by Merry Farmer
At last, Denise broke into her own smile. Fifteen years of struggling and feeling like the world’s biggest loser, and all of a sudden, in a matter of days, she had Hero by her side, giving her strength and helping her to find the strength she already had within her.
“You know what?” she said, stepping to the side to put down the roll of streamers she’d had in her hand through the entire confrontation. “I’m not going to let everything Wes just said slide.”
“You’re not?” Excitement sparkled in Hero’s dark eyes.
“No.” Denise started across the gym. “I’m not going to let him talk to me like he did back in high school. And I’m definitely not going to let him take my daughter away.”
“Good for you.” Hero fell into step beside her as they marched through the doorway and out into the field beside the school.
Culpepper High’s football field stood directly beside the gym. Bleachers lined the two long sides. Because it was homecoming and because Haskell was close enough that the parents and fans of their team could come to the game, the entire area was packed with people. The junior class manned the concessions stand, set up by the end-zone nearest the parking lot, like they usually did. Most of the kids clustered at that end of the field. The rest of the area was packed with people of all ages, home for various reunions.
Denise scanned those clusters of people. She spotted a knot of Culpepper brothers and their wives, laughing and cheering as the players grappled on the field. The ladies from Culpepper Culinary Creations were handing out samples, but not selling anything that would compete with the junior class fundraiser. Newlyweds Megan and Bob Bickel—who Denise had been hoping she could become friends with—stood nearby, watching each other more than the game. Chastity and Chris Culpepper looked like they were more interested in each other than the game too, though Chastity noticed Denise searching the crowd and waved.
Denise gave her a distracted wave in return, blushing with old shame over the way she’d treated Chastity when she first came to Culpepper. There wasn’t time to sink back into old patterns of guilt now, though. Not with the mission she’d set for herself. She spotted Wes and his crowd several yards down the field from the Culpepper cluster, near the end of the bleachers. She took a deep breath to give herself courage, then marched on to them.
“I’ve got your back,” Hero told her as they walked. “Whatever you need, just look to me and I’ll help you out.”
She nodded, but she was saving all her words for Wes. As soon as she got close enough for him to notice her and before he could say anything, she blurted, “I’m not going to let you speak to me the way you did back there anymore, Wes.”
He gaped at her as if she’d grown another head. “What are you talking about?”
A sliver of doubt in her newfound confidence pricked at Denise’s gut, but she forced herself to go on. “I am not a bad mother. I’ve been the best mother I can be, under the circumstances.”
Wes’s buddies joined in with their own incredulous stares. Wes snorted and tried to wave her away with a gesture. “Scram, Denise. I’m trying to watch a football game. I don’t have time for your nonsense.”
A couple of his buddies laughed and turned their backs on her. Denise’s confidence crumbled. She was ready for a fight, ready to argue and list all the reasons why she was a good mother, why she didn’t deserve to be disrespected. Being brushed off made her feel three inches tall.
“Excuse me,” Hero stepped in. “Denise is trying to talk to you.”
Wes glanced sideways at him with a sneer, crossing his arms. “I don’t have time for dorks either.”
Hero jerked back, his brow shooting up. “Dorks?”
“Yeah.” Wes sniffed. “Or maybe you prefer to be called nerd?”
Denise began to shake as Hero’s face flushed and his expression hardened to anger. “I prefer not to be treated with the sort of juvenile disrespect that should be left behind in high school.”
Wes rolled his eyes. “Beat it, Chinky.”
Hero took a step forward, and for a moment Denise was certain there would be a fight. That fight was stopped in its tracks by a shrill coo of, “Wes! Sweetie! Long time no see.”
Denise turned to find Candice, Tiffany, and Jolene walking toward them through the crowd. They had the same cheerleader bounce in their step that they’d all adopted fifteen-plus years ago.
“Ooh, what’s going on here?” Tiffany wedged herself into the space between Wes and Hero, eyes alight with mischief, and not the good kind. “You guys look like you’re gonna have a fight.”
Wes laughed. “There’s not going to be a fight. Besides, I’d cream his yellow backside.”
The girls laughed along with them. Denise clenched her fists at her sides. Insulting her was one thing, she was used to it. Insulting Hero was too much.
Only her fury was so hot that it had her shaking and far, far beyond the power of speech. It was like watching a train-wreck or a building collapse. She couldn’t move, couldn’t open her mouth, couldn’t look away, no matter how much she wanted to.
“Aw.” Jolene sidled up to Denise’s side and pat her shoulder condescendingly. “Poor Denise. It looks like you hurt her feelings.”
Denise flinched away. “I…my…how…” She couldn’t get the words out, couldn’t rage against the injustice of it all, no matter how much she wanted to.
“There, there,” Candice added, flanking Denise’s other side. If it wasn’t for Hero standing protectively behind her, she would have been cornered by her old high school “friends.” “We wouldn’t want to upset Denise, now.”
“She looks like she’s about to cry,” Tiffany added with a fake pout.
