The Fight for Us (4 page)

He dumped the salad containers in the garbage, grabbing a beer from the fridge. “Make sure your homework gets done, Nat.”

He knew she would. She didn’t have the same distractions other kids did. There would be no friends calling to talk her ear off about some random crush. No gossiping would keep her from her studies, and homework to Nat was just a way to get through the evening without being sucked into boredom.

He watched T.V. for a while before finally standing, pecking Nat quickly on the forehead, and disappearing to his bedroom. He stared at the ceiling, listening to the wind howl and the rain beat down. It made every square inch of his rustic cottage creak and groan, and he let his mind wander as he focused on the sounds. His hand was lying casually on his stomach in exactly the same place Joss had touched him. It had been a long time since a woman had touched him. Of course, she wasn’t touching him for the right reasons, and there was little chance that would be happening, considering he despised her on behalf of his daughter. Still…

Her eyes had been wide and terrified when she’d planted her palm on his stomach, and his stomach muscles had instantly clenched hard. She had stunning eyes, and as much as he’d been trying to intimidate her by refusing to look away, he also simply didn’t want to look away. Ferocious as she could behave, her eyes were too innocent to completely sell the act. He wasn’t sure he’d ever noticed a woman’s eyes so much before, but he couldn’t seem to shake them now—much like the feel of her hand on his stomach. It was still there as though her palm had left an imprint of some sort on his skin, and before he knew it, his body was aroused and he felt guilty. He groaned as he rolled onto his side and stared at the picture on his night table. He stared, and he let the guilt eat into him before he finally pulled his pillow over his head to block out the happy couple in the picture. He could not possibly be this twisted. He hated Joss entirely too much to be attracted to her.

Chapter Three

“What do you mean you don’t know how it happened?” Joss was glaring again. They’d barely even walked through the door and set their stuff down, and they were already deep into the discussion.

Joss had made Harper wait in the car as she ran into her office just as the young couple was shaking hands with Randall. She was getting a lousy fifteen percent of the commission on this house thanks to Harper’s new-found bullying skills, and she had half a mind to make
her
get the part-time job to keep food on their table this winter. She’d spent a good twenty hours showing the couple one house after another over the past month, and now that they were finally ready to buy, she was losing out.

So, when Joss made it back to the car after plastering her damn smile on her face for the couple for ten minutes, she didn’t handle it well when she found Harper on her cell phone talking to Lena. They were laughing, and given the way Harper instantly shut her mouth when Joss opened the door, it wasn’t meant for her ears.

Now, they were home, and Harper’s only excuse for bullying Natalie Henry was, “I don’t know how it happened.”

Huh… Joss wasn’t going to be accepting that answer, and as she pursed her lips and tapped her toe on the floor, Harper sighed and glanced around.

“Is that all you have to say for yourself? This is the person you are now? You make a couple new friends, and suddenly, you’re too cool to be kind? Is that it?”

“Mom, it’s not my fault! Jen and Lena—”

“Have no control over your actions and choices, young lady! None!”

Harper stared for a moment, a little too taken aback by her mother’s sudden loud voice to respond.

And after they glared at one another for a few more long seconds, Joss continued. “Nothing? You have nothing at all to say?” Harper rolled her eyes, and that hit Joss’s last button. “Fine! You’re grounded. Three months. No activities outside of school activities. No Facebook, no phone, and if I catch one mention of you causing trouble with Jen and Lena at school, you can count on being grounded for a heck of a lot longer than that.”

“Mom! That’s not—”

“Shut it!” She yelled, and before Harper could respond, she turned to the counter, gripping the edge hard. She listened as Harper flopped herself down at the table dramatically, and when Joss turned to the fridge, grabbing the ground turkey from the shelf where she’d set it that morning to thaw, she said nothing. She started unwrapping the meat, trying to calm her anger, trying to keep herself from spinning back around and letting loose again. Joss had always been a sass—a sass as a child, a sass as a teen, and a damn hard ass sass as an adult. Harper had taken after that less that affable trait, and she didn’t want to perpetuate it.

But as she realized the turkey was still frozen, she chucked it into the sink and lost her rein.

