by Annie Rains
“You okay?” he asked.
It seemed like he was always asking her that question.
She nodded, turning to assess the children, who all stood frozen like little statues. Clearing her throat, she said “All right, guys. Looks like Mr. Peterson was right. The bees are gone.”
She watched as the students slowly relaxed, and then turned to Micah. “Thank you.” Her gaze moved to Ben who was parked beside him. “You probably would’ve known to ignore them, too, huh?” she said, her voice softening.
Ben nodded. “But if a bee was buzzing around me, I probably would’ve screamed like a girl, too, Principal Chandler.”
“She is a girl, buddy. She’s allowed to scream like that.” Micah’s smile widened as he looked back at her.
“I didn’t…we didn’t…” Her shoulders relaxed. “You’re teasing me, right? Does that mean you’re not mad at me?”
“Mad?” His dark brows lowered. “For what?”
“For going back on our agreement.” She turned to check on the students who were talking among themselves, and then faced him again.
He stood, big and tall, watching her. “I’m not mad. In fact Ben and I were just walking over to see if you were still open to letting us help. To show that there’s no hard feelings.”
Guilt curled through her stomach as she remembered their original deal.
Seeming to read her mind, he added, “No expectations. You don’t have to be my date. I understand.”
“I’ll do it,” she said quickly. “I’ll go with you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“That was the deal, right?” she said shakily. “And I always keep my end of a deal. I’ll go. I could use the help, and I think it’d be great if you showed the kids how to work outside. Kids need that stuff, right?”
“I think so.” Micah shoved his hands in his pockets.
“The school will provide whatever tools you need to work with the group. I want you to work with us. Both of you,” she said, looking at Ben. “And I want to go to the ball with you.” She met Micah’s eyes again.
Okay, the last line was a boldfaced lie. There was no part of her that actually wanted to go to the Marine Corps ball, but a deal was a deal and she’d do anything for these kids, including going out with a Marine.
Slowly, he reached out his hand for her to shake. “Then it’s a deal.”
Electricity shot through her as she slipped her hand inside his. That was another reason this was probably a very bad idea. The chemistry between them was undeniable. Explosive even.
Pulling her hand away, she released a shuddery breath. “Yep. A deal.”
—
The next afternoon, Micah looked at the six children making up the Friendship Club. None of them matched any of the America’s Most Wanted descriptions hanging up at the entrance to Dail’s Grocery Store. If he hadn’t seen the rascals laughing at the assistant principal behind her back yesterday, he might be tempted to say the kids looked sweet.
The first one lined up in front of him was Shaun, a redheaded boy, who was a little overweight. There was a splash of freckles on the bridge of his nose. He’d allegedly stolen another kid’s lunch for three days running and threatened to beat the kid to a pulp if he told.
The next two kids, Kyle and Bogie, were lanky blonds with eyes that actually sparkled with mischief. They’d tripped a younger kid in the hallway and made him drop all his stuff. Then they’d laughed along with everyone else in the hallway as the kid had cried.
Marcus was the small African-American kid with shiny new sneakers and a smile that ate up half his face. Micah wasn’t sure what he’d done to get tossed into the group.
Shelby Cooke was the only girl. She had long brown hair and wore a blank expression. From what Kat had told him, she’d been to hell and back in the last year. Her father was in jail these days and Shelby and her sister were living with their aunt, recovering from years of unspeakable abuse. Now, Shelby was striking out at the world and everyone around her.
Then there was Ben, who hadn’t done anything wrong.
Micah clapped his hands in front of him as he stared at the kids outside the Sand Fiddler’s wing. It was a section of the school that he hadn’t landscaped yet. Before the bell had rung, he and Kat had exchanged ideas for the group. The kids needed to stop treating others with disrespect and start doing worthwhile things that didn’t tear anyone down in the process.
