Chapter 7 Nina
NINA
The Kids’ Club had taken over the rock-climbing wall. We’d been gifted with a perfect day of sunshine and a cool, salty breeze to keep us from overheating, and we were making the most of it with this onboard adventure.
The forty-foot-high exterior wall on the top deck was another showstopper on the vessel because climbers who reached the top were treated to a view of endless blue, with the occasional dolphin cameo.
I doubted any of the kids in my group would make it that high, particularly the nervous little climber standing in front of me and eyeballing the wall suspiciously.
“What do you think, bud?” Logan asked Noah. “Want to give it a try, or just watch?”
At my suggestion, he’d stepped away from work to be with us for this, since we both had a feeling Noah would be slow to warm to the slightly scary activity.
I’d given Logan a crash course in providing the right kind of support to a child in turmoil, and one of the tips was offering choices instead of directives.
It didn’t quite come naturally to Logan yet—no shocker there, for a man who was used to making decisions and getting everyone else to fall in line—but he was doing his best.
“I don’t know,” Noah answered.
He seemed very focused on how tall the thing was, staring at the tippy top with fear in his eyes.
I squatted down beside him. “There’s no rule that climbers have to go all the way up. In fact, it’s probably best for you to stay close to the ground this first time, so you can work on your grip and your reach. It’s the smart first step for beginners.”
He nodded uncertainly, still staring at the wall.
Logan kneeled on the other side of Noah. “Look, the instructor is getting ready to give his presentation. Should we get closer to hear what he has to say?”
I applauded him mentally, because all he was pitching to Noah was listening in. Easy!
“Okay,” he nodded.
Jared the instructor did a great job aging down his instructions and reassuring the nervous potential climbers about the safety of the rigging.
He even scrambled halfway up the wall and did a falling demo, which got screams of shock from the kids, then laughter as he twisted in the air unharmed.
When he asked for volunteers, I knew exactly which hands would shoot up first and which would remain anchored. But then…
“There you go, bud!” Logan cheered as Noah inched his hand up toward his ear. “You got this!”
No surprise, Jared picked the bossman’s son as one of the first climbers. Logan and I stood shoulder to shoulder as we watched him get suited up.
“Damn,” Logan said under his breath. “I didn’t see that coming.”
“Same, but that’s the beauty of behavioral elasticity in kids. You never know what’s going to make a child stretch and grow. In this case, I think it was Jared’s falling demo. Irrefutable evidence that Noah will be safe no matter what.”
“I wish I could guarantee that for the rest of his life,” Logan muttered.
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye.
How could I forget that Noah wasn’t the only one struggling with the many life changes?
Even if he and Noah’s mom hadn’t been together anymore when she’d died, they’d still had a relationship as coparents, and he was still working through the loss as well as adjusting to having a full-time son in turmoil.
It had to be heartbreaking trying to help Noah adapt to a very different new life as he mourned the loss of his mother.
“Look at him go,” I cheered as Noah started spider-crawling his way up the low section of the wall.
“No surprise, really; we’re a family of athletes,” Logan answered.
I stifled a chuckle at the humble-brag.
My colleague Ashley had taken over most of the kid herding for the group since my duties had shifted to focus more on Noah, but with him occupied, she didn’t hesitate to call me to help deal with a chalk emergency—more of it was ending up on clothing than hands.
We were focused on cleanup when we heard a piercing scream.
Noah. My heart stopped as I scanned the crowd, expecting to see that he’d fallen.
It took me a minute to spot him since he was still on the wall, frozen about three feet off the ground, staring up at Madison, who was spinning in midair about fifteen feet up.
“She’s fine, she’s okay,” Jared said with authority over the buzz of the rest of the kids. “No worries, guys! Let’s bring her down.”
I kept my eye on Noah as he scrambled off the wall and started clawing at the harness.
Logan reached him before I could.
“She’s safe, see?” Logan was saying as Madison touched down on the floor with Jared beside her. “She’s not scared; she was just caught off guard.”
Logan was doing a great job trying to regulate Noah, but I swooped in as backup.
“See how strong those ropes are?” I added as I kneeled in front of him. “That’s what Jared was talking about when he demonstrated falling in the beginning. Even though Madison let go of the grips, she didn’t fall down to the ground. I bet it felt like she was flying!”
“Get this off, now,” Noah insisted, eyes wild. He wasn’t taking in a word we were saying. He wrenched at the harness with increasing frustration. “I want it off!”
Logan placed his hand on Noah’s shoulder. “Noey, hold on. Let’s talk about how you’re feeling. Are you scared?”
Noah paused at the question and stared at the ground.
“I don’t know.”
Logan shot me a desperate look—an invitation to tap in again.
“You did a great job up there, Noah,” I began. I knelt so I could look him in the eye. “I could tell that you listened really carefully to all of the instructions. You looked so confident!”
He cracked a smile at the compliment.
“I saw it too,” Logan chimed in. “It seemed like you were having a great time.”
Noah shrugged.
We all watched as Madison started climbing the wall again.
“Wow, look at her go!” Logan cheered. “She’s showing that wall who’s the boss.”
Logan and I both held our breath, waiting to see how Noah would respond. He watched Madison with one hand still clutching the harness.
