“The fight wasn’t even my fault, but since I threw the first punch, the rules say that I started it.”

“Did you finish it?” Zed asked.

Her nod was slow and her sigh audible. “Ryson came up to me in the hallway soon as I got to my locker and tried to hand me a joint. When I refused it, he tried to put it in my pocket, so I took a step back and it fell on the floor. Then he whispered that I could take Cassidy’s place if I’d just pick it up. He said he didn’t date good girls. So if I wanted what Cassidy got, then I had to dirty up my act. That’s when I decked him.”

Payton leaned forward and checked her face for bruises. “That sorry little punk. Did he hit you back?”

Zed’s hands shook, and he knotted them into fists. Damn little punk, talking to his baby girl like that—he ought to be beat on like he was a pi?ata.

“He’s a lot bigger than me, but I don’t think he ever took martial arts classes like I did,” she said. “He doubled up his fists and took a swing, but I blocked it and gave him a pretty good workin’ over by the time the teachers pulled us apart.”

“And then?” Payton asked.

“Then we went to the office right along with Mr. Green, who’d seen everything. He didn’t hear what Ryson said, but he saw the business with the joint and all. Ryson was supposed to spend the rest of the year in suspension, but his mama came and checked him out of school. I heard that he’ll be homeschooled.”

“How would you like to be stuck at home every day like Ryson is going to be and never see kids your age?” Payton asked.

“Not very good, but I don’t feel a bit sorry for him,” she said. “A bunch of the kids on the bus told me that if they could they’d go to suspension a day for me, so I guess I made some new friends. But Mama is goin’ to be disappointed because I didn’t control my temper. It’s just that I was so mad at him. Poor Cassidy thinks that he loves her and he was only using her and if I told her that, she wouldn’t believe me.” She stopped to catch her breath. “I’m not going to tell Mama until tonight. You think she’ll ground me for the rest of my life?”

Payton chuckled. “Maybe only until you are forty.”

“Or fifty,” Zed laughed with him.

Brook swung her forefinger around to take both of them in. “It’s not funny.”

“I’d have given my right lung to have seen that fight. I bet it was kind of funny. That big boy thinkin’ he could whip you or, worse yet, turn you into his little pot-smokin’ girlfriend.” Zed slapped his thigh and kept laughing until he had to pull a handkerchief from the pocket of his overalls.

“I bet he’ll be glad to stay at home the rest of his year,” Payton said. “Can you imagine how his tough friends would tease him about a little wisp of a girl whipping his butt?”

Brook stood up and slung her book bag over a shoulder. “I hope Mama thinks like y’all do. I’m off to the laundry to help Aunt Tawny. Is that where Aunt Harper is?”

“Yep, but since the boss is back, you can tell her to come on to the café.” Zed continued to wipe at his eyes.

A wide grin split Brook’s sweet little face, and for a second, Zed took credit for her perfectly even white teeth. He might not share actual DNA with those girls, but he figured he loved them more than blood kin, so he could have passed down his smile to her.

Harper was busy folding towels and Tawny was replenishing the maid’s cart when Brook entered the small laundry building. Tawny motioned for her to come over and inspect the cart.

“I think I’ve got it arranged just like Flora did, but it wouldn’t hurt for you to pass judgment.”

“Wow, I really do feel like a supervisor,” Brook laughed.

“Just remember that supervisin’ brings on lots more responsibilities,” Harper warned.

“Then maybe I don’t want the job. I’ve got enough on my plate as it is.” Brook sighed. “Oh, yeah. Uncle Zed says for you to come on back to the café. But can you wait just five more minutes?” She dropped her backpack on a folding table and nodded at the cart. “Looks like Flora did it herself.”

“What do you need, kiddo?” Harper asked.

“I was wonderin’ if maybe y’all could come to the house tonight and be there when I tell Mama about the trouble I got in today at school. She’s goin’ to be real disappointed in me.” Brook hopped up on the folding table, her legs dangling and her shoulders sagging.

“What happened, honey?” Tawny stopped what she was doing and sat beside her.

Tawny laid a supporting hand on Brook’s knee. She knew what it was like to be apprehensive about having to come home and admit to trouble at school. “Tell us what happened,” she said.

Brook told them the same story, word for word, that she’d told Zed and Payton. “Mama sent me to martial arts classes for a couple of years so I could get rid of my anger, not use it on someone when I was angry, but dammit.” She clamped a hand on her mouth. “I’m not supposed to cuss, either.”

“But dammit”—Tawny grinned—“the way I see it is that you were protecting yourself and not taking the rap for drugs again. Flora is doing the right thing getting Cassidy away from that little thug. I’m proud of you, girl, but you are right, you’ve got to come clean with your mama.”