Forever, With You by Sophie Love

Author:Sophie Love [Love, Sophie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sophie Love
Published: 2017-01-17T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Three pumpkins sat on the kitchen tabletop in a row, each plucked from Daniel’s garden. His and Chantelle’s were both very large. Emily herself had opted for the smaller of the three, knowing it would take significantly less effort to scoop out the insides and pierce through the flesh with her scalpel.

“What are you going to carve?” Emily asked Chantelle.

The little girl shrugged. She was dressed in black leggings and a large sweater with a kitten on the front.

“How about a cat?” Emily suggested.

“That’s not very spooky,” Chantelle contested.

“What about a cat with fangs?” Emily said.

Chantelle began to giggle. Daniel got to work carving through the thick bits of skin before scooping out the middle for Chantelle. Then he began on his own pumpkin.

“I think I’ll do a bat,” he said.

“That’s quite ambitious,” Emily teased. “I’m sticking with a good old jack-o’-lantern face. Nothing wrong with tradition.”

“I’ll do a jack-o’-lantern too,” Chantelle said.

It made Emily smile to think of the young girl copying her. She still wasn’t her mom—wasn’t even close—but she could tell that Chantelle admired her, had found within her the calm and caring qualities her own mother lacked.

“So, how is everything going with rehearsals at school?” Emily said, as she began making incisions in the pumpkin.

Chantelle had a performance coming up and was nervous about it. She only had a very small speaking part, but she still had to join in with the others on the songs, and this was what was worrying her.

“They’re okay, I guess,” Chantelle said a little evasively. “I just don’t like singing in front of people.”

“Even when there are others singing along?” Emily asked.

Chantelle nodded. “I don’t want to mess up and spoil it for everyone.” She sounded very glum.

Emily shot a sad glance at Daniel. They still had a long way to go with Chantelle before she could be the happy, confident child she deserved to be.

“Hey, I have an idea,” Daniel said. “Why don’t we go out on the boat today? It’s going to be our last chance before it gets too cold and I have to dock it for the winter.”

This seemed to lift Chantelle’s spirits. “Yeah!”

Emily smiled to herself. Like father, like daughter. Chantelle had taken to the sea in much the same way. When they sat side by side in the boat together they were like two peas in a pod. Emily loved that Chantelle had inherited Daniel’s adventurousness.

Then Chantelle turned to Emily. “Will you come with us this time?” she asked.

Emily was taken aback. She’d viewed the boat rides as special father-daughter bonding time. She’d never been invited. It had never even occurred to her to consider tagging along. That Chantelle wanted her there warmed her heart immeasurably.

“Are you sure you don’t want it to be just you and Dad?” she asked.

“I want it to be the whole family,” Chantelle said.

Emily caught Daniel’s eye. He smiled tenderly. So Chantelle saw her as part of the family. It was an amazing feeling.

Everyone hurried to get ready and soon they were loading the pickup truck with fishing gear and speeding down toward the harbor.

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