Micah pointed to a couple pairs of gardening gloves and a few hoes on the ground. “See those?” He didn’t wait for the children to respond before handing out the three hoes and two sets of gloves. “There’s a job for each of you. Follow me,” he said, leading the kids, minus Ben, to the land that bordered the fence. While he instructed three of the children on how to use a hoe, Kat showed two students what a weed looked like. Since there were no plants behind the school yet, pretty much everything was a weed.
“This is stupid,” Shaun said, his brows merging into one bushy, rust-colored line above his eyes.
“So is stealing other kids’ lunches.” Micah pointed at the weeds and headed back toward his son, who was sitting quietly, hands in his lap and a tired look on his face. No doubt he wanted to work with the others, but couldn’t. The story of his life.
“I have a job for you, too, soldier.” Micah motioned for Ben to follow him to a wooden picnic table on the side of the school. On the table, he laid three pots, a bag of soil, a small shovel, and a packet of seeds. “You’re a smart guy, right? Get to it.”
A small smile cracked on Ben’s freckled face. “This is the best job anyway.” His voice lifted on the end of his words; swinging easily from disappointment to the happy child he tended to be.
Always looking at the positive. Another of the many things that Micah loved about his son.
He patted Ben’s back and headed to where Kat was standing.
“You have a job for me, too?” she asked, shading her eyes with her hand as he walked toward her.
“Why? Have you been bad?” he asked, not meaning for it to sound suggestive, but her cheeks flushed anyway.
“Only according to the school’s assistant principal.” She sighed, and then sat on one of the benches lining the walkway.
Micah sat beside her. When he did, he could smell the scent of her perfume. It was one of those flowery smells that usually gave him a headache. This one made him want to lean in and take a deeper whiff. “What’s she got against you?”
Kat shook her head. “I don’t even know. Maybe that I got the job she wanted. Or she thinks I’m screwing it all up.”
Micah glanced over. Sitting this close to her, he couldn’t help remembering the kiss they’d shared last week. It’d be so easy to do it again, and see if she still made that little whimper when their lips met. He’d thought about that whimper a lot. It was as sexy as the woman sitting next to him.
“If Mrs. Burroughs wasn’t a woman, I’d offer to kick her ass for you.” He grinned, watching Kat laugh beside him.
“Then we’d be just like these kids, solving our problems the wrong way.” She focused on the group with the hoes in hand. “Do you think it’ll work?”
She met his gaze and he had to force himself not to lift his hand and swipe a lock of hair out of her face.
“The gardening thing, I mean,” she said.
“If it doesn’t, you’ll have a bunch of unruly kids with green thumbs.”
She laughed lightly, still holding his gaze. “Better than a bunch of unruly kids with pages of handwritten sentences, I guess.”
“True.” He swallowed, rubbing his hands over the thighs of his jeans as he refused to blink. He also refused to lean closer, touch her, do all the things that he’d been increasingly fantasizing about. “Kat,” he said, unsure of what he’d say next. A Marine always had a plan of action, but interacting with Kat was uncharted territory.
They both looked up as Ben’s cry broke through the heat radiating between them. Bogie had his hands braced on the arms of
Ben’s chair and was leaned in close to Micah’s son’s face. Micah got up and started stalking toward them. As he got closer, he heard Bogie’s words.
Stupid.
Cripple.
Loser.
“Back away,” Micah commanded.
Bogie straightened. “Just checking your son’s theory, sir.” A sarcastic smile molded to his thin, dimpled face.
“Theory?” Micah crossed his arms at his chest.
Bogie grinned, talking loud enough for the others to hear. “Ben thinks talking to his seeds will make them grow faster. Tell them, freak.”
“Hey!” Micah snapped. “You will not talk to anyone here in that manner.”
“It’s science,” Ben said, keeping his gaze low. “If you speak positive things over a plant, it grows faster. And it’s greener, too.”
Bogie snickered. “So, I’m testing to see if Ben shrivels up and dies if I call him bad words.”
