by Natalie Ann
“No. I don’t mind cooking but baking isn’t my thing. How come you never ask one of the boys to help you bake? I never thought you were sexist, Mom.”
Her father laughed as he continued to eat his lunch, but the minute her mother looked over at him, he stopped and went back to his sandwich.
She knew she was lucky in life. Her father was a successful surgeon and gone a lot, but when he was home he was an attentive father that loved his three children. He was completely devoted to his wife and their marriage seemed to be the Rock of Gibraltar.
In the Bond family, rumor had it that love hit you when you least expected. Her parents met on this island when her father was here visiting his parents. Her grandparents had a summer home too. Lacy Keegan was on the ferry with friends coming over for the day when they bumped into each other.
As her mother said, she knew right away Michael Mills was going to be the man she married and their love story began.
What her mother wanted now was her three kids to find their mates and settle down, but no one seemed to be biting.
Or maybe they’d all gotten bitten by the career bug and were immune to the relationship one.
But Ava didn’t really want to think that. She’d dated over the years, but it never seemed to stick.
Many men didn’t like her commitment to her job and the long hours. When she was in med school, that came first. She just figured when the time was right, she’d find someone.
When that time would be was anyone’s guess though.
“I’m not sexist and you know it. Maybe it’s a good idea for you to get out from under my feet for a few hours. But I’ll be putting you to work tomorrow.”
“That’s fine,” she said, moving over to kiss her mother’s cheek. “I’ll help with dinner like I always do while the boys sit in the living room watching TV and drinking beer.”
“Hudson is on call tomorrow, so no beer for him,” her father said.
“I’m surprised all three of us are off for the holiday.”
“It doesn’t happen often,” her mother said. “Even you have been on call before and aren’t this weekend.”
If she was on call it would have been in Plymouth and she wouldn’t have been able to come for the holiday. That happened for a lot of holidays since they rotated them. But the next holiday it wouldn’t matter because she’d be on the island anyway if she was on call.
“Just luck of the draw. I get weekends off unless there is a birth or an emergency.”
“I could still have to go in,” her father said, “but it doesn’t happen often anymore.”
Her father was semi-retired now and only one of the two surgeons on the island. Even if he wasn’t on call he’d go in if there was a need and he could.
“It will be nice to have everyone together for a holiday,” her mother said. “It’s been a long time since that has happened. Maybe we can color some eggs and the bunny will hide them for you and your brothers.”
The colored eggs made her think of Seth and what he’d be doing with his daughter tonight. “I think we might have outgrown that, but if you want to boil some and make deviled eggs for a snack, I’m all in for that.”
“Always ruled by your stomach,” her father said.
“At least I’m eating again.”
She shouldn’t have said that when her father looked over at her. For a good week following the news of her identity being stolen she couldn’t eat a thing. Everything made her nauseous with fear and frustration. Anger on top of it.
But she channeled it all as best she could. All her bills were being paid out of the account with her mother’s name on it and nothing had been disturbed other than her peace of mind.
“It will get better,” her father said. “When are you meeting with Eli and Griffin?”
“Next week. They’ve been busy and there wasn’t much for them to do anyway. Hailey just finished up sending letters to all the credit card companies and requesting documentation on purchases of when and where. She said some of them would give the information to her next week and it will be something to start on.”
“Hopefully they will be able to get to the bottom of this for you,” her mother said.
“Or not. We may never know who did it. It could have been random.”
“I don’t believe in anything being random,” her father said.
“Really, Michael? You of all people being part of this family and having grown up in and around this island, you don’t believe in random things and fate?”
Her father wrinkled his nose at his wife. “It’s not the same thing and you know it.”
“We’ll see,” her mother said.
When her father went to argue back her phone rang and she pulled it out of her back pocket and answered, “Hello.”
“Ava. Seth Young.”
“Hi, Seth.”
“If you’re still interested in lunch, how about you come to my place so you can teach me how to braid. I’m afraid Adele might cause a scene in public.”
She heard Adele pleading in the background, asking her to come over. “I suppose if that is what your daughter wants by the sounds of it, why don’t you give me the address.”
Her mother put a pen and piece of paper in front of her and she jotted it down, then hung up. “Guess I’ve got lunch plans. See you guys a little later.”
She picked up her purse and keys and went out of the door and headed toward Seth’s house wondering if she was getting tomato soup for lunch based on the ten cans in his cart.
8
An Innocent Touch
Seth wasn’t sure what the heck he was doing right now but watching Adele jump around the house sure did make his heart float right along with hers.
Was it because his daughter was so excited or because a woman that he found attractive was coming to lunch?
It might be equal parts of both, but since his daughter was part of today’s audience there wasn’t much he could say or do that he might want to if he and Ava were alone.
And those thoughts had no business being in his mind when it seemed all Ava was doing was coming to teach him how to French braid his daughter’s hair.
He hoped that made him look more like a great loving father and not some wuss.
And if it did make him look like a wuss, it was what it was because Adele had to come first.
