For The Love of Easton (For the Love Of #2) - A.M. Hargrove Page 0,7
palms on the counter. “Absolutely not. After what he did to you?”
“I reminded him of that.”
“English, please tell me you’re not considering it.”
“I, uh—”
“For God’s sake, listen to me. He beat you to the point where you had to go to the hospital. Are you willing to put yourself in that position again?”
“Of course not. Only he said he’d changed. And judging by his appearance, he has.”
“I’m sure he did. But one thing is true. A zebra will not lose its stripes. That man isn’t to be trusted. He wasn’t then and he isn’t now.”
“Can I ask you something? What if my mother had never given you the chance to see me?”
Dad grimaced. “It was different for us. I didn’t abuse her, for one. Two, I didn’t even know about you until you showed up on the doorstep.”
“But what if? What if you weren’t given that chance?”
“My God, English, you know the answer to that. You were my everything and turned out to be the catalyst for the rest of my life.”
“Exactly, and that keeps replaying itself in my head.”
“My situation and yours are entirely different.”
“But are they? I worry if I don’t give Stuart a chance, Easton will miss out too.”
“She won’t if she doesn’t know the truth.”
Groaning, I said, “Is that even fair? Eventually, she’ll have to know and then will she resent me for not telling her?”
“Fine. Tell her, but I’m begging you not to allow that man back into your life. It’s only going to cause you trouble.”
“Dad.”
“English.”
We were at a stand-off.
“Munchkin, I love you too much to see you get destroyed by him.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Please, all I ask is you trust me on this.” His eyes implored me.
“I’ve always trusted you, but you never liked him from the start.”
“And for good reason.”
Maybe he was right, but something nagged at the back of my heart. I kept thinking about how I would feel if the positions were reversed. Not knowing the beauty of Easton would be like not having oxygen in my life.
“Looks like I’m not going to change your mind tonight.”
“I’m only thinking about it.”
“I have to go. Your mother was cooking dinner when I left.”
“Dad, promise me you won’t say anything to her.”
“I’ll do no such thing. She’s my wife and my life. I have to tell her.”
A rush of air blew out of me. “Okay, but I haven’t made up my mind yet. And thank you for coming over.”
He brushed my hair back from my face, as he had done since I was a little kid. “I’ll always be here for you, no matter what. Just remember that. I love you, munch.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
We hugged hard.
He snapped his fingers. “By the way, I’m interviewing a photographer tomorrow morning at ten. I’d like you to be there.”
“I will. Does he have a specialty?”
“He does. Metro and people, but wants to expand into nature.”
“That’s great. It would get you off those jobs so you can take more of the nature ones.”
“Yup, if he’s skilled enough. I’d also like him to accompany me on some nature shoots, if he wants. It’s always good to have another set of eyes out there. What he sent over looked great, so let’s hope.”
Dad met me at school in the morning and the three of us went inside. We went to Easton’s classroom, and I stuck my head inside the door and asked Mrs. Leonard if we could talk to her. She came into the hall and I explained the situation. Easton clung to my dad’s hand as I spoke.
“The situation has gotten intolerable and it has to stop,” I said.
“Let’s go to the principal’s office,” Mrs. Leonard said. We walked down there together as more kids arrived at school. We were ushered into a room where the principal sat. Mrs. Leonard explained the situation to him and apparently Easton wasn’t the only child this boy was bullying.
“We don’t tolerate bullying at this school,” the principal said. “We’ll put a stop to it.”
“How?” Dad asked.
“In these cases, we usually send a letter home to the parents.”
Dad rubbed his chin. I knew that movement. Something big was coming. “That’s not good enough. Easton isn’t the first child to experience the brunt of this boy’s bullying. I’m sure you’ve already sent a letter home and it obviously didn’t work. Do something else or we go to the school board and the news. I have influential friends in this town and can make this as pretty or ugly as you