“Mommy, don’t get sad, okay?” Bernie says and takes my hand.
This does not sound good, and I glance toward Jolene who conveniently busies herself with something on the computer.
Letting out a deep breath, my girl waits until I do the same. She’s trying to parent me, so this must be big. “Sierra tricked me.”
“Tricked you how?”
“She didn’t pay for me to get my hair done like she said she would. It was just a trick to make fun of me.”
My baby was a joke?
“Bernie, do you want to help me stack the fingernail polishes?” a redhead with EMMA on her apron asks.
“Sure!”
Jolene walks over and smiles. “Zep rode by and saw her sitting out front crying. We gave her the Princess Package.”
“I can’t—”
“He did,” she cuts me off. “He called me to do it, and he stayed the whole time. And after that little brat left—without tipping my stylist, by the way—he offered to help her sew a Daredevils patch on her backpack.”
I frown. “I don’t understand.”
“The kids of the club will know to watch her back. She’ll be taken care of at school when you can’t be there.”
He’s taking care of my girl. “How much did the Princess Package cost?”
“Don’t worry—”
“Please?”
Hearing her sigh makes my stomach twist. “With my discount… three-fifty.”
The words take a minute to process. Other than groceries and school clothes, I don’t remember spending more than two hundred dollars at one time. But Zep dropped almost four hundred like it was nothing.
Bernie also told Zep she was being bullied before me. She didn’t tell me, but she turned to him. And he helped her.
“Could you watch Bernie for a bit?”
Jolene smirks, and I notice that she has the same eyes as Zep. Warm chocolate. “Of course.”
“I’ll see you in a bit, baby. I gotta run and take care of something. Be good for Jolene, okay?”
“Okay,Mommy.”
The salon isn’t far from the house, and I see Zep’s bike in his driveway. I race up the front steps, and he opens the door before I can knock like our first time together.
Both hands fly in the air. “I know it was probably too much, but seeing her crying on the curb ripped out my fucking heart.”
My lips crash against his, and he wraps his arms around me. We stumble inside, his foot kicking the door shut, and the tears rolling down my cheeks fall involuntarily.
He pulls back and cups my face, concern etched on his face from the creased brow to his frown. “Misty, what’s wrong?”
“My kid’s getting bullied and never told me,” I say. “I can’t protect her from everything, but you were there. You stepped in, and you not only fixed this situation, you’re helping to keep it from happening again.”
Wiping my tears with his thumbs, he licks his lips and looks into my eyes. “We’ll take care of Bernie. That bitch, Sierra, will back off one way or another.”
“She’s such a sweet girl. I don’t understand how they can’t see that. Why… Why doesn’t he want her, Zep?”
