Soaring (Magdalene #2)(187)

“You got a good son,” he stated, surprising me. “He did what he did, gettin’ in your face, to protect his sister who took some hits from their dad before they got to you.”

I hadn’t thought of it that way but thinking it then, I knew what I already knew.

I did have a good son.

He didn’t go about it the right way but at least he tried.

“Yeah,” I repeated.

“And your girl’s got courage. You laid her out like that, no mercy, your brother backin’ you, she’s got nowhere to turn. She pulls it up to ask Ash to talk. Says a lot, Amy. She’s gonna make it.”

She would.

God, I hoped she would.

“Yeah,” I said.

“We’ll all be okay,” he promised me.

I hoped that too.

“I’d be better now with your arms around me,” I told him.

“We’ll arrange that, soon’s we can.”

I sighed.

“You in bed?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Go to sleep. I’ll call in the mornin’ to check how things are goin’. Then I want you to call me after you have your meet with your ex.”

“Okay, Mickey.”

“Right, love you, baby.”

I sighed again through my, “Love you too, Mickey.”

“’Night.”

“’Night.”

We disconnected and I reached out to put my phone to the nightstand.

I stared at it.

I did not go to sleep.

I got out of bed, put on my robe and walked to my daughter’s room.

I knocked and got no answer, so I went in.

The room was dark.

I moved to her bed, sat on it and gently slid her hair off her neck.

“Love you, baby girl,” I whispered.

She turned her head so she trapped my hand against her neck.

“Love you too, Mom,” she whispered back.

I gave her neck a squeeze, slid it away then bent and kissed her cheek.

I left her, closed the door and went to my son’s room.

At my knock, he called, “Yeah?”

I opened it and went in.

His room was dark but I closed the door behind me and moved to where he was lying in bed.

“Just wanna say goodnight, my handsome boy.”

He shifted so he was sitting and looking up at me.

“’Night, Mom. Sorry the day was all drama. Mickey probably thinks we’re all whacked.”

“It’s over and tomorrow’s another day.”

“Yeah, you and Scarlett O’Hara are all over that.”

I decided to take that as a compliment.

I bent, took his hand and held it tight.

“You did right, trying to protect your sister after what had gone on with your dad. You went about it wrong, but the impulse was right.”

“’Kay,” he muttered, sounding embarrassed.

“Mickey was the one who pointed that out to me,” I shared.

He sounded incredulous, but in a good way, when he asked, “Really?”

“Yes, kiddo.”

“He was pissed I cursed at you,” he noted hesitantly.

“He likes me. Like you with your sister, he was protecting me.”

“It won’t happen again,” he promised.

“That’d be good.”

His fingers gave mine a squeeze. I took it and took the hint, letting him go and moving to the door.

“Mom?” he called.

In the doorway, hand on the handle, I turned to him.

“Yeah, honey?”

“I knew about Polly. Everyone at school knows about Polly. That’s why I wanted to talk to you alone. Just Pip, you and me. Ash isn’t right. She’s living her own thing. I didn’t know who she was. Not being mean, but she’s a freshman. Junior guys don’t pay a lot of attention to freshman girls. I would see her in the hall but had no idea she was Mickey’s girl and never saw Polly go at her. But I’ve seen Polly pulling her crap and the freshmen might live in fear of her, but the upperclassman think she’s a pain in the butt. There’s gonna be a takedown, thinking as a freshman she can lord over the school, and that’s gonna happen soon. I’ve been trying to talk to Pippa about her to get her out of target range, but she wasn’t listening. We’ve been going around about it for a while. It’s been ticking me off.”

Yes, my son was a good kid.

And perhaps I had an explanation of why his patience was shorter with his sister lately.

Further, it appeared a small town didn’t extend to the bubble of the high school world.

“Okay, Auden,” I said when he stopped talking.

“That’s why I wanted to talk alone,” he continued. “I figured, you and me both having a go at her about Polly, she might actually listen. It sucks she had to go through that today, but you were right not to back down. If she’s in on it, that’s not cool. But it’s still a good thing it happened because she needs to be far away from Polly when the real mean girls make their move to show that girl her place.”

I forgot how many political minefields there were in high school.

This was a good reminder. I had two kids in it and three and a half years left of guiding them through it.