Page 44 of Heart of a Hero

“Is that what she asked Santa for?” Conrad asked, and Forrest nodded. “Of course she did. Well, I’ll have to give that some thought.” He took Lizzie’s hand when she returned, and they crossed the street together before heading down to browse through the stores.

There was nothing he really needed, but it was sunny, if chilly, and it was good to be out of the house for a few hours. Lizzie wanted to go into the art store, so they got out of the cold for a few minutes and looked around.

“Can we get my face painted?” Lizzie asked.

He glanced at Forrest, who smiled. “Sure. We can go back if you want.” They left the art store and walked back to the square. There was a line for the face painting, and they headed over just as Lizzie screamed. Another girl did the same, and the two kids hugged and jumped up and down before standing together, holding hands.

“Hi, Bethany,” Forrest said and got a shy wave in return. The two girls talked nonstop as they stood in line, and then Lizzie sat as still as Conrad had ever seen his active daughter while an artist painted a snowman on her cheek.

“Where is Bethany’s mother?” Forrest asked just as a woman hurried up to join them. She saw Bethany at the table and sighed as she stood with Forrest.

“She got away from me and….” She breathed deeply. “Mr. Scoville, it’s good to see you.”

“You too. This is Conrad Langdon. Conrad, this is Linda Grant.”

“Lizzie’s dad.” She held out her hand. “It’s good to meet you.” He shook it carefully. “You used to work with my ex-husband.”

“Unfortunately,” he said.

“You won’t have any argument from me. Bethany wanted to come here and see Santa. I wanted to stay at home with the curtains drawn and the police on speed dial in case Lester showed up again. But I can’t let him take Bethany’s Christmas away from her. That wouldn’t be fair.”

“Have they found Lester yet?” Conrad asked, and she shook her head.

“I understand he threatened you as well. I’m sorry about that. Lester has a substance abuse issue. That and the gambling were the reasons I left him. But he kept coming back, and I had to get him away from Bethany.” She watched her daughter like a hawk, and as soon as Bethany was done, she held out her hand and Bethany took it. Lizzie raced over a few minutes later, pleased with her snowman.

“We’re getting hot dogs,” Bethany said with a grin.

“Do you want to join us?” Linda asked. “The Hamilton is a block up.”

Conrad glanced at Forrest, who nodded. “That would be nice. It will give the girls a chance to visit longer.” He took Lizzie’s hand, and they all walked the block to the restaurant. It was busy, but they managed to get a table.

The girls sat beside each other, talking a mile a minute. “These past few weeks have been really hard. Lester has shown up at school, my work, at the house. I call the police, but he takes off before they get there.”

“He was at my house making threats. So hopefully they’ll find him soon.” Conrad was curious what she thought Lester really wanted.

“He keeps saying he wants to see Bethany,” Forrest supplied, “but I think there’s more to it than that.”

“He wants to take her so he can punish me. He tried to take the inheritance from my parents, though thankfully I was able to stop him. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was using back then, and he owed people money. So he put the inheritance money into a joint account and tried to take some of it. But I got wind of it and transferred the money into an account in only my name, got a good divorce lawyer, and moved in with my sister along with Bethany. Lester tried to put up a fight, but the judge didn’t believe a word he said. That’s when it got really bad.”

“Was he stable, mentally?” Forrest asked.

“I’m not sure. He was greedy. I know that.” She picked up a menu and then set it down again. “I think he left town or found something else… maybe someone else, because he left us alone for almost a year, and then showed back up again.” She sipped her water. “I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear all this.”

“It’s all right. I worked with him. He was a real piece of work.”

Linda rolled her eyes. “That was a big part of the problem—he didn’t work. Lester was basically lazy. He believed that work he could get others to do was his own. So he’d talk a good game, but that was it.”

“Yeah. That’s for sure.” He reached for Forrest’s hand and held it under the table. They ordered drinks when the server came over, Linda getting something for Bethany, and Conrad ordering for Lizzie.

“I have to ask. Are you together?” Linda asked. Conrad hesitated, but Forrest nodded.

“We are. We met earlier this year and have been seeing each other for a little while.” He squeezed Conrad’s hand. “Lizzie is moving to the other class after the break so there isn’t any sort of conflict.”

Linda shrugged. “I don’t think it matters, but Bethany is going to be sad about it.”

“It makes things easier for the school and for Forrest. Lizzie agreed to it, so it’s for the best. But I hated to ask her.”

Linnda looked at where the girls talked and smiled. They were happy. “Let me tell you one thing. I would do anything to make Bethany happy. And one of those things was make her father less nuts so we could have our life back, the life we had when she was born. It was good then.” She stopped, and Conrad wondered where she was going with this. “If the two of you find happiness together, you hold onto it.”