They kept their eyes forward, both of them watching the kids play, both scanning the faces of the people assembled.

“ ‘Shorty’?”

“You arguing that you’re not?”

“If you weren’t so abnormally large, I wouldn’t be.” He snorted. “Thank you.”

“I need to make a phone call. Will you . . .”

“What? Just ask me and it’s yours.” Christ, the moment words left him, he realized how very true that was. Everything inside him went still for a moment and then clicked into place.

“Will you just . . . Don’t let anyone get near her.”

“Of course.” He turned her head, tipping it so he could see into her eyes. “Baby, you two are my girls. I’ll protect you. I’ll protect you both. Do you trust me?”

She nodded. “Yes. But I don’t want to burden you with my shit.” She leaned in and kissed him before taking one more look at Rennie and heading inside.

Her hands shook so hard she had to take a quick shot of tequila before she could dial the darned phone.

“Childers.”

“Frank, thank God it’s you. I’m sorry to bother you on a Saturday. It’s Elise Sorenson and I’ve just been served with legal papers. The Sorensons are trying to take her again. I thought they couldn’t! I thought this was done.”

He sighed. “Damn those people. Honey, can you fax the papers to me?”

“Yes. I have a machine here at home.”

“Okay. Get them to me and I’ll look them over and call you tomorrow unless there’s something really concerning. Try not to let this get to you. We’ll make sure Irene is protected.”

“How did they find out where I was?”

He sighed again. “I don’t know, but it can’t be that hard. You’re running a school under your name. A little bit of investigative work and they’d know. They used investigators before.” “I hate them. How long will this be a threat?”

“We’ll make sure they can’t after this. Just fax me the papers so I can see them too. I imagine my office will be getting a copy of the filing, but they’re not overly trustworthy.”

“I’m faxing this right now,” she said, looking out her front windows toward where Rennie played with her band of guardian angels. “Thank you so much. I’m sorry to bother you on your weekend. I didn’t, well, I hope I didn’t interrupt.”

He laughed. Frank Childers was a very old family friend, she’d grown up thinking he was family because she saw him and his wife, Veronica, so much.

“Honey, you know you can call me anytime you need me. Now, try and relax. It might be wise to be sure the school knows not to release Irene to anyone but you and your folks.”

She closed her eyes against that fear and thanked him again before hanging up.

By the time she went back outside, the shaking had stopped, but she’d read enough to figure out they were trying to declare Elise unfit and take sole custody. The papers filed charged a significant change in circumstances and appealed to the court, located in another county she noted, to intercede to grant them custody and stop Elise from seeing Rennie at all.

As she’d anticipated, her parents and Brody looked up expectantly when she approached the group.

“Mom! I blocked two goals. So Adrian let me have a bite of his ice cream. Just one bite and I stopped running around and rested and Adrian let me sit in his lap and he sang me and Nina a song. How awesome is that?”

Elise couldn’t help but laugh. “Take a breath there. Sounds like an awesome time was had by all. Weren’t we going to do some painting?” The best way to get through was to focus on something. This was supposed to be fun. No reason to let them hurt her any more than they already had.

“Yay!” Nina and Rennie jumped up and down.

Maggie held up a bag. “I brought some old T-shirts from home. The kids can wear them while they paint.”

“Good idea.” Elise moved to the table and covered it in butcher paper while Maggie and Erin taped it down. One of the other mothers put out containers for paint.

Elise loved this kind of stuff. Ken’s parents didn’t do this with him. They never did it with Rennie either. They never let her run around, never took her to the park, never took her to a movie and let her have a blue Slushee just because. They didn’t know her favorite color, they didn’t know how she liked her eggs cooked, and they didn’t know which pair of shoes was her current favorite.

Elise did.

Elise was her mother. Elise had taken care of Rennie without Ken’s help since Rennie had been born, and there was no f**king way those ass**les would steal her child out of spite. Irene was hers.

“You all right?” Erin asked quietly as they worked to set everything up.

“No. No, I’m not. But I have to be right now for Rennie.”

Erin nodded. Elise appreciated Erin so much, so much she didn’t know if words could ever capture it. Erin understood her in a way few others did. This on top of being a really fun person. They’d grown even closer since sharing their pasts. She had a best girlfriend for the first time in over a decade and it mattered.

“You know where I am if you need to talk. If you need anything. All you have to do is ask.”

She hugged Erin briefly and began to squirt the paint into the containers as Maggie helped get the kids into the T-shirts. Once the painting began, the moms just stood back and tried to stay out of the way. Quietly, she gave Erin a very brief overview and asked if Todd or Ben could come over and check that her home security was in good order.