Indomitable Spirit (5 page)

A few minutes later Jacob and Abby came to her with their shoes and coats on.

“I have class tomorrow at three as well. Will you be here?”

A concerned look shifted between the two.

“I’d like to, ma’am. But our dad can’t afford this.”

Kym nodded slowly. “Do you think you could do another chore tomorrow to help me?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The words were obviously coming easier now.

“I’d like to have you both in class tomorrow.”

They nodded.

“I have something for you.” She came around the counter with the belts in her hand. Both of the children’s eyes grew wide.

Kym knelt on the floor. She held one belt in both hands and bowed to Abby as she handed her the belt and then repeated the move to Jacob.

He was smiling bigger than she’d seen any child smile.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“You’re welcome. Bring them tomorrow and I will teach you how to tie them on.”

They both smiled and nodded as they started for the door.

Kym stood up. “By the way. What is your last name?”

“Larson,” Abby said quickly.

The name stabbed into Kym. “Larson? Are you Kelley’s kids?”

Jacob stepped in front of his sister as if to keep her quiet. “No, ma’am. John is our father.”

She felt as though someone had reached into her chest and squeezed her heart. “Oh.” Her voice had dipped and she didn’t like that.

“I’d like to talk to him about you training.”

The kids exchanged concerned looks again. “I don’t think he’d like that.” Jacob looked away and then back at her. “Ma’am.”

“Okay.” She forced a smile on her face. “If you will help me out I will train you. Do we have a deal?”

Jacob nodded and smiled freely. “Thank you, ma’am.”

He turned and all but pushed Abby out the door as they ran off.

Kym walked back around the counter and sat down in the chair. John Larson was married with children and the thought had never crossed her mind. She hated that she even cared. He was a horrible, cranky, mean man. But when she’d held his hand and wrapped it in gauze she hadn’t felt that.

She was desperate to have something for herself. But it certainly wasn’t John Larson.

Maybe she’d still make that friendship connection with Kelley. Kym still needed a friend and now they had Jacob and Abby in common.

As her next two students walked into the school, Kym stood up and smiled.

She had priorities now. Looking for a man was not one of them.

***

John paced his kitchen waiting for his son and daughter to walk through the door. It had been three days of staying after school to kick around a soccer ball—two days of them coming in later than the four o’clock they’d agreed on—and three days he hadn’t seen them on the field as he drove by.

Jacob and Abby ran through the door and stopped immediately when they saw him standing there.

“It is four-ten.”

“Yes, sir,” Jacob said moving in front of Abby as he often did when he was about to take blame for something.

“We agreed you’d be home by four and this is the second day you’ve been late.”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

John moved toward him. “And what’s with the ‘yes, sir?’ You sound guilty of something.”

Jacob shook his head. “No, sir,” his eyes widened when he said it. “I’m just being polite.”

John looked at Abby who stood behind her brother with her eyes diverted. Oh these two were up to no good and he was going to catch them in the act.

“Go get cleaned up and we’ll have dinner in a little bit. Jacob, get your homework started.”

“Yes, si…dad,” he said as he took Abby’s hand and they ran down the hall.

John’s mother poked her head around the corner of the kitchen with Cody balanced on her hip. “Why did you let him off the hook?”

“Because I’m going to let him lead me right to the trouble he’s causing. I’m going to follow him right out of school on Monday and see where he goes.”

“Why don’t you trust him?”

“Did you see how he shielded her? She’s keeping his secret.”

His mother laughed, set Cody on the floor and watched as he toddled off. “John Larson, I remember you turning this town inside out when you were little. You and Chris Douglas and even Wil caused more trouble than that boy.”

“Why do you think I intend to stop him? I know the possibilities.”

She shook her head. “You turned out just fine. So will he.”

Again, she blew him a kiss and let herself out the backdoor.

His mother was right. Chris and Wil came up with the best ideas when they were younger. But John was the one to carry out all the deeds. Oh, he’d had a switch to his rear more times than he could count. Then he thought about the time he’d punched Cade Carter right in the mouth because he’d made a move on his sister. Who would have thought the retired professional football player would end up teaching gym at the high school and marrying Olivia, the girl who had lived next door to Cade growing up?

The town was small enough that everyone was close to everyone else, even if they hadn’t wanted to be. But there was still room for too much trouble. He didn’t want that for Jacob. He already had enough to worry about. John would do everything he could to protect his sons and daughter. If that meant following him and reprimanding him in public to make a point, he’d do it.

Monday was going to be interesting.

Chapter Five

Kym tied on her belt and studied herself in the mirror. She was ten years old the day her grandfather tied her first black belt around her waist. A day didn’t go by that she didn’t wear the belt and think of the hard work she’d put into it. Martial arts wasn’t just a sport—it was a way of life. As a teacher, she could share that with everyone—young and old. She had the honor of tying new black belts on children who had put eight hard years of work into it. She’d seen them sometimes transform from trouble maker into disciplined scholars and citizens. That was what she saw in Jacob Larson.

There was trouble in his eyes, the kind that would turn a good kid into a troubled teenager and a misplaced adult. He needed some confidence. He needed inner strength. And somewhere, he needed to learn peace.

What kind of father was John Larson if he didn’t know where his son and daughter were everyday after school? How was it she ever felt anything for the man? First impressions were right. He was just a rude, crabby man. Well, she thought as she tucked her hair up in a tie, if she was going to make a difference in this town she’d start with Jacob Larson. Maybe she could help transform him into something better than what his father was.

Kym pushed back her shoulders and breathed in the calm that she would need for the next four hours. She’d heard the last school bell ring and soon her class would form. Today she was going to teach Jacob to jump and kick. She couldn’t wait to see what he could do.

