Kendall
“You guys go and have a good time,” Lelani told Anna and Megan and Kendall. “You can take my car too, so there’ll be plenty of room.”
“No,” Megan said. “If you’re not going, I’m not going. I heard the Road to Hana is highly overrated anyway.”
“I heard it’s something you shouldn’t miss seeing,” said Anna.
“Well, I’m going to miss it.” Megan sat down on the couch.
Lelani smiled at all of them. “Look, I appreciate the moral support, but really, I’ll be fine here on my own.”
Megan shook her head stubbornly. “I refuse to leave you alone.”
“But Marcus really wants you to go,” said Lelani. “And this is your vacation. You can’t spend the whole thing babysitting me.”
“It’s just a silly curvy road,” said Megan. “I’ll probably end up getting carsick anyway.”
“Carsick?” Kendall stepped in now. “No one mentioned anything about getting carsick.”
“It’s supposed to be one of the windiest roads in the world,” Anna held up a brochure so Kendall could see the map.
“In that case,” said Kendall, “you guys go and I’ll stay here with Lelani.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Look,” said Kendall firmly. “I want to. Okay? And you all know how selfish I am. I wouldn’t say I wanted to stay if I didn’t want to stay, would I?” She grinned. “Seriously, there are worse places to stay than in this little corner of paradise.” She glanced out toward the pool. “Are we allowed to use that, Lelani?” she asked quietly.
Lelani just laughed. “Have at it.”
Kendall pointed to the door. “You guys are like so outta here.”
As it turned out, Gil decided not to go either, so the foursome just took the Jeep. Then Gil called to see if Lelani wanted to do something.
“Do you want to come with us?” Lelani asked Kendall while Gil was still on the phone.
Kendall considered this. “Not really,” she said.
“But I feel badly leaving you here alone.”
Kendall just laughed. “Are you kidding? Between the pool and the beach, what more could I want? Really, this is perfect. I feel like a princess.”
Lelani frowned. “And I feel like a prisoner.”
“I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.”
“I guess.”
Kendall meant what she said. She was perfectly happy to have this lovely place to herself. And she did feel like a princess. If she hadn’t witnessed some of Lelani’s mother’s tantrums herself, she would probably go over to the big house right now and beg them to adopt her. But then Kendall remembered that she, like Lelani had been, was pregnant and unmarried. So she’d have to nix the adoption plan. Still, what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, would it? For today, she planned to enjoy that gorgeous pool. And if Meri wanted to give her another papaya smoothie, well, Kendall wouldn’t say no.
First, she did her toenails. This was a little save-money trick that Megan had talked her into. According to Megan, Kendall would save around three thousand dollars a year if she did her own nails. Manicures weren’t such a big deal, although Kendall wondered if the pedicures might get tricky when she got bigger with the baby. Already, she could feel the pinch when she bent over too far.
When her toenails, pretty in pink, were dry enough, she gathered up her pool things and headed to what seemed like a sorely underused pool. She laid claim to a padded lounge chair and then went over to dip her feet into the water. It was lukewarm but refreshing, so she got in. The water, compared to the ocean, felt silky and clean against her skin, and although she hadn’t wanted to get her hair wet (chlorine on bleach, not good) she couldn’t help but stretch back and just relax, still keeping her head above water. Ah, yes, this was the life.
She heard the sound of a baby squealing. She looked up in time to see a young woman in a very bad bikini, carrying what must be Emma, in an adorable pink skirted swimsuit, and approaching the pool.
“Oh.” The young woman frowned. “I didn’t expect anyone to be out here.”
Kendall stood up and smiled. “I’m Kendall, a friend of Lelani’s.”
“Uh, right. I’m Ginger. Kala’s nanny.”
“Don’t you mean Emma’s nanny?”
“Yes, whatever. We usually have our morning swim about now.” She stepped back as if rethinking this routine.
“And?”
“We seem to be disturbing you.”
“The pool seems big enough for all of us.” Kendall felt like giving poor Ginger some fashion tips about bikinis, but then the nanny sounded British and everyone knew that British girls—well, besides the Spice Girls—were all fashion challenged.
“All right then.” Ginger stepped into the shallow end of the pool.
Suddenly Kendall was worried. “That is unless, well, does Emma ever go potty in the pool?”
“She has on her Little Swimmers.”
Kendall frowned. “Huh?”
“It’s a swimming nappie, a diaper. She wears it beneath her suit to keep excretions contained.”
Kendall wasn’t crazy about the word excretions. So, just in case, she kept a safe distance, watching warily as Ginger eased the baby into the water. First she sat Emma on the top step. The baby happily splashed her hands in the tepid water, laughing in glee and causing Kendall to smile. Really, had there ever been a cuter baby? Well, maybe there would be someday. Kendall patted her tummy.
