Page 70 of Heart of a Hero

He shrugged and looked down at his hands on top of the navy comforter. “Don’t eat the food he’d bought, only what Mama brought in. Don’t touch his stuff. One of her boyfriends didn’t want us to leave our room at night except to go to the bathroom. Once, Zannie got sick, and he got mad when I tried to wakeMom.” He shrugged again and looked up at her. “You know. Stuff like that.”

Having worked in nursing for years, Karen had often seen families come in all shapes and sizes. Good families had nothing to do with socioeconomics. It was about the love parents offered a child, modeling how to be a caring adult. She’d seen families with money and status who were horrible at caring for each other and families that had very little, but the children felt loved. She also knew the toll that addiction could cause.

Pushing all that down, she blew out a breath. “Well, if we want to talk about the rules in this house, I will say we respect each other. We listen to each other. And we help each other.”

He stared at her for a long moment as though waiting.

She reached out and cupped his cheek. “Other than that, Marty, I just want you to let me know if there is something you need. My job is to look after you, your sister, and my girls.”

“What about Mr. Mark?”

She pressed her lips together, suddenly wishing Mark was there to answer that question. “He’s my really good friend.”

“Like a boyfriend?”

“Yes. Like a boyfriend.”

“But he doesn’t live here?”

“No. He has his own house where he lives with Benji and Mr. Robbins.”

“How come you don’t live together? We always lived with Mama’s boyfriends, or they lived with us.”

“We’re still new to each other.” She could see the confusion in his eyes, and she licked her bottom lip as she carefully considered her words. She had a feeling that Marty and Zannie had lived in a lot of different places with a lot of different men as his mom’sboyfriends.She wondered what all they had been exposed to that would have been inappropriate for children. She added talking to the school counselor to the growing list ofthings she needed to take care of tomorrow when she dropped them at school. “For many people, it’s a good idea to take time to get to know someone really well before sharing a home.”

Marty stared at her silently, then finally nodded. She could tell he had thought things over carefully. “That makes sense. Sometimes we just get to a place, and then Mama and her new boyfriend start yelling, and then next thing I’d know, she’d grab Zannie and me, and we’d go somewhere else.”

“You don’t have to worry about that for now. All you need to do is sleep in your bed tonight, have fun at school tomorrow, and then come back here. I’ll do everything I can to make it a good day.”

“You work as a nurse during the day when we’re at school?” he asked.

She nodded. “That’s right. I have lots of people who I visit just like Mr. Roscoe.”

“Alan asked about you one time.”

At that, her head jerked back. “I’m sorry? Alan? Your mom’s boyfriend?”

“Yeah. He saw you there and asked Mr. Roscoe what you were doing. I was playing outside, but I heard Mr. Roscoe say you were a nurse.”

“Oh…” she muttered, embarrassed to have caught Alan’s attention.

“But I knew about nurses when we had a career day at school and from the school nurse. Nurses are nice. That’s how Zannie and I knew you’d be nice to talk to.”

A smile easily slipped out. “Thank you. Then I’m glad Alan asked so that you knew you could talk to me. Mr. Roscoe is one of my favorite patients, and he always loved it when you came around. Maybe sometime we can go visit him.”

Marty’s face brightened. “Yeah, I’d like that!” He held her gaze, then asked, “What about Benji? Will we get to play with him again?”

“Absolutely! Plus, you’ll probably see him at school occasionally, even if you’re not in the same grade.”

Marty’s expression eased as though the cares of the world had fallen away. She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “I’ll get you up in the morning in time for breakfast. You won’t have to catch the bus because I’ll take all of you to school. I need to talk to the principal and counselor to let them know you are with me.”

She stood and smiled down at him. “Sleep tight and sweet dreams.”

The smile of wonder on his face made her suspect he’d never had sweet dreams before. Leaving his room, she left the door ajar so the night-light in the hall would give illumination if needed. She popped her head back into Olivia and Zannie’s room, reminding them to stay quiet so they could sleep. She had already taken time, when Zannie was having a bath, to check with Olivia to see how she was doing with having to share her room. Her daughter assured her it was wonderful, but Karen also knew it could be because it was new. She had no idea what would happen when the girls had a fight.

She stepped into Laura’s room and walked over to her beautiful teenager, who was sitting in bed reading. “Hey,” she greeted softly.

“Are you making the rounds?” Laura asked, just as softly.

---