Burned(5)

She considered the question and her answer for a moment. In her heart she wanted to offer the instant assurance, but Sophie wouldn’t believe her if she did. Instead, she took just enough time for Sophie to think she had thought about all the other kids and the stories they would tell. None would matter though. Everyone in town knew Hauk’s story and they all felt a little sorry for the daughter who looked just like him. It was impossible that her emotional take on the festival and family wouldn’t win her the grand prize.

“I do.” Vic leaned forward and kissed Sophie’s forehead, checking to see if her fever had reduced any. It hadn’t. “And I think your dad is going to be just as proud as I already am when it does.”

“You don’t think it’s going to upset him, do you?”

The worry was a tricky one. Most people thought Hauk was invincible, cut off from the past so much that it had no power over him. He was Vic’s best friend, and because she knew him so well, she knew everyone who thought that was wrong. He put on a brave front that had to weary him. His past held plenty of power over him. Enough that he never dated or looked at a woman more than once.

He wasn’t invincible. Especially not when it came to the things Sophie said. His little girl had grown up too fast, facing harsh realities no child ever should. When he got the chance to read her paper, it would shred his heart into thinly frayed hairs. It would rip him up again if she won the school contest and got to read it at the festival’s opening. But the one thing everyone did know about Hauk was that he adored his daughter and would endure anything for her.

“I think he will love it as much as he loves you.” Vic smoothed Sophie’s Wizards of Waverly Place sheet and comforter around her legs. “And I will make sure to deliver this to Ms. Taylor in the morning.”

“I wish Dad would let me take it in.” Sophie sighed with a maturity a ten-year-old shouldn’t have. “But I understand the potential ramifications since I’m contagious.”

Vic smiled as she always did at Sophie’s vocabulary. A life spent primarily around adults had matured her quickly. “We can’t be making everyone else at school sick, right?”

“Right.” Sophie yawned with the effort to sit up and wrap her arms around Vic’s waist. Squeezing, tight and serious, she cuddled close for several silent minutes. When she spoke it was quietly. “I’m glad I have you.”

“Me too.” The tears that had subsided welled back up, prodding like pinpricks against her eyes. Maybe it was the fever pulling the sentimental side of Sophie out. Vic wasn’t sure what was doing it to her. Her lack of sentimentality, or what people saw as a lack of sentimentality, was something that had ended more than one relationship. She was plenty sentimental about the things and people she loved.

“I love you, Vic.”

“Ah, Sophie—” she squeezed the young girl back, “—I love you.” With a last hug, she eased Sophie back to the bed. “Now go to sleep so you can feel better quickly.”

“Okay.” The agreement slurred as Sophie gave in to the exhaustion she’d fought for the sake of finishing her paper. In two blinks she was asleep.

Vic picked up the lap desk and notepad Sophie had used and set them on the desk on her way to the door. Before turning the light off, she studied the girl for a last moment. The pale coloring she’d gotten from her Norwegian heritage stood in stark contrast to the inky shadows beneath her eyes and the rosy cheeks the fever caused. So like her father, regardless of how bad she felt, her academic drive and generous heart propelled her on.

Rubbing her chest, wondering at the odd feeling, as if she’d been somehow bruised, Vic turned off the light and headed down the small hall to the living room. Hauk entered as she turned the corner. Tiredness tinted his gaze, but there was a power radiating from him she hadn’t noticed before. A sense of determination.

They both froze. Vic trembled from the nape of her neck to the tips of her fingers. Sophie’s paper drifted to the floor.

His piercing blue eyes snapped to hers. Held.

It was a moment they’d had a few times over the years. The kind of moment that made her wonder if they could be more than friends. The kind that tempted her to step forward and see what it would be like to kiss him. To taste him. It was the kind of moment that haunted her dreams and kept her distancing herself from other men.

Despite the scattered moments, she’d never acted on one. At first because he’d been with Krista. Then he’d been with Jean Marie. He’d needed to heal from the first and deal with the second. By the time he’d gotten past those hurts, he’d just given up on possibilities of more.