“She’s a person, Harper!” Her voice was loud and incredulous, and her palm had clasped her forehead in utter shock that she had to have this conversation with her daughter. “You’re hurting a person!” She shook her head as Harper just stared. “I am so disappointed in you. You can’t want to be someone who does this. You just can’t! I know you. You rescue ladybugs and give them water soaked paper towels to keep them alive. You yell at me for swatting flies with the fly swatter. You can’t be this person, Harper!” She was still clutching her head, her forehead scrunched up as the shock of the situation hit her full force, and she just stared at her little girl who’d grown up to be a monster.

But as she stared, Harper’s eyes filled with tears, and she stood from her chair. “I. Don’t. Know. What. Happened!” She stomped her foot as she yelled, and then her tears turned to sobs as she started to cry. “They used to hate me too! They called me train track teeth, and metal mouth when I used to have braces. They called me midget. All last year they made fun of me, and then…then they just stopped. They suddenly liked me, and I just wanted them to like me. I wanted them to stop picking on me.” Harper took a deep and shuttering breath as her sobs hitched and she sank into her chair again.

Joss sighed, sitting in the chair across from her. She didn’t have a clue what to say. Wasn’t she supposed to have the answers? She hadn’t known any of that. How could she have not known what her daughter had gone through?

“Harper, this isn’t you. You have to be stronger than this. The friendship of two mean, nasty girls can’t be more important to you than your integrity. It just can’t. You’re better than this.”

Harper kept her focus on the table in front of her. Her eyes were puffy and swollen, pink from crying, and with one last sigh, Joss stood and returned to her frozen turkey. Her heart was broken for Harper, but she was also quite certain that heartbroken or not, she couldn’t make excuses for Harper’s behavior. She should have known this was happening. She should have known a lot longer ago than this day, that’s for sure.

The chair scraped across the floor as Harper stood and left the room, and then she was alone to stare out the kitchen window to the rain beyond. Their small house had a lake view—albeit from a long ways off in the distance, but at the moment, the lake had disappeared behind the wall of water that was coming down. The wind was whipping that water into whirling clouds of misty air, and as her eyes became entranced by the pattern the wind was blowing the wet rainy air into, she set the turkey down once again. She washed her hands quickly, drying them on the dishtowel that hung from the stove, and then she grabbed her phone.

She stared at the key pad for a moment, contemplating. Her heart was suddenly pounding, and her chest felt like it was trying to push up into her throat. And at the last second before she chickened out and set the phone back down, she dialed 4-1-1.

She asked for Isaiah’s name, and when the operator asked if she should put the call through, Joss almost said no, but the yes came out before she could stop herself. She held the phone to her ear as it rang, and her pinky picked and ran over the gnarled scar tissue on her chin as she waited. She should hang up. It’s not as if this would likely go well, but then he was there, and it was too late.

“Hello.”

She cleared her throat, and then she cleared it again. “Uh… Isaiah?”

“Who’s this?”

“Joss…err…Joselyn Verna. Harper’s mom. Listen—”

“You keep saying
listen
as though I owe you my attention.”

And she cleared her throat again. “It’s just habit. Listen… Shit.”

He chuckled for a moment, and she had no idea if it was an amused chuckle or a cruel one. She was pretty sure he was capable of both in equal measure.

“I’m listening.”

“I’m not stupid.”

He was suddenly silent again.

“Earlier you said you wanted to strangle me for being stupid. I’m just saying…I’m not stupid, and I didn’t appreciate you saying it.” Her fingers mindlessly moved to the scar on her chin, and when she’d nearly given up hope that he might actually respond to her, she cleared her throat.

“I was upset. Convince me I’m wrong, and I’ll retract the statement.”

He said nothing further, and her heart started pounding. He was damn near making her pull the conversation out of him, and it left her feeling nervous as hell and like an idiot at the same time.

She finally took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. There was more to say than just that. Sadly, she chickened out and went for something a little less frightening than a prostrating apology. “What are you doing?”

“Excuse me?” He seemed confused.

“I just meant conversationally. You know… I’m trying to be nice, is all. What are you doing?” She shrugged her shoulders casually as though he could see her.

