ask why,” Damon said. “You know she will.”
I nodded. “She wants to know how old Lennox is and why they’re being so secretive. As proud as I am of Mabel marching up to Jolene at the farmers market, it probably only fueled the woman’s petty fire.”
“I’m going to go grab my keys,” Gabrielle said, and then she headed off toward the main house.
Lennox met my eyes. “Maybe we need to leave the island.”
“No,” Damon blurted out.
Even Mabel lifted her head to look at him.
Damon’s face turned bright-red. He cleared his throat, shoved his hands into the pockets of his baggy jean shorts, and glanced up at the clouds. “What I mean is, you can’t let Jolene win. If you like it here, then stay. You deserve to be here just as much as everyone else.”
Lennox and I shared a small smile. He rubbed his daughter’s back a little longer, but I could tell that his knee was starting to bother him.