Here in My Heart: A Novella (Echoes of the Heart) (5 page)

Chapter Three

Dru held her breath, silently thanking Brad for playing along. She was counting on him to be careful with Lisa. And the last time she’d trusted him, he’d broken her heart and been the reason Oliver had left Chandlerville and her foster family forever.

Dru smiled down at Lisa, knowing the little girl was worried she’d do something wrong while everybody watched. Brad reached out a hand covered in padding.

“Let’s give everyone a show,” he said.

Lisa let him lead her to Sally, who got Lisa into her own padding. A low murmur spread through the waiting crowd. When Lisa was set, Sally joined Dru at the edge of the demonstration area. Brad looked over at Dru. Understanding connected them, feeling so familiar she was suddenly more nervous and unsettled than Lisa.

“Ready?” Brad asked Lisa.

Before she could answer, he went to work.

He gave Lisa no time to think. He didn’t approach her cautiously, murmuring encouragement, as he had the other kids. He didn’t wait for her to get balanced, one foot in front of the other, hands up to protect herself, the way Dru and Sally had taught the kids to prepare.

Brad towered over the much smaller girl, asking in a creepy, gravelly voice if he could take her picture.

Lisa timidly said, “No,” but she held her ground. Her audience murmured as Brad took a step closer, saying louder, meaner, that he wanted Lisa to look at a cool new game on his phone.

“No!” Lisa shouted this time.

She assumed her radKIDS stance, her body balanced and braced, her right arm back and ready to strike, her left pointing, palm out, at Brad, defining her personal space.

“I said no!” she repeated.

That was when Brad grabbed her. And Lisa, just as Dru had known she could, became a master at demonstrating every kick and punch and move in the radKIDS book. Brad pulled her to his chest. Still facing him, she kept fighting and finally managed to force space between them. She turned away. Before she could run, he grabbed her from behind and pulled her back. An elbow punch and groin kick from Lisa’s heel earned her another chance at freedom. All while she shouted “No!” loud enough to cause YMCA members not attending the class to poke their heads into the gymnasium to check whether things were okay.

Freed from Brad’s realistic demonstration of just how quickly an adult could overpower a kid, Lisa ran into Dru’s arms, still shouting, earning herself a hug, a high-five from Sally, and when Lisa turned back toward Brad, a rush of kids and parents cheering and clapping, telling her how great she’d been.

The parents looked rattled still, stunned by the endless moments that had passed before a seemingly defenseless girl had turned into a fighting frenzy who hadn’t given up until she was free. But now they knew their kids
could
protect themselves, if they kept practicing their skills. Thanks to Lisa and Brad, tonight’s graduation exhibition had ended on a very real, very powerful high.

“That was so cool!” Simon said, while Dru helped Lisa out of her pads. “You totally kicked his butt.”

“I wasn’t scared at all,” Lisa boasted, her and Simon’s fight forgotten. She shrugged when Dru laughed at her fib. “Okay, I was a little scared at first, but you were right, Dru. I can get myself free, even when I’m scared.” She looked around at the other students. “We can fight back. We have to, no matter what happens, until we get away.”

The entire gym cheered and clapped, parents and kids, Dru the loudest. Lisa beamed. Sally rushed over from where she’d been helping Brad out of his gear.

“My mom’s here with the pizza and cake!” she said to Dru. “Should I start everyone eating?”

“Oh . . .” Dru’s attention was riveted to the other side of the gym, where Brad’s ridiculously fit, sweaty body was emerging from his sparring getup. She pressed a hand to her heart. “Sure . . . Lisa, would you help Sally? There are cookies from the Dream Whip in the box on the table, and plates and napkins and cups. You two are in charge of refreshments. I’ll . . . I’ll grab ice from the Y staff. They’re donating cans of soda, too. They should be around here somewhere.”

Dru fled.

It was either that or walking over to Brad and hugging him for the awesome thing he’d just done. The dangerous urge scrambled after her, until she wanted to scream. She left the gym and the parents and kids behind. Many of them were already heading over to Brad, congratulating and thanking him, getting to know him, admiring all the admirable things about him that Dru hadn’t let herself get close enough to see for years.

Since he’d left her in the hallway earlier, he’d been exactly what she and her students had needed him to be. Together, she and Brad had boosted not just Lisa’s confidence in what she’d learned, but that of every other radKID in the room. And a weak part of Dru knew this moment was exactly why she’d dreaded calling him home. Liking having him back wasn’t a luxury she could afford.

She didn’t blame her friends and neighbors for falling for Brad, after getting the chance to finally know him. But she’d learned the hard way just how much falling for him could cost. And later tonight, Vi was counting on them to be a united front.

The next month or so is going to be tough . . .

Dru headed to the front desk.

“I need some ice for the radKIDS,” she said to the teenager checking members in and handing out equipment. “And I’m looking for the drinks Chris said we could have for the graduation ceremony.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The young man beamed. “Everyone here thinks it’s so cool, what you’re doing for the kids in the community.”

It was cool. Her job as a radKIDS instructor was one of the coolest things she did. She’d been looking forward to graduation for weeks. Now instead of celebrating with her students, she was making an ice run in a lame attempt to
not
think about Brad.

Except their past was suddenly all her mind would focus on.

