Love Inspired August 2014 – Bundle 1 of 2

by Ruth Logan Herne, Allie Pleiter

  “No,” Heather said in disgust more to herself than to anyone else. “I’d hoped we were past this.” She shot up a quick, silent prayer for wisdom, squelching her own rising temper.

  “Mr. Kikowitz” came Margot’s equally displeased voice. “What a disappointment to find you in my office again.”

  Heather stood up, momentarily stumped as to whether to head left toward the nurse’s office or right toward the principal’s. Simon won, and she walked to the left. “Simon, are you all right?”

  “Fine!” Simon barked, slamming the nurse’s office door shut behind him. Clearly, he didn’t want questions right now. At least not from her.

  “I don’t know what Jason said to him in Study Hall,” the teacher said, wiping his hands off with a tissue from the secretary’s counter, “but suddenly there was a whole herd of them shouting. When Jason tried to tip Simon’s chair over, Simon turned on him and rammed him so hard Jason fell over. It went downhill from there.”

  “Stupid baby raked my shin open with his baby carriage, that’s what!” Jason pointed to his bloody shin. “I’ve got a game on Friday and this hurts like—”

  “Enough!” Margot cut in before Jason’s language went south. “What did you say to Simon to start this?”

  “Candace Norden told me she got hired to be Simon’s babysitter.”

  Heather slumped against the wall, her eyes closed in a wave of regret.

  Jason went on. “Little twerp made fun of my algebra grade—”

  “Your failing algebra grade,” the teacher cut in, earning a “don’t make this worse” look from Margot.

  “So I called him a baby who needs a babysitter. Then he called me a thug.”

  Heather winced. “Thug” had been Max’s term of choice for Jason.

  “You can imagine how things went from there,” the teacher concluded.

  Margot steepled her fingers. “Jason, this isn’t the first time. This isn’t even the first time with Simon.”

  “He hit me!” Kikowitz actually sounded surprised. “And not just with his chair—the little nerd actually tried to punch me.”

  Heather’s stomach began to tie in knots. This was not the kind of confidence she was looking to foster in Simon. Please, Lord, do something!

  “I’ll find out soon enough if that’s true, but let’s keep this conversation about you. I warned you if there was another incident, I’d have to suspend you. I don’t make empty threats, Mr. Kikowitz. You’re suspended for two days beginning immediately. And that includes Friday’s game.”

  “But we’re playing Bradleton on Friday!”

  “It might have been helpful to remember that before you baited Simon Williams into a fight. Straighten up, Jason. Any more suspensions and you risk your graduation.” As Kikowitz took a breath to launch an argument, Margot stood up and called out past Heather to the school secretary, “Please call Mrs. Kikowitz and inform her Jason is to leave immediately and why.” She pulled some forms out of her desk and handed them to Jason. “I know you drive to school, so I suggest you go straight home. These must be signed by both your parents before you can return on Monday. What you do next could decide your whole year, Jason. I’d take some time to think about that if I were you.”

  Jason stood and kicked back his chair. He stared daggers into Heather’s eyes as he stomped past. “Gonna defend your little handicap project, are you?”

  “No,” Heather said, her voice a lot calmer than she felt. “I think he did that all on his own, thanks.” She’d never wanted to call a student the slew of names that flew through her head right now. How did someone so young get so mean? For all his saber rattling, Jason wouldn’t last two weeks facing all the challenges Simon or Max endured. Someone needed to take that boy down a peg before his arrogance ruined his future.

  And Candace. How could Candace go and betray Simon after promising Max she wouldn’t? Max’s brilliant solution was falling apart right in front of her and there didn’t seem to be anything she could do to stop it. There were only three periods left in the day, but that was more than enough time for word to spread about Simon’s “babysitter.” This was a disaster.

  The nurse’s office door opened, and Simon emerged, a series of bandages on one cheek and a few more on his right hand. His shirt had a rip in one shoulder and blood on the collar. He looked as dark and angry as Heather had ever seen him.

