Serving Pride (3 page)

“Man, are you okay,
Robert?” Iian asked. The kid was tall for the age of eight. Todd
was in the same grade as Robert and had been his good friend since
he’d arrived in town.

“Yeah.” He sat up
and tried to get his breath. Then he looked over at Amelia. She was
still standing up against the fence, her books held tightly against
her chest.

When he stood, she
watched his every movement like she was in
shock.

“Are you okay?” He
got up and walked towards her with his hands out. He could feel
every place where Kevin and Ricky’s feet and fists had
connected.

She nodded her
head, and he saw a few more tears form in her green
eyes.

“They—” she took a
deep breath. “They wanted me to get in the car with them. They told
me it was about time they initiated me into the Honeymoon
pact.”

Robert felt like
running after those two. The Honeymoon pact was a pact the football
team had to sleep with all the attractive girls in the school,
whether they wanted it or not. In short, he’d just saved her from
being abducted and raped by two jerks.

“You’re okay.
They’re gone now.”

Todd walked over to
him. “Are you okay? You’re lip is bleeding.”

He wiped his mouth
with his sleeve. “Yeah, they hit like girls.” They all laughed and
he started feeling a little light headed. The next thing he knew,
he was on the ground with Amelia looking down at him. His head was
in her lap and she was stroking his hair. He thought he could just
lay there forever, looking up into her face.

“Don’t move. Todd
went to get Dr. Stevens,” she said as she ran her fingers through
his hair.

“Why would I want
to move?” He thought he saw her smile, but then he felt a new pain,
one that was so sharp, it left him gasping for
breath.

“It’s okay, you’re
going to be okay. You saved me, you know.” His eyes had closed on
the pain, but now he opened them to see more tears in her eyes.
They ran down her face and dropped onto his
shirt.

He tried to reach
up and wipe them away, but when he moved his arm, the sharp pain
was back.

Damn! Ricky must
have broken his rib.

“Don’t cry. They
aren’t worth it.”

“I’m not crying
over them, you fool. I’m crying because you’re hurt and it’s all my
fault.” She looked a little mad and he wanted to
laugh.

“It’s not your
fault. I’ve been trying to find a reason to kick their butts for a
while now.”

She laughed again
and looked up. “Dr. Stevens is here. If I don’t get time to tell
you later…” She leaned down and placed a soft kiss on his lips. He
could taste her tears, and for a second he thought he smelled
flowers. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

Robert didn’t make
it to his graduation that evening. Instead he spent the night in
the hospital with a broken rib and a punctured lung. He’d heard
that both Ricky and Kevin had missed graduation, as well. They’d
spent the night in a cell down at the sheriff’s office. Considering
that the sheriff was Amelia’s father, they were lucky they were
allowed to bail out the next day.

Of course when
Robert arrived home to his aunt’s place, she had a large gathering
of friends who all praised him as a hero. He was okay with it since
Amelia was there. Her mother hugged and kissed him while tears had
fallen down her face, and her father had shaken his hand like he
owed him everything.

Amelia watched
Robert as he sat across from her. She’d never really paid much
attention to him in school. He’d been one of those kids that had
always stood in the back of the class pictures and was never really
called out from the crowd. But after seeing him fight off the two
boys, she had a new interest in him. While he had been passed out,
and after Todd and Iian left to go get the doctor, she’d had plenty
of time to look at him.

His eyebrows were
dark and his eyelashes were long. His skin looked smooth and when
she’d run her fingers over his face, she’d enjoyed the small
stubble on his jaw. His hair was dark and thick and she’d liked
running her hands through it. He was built like one of the fighters
her dad watched on television every Saturday night, which made her
wonder what he looked like without his shirt on. Would he have the
same rippled muscles that most boxers had?

When his eyes had
opened, she’d gotten lost in the dark chocolate
pools.

How had she not
noticed him before? What was she going to do to make him think she
wasn’t some fool who couldn’t take care of
herself?

Her face heated as
she remembered feeling helpless and afraid. She felt a shiver run
down her back at the memory of Kevin’s hands on her. They had
cornered her, and before Robert stopped them, they had both grabbed
her chest and had pinched her until she almost
cried.

