She smiled through her tears.
“You are so young and beautiful.Try to forget about Bennett and his sorry excuses.Someday you’ll find a man who treats you right.”
Vanessa didn’t tell her mother about Paul, and she made no protest when Lorelle advised her to go to church to meet men.She wasn’t husband hunting.Instead of saying that, she changed the subject.“Was I a difficult child?”
“Hmm?”
“Did I have temper tantrums?”
“Oh, yes.They were legendary.”
“What about Jackson?”
“Jackson was very calm.He hardly ever cried.”
“Emily still has tantrums.”
“She’ll grow out of it.You did.”
“How old was I?”
“Four or five.”
Her mother asked for some photos of Emily and they chatted for a few more minutes.Vanessa felt better after she hung up.She felt lighter of spirit, less weighed down by life’s disappointments.Emily’s tantrums didn’t make her a bad parent.Leaving Bennett was the right choice, even though the divorce had been hard.She could move on with a clear conscience.She’d made a mistake in marrying him, but she’d done nothing to drive him away.Her father, in contrast, wasn’t the villain she’d made him out to be.He also wasn’t the hero she’d looked up to as a child.He was just a man, like any other, full of flaws and weaknesses.
After mini-camp, Vanessa took Emily shopping.Along with basic groceries, she bought an inflatable pink flamingo for floating on the lake, lemons for fresh-squeezed juice, and yellow paint for Emily’s sign.
Jackson called while they were in the checkout line.He offered to bring hamburgers and french fries for lunch.As she pulled up to the cabin, she spotted Paul with a cordless drill.He appeared to be screwing pieces of boards together on the front lawn.
“Mr.Paul is making the lemonade stand,” Emily exclaimed.“Look!”
“Did you ask him to?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa shook her head, but didn’t say anything.It was too late to tell Paul not to bother, or to lecture Emily about manners.She carried in groceries and put them away while Emily begged for the paint to finish her sign.Vanessa gathered the items they needed and walked outside.Emily raced ahead to admire Paul’s work.He’d attached three boards together to make a basic table with a flat surface and two sides.
“What do you say?”Vanessa prompted.
“Thank you!”Emily said.“Can we paint the sign now?”
Vanessa drew an outline of a lemon on the sign for Emily to fill in.Then she stood back to let the little girl do the rest.Paul put away his drill and supervised the process, as if he had nothing better to do.
“You didn’t have to build a stand,” Vanessa said quietly.
“It took five minutes.”
She crossed her arms over her chest.“Oh?Did you set a timer?”
He threw his head back and laughed.She admired the strong, suntanned line of his throat, and the way his faded blue T-shirt clung to his sweaty torso.He was drop-dead gorgeous, and she was in serious danger of falling for him.
Stop it, she told herself.Stop it right now.
Emily made a yellow blob of a lemon, and got more paint on her shirt than the sign, but it didn’t matter.Paul found a black marker to write the lettering.He gave the marker to Emily, which was not a good idea.
“Hold on,” Vanessa said.“Let’s use pencil first.”
Paul removed a pencil from his pocket.