  “Simon.” Margot’s tone held the cool, soft edge of a principal about to do something she hated. “In my office, please.”

  Heather made to follow him, but Margot put her hand out. “No. I think you’d better sit this one out.”

  Heather left the office, walked calmly to the faculty washroom, locked herself in the last stall and cried.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Max wasn’t in the mood to go home after his discovery at the library, so he stopped off at the Adventure Access offices. He’d banged around for an hour, pretending to work, but was just about to call it a day when he looked up to see Heather coming in the office door. Headquarters was at least twenty minutes west of Gordon Falls and, from the looks of it, she had fought tears the entire drive. All his agitation over what he’d learned pushed itself aside as he grabbed the box of tissues off a credenza and met her as she sank onto the couch that served as AA’s meager waiting room.

  Alex and AA’s equipment guy, Doc, were out setting up a trade show, so this afternoon the office was staffed by just Max and Brenda, a bright young amputee with wide eyes and outstanding computer skills who handled the phones and the other administrative tasks. At four employees, AA wasn’t big enough to have individual offices, placing workplace privacy at a premium.

  Brenda grabbed her crutches while she sent Max a look of understanding. “Hey, I was just craving a latte, so I’m going to the corner, okay?” Max shot her a grateful smile before returning his attention to Heather.

  “What’s happened? Why’d you come all the way out here?” He nodded toward Brenda’s desk. “We’ve got phones.”

  His attempt at humor fell far short of the mark. She almost didn’t need to ask “Has Simon called you?”

  “No.” He checked his watch, the early hour doubling his worry. “School’s still in session and he’s not supposed to call then, which makes me wonder why you’re here. Heather, what’s happened?”

  Her eyes turned as hard as he’d ever seen them. “Jason Kikowitz is what happened.” She pulled a tissue from the box Max held out to her. “Well, he and Candace.”

  Max felt bile climb the back of his throat. “She didn’t.”

  “That or Jason got it out of her somehow. Does it matter? Kikowitz let the whole story loose in Study Hall, and it escalated into name-calling and punch-throwing. On both sides.”

  Max wanted to hit something. Or someone. Hard. “That overgrown creep of a... Wait, did you say both sides?”

  “Yes. Simon and Kikowitz got in a fight. Simon deliberately rammed him with his chair and then threw punches at Kikowitz. You can imagine what result that got.”

  “Simon fought back?” Max shook his head. “Good for him.”

  “No,” Heather nearly shouted. “Not good—it’s bad. Simon can’t hope to match a brute like Kikowitz in a fight. Besides, it’s not the way to solve something like this. All it got Simon was a week of detentions and a split lip.” She glared at Max. “I can’t believe you’d think Simon fighting is good.” Her eyes narrowed. “And maybe that’s half the problem right there.”

  Max ran his hands down his face. “You’d rather Simon just lie there and take the kind of grief Jason Kikowitz dishes out?” Heather’s resulting expression told him she expected just that. “I thought the whole point here was to give Simon the confidence any other kid his age would have. Any other kid his age would have fought back. Or at least tried to. Sure, I woul
d have loved it if the whole business with Candace never came out, but I knew there was a chance it would fall apart. And I knew that if it did, it would be up to Simon to decide how to handle it. Didn’t you?”

  She pushed up off the couch, pacing the room. “No. I had more faith in you than to coach Simon to stand up for himself like that.”

  Max swiveled to face her. “Whoa, there—listen to what you just said. It’s not bad that Simon stood up for himself and it’s not on me that he did. I did not coach him to pick fights with Kikowitz. I’m the guy who persuaded Candace to keep it quiet, remember?”

  “It didn’t work, did it?”

  “It was a long shot and I always knew it. You want someone to blame? Blame Simon’s parents for hiring a sitter in the first place.” Max threw his hands up in disgust. “They’re behaving like he’s five years old. Even you have to see there’s no medical reason he can’t be on his own for a few hours.”

