Page 14 of Quiet as Kept
I let her decide where we would set up camp. She stopped walking about mid-way to the shoreline. I set up four chairs—two large enough for each of us and two smaller ones for the girls. She draped towels on the firm sand, seemingly understanding that my girls would ignore the chairs, while I urged the large umbrella into place. It was almost seven o’clock, but the sun was still doing its thing in the sky. She sat down, leaned back, and closed her eyes behind her sunglasses. I glanced over at her and watched the sun dance across her exposed thighs. She was sexy without even trying to be.
My oldest daughter distracted me, and I pulled my gaze away from Xarielle’s curves.
“May you give us dessert, Daddy?” Dakota asked, digging her toes into the sand the way she liked to do.
“You want dessert, Des?”
My younger daughter looked up at me, her eyes alight with happiness as she nodded her head.
I reached into the cooler and pulled out the yogurt parfaits. The offering this day was made of Greek yogurt, diced fresh pineapple, and toasted fresh coconut.
“Thank you,” Dakota said, taking the portable container from me.
“Tank you,” Destin repeated.
I smiled at them. “You’re welcome.”
“It’s so beautiful here.” Xarielle gave a content sigh. “I never would’ve thought that something like this existed just nine hours away from Londynville. I mean, all of this beauty is only a nine hour drive away.”
“Six hundred miles,” I added.
“But at the same time, it’s a world away. It’s a world away from anything I imagined for myself. It makes me think of Ephesians 3:20.Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantlyabove all that we ask or think,according to the power that works in us.”
“Is that your thing? Randomly reciting biblical scriptures?”
“What? No!” She chuckled.
“Nah, it’s cool if it is. I would be impressed with the idea that you always have a verse at the ready for any situation or circumstance that pops up.”
She sighed, but this time, it wasn’t with contentment. It held something . . . forlorn.
“When you grow up without tangible evidence of people winning, it kind of messes with your ability to see that for yourself. But you know your auntie, Mama Reese. She always preached that we had to keep the faith, that we had to believe that something better was around the corner. I started memorizing scripture around tenth grade. Now, when I need a little self-encouragement, I just quote a verse. It reminds me that my God is bigger than anything I’m facing.”
I nodded slowly, remembering all of the gems my aunt Reese used to drop on us so freely. “Pour that into my girls, okay? I want them to have that. I want them to have scripture that they can say to themselves. Hell, I want to have scripture that I can say to myself.”
She was quiet for a little while then spoke. “What do you think about a . . . family memory verse or something like that? You could pick a verse on Saturday night or Sunday morning. You guys could repeat it as a family all week.”
“I like that, but somewhere along the way, you changed the pronoun.”
“What?”
“It’s not me picking a verse. It’s you.” I pointed at her. “You pick the verse. Then we’ll,” I gestured between the two of us, “recite it with the girls throughout the week. Don’t try to make it a bloodline thing. It’s a household thing. It’s everybody who lives at, sleeps at, gets mail at,” I pointed behind us, back toward my house, “that house.”
She giggled. “Okay. Okay. I’ll have the first verse ready by Sunday.”
“Thank you. We go to ten o’clock service. We can start learning it in the truck.”
“I thought I was off on Sunday.”
“You’re right. You are. Don’t let me stick you for your off day. Sunday is yours to do as you please. But if you decide you want to go to church with us, the front passenger seat of my truck is always open. We leave at nine fifteen.”
“Thanks.”
Both girls handed me their empty parfait containers and transitioned from eating their dessert to playing. It was still a little too cold to go into the water, but I let them play close to the shore, getting their feet wet and enjoying themselves. When the sun started to set, Xarielle and I packed up the things we’d brought. I carried the chairs, the umbrella, and the cooler. She carried Destin and the towels while also holding Dakota’s hand.
Destin had taken to her immediately, and it seemed that even Dakota was warming up to her at record speed. That made me feel like I could relax a little bit and let go of some of my stress.
After shadowing me while I gave the girls their baths, dressed them in their pajamas, and got them down for the night, Xarielle left their bedroom with me on her heels.