Love Inspired August 2014 – Bundle 1 of 2 (35 page)

Chapter Sixteen

M
ax 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 would 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.
Actually, 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?”

Heather felt her jaw go slack. “You know?”

JJ laughed softly. “I’m his big sister. And your eyes light up when you talk about
him.” She nudged Heather. “Even when you’re complaining about him. That’s a contradiction
I’m very familiar with.”

“At first, I was so sure he and Simon would end up a disaster—no offense.” Heather
put her hands to her cheeks, certain she was blushing like a teenager. “And then I
thought he was exactly what Simon needed. And now...I have no idea.”

“Well, he’s not done yet. Mr. Hot Wheels is a bumpy ride—I don’t have to tell you
that. But his heart is in the right place on this one, and I think Simon has a few
things to teach Max.”

“I think so, too.” Heather recalled the energy in Max’s eyes when he talked about
Simon—the boy brought out something extraordinary in Max. It was close to the unforgettable
glow she’d seen in his eyes when he’d looked at her that night on his porch. There
was so much tenderness in that man that the world never saw. Could she bring out something
extraordinary in Max? She knew he was bringing new and marvelous things out in her.