A few minutes later she saw the parking lot begin to fill with cars and Jacob and Abby were running across the field where other kids played. He held his sister’s hand as they ran toward the school.

Kym stood near the door, her arms crossed over her chest. “Good afternoon, Jacob and Abby.”

“Hello, Ms. O’Bryne.”

“You’d better get changed. Class starts in a few minutes.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She watched the two scurry off with the other students to take off their shoes and store their back packs. Her intention was to present them with uniforms if they kept training for the next few weeks, but for now she didn’t mind them training in their school clothes.

John sat in his truck in the parking lot of the elementary school. Had his children just walked into Kym O’Bryne’s school? What were they doing there? What did that woman offer them? He gripped his steering wheel tight. She could mess with him, but when she included his kids—she was playing with fire.

He drove from the elementary school, getting stopped at the one stop light on Main Street, and fought for street parking in front of O’Bryne’s Karate School.

His jaw was tight and his hands balled into fists as he sat in his truck waiting to see if his kids would come out of the school. But they didn’t. More kids went in and their parents seemed to be seated near the door. Well if his kids were in there watching they were about to find out he didn’t like them there. John Larson wasn’t one to be lied to.

He climbed out of his truck, the ground below him hard and slick. Slamming the door he headed to the entrance.

There were about ten adults standing between him and the floor he’d watched her work on. The very floor he’d had to kick his shoes off to walk across.

She was there in her uniform and her hair pulled back. He didn’t like that seeing her made his whole body warm—with anger he was sure—maybe. John slid through the door and stood behind a woman who had been into the store a few times. She stepped over to make room for him without looking at him.

When he saw his children on the floor with white belts tied around their waist his vision actually blurred. He was so mad he could jump the two rows of folding chairs and have them out of there in ten seconds.

Jacob stood in line, his sister to his side, and they bowed when Kym spoke to them. The entire class did. Then she gave them all a command and they stepped back with their right foot and their hands came up in a guard. Kym adjusted Abby’s hands and then began to count. With each number the students kicked in the air. Abby wobbled from side to side, but Jacob was strong. They yelled something with each kick and he could hear his son’s voice above all the others, even the older students and the one dad who was out there.

As each minute passed, his son and daughter moved from one move to another. Their faces were serious. Sweat dripped from Jacob’s hair. But there was a smile in his eyes.

John felt the pang of regret creeping into his gut. A smile behind blue eyes meant money and he didn’t have any.

Kym looked up from her students for the first time and he caught her eyes. She’d smiled briefly until she obviously saw the narrow gaze he’d laid upon her.

She passed off the class to a teenager with a black belt, whom John recognized from town, and she headed toward him.

“I see you came to check in on your children.”

He took in a chest full of air wanting to give her a piece of his mind. So many things whirled around in his head as he looked down at her and she looked back at him with those green eyes. Oh, he was going to tell her how it was. This was crap—his kids hanging out with her and lying to him. He wasn’t going to have it, but the words weren’t coming.

Kym touched his arm and that huge breath he’d sucked in stuck in his lungs.

“Look,” she said just as Jacob jumped in the air lifting his right leg and then switched his left leg out and kicked the pad the teenager was holding. “He’s a natural.”

Yes he was.

But that had done it. He looked down at her. “They don’t have my permission to be here.”

She nodded as though she knew that. That infuriated him even more.

“Mr. Larson, why don’t we step into my office and discuss this.” She smiled.

“I don’t think I need to.”

But she touched him again. “Yes. Yes you do.” She began to walk away from him and, as if he were under some spell, he followed.

John Larson walked through the door of her small office where she talked to parents and signed students up for classes. He was a big man. Though he hadn’t had to duck to get through the door his head nearly grazed it.

“Please have a seat,” she offered as she sat behind her desk.

He looked around for a moment and then back out the small window where he could see his daughter try the same move her brother had tried before, but she fell.

On instinct he moved to the door, but when she jumped back up and got in line to do it all over again, he stopped.

“Listen, Ms. O’Bryne, I didn’t agree to them being part of all of this.”

“I know. They said I shouldn’t discuss this with you.”

“They what?” He moved to the desk and rested his large hands on it. “You knew my kids were lying to me?”

She stood and met him eye to eye as he leaned over her desk. “I knew that you were too busy working to wonder where they spent their time after school. They chose to spend it here.”

“They told me they were playing soccer.”

“They’ve been learning martial arts, sir. And they are doing a dang good job of it too.”

He stood up and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not paying for this. I didn’t agree to any contracts or anything.”

“I never asked you to pay.”

He moved his hands to his waist. “You expect me to believe you’d just give them lessons?”

Kym stood straight. “Yes.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Sir, I don’t lie.”

“And what is with all the sirs?” He sat in the chair in front of her desk as if he no longer had the energy to stand any longer. “All week it has been yes sir, no sir.”

She smiled. “Then they are learning discipline.”

“By saying that—that’s discipline?”

“It’s one step.”

She sat down behind her desk again and rested her hands, her fingers laced, atop it.

“Jacob is a fine young man. He needs some structure.”

“And your kind of structure costs lots of money.”

“Again, I didn’t ask you to pay for classes.”

He ran his hand over his chin and she could hear the whiskers rub against his palm. “And why is that? I’m a business man. You can’t expect to make a living giving away your service.”

“Jacob and Abby both have been helping out to earn their classes.”

“Abby is six. What could she possibly do around here?”

Kym worked very hard to keep the smile from forming. “She has cleaned bathrooms, dumped trash, swept the floor, straightened chairs—shall I go on?”

“And that’s good enough for them to take a class?”

“It seems to be amicable.”

John ran his hand over the back of his neck. “Jacob has done his homework every night this week.”

Now she smiled. “And when he’s turned in his perfect assignments to me to look at he’s received a stripe on his belt.”