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“Security detail?” Paul asked, wide-eyed. “Like your very own bodyguards?”
Jack smiled. “Something like that.”
If Jack had thought his daughter was going to be irked by the possibility of having someone shadowing her for the next year at least, the look on Lily’s face at Paul’s words looked a little more…proud, particularly as Natalie and Paul looked at her in wonderment.
“Let’s go then,” Jenna said impatiently and continued down the path, clearly not as impressed as her younger siblings.
Lily, not one to let anyone take the lead, raced forward, her longer legs making it easy to overtake Jenna. Jack exchanged a wary look with Daisy before picking up the pace to stay with the older girls, leaving Daisy, the younger kids, and Ollie to follow.
A few minutes into their descent, however, Ollie stopped suddenly, his ears alert. In an instant he bounded down the path, overtaking the girls before veering to the left. Immediately all the kids took off after him, shouting his name, but because Jenna and Lily were in the lead, they closed in on the dog well before anyone else.
Daisy had a sense of panic, as every thought entered her mind as the reason for Ollie’s sudden fit—bears and rattlesnakes chief among them—and she rushed forward to catch up with the group.
As she neared them, she saw Ollie—who was barking like crazy—was trying to get at something hiding in the bushes, which the shade from the trees made impossible to make out.
“Girls. Hold up,” Jack said, nearly upon them.
But a second later, the air was split by the sounds of the girls screaming, and Daisy thought her heart was about to jump from her chest.
Any question of what had caused the screams ended a second later when the strong, unmistakable smell of skunk filled the air. Immediately, Paul and Natalie stopped short, their hands going to their noses.
From Jenna’s and Lily’s shrieks of disgust and horror, it was too late for them. And for Ollie.
…
Daisy flinched as she sat back down in the chair having just handed Paul the bag of marshmallows.
“You sure you’re okay?” Jack asked her.
She pinned a smile on her face. “I’m fine. Just a little stiff is all.”
He nodded toward the two older girls who were staring stonily into the fire. “How do you think they’re doing?”
“Do you mean from the run-in with the skunk or the undeclared war they seem to have going on with each other?” There was at least humor in her tone.
“Both.”
“Who knows,” she said. “Maybe the experience even bonded them a little.”
They looked at the girls again, catching them in a moment when they met the other’s eyes before glancing quickly away. He chuckled. “Let’s hope so.”
“They’re both going to be fine,” Glenda said from Daisy’s other side.
It was safe to say he and Daisy were immensely grateful to the woman who had quickly prepared a home mixture to de-skunkify the girls once they arrived at the house. Fortunately, the temperature had still been in the upper seventies as they stood outside while the three adults got to work scrubbing them down with the mixture that smelled strongly of hydrogen peroxide. But it seemed to do the trick of neutralizing the odor, although both girls insisted a lingering smell of skunk still clung to them.
For everyone else, it was a big improvement.
“Mommy,” called the younger girl with wide beautiful brown eyes like her mother’s as she came running over to them. “Can we sleep with Lily and Ollie in her room tonight?”
The girls had been relatively easy to treat from the skunk mishap. Ollie, on the other hand, was another story altogether—the pup refused to stay still as they applied the solution to his coat. To make up for it, the younger two kids were raining love and kisses on the pooch, who seemed to be still shaken from the experience. The kids had promised to stay with Ollie all day and night, which they were evidently taking to heart.
“Hey, I thought we were staying in the blue room together,” Jenna said.
Uh-oh.
Jack looked at his daughter, who looked more than pleased to be fought over for attention. “Actually, the dormer room has plenty of space for everyone, if you guys want to stay there,” he said, recalling the four full-size beds.
“I don’t know…” Daisy said, turning around to find his daughter. “How do you feel about sharing the room, Lily?”