“Daddy,” Adele said, running down the stairs. At least she was holding the banister in her sprint to the landing. “I’ve got a lot of rubber bands for Ava.”
He looked at the bag of accessories that resembled a shattered rainbow on steroids. “I see that. I don’t think we are making you look like you’re from Jamaica though.”
“What?” Adele asked, wrinkling her nose.
This was why he needed another adult around. Ava might have understood his little crack. Ellen sure would have.
No, no. His late wife shouldn’t be in his mind when he had another woman coming. That wouldn’t be right.
“Nothing,” he said. “It was a joke, but you wouldn’t understand.”
“But I want to understand,” Adele said.
“Sometimes when women vacation in Jamaica they get a lot of braids in their hair to keep it out of their face.” Just like Ellen did when they went on their honeymoon. Urgh, there he went again.
“Oh. Like that picture of Mommy you showed me?”
“Yes,” he said, putting his hand on her head. He liked to show her pictures of her mother often so she didn’t forget her. He couldn’t let that happen.
“Mommy was pretty, but those braids looked funny. I don’t want them.”
He smiled at her. Yeah, Ellen did look funny in that picture and when she’d taken those braids out, her hair was a mass of frizz worse than if Einstein stuck his finger in a socket.
When the doorbell rang, he moved to the front. “That must be Ava. Remember, you thank her for showing me how to do this.”
“I will, Daddy,” Adele said, dancing along his legs while he walked. “I just hope you can learn.
”
He did too. He opened the door and there Ava was, smiling. More like smirking at him. A mischievous glint in her eyes. He wasn’t sure if she found this whole situation humorous or sweet. He supposed it didn’t matter at this point since she was here.
“Hi,” she said. “Hope I didn’t come over too fast?”
“Not at all,” he said.
“Daddy is ordering us pizza,” Adele announced. “That way you can teach him how to braid before it gets here and he won’t have to worry about burning lunch.”
He let out a sigh. “I don’t burn lunch,” he explained to Ava. “Only when I’m cooking and someone pulls me in another direction.”
Ava winked at him. “Completely understandable since you prioritize your time for your daughter. But here I was thinking I’d get tomato soup based on your grocery trip.”
“That’s for me,” Ava said. “I love tomato soup and grilled cheese. My favorite right now. I’m going to eat it every day for a month, but Daddy said I could only get five cans to start.”
“And you slipped in a few more,” Ava said.
“I did. Because I know I’m going to eat them all, but Daddy doesn’t think I will. He said my eyes are bigger than...what is it, Daddy?”
“As you can tell I changed her batteries recently and she’s running full on.” Ava howled with laughter and he took that as a good sign that she got his little joke. “But yes, Adele finds a food that is her new favorite and then insists she’s going to eat it every day for a month. It lasts a week or two.”
“And you are left with all the remains?”
“Exactly. I don’t happen to be a fan of canned tomato soup. She hasn’t grasped the concept that the store isn’t that far and I can go get more.”
“The mind of a youth,” she said.
“Can we order pizza now?” Adele all but screeched. “I’m hungry. I want wings and a salad too.”
Another sigh out of his mouth. “What kind of pizza do you like? If you even like pizza and I shouldn’t have assumed that. They’ve got all sorts of things on the menu.”
“I’m not fussy and pizza sounds just fine. I’ll eat whatever you get.”
“Mushroom,” Adele said. “That’s my favorite, but Daddy won’t eat it. I only get it if I can get one slice at a time.”
“I like mushroom,” Ava said. “Maybe your father can get one split in half. Mushroom for us and the other half for him?”
Adele stomped her foot and put her hands on her hips as if a light bulb went off. “Now why haven’t I thought of that?”
He bopped his daughter on the nose with the tip of his finger. “Now you know. One pizza coming up with half sausage and half mushrooms.”
“Let me show you all my rubber bands,” Adele said, reaching for Ava’s hand and pulling her to the kitchen island where she’d left them.
“I’ll place this order and be right in.” When he was off the phone, he moved to the kitchen and saw that Adele had dumped out all the rubber bands and was picking out which ones she liked the best.
“You sure do have a lot of favorites,” Ava told his daughter.
“No one wants to be left behind so I like everything.”
“Again, through the eyes of a youth,” Seth said. “If only the world felt the same way.”
“Amen to that,” Ava said. “So why don’t we get started. I see you’ve got a brush here.”
“Daddy already brushed all the knots out of my hair before you got here.”
“That’s a good first step. Why don’t you sit right here on this stool so I can get behind you and your father can get behind me. It might be easier if he watches me do it.”
Adele climbed on the stool, Ava standing behind her, Seth moving closer. Ava turned her head and grinned at him and nodded him closer. Close enough he could smell the scent of her shampoo.
“I don’t want to crowd you,” he said.
“You aren’t. So you should begin by grabbing some of her long bangs and pulling them back. You can start the braid on the top or in the back of her head.”
He looked at Ava’s braid and saw it was started more in the back. “Like yours for now. That’s less I’ve got to do.”
