Curvy Valentine Match

She nodded and took a step back as several kids descended on us, excited smiles they tried to hide at new visitors. “Your adoring fans await,” she whispered and hung back to let me focus on the kids.

“Hey guys, who has good news to share?”

A few of the kids shot their hands in the air and I pointed them out, one by one.

“My mom got a new job with better hours, so I can get an after school to help me pay for community college.”

“Awesome news, Ty. I’ll let you know if I hear of any job openings in the area.”

“If you don’t mind early hours before school, I can always use someone to sweet floors and wash dishes at the bakery,” Mara offered up in a carefully casual voice.

“A bakery? Like for girls?”

Mara folded her arms. “Well if any of you girls need to make some extra cash, the offer is the same.”

The kids laughed at her quip and went back to their good news.

“I’m graduating a semester early, Sheriff.” Molly was a shy girl who lived in a home filled with abuse that no one could confirm. “That means I can work full-time for an entire semester before I go to college.”

It wasn’t just nice, it was satisfying to hear the kids who came from tenuous situations, working hard to avoid the pitfalls that would hold them back from achieving their goals. That’s what the Army had done for me, and I it was why I showed up every month. Why I cared.

“I only got detention once this month, and it was for falling asleep in class, not talking back.” Calvin wore a wide, proud smile at his good news and I held out a fist, which he bumped, proudly.

“Still working the overnight shift?”

He nodded. “Pay is better and I can sleep during the day.” The kid slept in his car because one parent was locked up and the other was a junkie, so he was on his own.

“I know someone who might be able to help,” I told him and slid a gaze to Mara who was deep in conversation with a quiet girl who never spoken when I visited.

A few hours later, I ordered a stack of pizzas and said goodbye to the kids. Leaving was the hardest part, but like always, I left a stack of cards just in case anyone needed help, or just someone to listen. “Be good. Do good.”

“Feel good,” a few of them echoed back with the sarcasm that only teenagers could convey.

“You laugh, but try it out and see how you feel.”

Mara was silent as we drove away from the building and I wanted to ask what she was thinking, but I needed Mara to share because she wanted to. I knew she would.

Eventually.

“I’m impressed that you give up your free time to help them, Xander. And I guess that maybe you’re not the devil, after all.”

Relief filled the hollowness in my chest. “Not the glowing compliment I was hoping for, but I’ll take it. Hungry?”

She nodded and pointed to a diner just off the highway. “Starved. Pastries make for a delicious, if not satisfying, breakfast.”

We sat in a booth and placed our orders, both of us doing our best not to stare too hard at the person on the other side of the table, and failing miserably. “So tell me, Mara, what happened when you left detention?”

“Went to San Antonio hoping to find a job. I learned to cook pretty well but I had several certificates for pastry making I started job hunting. Nothing happened. Nothing at all.” She shrugged as though lost in the memories of that time. “It was only good luck hat Shannon called when she did. I didn’t realize Pilgrim was so small when I took the job. Or that it was so close to Tulip.”

I heard what she didn’t say but I needed to hear it. “Would you have applied for the job if you had realized?”

Mara shook her head. “Probably not. I didn’t want to risk running into anyone I knew.”

“You mean me?” It still hurt to know how much I’d unintentionally hurt her, but I needed to hear all the nasty details and Mara needed to be the one to tell me.

She shrugged off the question like it was inconsequential. “You, but also Helen and Will, and anyone else who knew me back then. I didn’t want to see anyone who knew where I’d been.”

At her words and the pain that swam in her eyes, I knew what I had to do. Whether she wanted to hear them or not, Mara needed to hear them. “I would never, ever have let you take the blame for something we both did, Mara. Not ever. But I need to thank you for doing it, because it gave me the life I have today. The discipline and drive I learned in the Army that allows me to keep the people of Pilgrim safe. So, thank you Mara. Thank you for giving me the future I have today. Thank you.”