Chapter 49

It wasn’t easy. I’d been short-tempered on my arrival, and it grew shorter by the minute. I couldn’t put my finger on why, except to know that every time she said anything remotely negative about Peter, I felt like channeling my inner three-year-old and shoving her into the sandpit

Rather than say something that would make the situation more tense, I shifted my attention back to the boys. They’d stopped running around. Sam’s back was to me, but I had the perfect view of Morgan arguing with another kid, a boy with twenty pounds and three inches on Morgan’s lanky frame. Their voices were raised, though I couldn’t make out the words. As I was about to step forward and find out what was going on, the older boy shoved Morgan.

Morgan’s response was instant. He reacted so quickly, I almost thought he must have some secret self-defense training I didn’t know about. He pushed the boy’s arms away with one hand and used the other to hit the larger child in the face. He fell flat on his ass, and I temporarily lost sight of both of them as the rest of the kids clustered around the fight. We were both moving by then, but Christina reached the kids first—though not in time to stop Morgan from kicking the bigger kid in the thigh.

“Morgan Irving, what do you think you’re doing?” Christina demanded, grabbing Morgan by the arm and half pulling, half dragging him away from his opponent.

“I was defending Sam.”

My head snapped over to Sam. His shirt was dusty, and a scrape grated his left forearm. I bolted for him, kneeling down to search for any other signs of injury. “What happened?”

Sam swallowed. All color had leeched from his face, but his breathing wasn’t labored. “He called me a baby.”

“Why?”

“Because I couldn’t keep up with Morgan.”

“We were playing tag,” Morgan explained.

I ran my fingers lightly over Sam’s arm. “How did you get hurt?”

“He shoved me into the tree.”

“Did not! You’re a liar!”

I straightened and glared at the bully. “So why don’t you tell me how he got hurt?”

“He fell.”

“Because you pushed him!” Morgan tried to spring forward again, but Christina yanked him back.

“Morgan, that is nothow we solve problems,” Christina said sternly. “Now I want you to apologize to…what’s your name?”

“Eddie.”

“I want you to apologize to Eddie for hitting him and kicking him.”

“I won’t.”

“Yes, you will. You know better than this.”

“I won’t,” Morgan shouted, “and you can’t make me.”

Christina’s smile was downright chilly. “Then say goodbye to Sam, because you won’t be playing with him again until you do.”

“Now wait a minute.” I stepped forward, blocking Christina’s view of the other kids. “He didn’t start this.”

“I don’t care who started it. I don’t condone violence, Mr. Hardison. Morgan has to understand what he did was wrong.”

“It’s wrong to defend your friends from someone who’s a threat?”

“It’s wrong to respond with violence. We were standing right there. If he was having a problem with somebody, he should have come to us.”

I snorted. “Right. Because then he won’t look like a sissy who needs to go running to his mom every time something goes wrong.”

Christina narrowed her eyes, and I thought she might let me have it right there in front of the kids. But she bit back her response and looked down to where Morgan was struggling to escape her grip. “Come on, Morgan. We’re going home.”

“Stop. I don’t want to go.”

“I don’t care. If you won’t apologize, then you can’t stay at the park.” She looked back to me. “Regardless of your opinion.”

When she started to drag Morgan away, Sam darted around her to block the way to the sidewalk. “Please, don’t make him go, Mrs. Irving. It was all my fault—”

“It was no such thing, Sam.” There was no way in hell I was going to let him shoulder the blame, though I didn’t pull him aside from being in her way. “Never apologize for a bully.” I scowled at Christina. “If they think they can get away with it, they’ll never stop.”

“You can’t just go around throwing punches to solve all of life’s problems.”

“But he was shoving me. And he shoved Sam,” Morgan protested. “Dad wouldn’t make me apologize.”

“Don’t bring your father into this, Morgan. He isn’t here.”

“Maybe he should be.” I couldn’t take the words back once they came out of my mouth, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to, either. “You have equal custody. Equal say. His opinion should get a vote.”

“Oh, I’ll definitely be discussing the situation with him. He’ll need to know how long Morgan will be on restriction, for one thing. But that’s a family discussion.”

“I can’t believe you’re going to punish him for standing up for someone weaker than him.” I didn’t care that the kids were listening to us argue. “He didn’t even take the first swing.”

“And I can’t believe you still think your opinion is welcome.” With that, she began dragging Morgan toward the park gate. Sam made another move to block her, but I caught him and held him back. He was so upset he was shaking, and quite frankly, I didn’t blame him. Especially since Morgan was still struggling to break away from her grasp.