"Wait, what?" I said stunned that she was telling me this, but more stunned that I had no idea that this had happened.
"We stayed with my uncle Patrick last night but, he lives in the church, so there's no room for us. Besides, Leah and Patrick don't get along," she confessed. The more she talked, the easier it seemed to flow, so I stayed silent and let her tell me as much as she wanted to. I would ask questions once she'd gotten the whole story out.
"Leah says that we can stay in a hotel for a couple of nights, but I think she forgot to pay the insurance policy," Riley continued. "I heard her arguing with Uncle Patrick about selling the house, and she was crying because we don't have any place to live. She thinks it's her fault, but it isn't. It's Gram's fault for smoking and drinking."
I listened as the whole story came tumbling out of Riley's mouth. The grandmother who was an alcoholic, the uncle who was a priest, the missing mother, and all of it seemed to fall on Leah's shoulders. Riley talked about getting suspended and, as she did, she began to cry.
"Oh, now wait a minute," I said as I slid out of my chair and kneeled on the floor in front of her. I took her hand and said, "Why did you get in a fight with that girl in the first place?"
"She said mean things about my mom," Riley sniffed as she wiped the back of her free hand across her eyes. "She called my mom a whore and a junkie. I was sick of it."
"Sounds like just cause to me," I said. "Listen, when I was a kid, I was always getting in fights and getting suspended from school. My mother would scold me and tell me I had to do better—try and get along with people—but nobody ever asked me why I was fighting in the first place."
"Why did you fight?" she asked as she sniffed back a small sob.
"I didn't like it when the bullies picked on the little kids who couldn't fight back," I said quietly. "I knew what that felt like."
"You fought the big kids so they wouldn't beat up the little ones?" she asked hopefully.
"Yeah, but I didn't do a very good job of it," I admitted. "I wasn't much of a fighter."
"Doesn't matter," she said squeezing my hand. "You didn't let them just pick on those kids. I bet those kids were really glad someone stood up for them."
"I don't know," I shrugged, trying not to remember the moments of sheer terror I felt as I trudged home from school carrying yet another suspension notice in my backpack and knowing that at some point that evening I'd have to face my father.
"I do," she said patting my shoulder. "Because a couple of times there have been bigger kids who've stood up and defended me, and it felt good to know that I had someone looking out for me."
"Thanks," I said, giving her a grateful smile before redirecting the conversation. "But what are you guys going to do?"
"Me and Leah? Aw, we'll be okay," she said waving a hand at me as if none of this was a big deal. "We always find a way to get by."
"Is that so?" I said with an amused grin. There was something about her casual confidence that made her incredibly endearing.
Just then, Norma knocked on the door and said that I had an urgent call from one of the suppliers. Riley nodded at me and got up to go with Norma. As she reached the door, she turned around and said, "Thanks for the talk, Jack. I feel better. I hope you do, too."
Before I could answer, she turned and quietly closed the door behind her. I walked over to the desk, determined to end the call as quickly as possible because I had an idea about how to solve a number of problems.
The question was whether Leah would accept my solutions.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Leah
Late in the day, after I'd resolved the issues between the warehouse workers and the construction crew and ironed out a number of issues with large orders that Sloan had generated, I got a call from Norma asking me to come up to Jack's office.
My stomach flipped over as I tried to anticipate what he might want. I couldn't help but recall the way that we'd almost kissed, and then my face burned with shame remembering how Jack had pulled away when Sloan had caught us. I told myself that what he wanted was nothing more than a professional run down of the warehouse and, as the manager, I was obligated to give him the figures. I gathered my reports and headed up to his office with a sinking feeling in my gut.
"Well, now aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" Norma exclaimed as I walked through the door. She studied me for a moment and then said, "What's eating at you, darlin’? You look like you been rode hard and put up wet."
"Thanks, Norma," I said with a grimace. "You know how to make a girl feel good."
"Aw, honey, now don't go gettin' your knickers in a knot," Norma said with a smile as she pushed her jar of hard candy towards me. "Here, have a sweet treat, and tell me what's going on."
"I don't want to talk about it," I said as I reached in and grabbed a butterscotch disc.
"Sure you do," she said as she followed suit. "Unburdening yourself always feels good. Besides, maybe there's something I can do to help. You never know."
"My mother burned us out of our house yesterday, and we have no place to stay," I blurted out.