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The morning flew.
Josie wanted it to last forever.
It didn’t. The teacher had orchestrated crafts for them to do together. They colored construction paper bookmarks and planted bright pink petunias into wide, foam coffee cups. They played silly games, then had a fairly minor-league tea party at the end, but Addie loved every single minute. And when it was over, she clasped onto Josie as if she’d never wanted to let her go, a sentiment Josie reciprocated. “Thank you so much for coming! Wasn’t it the best day ever?”
More than she would ever know, and far more than Josie could ever put into words. “It sure was, and I’m so glad you guys let me come. It was by far the best day ever.”
“Then let’s not end it here.” Jacob took Addie’s hand as they crossed the parking lot to his car. “It’s a gorgeous day and I promised Addie a trip to Lake Ontario. Let’s do it now, before the resort opens, school closes for the summer and the beaches get crowded. Terry’s got the Bayou kitchen covered, I can handle anything I need to via phone for the day, and we’ve already played hooky for the morning. Why not make it a whole day? I do believe there’s custard at the Charlotte beach up in Rochester.”
“There is,” Josie admitted. “And there’s a carousel, too. It’s over a hundred years old, and so old-fashioned and pretty.”
“Can we go? Please?” Addie implored as she reached for Josie’s hand. “Will you come with us, Josie? That would make it even more special.”
What kind of mother could resist a daughter’s sweet plea? “I’d love to.”
“Do you think Terry will be set for the day?” Jacob lifted a brow in question. “I don’t want to push you into something you’re not comfortable with, Josie.”
She added kind and considerate about work-related stress to the already long list of reasons to like this man. “I’ll double-check, but he should be fine. Nothing like being in the thick of things to get a handle on how stuff works. And I do tend to take over when I’m there, so this is probably a good thing.” She made the call, decided everything was fine for a few more hours, then settled back into her seat as they drove north. And when they’d parked the car and crossed the narrow streets to the wide, spreading beach at Charlotte, Addie kicked off her shoes and spun in the sand. “This is huge, Dad! It’s not like our lake at all.”
“Last time I looked we didn’t have a lake, Addie.”
“You know the one I mean.” She scolded him with the cutest face. “The one I love so much where I want to live forever and ever!”
He didn’t sigh, but he looked like he wanted to, and Josie couldn’t blame him. Addie wasn’t afraid to stand her ground or make her wishes known, and there was no denying the sensibility of her choices. Why leave when you’ve found the perfect place? Except, of course, it wasn’t perfect at all. Nothing about their current situation was ideal.
“Look that way!” Addie pointed north, across the huge lake. “You can’t even see anything on the other side! How come it’s so big?”
Jacob made a face, so Josie answered. “There are five huge lakes like this, Addie. The Great Lakes. And what you can’t see across the water is Canada, another whole, huge country.”
“Are you kidding me?” She whirled, delighted by this new fact. “We could be in another country if we swam over?”
“That would be some swim, kid, but if we were to take a boat over, we’d hit Canada. But it has to be a fairly big boat because I expect these big lakes can get rocking.”
“They sure do.”
“Can I dig in the sand? Please?”
“Absolutely, except we didn’t exactly come prepared.” Jacob lifted his shoulders.
Josie spotted driftwood up the beach. “Nature provides.” She pointed to the wood and headed that way. They traced roads into the sand with the sticks, and while they had no buckets to form castles, they mounded damp sand from below. Addie searched the beach for decorations. Shells, twigs, dried seaweed… And when they’d finished a fairly crude-looking castle, Jacob called her over, reached out his arm and took a selfie of all three of them.