He hadn’t merely rejected her when she’d kissed him. That same night, he’d gotten drunk and slept with Selena. When Oliver found out, he’d beaten the hell out of Brad and blown his sobriety one time too many. He’d wrecked Joe’s car again, gotten himself arrested again. That had been the final straw for Joe and Marsha. They’d had no choice but to ask him to leave their home. He’d already aged out of foster care and had nowhere else in town to go.

Because of events Brad had set into motion, Dru hadn’t seen her foster brother since.

That
was the Brad she’d just left in the gym, chatting with an adoring crowd. Those were the memories she’d have to fight being sucked into tonight, when they talked with Vivian’s lawyer.

Dru’s radKIDS had been great, especially Lisa.

The girl was fearless when the pressure was on, a lot like another kid he’d known who’d never backed down from a challenge.

Dru’s entire class had been eager and well-trained and absolutely in love with their leader. It was clear why. She was a natural with them, bringing her unique brand of fun and energy to the graduation program. The parents and students he’d met tonight had lit up the YMCA gymnasium with their enthusiasm. He’d worked with his own classes in Savannah, and he’d been proud of each group. But getting the stuffing pummeled out of him by a pack of thirteen-and-unders had never felt so good. He’d been grateful to be part of it.

Right up until Dru had turned her back and left, supposedly in search of ice, and had made herself so scarce once the feeding frenzy at the snack table commenced, a half dozen parents had asked where she’d gone.

Now the last crust of pizza had been carnivored, sugary soda had been guzzled, cake frosting and cookie crumbs were everywhere, the last of the parents had thanked him with a smile or a handshake or a pat on the shoulder and headed out, and he was packing up his pads in the empty gymnasium. Maybe not packing so much as stalling. He needed to be at Vivian’s house soon.

He wasn’t ready to face her lawyer and her plans for dying.

He looked around at the gym he’d played ball in his entire childhood, gone to day camp in, raised hell in just like the older of the boys who’d come today . . . The childhood that seemed so far away most days was suddenly everywhere. And the grandmother who’d been there for him every hell-on-wheels day of his youth was almost gone.

She doesn’t have long
, Dru had said when she’d called at dawn. For just a second when he’d seen her name on his cell phone display, he’d let himself believe she was reaching out to make peace.
Vivian wants you home as quickly as you can get here.

And at some point in their five-minute phone conversation, he’d let himself get talked into meeting with Horace Baxter first and dealing with the business end of losing his grandmother before he visited Vi at the Harmony Grove Hospice Center. Because that was the way Vivian wanted it.

The opinionated, obstinate force of nature who’d raised him had hidden the truth about how ill she’d become until there were only months, possibly just weeks, left. And she was still calling the shots. Brad checked his watch and winced.

The door from the lobby swung open while he was zipping up his duffel. In walked the second most befuddling female relationship of his life. Dru headed toward him.

“Thank you,” she said, eyes steady, her smile almost convincing. It might have been a nice moment, if she hadn’t needed the better part of an hour to work up the nerve to face him again. “If you hadn’t been here tonight, I don’t want to think about how disappointed the kids and their families would have been.”

“If I hadn’t been driving home, Travis would have found you someone else.” The older Dixon kids were still tight. They’d stuck together more than most
real
families Brad knew. “Thanks to the funding you’ve secured from local businesses, there are others on the Chandlerville force trained to do this. Your brother wouldn’t have let you down.”

The outer edges of her lips curved higher. It was a parody of how beautiful she looked when she was genuinely happy. The kind of happy he used to be able to make her feel.

“You’re very good at the demonstrations,” she admitted. “You put my students through their paces. You were great with Sally and with the younger kids. You handled the chaos like a pro.”

He nodded. “We made a good team tonight.”

He realized she couldn’t place him yet, the way he was now. Not when all she could remember was him and Oliver on one drinking binge after another their last year in town, and then Brad setting into motion the events that had driven her brother away. And she was entitled to know more about whatever she needed to: his association with radKIDS; the mess with Oliver and Selena; anything else it took for them to become a united front for Vivian.

“Can I give you a ride to the house?” he asked, instead of diving headfirst into a discussion that would have to wait.

She shook her head.

“My . . .” She cleared her throat and shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “My car’s right outside. The Y staff said they’d clean up the collateral damage from the party. I . . . I’m ready to go.”

Her words trembled just enough for him to notice. She sounded more like the young girl he’d known than the strong woman she’d become. He accepted that as hard as it was going to be for him to face losing Vivian, watching Dru hurt this way might be his undoing.

“I’ll meet you there,” he said.

Once he stopped needing to hold her. Once he was sure he could handle what was coming, the way she and Vi needed him to. He’d been offered a second chance to do the right thing for both women, regardless of what he wanted. He wasn’t going to blow it this time.

Weeks before the night Dru had kissed him, Oliver had warned Brad to stay away from his little sister. Brad and Dru had been spending more time alone—just as friends, Brad had insisted to her brother, talking and telling jokes, same as always, and sharing how worried they were about the effect Oliver and Selena’s problems were having on Oliver. But Oliver had guessed there was more—especially after catching Brad and Dru together at the spring dance. He’d said Brad was trouble, the kind his little sister didn’t need.

And he’d been right, about everything. When Brad and Oliver had fought, the night Oliver had blown things with his foster parents for the last time, it had been over Dru as much as Selena. Brad had learned a lot since then about how long a man could pay for being a careless teen.