I've had Kensington's custody for about 2 years now since the death of her parents, and I can say this is one of my favorite moments with her.
She's been talking about "riding a boat" for a while now and just yesterday we went out and picked out a 2 person kayak.
Kenzie is only 5, she won't be much help with the whole boat situation, but I'll do anything to make her happy. She's only 5 and has been through so much.
Her father, my brother, passed away after a car accident a few years back. Her mother believed she couldn't live without him and therefor committed suicide and left Kensington in my care. I was only 19.
"Can I sit in the front? Pretty please?" She begs. I nod and smile as she continues to pull on her life jacket.
"I really like this color. Pink is my favorite color." She says as she touches the kayak that is sitting in the grass behind my car.
"Hey Kenzie, come here we need to get some sun screen on you" I call out. She runs over to me and I apply the sun block and place a sun visor on her head.
"Alright, are you ready miss Kenzie?" She nods eagerly and jumps into the kayak. I push it to the slanted area where I planned to push us in. I climb in my self but realize this isn't going to be easy. I continue to struggle until I see a man with a little boy in a kayak almost identical to ours except in an orange color go past us.
"Do you need help?" He asks chuckling at my distressed state.
"Some help would be amazing!" I say to him. He expertly paddles his kayak to be right next to ours and gets out. He stands behind me and gives us a little shove so that we're in the water. He quickly gets back into his and paddles until he's next to us.
"So what brings you lovely ladies to Absegami Lake?" The guy says as his little boy throws a fishing line into the water.
"I really, really wanted to go on a boat because I love boats. And Sage said that if I was really, really good at school and I ate all of my vegetables this week she was gonna buy us a kiyik." She rambles until she's out of breath. "A kayak" I correct her.
"Oh that's awesome. Aiden wanted to come out for some fishing today. Glad we did, that way we get to chat with you pretty girls." He says smiling at Kenzie and then looking at me, which causes me to blush. He was attractive. I can't think this way he probably had a wife if he was here with his son.
"What's your name?" Kenzie asks the man.
"Andrew" he says and paddles closer to us. "What about you?" He questions.
"Well, my name is Kensington, but everyone calls me Kenzie. Sage says that my daddy and mommy picked my name out of a magazine. It was a model's name! I want to be a police-model-dentist! Do you want to know why?" She quickly says. Andrew nods motioning for her to continue.
"My daddy was a police and my mommy was a model. I want to be just like them and my auntie Sage is a dentist helper. So I want to be her boss!" She giggles before leaning over the edge of the kayak to touch the water.
"So she's not your baby?" Andrew asks quietly.
"Well...I guess she kinda is my baby. I love her like my own. But no, technically she isn't. My brother and his wife passed away a few years ago." I say quietly not wanting Kenzie to hear the part about her parents.
"Oh I see. It's lovely of you to take her in." He says smiling at me.
"Yeah well I wouldn't have it any other way. Is Aiden yours?" I ask him.
"Yeah he is, since I was 20. He's 4 now, his mom and I have shared custody. Things just weren't working out" He says as he helps Aiden fix a knot in his fishing line.
"So that makes you 24?" I say.
"Yeah I guess it does. And you?" He asks.
"I'm 21" I state.
We continue talking for about another hour. Andrew tells me about himself, he just recently got a job as a math teacher at a middle school. He lives alone in a house that is on the edge of this lake and he has his son for a week at a time.
Kenzie begins to get hungry, reminding me every 2 minutes that her stomach can't wait any longer.
"Sage, I wanna eat something." I nod as a reply letting her know we'll head back.
"Well I guess we're going to have to get going now. Maybe we'll see you around?" I say looking over at Andrew.
"Well, I was hoping you would like to come over for dinner. It's just me and Aiden at home I'm sure the kids would like to play a little instead of listen to us talk. We live in the house we passed a few minutes ago. The white one with the playground in the back." He says quickly, making it sound like it all came out in one breath.
"Yeah sure we have no where to be anyway
•••••
Hello,
I was thinking I could do a second part to this, I think it's cute.
Thank you for reading :)
