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''A player.”
"Oh." Solid observation from a thirteen-year-old. Jake's player status had been part of his persona for so long that apparently everyone understood what his intentions were regarding the fairer sex. Which made her feel doubly good about the decision she'd made to keep her and Jake firmly in friendship mode. Okay, yeah, she still loved him and nurtured that happily ever-after seed planted long ago at the hands of dog eared fairy tales. Some things couldn't be helped. She blamed her unrequited optimism regarding her heart squarely on all those dumb books. Her mother and father, however, had set her up for reality.
"Wanna go find the guys?" Eva said, sliding the barely nibbled funnel cake toward Birdie with a hooked eyebrow.
Birdie pulled off a huge hunk, peppering her navy shirt with powdered sugar. "I guess."
They walked through throngs of people standing around beer booths and arts and craft tents as they made their way toward the huge area of inflatables. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of her brother's bright red Spider-Man T-shirt… climbing an enormous rock wall. Her heart lodged in her throat until she realized he was strapped into a harness and Jake stood beneath him, calling out instructions and smiling as her brother maneuvered around the small plastic rocks.
"Cool," Birdie breathed. "I could climb that thing in no time."
"Yeah, I hear you're good at climbing."
Birdie's eyes widened slightly but she ignored Eva's comment in favor of heading toward her uncle. Eva shouldn't have teased the girl about the time last year she'd climbed a tree to spy on her neighbor who swam laps in his pool ...naked. The apology Birdie had to give led directly to the happy relationship her mother now had with the delicious Leif Lively. Yeah, Birdie seemed to have an above-average curiosity about sex and the human body. Maybe she'd be a doctor.. .or a porn star. But she damn sure picked up on things she wasn't supposed to for her age.
Eva watched as her brother passed the halfway point, his sweet face screwed in concentration, tongue caught between his teeth as he struggled to find footholds and heft himself up.
"Good job, Charlie," Eva called up, clapping her hands.
The child turned his head and gave her a beautiful smile. "I can do it, Eva."
"I know you can, bud." Eva gave him a thumbs up, a warmth flooding her heart. The past week hadn't been easy. After Sara had approached her about Charlie's threat toward her son, Eva had tentatively tried to open a dialogue with her brother after they'd read about monster trucks at bed time.
"Charlie, I need to ask you something, okay?" she'd said.
"' Kay," he'd responded with a yawn. His brown eyes looked sleepy, and his hair stuck out, reminding her she needed to take him for a haircut.
"I talked to Drew's mom tonight. She had some concerns."
Charlie didn't say anything at first. Just watched her with suddenly cautious eyes.
"She told me you said some things to your friend that are hard for me to believe. Stabbing him with scissors?"
"I was just joking," Charlie said, throwing some disgust in his voice.
"I don't think your friend thought that."
"He's just being a baby. I was kidding."
Eva had paused for a moment and tried to think what to say next. "It's never appropriate to threaten someone... even if you're just joking. Drew didn't think you were, and he was upset enough to tell his mother. You made your friend feel uncomfortable. You can't make him do something by threatening him. Understand?"
Charlie had just shrugged.
"You've been a trouper, Charlie, but I know some times you get angry about everything that's happened this past month. I know because I felt really mad all the time when Dad and my mom split up. I even slapped a girl in the lunch line at school."
His gaze jerked up to hers. "Why?"
"She called my new jeans lame. I was so proud of them, and she made me feel so embarrassed. Even though she was wrong to do that, I was wrong to hit her."
"Why?"
"Because I allowed my anger to hurt someone. That's never, ever a good thing."
"But she was being a bully. I learned about bullies this week. That's when someone is mean to you. People are supposed to stand up to them. That's what our teacher says.”
"Was Drew bullying you? No. He refused to, what, play what you wanted to play? Give you something you wanted?"
Charlie ducked his head. Guilty.