Every ounce of the bravado Denise had when she walked out of the gym into the sunshine evaporated. How was it possible that a group of people who she knew were so horrible, so petty, could suck everything good out of her? In her heart, she knew she was right, that they shouldn’t be treating her the way they were, the way they had. She knew she had Hero by her side. So why was it cripplingly hard to stand up for what she knew was right in the face of such pettiness and bullying.
“This is not over,” she managed to squeeze out in a hiss, focusing only on Wes’s smug grin. “Destiny means everything to me, and you’re not doing right by her. I am a good mother, and any court would see that. And I expect an apology from you before all is said and done.”
She glared at Wes, but she couldn’t bear to stand there and wait for him and her old friends to hurl more abuse at her. She spun and marched away, not seeing or caring where she was going. Hero followed instead of staying behind to confront Wes, and if she was honest, she was so, so happy that he chose her over a fight. That was love, as far as she was concerned.
By the time she reached the shady space behind the bleachers, the adrenaline from the confrontation began to drain, leaving nothing but misery in its wake. She burst into tears and sagged against one of the bleachers’ supports.
“Hey, hey.” Hero pulled her into his arms before the chill of the metal could penetrate. “It’s okay. You did good.”
“No, I didn’t.” She shook her head, sobbing. “I should have stood up to them. I should have held my ground.”
“You did the best you could.” He hugged her tighter, smoothing a hand over her short hair. “They ganged up on you, which is never fair. I’m really proud of you for picking your battles. We’ll find a better time to talk to Wes. We’ll get this sorted out.”
Denise nodded and sniffled against Hero’s shoulder. Bless him, but he didn’t seem to mind that she was getting snot and tears all over him. In fact, he held her closer, kissing her forehead. Nothing had ever felt so good.
“Eew! Mom, are you crying in public? You’re so embarrassing.”
Destiny’s peevish accusation popped a hole in the fleeting good feelings Denise had. She turned to find her daughter standing a few yards away, arms crossed, hip jutting out, just like the grown-up mean girls. It was too much for her to handle.
Destiny was the one she was fighting to protect. If she didn’t separate herself long enough to get some air, she didn’t want to think what she would say to her daughter.
She peeked up at Hero. “I can’t,” she whispered. “I just can’t.”
Hero nodded as if he understood. He loosened his hold on her. “Would it help to go find your mom?”
Denise nodded.
“Then go. I’ll handle this.”
No sweet words or roses or champagne had ever been more romantic. Denise hugged her wonderful husband one last time, then dashed off to pull herself together.
“What? Where is she going?” Destiny asked with a blend of accusation and genuine worry and hurt. It left Hero feeling as though he wanted to hug her and lecture her at the same time.
“Your mom was just being bullied by…” He stopped himself from saying Wes. Chances are that would only put her on the defensive. “By people who should know better.”
Destiny’s tough-girl stance melted. She dug her toe into the ground and bit her lip. Hero was wise enough to see a struggle going on in her mind, even if she wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. He latched onto that struggle, taking a step closer to her.
“I thought we came to an understanding before the wedding,” he said.
“An understanding?” Her tone was suddenly young and uncertain.
“I promised you that I would take care of your mom and you, and your grandma. Do you remember that?”
Destiny looked down. “Yeah.”
“Did you think I was lying when I said that?”
Pink rushed to her cheeks. “A lot of people lie to me.”
Hero straightened, brow inching up. Had he inadvertently hit on the right thing to say with his first try?
“I’m not a lot of people.” He tried to keep his tone gentle. “When I make a promise, I stick to it.”
Destiny pursed her lips. “My mom was crying. She never cries. She gets angry.”
“She was crying because she was upset and she felt safe enough with me to let her emotions show. Don’t you think that says something?” He had no idea if he was saying the right thing. All he knew was that he had to try to break through to her, to make her see that he was on her side.
“I guess so,” she mumbled, kicking a spot in the dirt. “But she’s still totally embarrassing. And it’s way not fair that you want to rip me out of my home and my school and drag me off to who knows where.”
Hero resisted the urge to sigh over her return to teenage attitude. He mustered every bit of calm he’d learned from studying martial arts over the years. “I’m sorry that I spoke out of turn in the gym earlier. Moving is definitely something we all need to discuss. There are all sorts of options for living arrangements and schools that we could consider. There’s probably a way that you could finish out the term or the whole school year here, if you wanted to. We can discuss this as a family.”
“You’re not my family,” she barked. “You’re not my dad.”
And thank heavens for it. Wes wasn’t only a deadbeat, Hero had the horrible feeling that if he did gain custody of Destiny, the bad attitude he saw on display now would only get worse. If Destiny felt stable, he was certain she’d be an awesome kid.
“I’m not,” he agreed. “I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m trying to be. I just want your mom to be happy, and part of that is making sure you’re safe and have all the help you need navigating through a difficult patch in your life.”
Destiny winced and wrung her hands. Her sour frown shifted back to a helpless pout. “Why do you have to do everything so suddenly? This all, like, happened overnight. What am I supposed to do about that?”
She had a point. Hero shrugged. “It did all happen suddenly, didn’t it? And I guess there’s nothing that you or I can do about that. But what matters right now is your mom, and at the moment she’s sad because she’s feeling disrespected.”
Destiny’s face fell even further. “I didn’t mean to disrespect her.”