Micah didn’t want to, but he instinctively glanced in Ben’s direction and saw the tears shining in his eyes. His son would always have difficulty fitting in with his peers. He’d always struggle. As he turned back to Bogie, he heard the other kids whispering behind him. The Marine in him definitely wanted to win this fight for his son, but he couldn’t very well take on a bunch of elementary-school kids—no matter how much he wanted to. And this wasn’t his fight. It was Ben’s.
“Go back to your work, Bogie.” His jaw was tight as he spoke; his words coming out like machine gun bullets, quick and powerful. Once Bogie had walked away, he squeezed Ben’s shoulder. “Take care of your plants, son.” Micah headed back to the bench with an anchor of guilt and worry weighing him down. He’d hoped this school would be different from the others, but Ben was the same child wherever he went. He was different, which wasn’t a bad thing. It just meant that the other kids noticed, and some would be mean.
That was something that Micah couldn’t control or change, and he hated that. He was Ben’s father. He was supposed to protect him, and he couldn’t. All he could do was stand by helplessly and watch his son learn yet another hard lesson of life.
Kat rested her hand on his shoulder as he returned to the bench with a heavy sigh and sat beside her. “If you think helping with the club will be too much for Ben, I understand. I’m sorry. I didn’t know—”
Micah shook his head. “No. I think this is exactly what he needs. It’ll be good for him to be here.” It just might break Micah watching. “He’s staying.” Looking at Kat, he added, “We both are. And those kids will learn some respect.”
—
The next morning Micah was yawning before the day had even gotten started. He took a sip from his coffee as he watched the men in his squadron arrive for a little basic training. They’d jumped out of a V-22 Osprey a thousand times, but he still liked to do refresher trainings every now and then, especially when there was talk of another deployment coming up next year.
He’d be a civilian by that time. As much as he hated to leave his men, it was what was right for Ben. And he was excited about the prospect of staying on the ground, working in the green, and just enjoying his role of being a dad.
“Working two jobs is starting to take its toll, I see,” Lawson said, coming up beside him. “You make plenty of money, man. I don’t know why you’re helping out at the school.”
Because I am preparing to leave the Corps. Lawson didn’t need to know that just yet, though. Micah shrugged and took another sip from his coffee. “Maybe I like to stay busy.”
“Sergeant in the Marines. Single father to a son with special needs. Sounds pretty busy to me. Want to know what I think?”
Micah slid a glance in Lawson’s direction. He usually didn’t want to know what Lawson thought, but he cocked a brow anyway. “That it’s time for you to get your hair cut again? And buy a new razor?” he asked, observing the shadow of growth along Lawson’s jaw.
His friend frowned. “This afternoon, all right?” He crossed his arms at his chest. “I think you’re high on Kat. And as a buddy, I have to tell you, it’s a hard crash coming down.”
“I don’t have time for romance, or whatever it is you’re insinuating.” He took another heavy sip of his java. “And, if you remember, Nicole was your brilliant idea.” Micah’s gaze sharpened on his friend. “And by brilliant, I mean bad.”
Lawson nodded. “Agreed. Sometimes that happens. Rare as it is. Besides, I never told you to date her. I told you to date her.” His voice dropped as he made air quotations around the word “date.”
Micah shook his head, unable to suppress a smile. “One of these days I’ll learn to stop listening to you. Like today, maybe.” He straightened, the coffee’s effects not yet meeting his tired voice. “Now go get your gear ready. We’re doing dry runs on the floor this morning. We’ll practice getting our gear on and then we’ll review the flight manual.”
Lawson shook his head. “We all know how to get our gear on properly. We’re not idiots.”
Yeah, but mistakes happened, and in their line of work, mistakes often cost people their lives. They’d both learned that the hard way. “Is that the way you talk to your superior?” Micah asked, keeping his eyes focused on the others. It was a low blow, pulling the rank card, but Lawson was under his command right now. Technically, Micah wasn’t even supposed to be hanging out with him or having him over for dinner every week—not that he’d ever let a rule like that stop him.
“No, sir,” Lawson said, staring at him for a solid second. “I hate it when it’s your time of the month, man. Just like a girl.”
Micah’s jaw locked. A little respect at work would be nice, though.
