Hearts at Play(46)

“Settle down, Brianna. Sit back down, please.”

Brianna obeyed like one of Pavlov’s dogs.

“Layla didn’t seem to mind talking about her night at the theater, and she was commended for her creativity for writing her own play. We’re certainly not trying to make a spectacle of her. There was a lot of excitement this morning, as two of the children brought the newspaper into class, and it grew from there.” Principal Shue leaned across the desk.

Brianna’s heart told her to take Layla and leave the school, but her mind told her to behave and listen.

“I can make certain that Mr. Braden’s existence doesn’t come into play in the daily classroom activities, but I’m not sure I can do much about what she’ll experience on the playground. But you know how these things go. Kids will forget soon enough, and life will go back to normal.”

Brianna remembered the two long years after her father left. Kids did not forget, and things did not go back to anything even close to resembling normal. And not once did any adult ask her how she felt about the name-calling or feeling left out during the special parent-child days when her mother had to work. She’d been labeled the girl whose father left. And I’m still that girl. There’s no way in hell she’d let Layla become the girl whose mother is dating Hugh Braden. Brianna’s phone vibrated.

“I’m sorry. Excuse me.” She dug her phone out of her purse to turn it off and was astonished to see three text messages from Layla’s classmates’ mothers. Now that Hugh is around, they came out of the woodwork.

“Trouble?” Principal Shue asked.

“No.” She shoved her phone back in her purse. “I guess when you date a…someone like Hugh, everyone wants a piece of him.” She hated the frustration in her voice and the way her muscles all pulled tight across her neck. Was this what their life would be like? How could she protect Layla from getting an overinflated ego or from being used?

“Brianna, take a deep breath.”

Brianna obeyed. Ugh! She hated feeling like she was back in third grade. She wondered how Layla felt. Not what Principal Shue thought was right or wrong, and not even what she thought was right or wrong. How is Layla dealing with the attention? She knew what she had to do.

“Principal Shue, I’d like to speak to Layla.” She rose to her feet and headed for the door.

“I’ll be happy to have her come down and we can speak to her.”

“No, thank you. I’d like to speak with her privately.” She walked out of the principal’s office. “Actually, I’ll go get her. I can observe through the door for a few minutes. You can tell a lot about a child’s feelings by watching and even more by listening.” A few determined strides later, she was rounding the corner to Layla’s classroom.

She looked through the glass on the door. Layla waved her hand in the air, flapping it like a flag. Brianna smiled at her enthusiasm. Maybe I overreacted. She heard Principal Shue’s clop, clop, clop echoing down the hall. She wondered if Hugh had been right and this would blow over and he’d become just “Layla’s mother’s boyfriend” after a while. Layla was talking to the teacher, and she looked happy enough. Brianna was about to walk away when Principal Shue appeared behind her.

“Aren’t you going to speak with her?” She looked down at Brianna with the same stern look she always had.

“No. I think she’s okay.”

“Brianna, speak to your daughter. She’ll appreciate that you did, and you’ll have peace of mind.”

She met the principal’s surprisingly soft gaze.

“Your mother did this same thing when you were in school. After your father left, she’d come and observe about once a week. She’d feel confident after seeing you pay attention in class, or laugh at something, and then she’d go on her way. Take it to the next step, Brianna. You were never settled, and I think if your mother had pulled you from class and let you know that she cared about how you felt during school hours, it might have made you a little more at ease.”

“Then why didn’t you tell her to do that for me?” Brianna felt her legs weakening.

“I did. She didn’t have time. She worked very hard. Two jobs, as I remember, and she’d come over on a break and have to run back to work afterward.” Her gaze softened.

“She never told me.” I wish she had.

“Many parents don’t. They don’t want to embarrass their children by making them think they were checking up on them. You were a pistol. You stood up to the kids who called you names.” Principal Shue crossed her arms and looked as immovable as a linebacker.

“You knew?”