“One, two, three,” said Ginger. Then, to Kendall’s shocked amazement, Ginger actually splashed the baby in the face, picked her up, and dropped her right into the water! The baby sank!
“What the—?” Kendall dived into the water and, ruined hair or not, swam to the other end of the pool to rescue poor Emma, grabbing up the slippery baby and pulling her out of the water.
“What are you doing?” demanded Ginger.
“What are you doing?” cried Kendall as she cuddled the frightened baby to her and stepped away from the evil Ginger. “You murderer, you!”
“Have you lost your mind?” Ginger was coming toward Kendall now.
But Kendall was taller and, she felt certain, madder. “You just keep your distance, you horrible thing!”
“What is wrong with you?” Ginger’s cheeks were flushed now.
“Stay away from me, or I’ll scream.”
“Give me the baby!”
“I mean it,” Kendall glared at her. “I’ll scream and then I’ll call the police and I’ll have you arrested for child abuse.”
Ginger’s anger turned to worry at that. She stepped back and folded her arms across her front.
“That’s right,” said Kendall. “I saw it with my own eyes. You tried to drown my friend’s baby.” She shook her head. “You are a monster!”
“Who is a monster?” asked a female voice from on the deck.
Kendall looked up to see Mrs. Porter standing in the shadows. “I saw Ginger trying to drown Emma. She dropped her right in the water and—”
“Emma knows how to swim,” Mrs. Porter said calmly.
“But she dropped her in, and the baby went under, just like a rock, she was sinking.”
“That’s how she swims.”
“But I—”
“Return Kala to Ginger, Kendra.”
“It’s Kendall, and the baby’s name is Emma,” snapped Kendall.
“Give the baby to Ginger, Kendall.” Mrs. Porter’s eyes looked lethal.
“She’ll drown her again,” pleaded Kendall.
Now the maid and the man who looked after the yard were standing in the shadows too. Everyone was watching.
“She’ll show you that Kala knows how to swim.”
“That’s right,” said Ginger as she stepped forward and took Emma, who seemed happy to get away from Kendall. Then she sat Emma on the step again. But this time Emma didn’t look quite so sure.
“It’s okay, Kala,” said Ginger. Then she did something that Kendall couldn’t see that seemed to make Emma smile. Emma did the happy splashing again. Ginger counted to three again, then picked up Emma and dropped her into the water.
Kendall’s eyes grew wide and she was about to make another rescue, but she noticed that little Emma was indeed swimming, moving her arms and legs like a little tadpole. Kendall couldn’t believe it. Emma was swimming. Then she bobbed up and Ginger picked her up and everyone on the deck clapped.
Naturally, Kendall felt like a fool.
“You see,” said Mrs. Porter.
Kendall just shook her head. “I didn’t know that babies could swim.”
“They can if they’re taught,” snapped Ginger. “By someone who knows what they’re doing.”
Kendall nodded. “I’m sorry. I just thought she was drowning.”
“Maybe next time you’ll ask first.”
“Oh, Ginger,” said Mrs. Porter. “You shouldn’t fault our guest for trying to rescue our baby. She didn’t know.”
“I suppose.”
“Don’t let it spoil your swim, Kendall.”
But Kendall was already getting out of the pool. She went over and wrapped her towel around her waist, gathered her things, and headed back to the guesthouse.
“Sorry we gave you such a fright,” called Mrs. Porter.
Kendall didn’t look back, but she could hear the snootiness in the apology. And she knew that Lelani’s mom was smiling in a snide way.
Kendall went inside and showered and scrubbed the chlorine out of her hair. To think she’d risked her hair over nothing. But then again, it hadn’t felt like nothing. All of her motherly instincts (and who knew she had them?) had kicked into gear when she’d seen that sweet baby go under the water, and again when she held Emma close to her.
Well, not only was Kendall thankful that she hadn’t “terminated” her pregnancy, she felt more certain than ever that she wanted to keep her baby, she wanted to be a mother to her baby, and she didn’t care whether Matthew was involved or not. Oh, it would be nice if he would send money. But that was it. She didn’t need his help to do this! And neither did Lelani. In fact, Kendall was of a mind to encourage Lelani to bring the beautiful little Emma home with them. She was welcome in Kendall’s house. She and Lelani could raise their poor fatherless children together.
As Kendall dried off, she imagined herself and Lelani with their children and sharing the house at Bloomberg Place. Perhaps Lelani would be the one to go out and work and Kendall would stay home and care for their children. Okay, Kendall realized that she didn’t have the slightest inclination of what one did to care for children, but it seemed to her that if someone like Ginger (of the bad bikini) could learn these things, certainly Kendall could as well.
Or perhaps both she and Lelani would have jobs, and together they would hire a nanny (a good one who didn’t try to drown the children!) to take care of their babies. Why not?