“I’m lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering if my roof is going to blow off. You?”

“I was trying to cook.”

“Trying…” He let the word trail off as he repeated her.

“It doesn’t usually go well for me.”

“I see. That must be why your child’s growth is stunted.”

He was muttering, and she didn’t miss the passive-aggressive tone.

“And your daughter’s tall. What’s your point? Are we really going to do this? Use our children to fight with each other?”

She listened as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You’re right.” More silence before he finally spoke again. “Ms. Verna, why did you call me?”

“Joss. Please.” Her heart started racing again. “I wanted to say I was sorry. I’m sorry about Harper’s behavior. I’m sorry Natalie has to deal with this. I’m just sorry.”

He was silent. The man was very good at holding his tongue when he chose, and he wasn’t afraid to let that silence draw out uncomfortably. “I don’t need your apology. I need your daughter to stop tormenting mine. Make that happen, and there’ll be no need to apologize. Goodbye, Joss.”

Her body flushed with warmth at the sound of his voice saying her name. He hung up before she could regain her composure and respond. His voice had been deep and warm, not at all furious and intimidating as it had been earlier in the day, and while he may not have necessarily accepted her apology, his anger was stowed as much as hers was. She was almost disappointed he’d ended the call so soon and abruptly. Of course, why wouldn’t he? But she didn’t like it. She very oddly didn’t want him to hate her.

On the other hand, within two seconds of hanging up with him she was forced to deal with a man she would give anything to make hate her—at least hate her enough to stay away from her.

She said nothing as Todd let himself in without even knocking. It had been only a month since he’d come last time. It was usually two to three months, and even that was far too often. She couldn’t deal with him tonight…but of course she would. It was simply easier, and if she tolerated it, he wouldn’t hurt her and Harper would never be the wiser.

“You were just here a month ago.” She stared at his feet as she spoke.

“Is she in bed?” He ignored her comment, watching her blandly. He was a handsome man by any account, and always dressed impeccably. But he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or perhaps a monster in a man’s clothing. She didn’t give a shit what kind of clothes he wore, she just plain hated him.

“Please, not tonight.”

He harrumphed with a cruel, mirthless smirk playing on his mouth, and she took a deep calming breath, ignoring her rapidly increasing heart rate. “Either tell me if she’s asleep or I’ll start yelling and find out that way. Won’t change the reason I’m here. I could give a shit if she’s awake or not. That’s your concern.”

Joss stared at the ground for a moment. “She’s asleep.”

“Then invite me in. Get me a glass a wine, and then you can take me to bed—unless, of course, you’d like to be bent over the kitchen table again.” He smirked and pushed past her into the foyer.

* * * *

Todd was gone by the time the sun or Harper were up, but the remnant memories of him stuck with Joss anyway—they always did. She’d soaked in the bathtub from the moment he walked out the door until she heard Harper stirring. She’d nearly fallen asleep as she let the hot water wash away her shame. The damn water never did that good of a job though. At least he no longer beat the shit out of her, and usually his visits, while more frequent than she’d like, fell only once every few months. At first blush, it seemed like a pretty damn good deal. But it didn’t feel like a good deal at all, and by the time she crawled from the bathtub, her eyes were puffy from crying for the past hour.

It didn’t stop her from launching into one hell of a discussion on bullying as she drove Harper to school. Hell, refocusing her energy on Harper was quite an effective way of driving Todd from her mind. Joss’s lecture was epic, at least that’s what Harper called it. Joss was struggling to concentrate even on her daughter’s behavioral issues, and she wasn’t entirely sure what was so epic about her threatening her daughter with a yearlong grounding, but if epic meant her daughter got the point, she’d take it.

“I mean it, Harper, you and I understand very well what mean looks like, and I think we both understand it well enough to know it isn’t the right way.”

“Duh, Mom. Geez.” Harper was muttering as she hopped out of the car in front of school, but when she caught sight of Jen and Lena nearby, she bounced and waved before she seemed to be able to stop herself. When she realized what she’d done, she quickly glanced back at Joss, stowing her bounce and lowering her hands to her side.