  She knew he was right about that; he could see it in her eyes. “It’s not my job to tell someone how to parent their child.”

  That sounded like too convenient an out, and he was already mad at Heather. “You’re supposed to have Simon’s well-being in mind, his growth into a—” Max searched for a sufficiently clinical term “—successful young adult. I’m telling you his parents are standing in the way of that. Brian Williams handed Simon to Kikowitz on a silver platter the way I see it. For Simon to lie there and take the ridicule and abuse without defending himself would have made it ten times worse.”

  Heather stood there, hands on her hips. It burned him that she willfully stood over him—she’d never pulled that kind of tactic before. “That is way out of line, Max, even for you.”

  “How can you stand there and tell me Simon is at fault?” He pushed back away from her, needing distance and finding it infuriating to have to crane up to look her in the eye. “I don’t see how you can think it’s okay to give him detention when Kikowitz was picking fights with him. It’s like there’s no self-defense clause in high school.”

  She followed him. “There is no self-defense clause in high school. Zero tolerance means exactly that. Hitting back is the same as hitting. I don’t know how your world works, but I don’t have the luxury of shades of gray. Simon’s just as guilty of fighting in school as Kikowitz.”

  “So the guy can wind up and do it again tomorrow and Simon’s supposed to just duck?” Whether it was a logical conclusion or not, Max’s gut was boiling as if Simon were being thrown to the wolves. And he was coming to care too much for the little guy to just stand by and watch him get eaten. “How fair is that?”

  “Jason Kikowitz is expelled for two days and barred from playing football this weekend—but only because it’s his third offense.” Heather threw away the first tissue and grabbed a second, now pacing around the greeting area. “I don’t know what the punishment is for Simon because Principal Thomas excluded me from the meeting.”

  Ouch. That began to explain why Heather was here instead of at work. He’d have stomped out of the office at a shutout like that, too. Even though it was a dangerous question, he ventured a “Why?”

  She turned to bore into him with fierce eyes. “Seems I may have lost my professional distance on this one.”

  The hurt in her eyes dug sharply into his chest. The size of her heart was what made Heather so wonderful and so impossible—she couldn’t invest halfway. She couldn’t be careful with her affections. Only she had done just that with Pembrose, hadn’t she? He wanted to grill her about it but knew this was far from the time for that conversation. When had the stakes in all this become so personal? What was he supposed to do now? He tried to form a response but came up empty.

  His silence seemed to deflate her. She sank back onto the couch. “I’ve failed Simon in the worst possible way. My job was to help him avoid things like this and now look.” Her words were soft and wounded.

  Heather’s despair cut through his anger. As hard as she was being on him, she was clearly blaming herself, too. “I don’t see it that way.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “And how do you see it?”

  “You think this could have been avoided, but it couldn’t. Simon’s gonna get picked on no matter what you do.” The office phone rang, and he let it go to voice mail. “If you think that by some marvel of programming or counseling you can protect Simon from jerks, you’re dreaming. The jerks are out there. They always have been and that won’t change anytime soon.” He wanted to move closer, drawn by the failure that seemed to drag her shoulders down so hard, but his own hurt demanded he keep a distance. “Thinking Simon can be protected from them makes you just like Mr. and Mrs. Williams, trying to keep Simon under glass.” He knew that brand of suffocation and was happy to help Simon push back against it. “Look, I am sorry Simon got punished, but I can’t see my way to being sorry he stood up for himself the way he did.”

  Her hands fell open on her lap. “How can you say that?”

  “Even you have to know how guys like Kikowitz work. He’s trolling for weakness. As soon as Simon shows even a bit of strength, he’ll go looking elsewhere. It’s not a perfect solution, I agree, but I don’t think this is the full-out failure that you’re making it.”

  “Oh, and his right hook to Jason Kikowitz is proof of my effectiveness?” She cocked her head at him, puzzled hurt all over her face. “I can’t believe you’re okay with this.”

