AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ght. Screams or not, that wasn’t the way she wanted to live the rest of her life.
The mother checked the child’s mouth, nose, and head, as if she’d completed this particular check a thousand times, and maybe she had. She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and wiped away the snot. The kid kept screaming, to which his mother responded with a gentling shush. She didn’t seem to be worried, so Jaclyn figured she could stop worrying herself.
And then a familiar voice behind Jaclyn said, “What are y’all doing, skinning that kid alive?”
She went rigid, and the hair on the back of her neck lifted in horror. Oh my God, what was he doing here? If he questioned her in front of clients, if he was here to actually arrest her, she’d … she’d kill him, and then he’d have a real reason to slap on the cuffs.
Instead of grabbing her hands and cuffing her, he brushed by her, crowding so close in the aisle she had to step back and even then she could smell him, momentarily feel his warmth. He crouched down beside the screeching little boy, brushed back his jacket so that his big black gun was visible along with the badge clipped to his belt, and ruffled the kid’s hair with his big hand. “Looks like you had a spill.”
The kid momentarily stopped screaming, distracted by this big man he didn’t know. He saw the gun and the badge, and his eyes got big. He gave a big sniff and nodded his head. His mother shot an assessing look at Eric, then made a lightning decision and stood, stepping back out of the way. She was just a mother; how could she hope to compete with the enticement of a real gun and a shiny badge?
“Is that real?” the kid asked, pointing at the gun.
“Sure is. The badge is real, too.”
“Bad boys, bad boys,” the kid started singing. Not bad. He could carry a tune, even if he was only four. His lip started trembling and tears welled in his eyes again.
“You come for me?” he asked in an anguished tone. His mother clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
“No, I only come for bad boys, and from what I can tell, you’re one of the good ones.” Eric ruffled his hair again. “Brave, too. Looks like you’re gonna have a lump on your noggin. If you’re going to play rough, you have to learn how to protect yourself.”
“But how?”
Eric stood up, but put his hand on the kid’s little shoulder. “Let me think about this.” Then he said in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “I see you’ve got some football fans in your family.”
Some of the men barked on cue. The kid nodded, and together he and Eric looked to the altar where half a dozen men stood around, waiting for the rehearsal to resume. “I’ll bet you one of them would be happy to buy you a helmet just your size, so the next time you take a header you’ll be protected. Are you going to be a football player when you get bigger?”
The boy nodded enthusiastically.
“Yeah, I can see that,” Eric said. “You’re tough. I bet you could play running back, because that’s a tough position.”
“Quarterback!” the kid said indignantly.
“You’re kidding? You’re going to play quarterback? Man, that’s really tough. You definitely need a helmet for that.”
The little chest was puffed up with pride, the tears gone, the lower lip steady. One moment he was screeching as if he’d been scalded, and the next, all was well.
She was not going to thank him. Yes, Eric had provided a distraction when one was needed, but it wasn’t as if anything dire had been going on.
The groom promised to buy the kid a football helmet, and said he could wear it to the wedding tomorrow night. That wasn’t exactly the picture Jaclyn had of an elegant wedding, but it wasn’t her wedding, it was theirs. If they were happy, that was all that mattered. She’d get all the kids football helmets if that was what they wanted.
“Is something wrong?” the mother of the bride warily asked Eric.
“No, everything’s fine. I’m a friend of Jaclyn’s.”
Oh, really? Jaclyn clenched her jaw against the retort that bubbled up. The M.O.B. glanced from Jaclyn to Eric, smiled a little, and left them alone.
The wedding party returned its attention to the matter at hand, the rehearsal. They were already running late, because they’d been having too much fun, and they weren’t going to make it to the restaurant in time for their reservations if they didn’t pick up the pace a lot.
Jaclyn moved forward a little, got everyone lined up in the correct order, and picked up where they’d left off. She felt Eric move closer, standing right at her back like a rock. She got an itch between her shoulder blades, as if he had drawn his pistol and held it pointed at her. A nightmarish vision swam in front of her eyes: Was he going to question her here? Or worse, arrest her in front of her clients?
But he just stood there, cool and calm, watching the rehearsal. The minister had everything well in hand, at the moment, so there was nothing more for Jaclyn to do but be present in case she was needed. The previously rambunctious children had, at their mother’s insistence, taken seats on the second pew, where they sat whispering and swinging their legs.
Finally, she couldn’t stand it any longer. “What are you doing here?” she whispered, fiercely resentful.
“I heard a cry for help and was duty-bound to investigate. Serve and protect, that’s the deal.”
That wasn’t what she’d meant and he knew it.
