If for Any Reason (Nantucket Love Story #1) - Courtney Walsh Page 0,70

water.

“It was a great first try,” Hollis said.

“I don’t want to do this anymore,” she snapped.

Hollis wished someone else was there to tell him what to do next. He didn’t want Jolie to hate him, so it was tempting to let her throw the board in the shed and go back to her phone. But that’s not what he wanted her to learn.

“McGuires never quit,” he said.

She glared at him. “I said I don’t want to do it.”

Hollis pulled himself up on his own paddleboard, straddling it as he turned to face her. “Just get up on it for a minute.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry about standing,” he said. “Just sit on it.”

Jolie hung in the water for a few seconds before finally heaving herself up. She mirrored Hollis, straddling her board, paddle in hand. “Happy?”

“It’s a great start. Maybe you just tried to stand a little too early.”

“I’m never going to be able to do it,” she said. “I don’t know why we’re even out here.”

“Don’t think about standing,” he said. “Just enjoy the day. Even if this is all you do, it’s progress. I mean, this morning, you couldn’t sit on a paddleboard, and last week, you were scared of the water.”

She steeled her jaw, a look of defiance crossing her face, but after several minutes, they found a rhythm. She paddled quietly beside him, seemingly content, almost as if she’d forgotten she wanted to stand on the board at all.

“Mom called again,” Jolie said.

“And? Is she going to let you stay?”

She was focused on something in the water in front of them—avoiding his eyes. “Said she can’t make such a big decision without talking to you.”

“I left her a message telling her it was fine with me. Called her right after you told me she wanted to talk to me.”

“She wants to make sure,” Jolie said. “In case you’re just saying it’s fine so you don’t hurt my feelings.”

Hollis studied his daughter. “She said that?”

Jolie’s eyes darted to his, then back to the ocean. Jana hadn’t said that—Jolie was making her own assumptions.

“I’ll call her again when we get back,” he said.

“And say what?”

“And say I want you to stay,” Hollis said.

Her jaw twitched. After a moment, she said, “Show me again how to stand up on this thing.”

He did his best to hide his smile, but for the first time, he saw a little bit of himself in his daughter. She wasn’t going to quit. Maybe there was some McGuire fire inside her after all.

He demonstrated again how to stand on the board, then tossed a glance in her direction. “Your turn.”

“You make it look easy,” she said with a sigh.

“I’ve been doing it for a lot of years.”

Gingerly, she inched her legs behind her, pulling herself onto her knees. She steadied the board as it rocked beneath her.

“Don’t rush it,” Hollis said. “You’re not in a hurry.”

She rose up on her knees, waited until she had her balance, and started to stand.

“One foot at a time,” Hollis said. “Nice and slow.”

As Jolie started to stand, the board wobbled and she quickly went back to her knees to balance herself. And then he saw it—a thin line of fierce determination forming across her forehead.

“You’ve got this, kiddo,” he said quietly, so as not to break her concentration.

After several more seconds, she tried again, this time slower, steadier. Hollis watched as his daughter moved her feet underneath her body until eventually she stood on top of the board. She held her arms out as if she were on a balance beam, rocking back and forth with the water until she captured her balance and stayed completely still.

It took a moment for her to realize it, but when she did, a wave of light came across her face. “I did it!”

“You did it.”

She held herself stock-still as the water carried her forward; then she pushed the paddle into the water. The whole time, Hollis stayed right next to her.

Once Jolie got the hang of it, she didn’t want to stop. She’d not only conquered a fear today, but she’d pushed herself to do something she didn’t even think she could do.

And he’d been there to witness it.

The realization grabbed hold of him. He’d been there.

They stayed on the water for an hour, then made their way back to the shore when Jolie’s stomach started growling and their skin started to burn.

On land again, they walked—once more in a comfortable silence—toward home, and Hollis thought about his conversation with