“Oh, darn it!” Logan cried out, drawing our attention back to him. “I can’t believe I forgot to get a picture of you to send to Grandpa and your uncles. They would’ve loved to see you looking like a professional climber.”
Score. It wasn’t a push to try to get him to go again if he really was uncomfortable with the idea; it was an acknowledgment that he had.
Noah looked up at his father. “You think they want to see me doing it?”
He nodded. “Oh, definitely. You know how much they love adventure stuff. And they always enjoy seeing you try new things.”
A dozen emotions shifted across Noah’s face as he considered giving climbing another shot. He glanced at the wall, then down at the harness.
“You’ll take pictures, then I can be done?”
Logan lit up. “Yeah, bud. I’ll snag a couple of pictures of you looking like a total pro, then you can finish up and come down whenever you say. You don’t even have to go high if you don’t want to.”
I had a feeling that once he was back at it, his fears would fade away, but only time would tell.
“Okay, let’s go,” he said, walking away with a confidence that came out of nowhere.
Logan and I gave each other wide-eyed looks.
“What just happened?” he asked, whispering like he was afraid of breaking some kind of spell.
I chuckled. “You discovered that your son likes to show off.”
“Hey, nothing wrong with being the star now and then,” he shot back.
“You better get up there, paparazzi. He’s ready to go.”
Logan jogged over to where Noah was listening to another pep talk from Jared and started snapping photos.
It was such a sweet scene that I couldn’t resist taking a few of my own as Noah started his second ascent.
I zoomed in on Noah’s face as his expression switched from nervousness to happiness when he spotted his dad taking pictures, just like he promised.
When his turn was over, Noah opted to stand with the rest of the kids rather than run back to us, which I took as a huge positive step. Logan rejoined me, and we both watched him laughing as he pretended to play tug of war with the rigging with some of the other boys.
“Check this out,” Logan said as he swiped through his phone. “Total badass!”
He held it out and showed me the photo of Noah, framed so it looked like he was way higher than he’d actually gone. His eyes were fixed on the top, determined and confident.
“Oh, it’s perfect!”
Logan smiled softly as he continued looking at the images. “What a kid.”
“Agreed,” I replied. “He’s really special. And you did an amazing job with him today.”
His head popped up, and he looked at me with wide eyes full of hope. “Really? You think so?”
Wow, he really cared. It wasn’t like I’d ever doubted that he loved his son, but this moment drove home how important it was to him to get this right, to be the dad Noah needed. It was surprisingly sweet.
The blue eyes that matched the ocean fixed on mine. He wore a questioning look, so different from the stern, furrowed expression I was used to seeing. His mouth was seconds away from curving into a smile, and I wanted to see that smile.
“Of course you did everything right. You were supportive, not judgmental, and flexible on the fly. I think you understood that pushing him would backfire.”
Instead of the smile I hoped for, Logan’s face went tight. “Took me quite a while to figure that out.”
I felt like part of my job was keeping son and father in a positive headspace.
“Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s a journey.”
We both went silent as we watched Noah come out of his shell, minute by minute.
The confidence boost of getting back on the wall flipped a switch in him.
Now, instead of hovering in the background, he joined the rest of the kids clipping the carabiners around their ears like they were earrings, which apparently was hilarious if you were six years old.
“I need to get back to work,” Logan mused. “But I hate to leave.”
We stood side by side, watching Noah act like a typical kid.
“Thanks for making time for this,” I replied. “You were the reason he gave it another shot.”
Logan’s smile expanded, and I ignored what it did to me.
Butterflies.
Not that I was in danger of falling for him. No freaking way. It was just that Logan was also transforming in front of my eyes, from someone intolerable to…a teammate.
Granted, it was going to take time to get him to relax his grip on the reins, but I’d seen glimmers of his willingness to change for the better.
And that was hot as hell.
Between the kitten and this victory, it really felt like Noah was turning a corner.
“Thank you.”
It was my turn to give Logan a surprised look.
“For what?”
“For helping us get here, to a version of stability. I doubt he would’ve even shown up at the wall today if it wasn’t for you.” He paused. “And thanks for giving me some insights for helping him.”
Heat crept up to my face. I appreciated his acknowledgment of my work, but something deeper was happening between us. An understanding that no matter how different we were, we were united whether we liked it or not.
And for the first time, I suspected that I did like it.
“Hey, you know what they say: teamwork makes the dream work.”
I held out my hand to offer him knuckles, and he looked at it with mild distaste, like I was flipping him off.
“Pound it out, bro,” I insisted, shaking my fist at him.
He snorted softly, ignoring my outstretched fist. “When we get to Nésion, have dinner with me.”
If he had sucker punched me, I could not have been more surprised. “What?”
“The kids will be occupied with that movie night slumber party thing, right?”
I nodded.
“Then let me thank you properly with dinner on the island.”
I gaped at him, doing what was probably a stunning imitation of a goldfish, but then I reached a decision and shook my fist at him again, raising my eyebrow in challenge. Logan chuckled, disbelieving, before he finally relented, touching his knuckles to mine.
Yeah, we’d just sealed a pact.
I wasn’t yet sure exactly what it meant, but I was going to enjoy finding out.