Looking over at
Robert, she wondered what his hands would feel like on her. She
watched as he got up and made his way towards her. He held his
sides a little and she could see him cringe slightly from the
pain.

“Can I sit here?”
He nodded towards the side of the couch her mother had just left.
When she nodded, he slowly sat down.

“Are you
okay?”

“Yeah, it only
hurts when I laugh.” He smiled at her.

“Well, I’ll make
sure not to tell you any jokes.” She liked seeing his eyes spark
when he smiled at her. “What are your plans now that you’ve
graduated?”

He looked across
the room at his aunt. His aunt, Daisy, had been confined to a wheel
chair for as long as Amelia could remember.

“Well, I was
actually planning to leave tomorrow. I’m heading south for a while.
But with this,” he motioned to his side, “I may be delayed a few
days.”

“South?”

“New Mexico. It’s
where I’m from.”

“What will you do
there?”

He looked at her
and she thought she saw sadness in his eyes.

“I haven’t figured
that out yet. I just know that I have to get away from here for a
while. Maybe I’ll travel for a while, you know, see the
world.”

It sounded
wonderful to Amelia. She had one more year of school, then her
father and mother had already planned for her to attend college in
Portland, close enough that they could keep an eye on her. Which
wasn’t too bad; after all, she loved her parents. But being able to
travel and see the world sounded wonderful.

“Well, I hope
you’ll look me up when you get back.”

He smiled at her
and reached for her hand. “Don’t let those guys corner you again.
Promise me you’ll be careful.”

She nodded her head
and wished more than anything that they were alone in the room. She
wanted to feel his lips on hers again. Ever since she’d kissed
them, she’d imagined doing it again.

Ten years later

R
obert’s car almost
stalled as he pulled into Pride. The thing was on its last leg and
he’d been lucky to get this far. When he pulled up in front of
O’Neil’s Grocery on Main, he realized he was glad to be
home.

As he parked,
people turned their heads and looked to see who had just driven
into town. He sat behind the wheel for almost a minute before he
stepped out. When he did, the greetings immediately started. First
the old men outside the barber shop yelled over to him. Then it was
Mary and Betty, who had been walking into the grocery store. They
both rushed over to give him hugs, then talked his ear off for over
ten minutes. He finally pulled himself away from the pair and made
it into the store to purchase some fresh flowers to give his aunt.
He just couldn’t see himself going home empty-handed. Not after
everything she’d done for him.

It took almost
another half an hour to get out the doors with the small bouquet in
his hands. He knew that word traveled fast in town and thought that
the news of him coming home might actually reach his aunt before he
had a chance to step foot on her doorstep.

He was happy to see
her sitting on the front porch, waiting for
him.

“Betty called.” She
smiled up at him.

“Of course she
did.” He kissed her cheek and handed her the flowers as a tear fell
down her cheek. She’d aged a lot in the time he’d been gone. So
much so that he started to feel guilty for being gone so
long.

It took him a week
to get back into the swing of things. Since leaving, he’d done
exactly what he’d planned. First he’d gone to New Mexico to try and
track down his mother and Roy. After almost five years of working
with the police there and coming up with a bunch of dead ends, he’d
moved on and traveled for a while. A few years later he’d received
a call from the Nevada police saying they’d found his mother’s car,
so he’d rushed across the country. But instead of finding a trail
to his mother, he’d found Roy.

The car had been
abandoned in a parking lot at a casino. When he’d tracked down the
security footage, he’d seen the frail old man on the video and
immediately known it was Roy.

Roy’s trail lead
him from casino to casino. Tracking him had given Robert so much
satisfaction, almost like he was on a hunt. The closer he got, the
more energy he felt.

But then the trail
had gotten cold and he’d headed back home. In all his time
traveling, he’d studied. While in New Mexico he’d killed his time
taking police courses, and to make money, he’d ended up working on
the force. But his entire focus had been finding his
mother.

Being a cop had
just come naturally

, so the first
thing he did on the Monday morning after he returned to Pride was
walk into the sheriff’s office and apply for a job. He was greeted
and hired on the spot. Evidently several of the deputies had moved
out of town and they were extremely shorthanded. He and Sheriff
Blake were the only two working there besides Stacy, the clerk and
dispatcher.