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“Fuck off, Nolan.” She snorts, as she always does when he teases her, and I give her a warning look. “Sorry.” She presses her lips together, and Nolan chuckles as I stand, transferring Ruby into the crook of my arm. “What are you doing here?” she asks, looking up over her head at him.
“Oh.” His amused eyes come to me. “I came to ask Dad if he wanted to go out on the jet skis.” Dad. Yeah, not going to lie, that took a while to get used to. We did discuss it, and I had been happy for him to continue to call me Brad. But it was my wise girlfriend who explained that Nolan’s never had a dad, never been able to call another man Dad. So, it stuck.
“Why wouldn’t you call him instead of coming all the way over here?” Pearl asks.
Nolan’s panicked eyes land on me. “Oh, ermmm.” He looks at Ruby in my arms. “I wanted to see my little sister before I take Ella out on the water for another lesson.” He moves in, crowding me, and gets up in Ruby’s face, making stupid baby noises.
“You’re annoying her,” I say dryly. “I’ll meet you on the shore soon. Go get the jet skis ready.”
“I thought he was going out on the water with Ella,” Pearl says.
Fuck, this is hard work. “He is. I’m supervising.”
“I’m a little rusty. And Dad’s a pro.” He flips me a terribly obvious wink before backing up, waving at Pearl.
“What’s gotten into him?” she asks, half smiling, half frowning, as he closes the door behind him.
“Who the hell knows?” I offer a hand to Pearl. “Come,” I say, and she smiles, taking it, letting me ease her up out of the chair slowly. “Okay?”
“Good.” She brushes down the front of her white sundress and drops the muslin cloth on the chair.
“Up for a little wander down the beach?”
“Yes,” she breathes, reaching for Ruby’s little sunhat and popping it on her head before draping the muslin over her exposed legs.
“Can you manage?” I slip an arm around her waist and walk us to the door.
She laughs a little. “I can manage.”
“Lean on me.”
“I am leaning on you.”
“Lean on me more,” I demand, feeling her press into my side, one arm around my lower back, the other resting on my bare chest.
It’s slow progress, but we make it down to the shore step by small step, until our toes are submerged in the sparkling water. I can sense her peace against me as she constantly looks from the horizon, to our feet, to Ruby, to me.
I don’t particularly want to bring it up now, but I want Pearl to know she’s able to move forward without it hanging over her head. I hired a lawyer in the UK to contest the trust. We had a strong case, given the circumstances of Pearl’s parents’ deaths and the ten years Pearl suffered at the hands of King. The only catch? She must pay various taxes, including inheritance taxes. It’s a non-issue. “The sale on your parents’ property has closed.” I look down at her, seeing her biting at her lip. I don’t think she knows how to feel about it. I know she’s torn between guilt and relief. She could never go back there, but that place was her childhood home before it became her prison.
“That’s good.” She swallows, nodding, reaching for Ruby’s hand and playing with her fingers.
“So you’re a wealthy young woman, Miss Kennedy.”
“I’m rich enough without any money,” she muses, smiling mildly. “When do you think we can get her in the water?”
That’s it. End of that conversation. Which is fine by me. “Two to three months,” I say. I asked the docs. Anything earlier is too risky, infections and whatnot. “So soon.”
“I don’t want her to be scared of water,” Pearl says quietly. “I don’t want her to be scared of anything. Except her daddy, maybe, when she’s a tearaway teenager kissing all the boys.”
I blink. “Jesus, Pearl.”
“I don’t want her to be suppressed,” she goes on. “Scared of the world.”
“She doesn’t have to kiss all the boys, though.” Let’s get that straight. It would be carnage.
Pearl looks at me seriously. “I want her to have all the experiences I didn’t. School, field trips, her first crush, prom, her first kiss, driving lessons . . . everything.”
I smile, but it’s sad. If Pearl had not missed out on all those things, I wouldn’t have her now. And that fucks with my head so much. Because I couldn’t be without her now. And yet I want to erase her past. “She’ll have everything, my love,” I promise. “All the things.” But all the boys? No. I’ve got a few years to try and curb the knee-jerk reaction I have to that thought. Can’t promise I’ll succeed.