Hero blinked. “It wasn’t your disrespect she was upset about.”
She looked up at him in surprise. “It wasn’t?”
“Remember, she was crying before you got here.”
“But…” Her gaze unfocused for a moment, as if something had just occurred to her. Then her lips hardened into a line. “Has someone been picking on Mom? I hate it when people do that. Who was it?”
Hero winced. Admitting it was her father didn’t feel like the right thing to say. “I’m not sure that’s important.”
“It is so important!”
“What’s important now—” He contradicted her and moved on in one smooth stroke. “—is that we make sure your mom enjoys the rest of her class reunion and has the right headspace to make decisions about the future of our family—even though I know you say we’re not all a family.” He held up his hands.
Destiny dug her toe into the dirt once more. “I didn’t say that. I said you’re not my dad.”
Hero lowered his arms. It was exhausting trying to follow the mood-swings of an irate teenage girl. He could only pray he was doing a good job of keeping up. “Let’s concentrate on one thing at a time. Are you going to the dance tonight?”
“Duh. Of course,” she snapped.
“Good. Would you be willing to help your mom get dressed and looking her best?”
Destiny hesitated. “Um. I guess so. I’m supposed to go to the dance with a group of friends, but I can help mom before I meet up with them.”
His newfound paternal instincts had him wanting to ask her who she was going with, if there were any boys, and if all of the parents knew where they would be at all times, but he set that aside for the moment to concentrate on what mattered.
“It’s settled, then. You’ll help your mom get ready for the dance. I’ll make sure she has a nice dinner and gets there on time. Then we’ll both watch out for her all night in case those classmates of hers try to bully her again.” He would also move heaven and earth to make sure Denise had the opportunity to express herself to Wes the way he could tell she wanted to, but he didn’t need to lay that kind of burden on Destiny’s shoulders.
Destiny crossed her arms and studied him with narrowed eyes. “You’re…different.”
Hero laughed. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”
“No, I mean you’re not like the guys my mom’s age that I’ve met.”
“How so?”
“You…you say what you mean and you aren’t just doing it to get something from Mom.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Hero smiled.
“Yeah,” Destiny replied vaguely. She continued to study him for a few more seconds. Hero wasn’t sure if he was measuring up or not, but he sure hoped he was. At last, Destiny shook her head and loosened up from her defensive posture. “I’ve got to meet my friends.”
“Okay,” he said. “You do that. We’ll meet back at the house after the game and get Operation Protect Mom off the ground.”
9
Denise couldn’t help but feel like she was in some kind of Wild West showdown as she and Hero walked into the school gym for the dance. It wasn’t just that the theme was Old Hollywood, in an extra twist of fun, attendees had been asked to dress as characters from their favorite old movies. The gym was packed with Scarlett O’Haras and Wizards of Oz. Some of the high school boys had slicked their hair back and drawn on thin moustaches, like Clark Gable, while other people just wore formals with a 1940s or 50s style. They had probably pulled them out of their grandparents’ attics. Linda Culpepper and her beau, Roy, were dressed in stunning WWII uniforms. Denise couldn’t remember Linda looking so beautiful and happy.
She smoothed her hands over the frills of her saloon-girl outfit and checked the feathered headband she wore, then sent a nervous look to Hero. In spite of her anxiety, she smiled from ear-to-ear as she looked at him in his cowboy outfit. He had started out saying they should go as every John Wayne movie ever, but after digging up the dungarees, cowboy hat, and boots, Den
ise thought he looked more like Yul Brynner, but with hair, in the Magnificent Seven than anything else. She was proud to walk into the party with him.
“Wow, Denise, you look great!” Chastity Culpepper walked over to greet her, Chris by her side. Chastity was dressed in a slinky flapper-type dress, her make-up done in a style that made Denise think of The Great Gatsby. Chris wore a suit that matched the look perfectly.
“Destiny did a great job on my make-up. You look pretty amazing yourself,” Denise replied.
She studied Chastity’s dress, then twirled as Chastity did the same for her. They both laughed. The sensation lifted her right off of her feet and up to cloud nine. This was the way friends were supposed to act with each other, not the fake smile, back-stabbing, frienemies way Candice, Tiffany, and Jolene had always indulged in.
“And man, what a hunk!” Chastity shifted her attention to Hero. “You really snagged a good one there, Denise.”
“I sure think so.” Denise smiled and hugged Hero’s arm. The fact that he didn’t grimace or pull away, but instead smiled right back at her, going so far as to plant a light kiss on her lips, was heaven itself. What would her life have been like if she had acted this way all those years ago instead of being the Cheerleader Witch of the West?
Then again, if she had cleaned up her act back in high school, she wouldn’t have Destiny. She craned her neck, searching the gym for her beautiful daughter. Things had actually been nice between them while Destiny did her make-up that evening. Destiny didn’t say much, but that was a complete change from the maelstrom she had been caught up in for the last few days. Denise was more than ready to take her blessings where she found them.
“I see her,” Hero said, leaning closer to her and pointing across the room. The fact that he knew what she was looking for without her having to explain was just another in a growing list of things she loved about him.
