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.
“Maybe we could move this to a chair?”I gently suggested, urging my nephew to help me pull out two seats.“The pavers are pretty rough on the joints.
Lennox glanced up at me and gave a small smile of thanks as he helped his daughter stand.She kept the blanket tight around her shoulders as the two of them took the patio seats.
“Do you think Kyla will see the photo?”Mabel asked, her voice small as she stared at the ground and used the toe of her running shoe to push around a small cone that had fallen from a nearby tree.
Damon’s eyes met mine, and concern flickered in his gray-blue eyes.I offered him a meek, crooked smile of reassurance, but he knew me well enough to know that I had a pretty bleak view on humanity and the chances of Kyla seeing that photo were higher than any of us wanted to admit.If the woman was as insane as Lennox made her out to be, I was sure she was on all the necessary websites and in all the appropriate social media groups to stay informed.Maybe she even had alerts set up if the names Lennox or Mabel popped up somewhere.I wasn’t tech savvy enough to know if that was possible, but Damon would.
It was like we had one mind, and my nephew pulled out his phone.His fingers flew across the screen.
The crunch of gravel under Gabrielle’s car tires filled the tense, quiet air for a moment as held my breath.
Did I want to know just how many people had shared, commented and viewed Jolene’s posts?
Damon glanced up at me as I stared at the top of his head in nervous anticipation.Mabel looked up at him too.“It’s bad, isn’t it?”she asked.“The posts just keep coming in.People recognizing my dad, saying stuff about us.Have they mentioned …” She swallowed.“Have they mentionedhowI came into existence?”
Damon’s eyes remained on the screen, but he slowly shook his head.“Not that I can see.”
“Yet,” Mabel scoffed, shaking her head and pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders.
Lennox sucked in a deep breath through his nose and rubbed her back.“Come on, kiddo.I’ll take you home.”He made to stand up and help her up as well, but she stayed seated.
With a frown, she shook her head.“I don’t want to go home yet.”
Lennox gave her a curious look.
“Would you go back to work?”she asked her dad.
