Page 3 of Holly, Jolly, and Oh So Naughty

All she wants is a hug.

“Mommy, Mommy, you’ll never guess!” Emma bounces around excitedly as I stand and take her rucksack from her shoulders.

“What is it?” I ask her, quickly waving goodbye to Amelia, her teacher and my best friend. Taking her fist in my hand, we walk down the hallway toward the doors, weaving between the sea of children and parents, all sharing that after-school moment.

“I got three gold stars today!” Emma’s so excited that she can barely keep still.

“That’s amazing!”

When we make it to the steps, she pulls her hand away from mine and comically stomps down each step to the bottom. Once there, she pauses and holds out her hand.

“Come on, Mommy,” she says matter-of-factly as if my descent is holding her up.

“I’m here, I’m here. Okay, tell me. What did you get the stars for?”

“I got one for my reading.” Emma counts it out on her hand with her pink folder tucked under one arm. “One for helping Katie with her knee because she fell in the playground, but I got her up and helped her inside. And one for feeding the fish!”

“Aww, Emma. That’s brilliant! I’m proud of you, sweetie.”

“I know!” Emma continues her stomping as we walk toward my car.

“Why are you walking like that?”

“Like what?” She glances innocently up at me.

“Like this.” Holding her rucksack up, I mimic her stomping steps until she squeals and pushes into me.

“Mommy, stop!” Emma giggles. “You’re not doing it right!”

“Okay, then how am I supposed to do it? And why are you doing it?”

“Because.” Emma stops abruptly and places one hand on her waist. “BecauseMrs. Grant said that powerful walking is a good way to confed—confrid… confiderence!”

It’s becoming hard to hold in my laughter. “Do you mean confidence?”

“Yeah!” Emma resumes her stompy walking and it suddenly clicks for me. Emma may have taken thepowerfulwalking tip literally.

“Is it working? Do you feel confident?”

“Yeah!” Emma declares as we reach my car. “I need it ’cause… ’cause Keiran and his friend Martin were being mean to me today.”

“Wait, what?” My heart drops to my gut. “What happened?”

“It’s nothin’,” Emma says casually, pulling open the car door. I help her inside, and as I’m clipping her into her booster seat, I lock eyes with her.

“If they’re being mean to you, sweetie, we can do something about it, okay?”

“You can’t,” Emma says, and she pats my cheek with one small hand. “Only Daddy can!”

A chill whips down my spine. “What?”

“They said–they said that they don’t believe I had a dad an’ that’s why Grandpa always comes to the dance. I told them I do and that he’s just away, like you say.” Emma sniffles and settles into her seat. “They don’t believe me ’cause they never seen him, but I told them I’m gonna ask him this year and this year, he can come with me, right, Mommy?”

She stares up at me with such an intense innocence that my heart breaks.

“Emma…”

“You can call him, right? I told them you would.”

---