“Of course I knew. I tried to stop it, but you know we can’t do much. We can talk to the children, suspend them for a day or two, but that’s the extent of it. You held up a brave front. You gave it right back to them.”

Brianna had no recollection of ever giving it right back to anyone. She remembered feeling alone and different. Very, very different.

Principal Shue continued, and this time she spoke in a soft tone, her eyes translating pride toward Brianna. Her normal rigid facade was now more relaxed as she gazed off to the side, as if she were watching a memory unfold before her. “A few months after your father left, you began ignoring those comments. You’d lift your little chin and act as though you were deaf to it all.”

Deaf to it all? I was able to wall my emotions off then, too? Enough of that. No more. Determined not to let Layla experience the same lonely, painful childhood, she changed her mind. “I think I will talk to her. Thank you.”

Twenty minutes later, after running Layla’s lunch back inside, Brianna left the school with more than peace of mind. She had a contented heart as well. She hadn’t yet explained to Layla what Hugh did for a living, and though her classmates made a big deal about it, Layla had raised her palm to the air and told Brianna, All adults drive cars. Hugh’s nice, so I told them that he was nice and to stop asking about his cars. Sheesh! Unlike Brianna, Layla seemed able to handle the situation—at least for now.





HUGH ARRIVED AT Jean’s house at five-thirty. “Wow, that’s a big box.” Brianna opened the door, and her heart swelled at the sight of Hugh. She wondered if she’d ever get used to his good looks or the sparkle that lit up his eyes when he saw her for the first time each day.

Hugh handed her a large gift wrapped in silver paper. “This one’s for you.”

“It’s not my birthday.”

“Sure it is. You gave birth to Layla six years ago. Besides, you can’t get mad about this. It’s a very utilitarian purchase. You need it.”

They went into the living room and Brianna untied the ribbon. “Maybe I need rules about not spoiling me, too.”

“I can adhere to the spoiling rule for children, but a girlfriend shall have no say on her own spoiling.”

Brianna gasped as she took the camera from the box. “Hugh.” She touched it as if it were made of glass.

“CD…Claude helped me pick it out.”

“Oh my God. I can’t accept this. These are super expensive.” She put it back in the box. They’d never discussed finances, and Brianna was sure Hugh earned a lot of money given his cars and what he did for a living, but it was still too lavish of a gift for her to accept.

“Bree, if I have to accept not spoiling Layla, then you have to accept the gifts I choose for you.”

“But…”

He wrapped her in his arms. “I love that you worry, but I promise you that I wouldn’t ever buy anything that I couldn’t afford.” Hugh set the box on the coffee table and pulled Brianna down to the couch beside him. “I make more money in a year than we could ever spend.”

We? She wrinkled her brow.

Layla ran into the room. “Hugh!” She jumped into his lap and assessed the open gift. “Is that present for Mom?”

“Yup. Now she can take pictures of your party,” Hugh said.

“Oh goody!” She slid off his lap and ran into the kitchen. “Grandma! Guess what Mom got!”

A knock at the door drew Brianna’s attention. She should have expected that people would show up early, given the morning newspaper.

“Cheryl, hi.” Brianna opened the door, very aware—by Cheryl’s gaping jaw—of Hugh standing behind her.

Cheryl wore the same outfit she’d had on earlier in the day, though she had on enough perfume to gag a small army. “You must be Hugh. What a pleasure to meet you.” She held out a limp wrist.

Hugh nodded and flashed his dimples. “Hello, Cheryl. Nice to meet you.”

Marissa ran into the house. “See! There he is!” she yelled over her shoulder to three other little girls and their mothers. Each woman dressed as though she were attending a formal, albeit slutty, affair. Brianna had never seen these women in anything other than jeans and T-shirts. Now they flaunted cleavage, short skirts, and more makeup than Kat wore.

The children ran into the backyard with Layla, and the women swooned over Hugh, blinking their heavily mascaraed eyelashes and peppering him with questions.

“I didn’t even know you lived in the area,” Cheryl said.

“How did you two meet?” Lisa, a short blond-haired woman asked.