She laughed low in her throat and he felt a churning of arousal in his gut. “I should ask if you even know how to do a regular braid. If you can’t we need to start there.”
“I do,” he said.
“Okay then. So start like that, dividing it into three sections. When you bring one section over to the right, you add hair from that side, then cross that new pile of hair over to the left. Then add from the left and cross that pile to the right. You continue on and on while you make your way down her head.”
He watched her movements and realized it was much easier to do it this way than on the video and thought he figured it out. “That looks looser.”
“Because I’m doing it that way. But you can make it tight and the tighter you do it the more it will stay. She’s got very soft fine hair, so it won’t stay in loose, but I wanted to show you and have you do it next while I watch.”
“Don’t laugh,” he said to her.
“I won’t.” She undid Adele’s hair and then stepped to the side. “Your turn. I’ll stand here to watch since if I get behind you, I won’t be able to see. You’re probably close to a foot taller than me.”
He wasn’t so sure about that, but maybe his six foot three inches were. Ava was taller than Ellen had been and Ellen was five foot three. There he went again, making comparisons when there shouldn’t be any to make.
“Not quite,” he said. “Tell me if I’m hurting you, Adele.”
“You won’t. You never do,” his daughter said.
“Give it a try,” Ava said. He grabbed the front of Adele’s hair and parted to start a normal braid and then hesitated for a moment. “Put both of those pieces in your right hand,” Ava said, reaching forward and laying her hands on his to guide them.
Yeah, his heart was racing more than he thought it was possible over such an innocent touch. “Like this?”
“Exactly,” she said, the two of them braiding Adele’s hair until Ava dropped her hands down and let him finish it on his own. It was almost an automatic movement at that point until he ran out of hair.
“Now just finish it like a regular braid?” he asked.
“Yep. It might be uneven but don’t worry. Once you run out of hair on one of the strands, just tie it off and it will be fine.”
He did what she said and then stood back to look. “Wow. That’s better than I thought it’d be for the first try.”
“Let me see,” Adele said. “Take a picture, Daddy, and show me.” He pulled his phone off the counter, snapped a picture and then handed it to his daughter. “That’s great. Yay!”
“What are you doing?” he asked when Adele reached around and pulled the band out and her hair all fell away.
“Practice makes perfect you always say. Do it again.”
His shoulders dropped and Ava let out a little giggle next to him. It was always lovely having his words thrown back in his face by his six-year-old daughter.
Ava found Seth and Adele just adorable.
She’d been around a lot of fathers in her short career. Caring ones, distant ones, nervous ones, loving ones, negative ones. Seth seemed to have all the positive traits a father could. Patience, understanding, caring, loving and determination.
He had a great sense of humor and even showed signs of embarrassment over his daughter’s words and actions, but he didn’t discipline her. He didn’t even correct her. Not that Adele’s behavior was horrible by any means and she’d seen plenty of older siblings in her office running around the waiting room making nuisances of themselves.
“I think Adele is right,” she said. “Practice makes perfect. Try doing it a little tighter this time. And a secret to keeping it in all day, braid her hair wet.”
Seth turned and frowned at her. “Won’t it be frizzy when it’s out though?”
“Not always. Maybe if you did tiny little braids all over her head.”
“Like women in Jamaica?” Adele jumped in.
Ava snorted trying to keep the laughter in. “Yes. But that isn’t the fashion statement I think your father is trying to accomplish.”
“My mom did her hair like on their honeymoon. Daddy showed me the pictures. He shows me pictures all the time of my mom so I don’t forget her.”
And a flood of sympathy poured through her. She wanted to know what happened but knew that wasn’t something that should be talked about in front of the child. At least it wouldn’t come from her questioning lips.
“I think that’s very sweet of your father to do that.”
“It is. I don’t want to forget my mother, but I was only three and don’t remember much. Is that bad?”
Ava glanced over at Seth to see some sadness in his eyes and wondered now if this was a mistake to come here. She’d been hoping they could get to know each other more, but maybe it wasn’t the time. She had a mess to clean up in her life and it seemed he might not be past his own.
“No,” she said. “But I get the feeling your father will continue to remind you when you feel those memories are dimming.”
“Thank you,” Seth mouthed to her while he was starting to braid his daughter’s hair again.
After the third time, Adele’s hair was pretty perfect. “I’d say you mastered it and can now style your daughter’s hair anytime she wants it.”
Adele jumped down. “I’m getting my dolls. Can you show me how to do it next?”
“I don’t think we should make Ava spend the whole time teaching us how to braid hair, and the pizza will be here any minute,” Seth said.
“If we have time before the food gets here, I’ll do it,” she said.
Adele ran out of the room. “Thanks,” Seth said to her. “I appreciate you spending your afternoon here doing this when I’m sure you probably have better things to do.”
“I’m right where I want to be,” she said honestly. “And I wanted to thank you again for all your help with my...issue.”
“How is that going?” he asked. Adele ran back in with three dolls. “Maybe another time for that conversation.”