Lawson offered a sarcastic-as-hell salute and started moving toward the adjoining room, where the other Marines were gathered. “I’ll go get my gear, sir.”
“You do that, Phillips.”
Chapter 9
A week later, Kat could already feel her heart pounding as she drove to the Veterans’ Center with a box of John’s things in the trunk to donate. One box. Baby steps.
Julie leaned forward in the passenger seat beside her and changed the music. “I hate that song.”
“Pretty strong word,” Kat mused, glancing over.
“What’s a strong word?” Julie popped her gum and stared at her.
“Hate. You don’t really hate the song. You just don’t like it.” The silence that followed prompted her to look over at her sister again.
“Right. Okay. I really dislike that song.” Her sister rolled her eyes playfully, the corners of her mouth turning up. “But I really love this one, which is another strong word. I really just mean I like it a lot. Does that word work for you?”
“Perfectly.” Kat smiled to herself.
“This word stuff is really getting annoying, you know that? And the array of plants you’ve placed by the kitchen sink, the ones you talk to all the time, that’s pretty creepy, sis.”
This made Kat laugh, and laughter was good. It eased the panic that’d been swirling through her all morning. Moving on in her actions and thoughts were one thing, but folding up John’s favorite shirt to give to someone who was alive and could actually wear it, that was hard. There were memories tied to every single thing she had of John’s—memories she worried she’d lose without them.
“One of the kids in my after-school group has been teaching us about talking to plants,” Kat said, trying not to think about the box. “It really works. You should see this kid’s specimens.”
“Specimens?” Julie popped another bubble. “You’re teaching kids to talk to plants? You know the parents will sue you when their brats all end up in padded cells.”
Kat tsked. “There’s actually a science behind this stuff. There have been research studies proving that when you talk to plants, it affects their growth. And I think the kids are learning about choosing their words and actions wisely.”
The kids that weren’t teasing Ben mercilessly over his theories, at least.
“The kid is the son
of the school’s groundskeeper,” Kat continued. “He’s also the guy helping out with the group.”
Julie cracked her window and tossed her gum, making Kat nearly swerve into the next lane.
“Julie! The gum will hit other people’s cars. You can’t just toss it on the highway.”
Her sister stared at her for an exaggerated beat and continued. “You know what I think? I think you’re going gaga over this kid’s science stuff because you’ve got a thing for his dad.” Julie waggled her eyebrows. “Perhaps, Mr. Rebound Guy?”
“You know I’m not ready for that kind of thing.”
“What kind of thing? Lust? Dating? Sex?” Julie asked, drawing out the last word in a teasing manner.
“All of it,” Kat said as Julie snickered.
“Come on, sis. Sex is the greatest physical activity God ever invented. Yoga and sex.”
“God didn’t create sex for exercise. It’s a bonding thing,” Kat argued. “An act of love.” Geez, I really am Pollyanna.
“All I’m saying is, if you don’t use it, you lose it.”
Kat’s brain stuttered on her sister’s claim. “If I don’t have sex, I’ll lose my female parts?”
This made Julie burst into laughter. “You can’t even say the word. Vagina, Kat. It’s called a vagina. And, yes. It’ll rot and fall off one day, never to be seen again.”
Kat’s gaze slid over. “Let’s talk about something else, okay? What about you? Why did you and your ex break up?”
Julie redirected her attention out the window, suddenly quiet. “We just grew apart.”
“After three years? Did something happen?”
Julie shook her head, but Kat caught the subtle darkening of her eyes as she glanced over. Something had hurt her sister badly enough that she had left a job and man she loved. And badly enough for Julie to pack her bags and return to Seaside, which Kat never thought would happen.
They didn’t need to talk about it now, though. They also didn’t need to talk about her sex life, or lack thereof.
“Okay, another subject change.” Kat started on the first topic that popped into her mind. “So, there’s a little girl in the Friendship Club, Shelby Cooke. She’s had a rough life so far. Her father’s in jail for abusing her and her sister, among other things.”