Page 70 of Sweetheart

"Still, I bet they'd want to know."

He grinned. "You think so?"

"Absolutely." Sam nodded. "Mom and Dad love you. They want to be a part of all your achievements. You know that,Bennet."

"I'll show them my badge later."

"You do that."AsBennet went to turn away, Sam said, "Hey, wait."

I watched as Sam reached forward to straighten his little brother's vest, and something inside my chest melted.

"There. You're all set."

And that wasn't the only heart-melting scene.

We took Betty to her dance lesson next, and it was like stepping intoanother world. Thewomen in the lobby all fawned over Sam like he was a rockstar or something. Betty rolled her eyes at their antics, but I found the whole thing entertaining.

"Is it always like this?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she said with a sigh. "Sometimes, it's worse.My brother basically has his own fan club."

"Oh really?"

"He gets asked out at least once every lesson.All of them have daughters or granddaughters."

Sam was blushing while he unentangled himself from the crowd. As he made his way over to us, there was an adorable look of embarrassment on his face.

"You okay, Bets?" he asked.

She smiled. "Areyouokay?"

Before he could answer, a woman who I assumed was Betty's teacher came out. She took one look at Betty and tsked. "Miss Bishop, get that hairup and out of your face, please. And before you argue," she said, cutting off the girl'sprotests, "we've been over this. It's part of the dress code."

"But—"

"Hair up. Now."

At that, she left, and Sam stepped forward. "It's okay, Bets. I'll do your hair."

Betty gave him a pained look. "I love you, Sam. You know that, right?"

"Yeah…"

"But you're terrible at hair."

"I'm not that bad," he said.

"You kind of are."

When he went to argue, she held up a hand.

"Plus, I have wild hair like Mom. You know it never wants to stay put. I told Miss Arnold that, but she doesn't believe me."

"I'll do it," I said, coming over and taking a brush, hair ties, and some bobby pinsout of my purse. "My sister and I used to do each other's hair all the time."

"You did?" Betty said.

I nodded. "My dad couldn’t braid to save his life. And ponytails? Yeah right, he had us looking like unicorns with all the bumps."

---