  Max swallowed. She’d been deeply hurt and she’d driven twenty minutes to him for comfort. Even he wasn’t too much of a jerk to not realize that ought to count for something. “I’m not okay with it. I hate that it happened. You’re upset. Simon disappointed you.” Feeling Mike Pembrose’s comments banging against the back of his brain, he forced himself to add, “He’s lucky you care so much about him.”

  “I do care about Simon. Margot’s right—I have lost professional distance. I just can’t shut it off, you know? He’s so special.” She looked right into his eyes and Max felt as if she could see far too much there. “He’s got all these special people in his life now.”

  How was it this could be the same Heather who hadn’t been strong enough to stand by her fiancé? Had the war zone of working in a high school strengthened her? Could he risk his heart on that? My world would eat you alive, he thought. If she could get so worked up about Simon, if she could walk away from Mike Pembrose just because he was a diabetic, how could he ever think she could handle what life slung at him every day? She needed to be made of much tougher stuff if they were ever going to make it, and she just wasn’t the tough-stuff kind.

  If Brenda hadn’t appeared in the door, he might have dared to ask her about that history. As it was, Heather said a flustered goodbye and hurried out. Max couldn’t decide if he wanted to thank Brenda or curse her.

  He settled for texting Simon.

  * * *

  Heather didn’t go home. She couldn’t face the walls of her empty apartment, not with the way her feelings were in their current state of jumbled mess. Did I fail Simon, Lord? Is there something I need to learn from this? She drove to the riverbank, wanting the solace of the water and knowing Max wasn’t there right now. The little dock off Max’s cabins seemed a good place to sort things out.

  October was such a beautiful time in Gordon Falls. The trees were spectacular, God’s exquisite palette splashed across a clear blue sky. The air was just nippy enough to feel clean and crisp, not yet cold enough to bite. Now, looking out over the flowing river, it was easy to think the world was moving along as God intended—not as humans had hopelessly muddied it up.

  “It’s my favorite place to think, too.” Heather turned to see JJ, a bucket of cleaning supplies in her arms and a curious smile on her face. “Shouldn’t you be in school, young lady?”

  Heather moved over on the bench, patting the space next to her. “I got asked to leave. Actuall
y, no, that’s not true. I got shut out of a meeting and I stomped off. Not exactly exemplary behavior.”

  “Not like you at all, either.” JJ sat down. “What on earth happened?”

  Heather slumped lower on the bench. “A fight broke out at school. Simon—Brian Williams’s son, the one Max is helping—and Jason Kikowitz.”

  “Kikowitz beat up on Simon?” JJ cringed. “Didn’t he try something earlier this year? He laid into Simon again?” She shook her head, her long blond ponytail swinging as she sighed. “Why some kids can be so mean...” She met Heather’s eyes. “Is Simon okay?”

  Heather ran her hands through her hair. “It depends on who you ask. I think it’s terrible that Simon tried to fight back, but your brother thinks it’s a good thing Simon is standing up for himself.”

  “Sounds like my Max all right.” JJ pulled her knees up and hugged them. “Bullies like Kikowitz make me so angry. Max did his share of terrorizing in high school—he ought to know better.”

  The memory of Simon’s wounded eyes brought the lump back to Heather’s throat. “I was so sure Max’s idea was going to work.”

  “What idea?”

  Heather related Simon’s escapade, Max’s solution, Candace’s promise and the subsequent betrayal. She left out the part about Max’s heartbreaking admission and the kiss that still took her breath away. She was falling for Max, hard. “He’s doing amazing things for Simon, JJ. He has such a heart, if only...”

  “If only he’d stop shouting so loud?” JJ finished for her, a wistful smile on her face. “I know.” She looked out over the water. “You know, I’d have never said this at first, but Max is a better man on wheels than he was when he could walk. It’s changed him. I think he’ll continue changing.” She returned her gaze to Heather. “With the right person beside him. Has he figured out how much the two of you have fallen for each other yet? Or do you think you’ll have to hit him over the head?”