The only one stopping her right now was her.
Everyone else knew she could do this.
Taking a deep breath, she took that step and lifted her other leg, and felt her body falling forward.
…
“Did you see how fast I whipped down that last line?” Jenna asked excitedly, her earlier fear now forgotten as she grabbed some fries and stuffed them in her mouth.
Jack would never have guessed this happy, confident girl was the same girl who’d been white as a sheet as she clung to the rungs of the ladder a couple hours before.
“You weren’t as fast as me,” Paul said across from her at the picnic table where they’d stopped to eat lunch. He slurped the last of the contents from his juice box through his straw.
“Or me,” Natalie said, the new contest apparently being who could out-do the others as the fastest. Lily only rolled her eyes, but there was a small smile before she took a bite of her burger.
“You were all faster than speeding bullets,” Daisy said wryly. “Now finish your lunch.”
It was hard not to be impressed by this woman who, in the face of her sheer terror, had put those fears aside to set an example to her daughter that she shouldn’t let fear get in the way of things she wanted.
“I wish Ollie was here,” Paul said.
“Oh, Ollie is probably napping with Aunt Glenda, reserving their energy for you kids,” Jack said, referring to the charity event they were expected to attend later that night.
An event that he normally would be attending only out of a sense of duty, with little excitement or interest. But with the prospect of an entire evening alone in the company of Daisy Sorensen, he was finding it difficult not to count down the hours and minutes before he had her all to himself.
Whether that was a rational desire in the face of last night’s near debacle wasn’t something he was going to overanalyze.
“How come you and Jack get to go to the ball? Why can’t we come, too?” Natalie asked.
“I’m afraid it’s only for grown-ups,” Jack said, reaching over to grab some of the kids’ fries, having eaten all of his own. “Besides, it’s bound to be boring and stuffy with fancy food that no one eats anyhow.”
“Kids, if you’re done eating, why don’t you throw what’s left in the garbage, please,” Daisy said, her own half-eaten cheeseburger still in front of her.
“Then can we go swing on the playground?” Paul asked.
Where do they get the energy?
Daisy glanced at her phone. “You have fifteen minutes.”
There was a flurry of activity as the kids tossed their wrappers and leftover food back in the bag and took off, Jenna and Lily following more slowly as they stared at the electronic screen of Lily’s iPad in front of them.
“I know I should probably tell them to turn that off and just enjoy being out in the great outdoors. But they are making progress and, after Jenna’s morning, she could probably use the downtime,” Daisy said just as her phone buzzed, drawing her attention.
“Anything wrong?” Jack asked.
“I hope not. It’s the garage. They left a message to call them back.” She chewed on her thumbnail as she hit callback and waited for them to pick up.
Jack gathered the bulk of the garbage and carried it over to a trash can, giving Daisy a moment of privacy. When he returned, she was just hanging up, not looking pleased.
“That bad, huh?”
She tried to smile. “Well, the good news is the car is almost ready. We can pick it up on Wednesday, after the Fourth. Bad news, it’s ten percent more than they initially thought it would be for labor.”
“Are you going to be okay?” Jack asked, his face drawn in concern. “I’d be happy to lend you the money to cover the—”
“No, but thanks. I have it.”
“All right. But just say the word and I’d be happy to lend it to you.”