Page 27 of My Orc Pen Pal

“Oh,Hannah, it’s really not that bad.” I couldn’t resist the urge to reach across the table and place my hand on the other woman’s arm, who was staring down at the paper she held in shaking hands. “Really. Benjamin can turn these grades around. I just wanted you to be aware…”

“It’s an alarming trend,” the other woman rasped, trying to control her emotions. “His grades began to dip right around the time…”

Right around the time her husband finally left.

“They’re only recently becoming alarming,” I pointed out, leaning over to tap the most recent grades. “Hecanpull his average up, if he wants.”

“Thank you.” Hannah Woods took a deep breath and carefully placed the paper down, then smoothed it out. “I will… I will talk to him about this. And if third grade just isn’t his year, then…” She shrugged, not meeting my eyes. “Well, he has a good excuse. He’ll rebound next year, hopefully.”

I hadn’t removed my hand, and now I squeezed her arm. “Is he okay? At home, I mean?”

The other woman shifted, pulling her arm out from my hold, but then taking my hand in hers and finally meeting my eyes, her own sad. “Since Travis left, I think Benny believes he…needs to be the man of the house.” Her lips twitched ruefully. “Not that his father was much of a help. Or a man.”

This was the opening I needed. “I…wanted to mention something else.” Hannah’s eyes turned scared, and I hurried to reassure her. “Oh, it’s nothing bad. It’s just that…you know on Fridays I do Q&A with the kids, and answer whatever questions they have about life? Well, for the last few weeks, all of Benjamin’s questions have revolved around love and marriage.Is love real, that sort of thing.”

Hannah smiled sadly. “Yes, I suppose it’s been on his mind a lot. His father and I officially split a while ago, but we cohabitated and tried to pretend everything was normal. At least, I was.” From her grimace, there was more to the story. “When Travis finally walked away and I won full custody, I had to sit Tova and Benny down and explain everything, which wasn’t easy.”

I squeezed her hand and whispered, “I can imagine not.”

“Their little brother is too young to understand, thank goodness, but I had to come up withsomethingto tell them, and maybe I should have given it more thought.” She blew out a breath and glanced down at the paper. “I told them that sometimes people fall out of love with one another.”

What a heartbreaking lesson for a third grader to learn. I winced. “I’m sorry. I know you don’t believe in love anymore?—”

The other woman’s head snapped up. “What? I believe in love.”

Flustered, I pulled my hand away and busied myself stacking papers. “Of course! There’s all sorts of love in the world, that’s what I told them. But I just meantromanticlove…getting marriedlove.”

Hannah was watching me now, head cocked to the side, a thoughtful expression on her face. “Ro, just because I put my faith and trust in the wrong man doesn’t mean I was wrong.”

I froze. “What do you mean?”

“Love is a partnership?—”

“Yes!” I interrupted. “That’s what I’ve always said!”

But the other woman was shaking her head, as if I didn’t understand. “A marriage is a partnership in which you trust the other person to love you enough to always put you first. If you both do it, it works.” She blew out a breath. “I guess I started putting the kidsbefore Travis…”

I lunged forward again to grab her hand. “Don’tblame yourself because he was a dirtbag who was jealous of his own kids!”

Her smile was soft, sad again. “Thank you.” She squeezed my hand. “You’re sweet. But… Idobelieve love is out there. For all of us. Just because I made the wrong choice once before doesn’t mean I’m going to do it again.”

That was…interesting.

I made it through the rest of the after-school meeting trying to focus as much as possible on the proposed plans to get Benjamin focused on his schoolwork and less anxious about his home life. But then, when Hannah went next door to pick up her two oldest from where they were hanging out in Nikki’s classroom, I sat back in my chair with a thoughtful frown.

Here was a woman whose marriage had fallen apart. Granted, it sounded like Benjamin’s dad had been a total deadbeat, but I didn’t know all the details. I just knew that the marriage had collapsed, despite them living together. The man she believed was going to be her forever had turned out to be wrong.

But she still believed in love.

She still believed there was someone out there for her, someone better.

Was that naïve?

Shaking my head, I began to clean up.

Hannah deserved someone trustworthy. Someone whowouldput her first, through everything. Someone strongenough to take on half her life and more. Someone caring enough to open his heart to her and the kids and put her before himself.

Someone like…

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