He nodded. “A dickwad.”

“A real shit for brains.” She added several other insults.

Then a younger voice added, “How about a fart-knocker?”

She and Xavier paused as Sam joined them.

Justine’s face turned bright red.

“Hi, Justine. You look pretty today.” Sam flirted for all he was worth and managed to squeeze between her and Xavier on the bench. “I’m sorry you had a bad day.”

“Sorry I cursed. I didn’t know you were around.”

“It’s okay.” Sam patted her knee. “I hear a lot worse at school.”

“When’s your last day?” Xavier asked, amused at how Sam tried to cut him away from Justine.

The boy turned to him, subtly sliding closer to Justine. “This Friday, actually. Uncle Adam and Rylan and me are going on vacation for a week in Hawaii.”

“Wow. That’s awesome.” Justine gave him a smile. “I bet you’ll have a great time.”

“You should come,” Sam said.

“Ah, that sounds more like a family vacation. Plus, I have work.”

“You should quit. That Frank guy sounds like a real dickass.”

Justine covered her face.

“That’s pretty good,” Xavier said, doing his best not to laugh. “What else you do you have?”

“Douchenoggin is pretty popular at school. Or deadshit. Then there’s assclown.”

“What grade are you in again?”

“Ninth. Almost. In two more days, actually.” Sam puffed up his chest. “If you want, Justine, I can talk to the dickass for you.”

“Um, no, that’s okay.” She patted him on the shoulder, and the kid looked like he’d been knighted by the queen. “For being such a nice guy, how about the next time I go for ice cream, I grab you a cone? Xavier, you too.”

Sam shot him a dirty look but was all smiles at Justine. “Sounds good. I like chocolate with sprinkles.”

“Vanilla with sherbet,” Xavier said. “Though if you wanted to be fancy, rainbow jimmies are the best.”

“What’s a jimmie?” Sam had to know.

Xavier explained the difference between jimmies and sprinkles. They were different names for the same thing, but it gave Sam something over which to argue.

“Sam, where...” Adam sighed as he walked over. “Boy, did I not tell you to at least leave a note if you go out?”

“Hey, Uncle Adam.” Sam nodded to his uncle, who was still dressed in his uniform and looked beyond tired. “Can you believe this douchnozzle calls sprinkles jimmies?”

Xavier noticed that Justine seemed much happier than she’d been when he joined her, and he had to hand it to Sam for distracting her from her terrible day.

But after the boy left with his uncle, Justine’s expression drooped.

“Hey, tell you what.” He shouldn’t. He’d been doing his best to give her space, to let her come to him on her terms. It had been a hellish two days. Three counting today, but she needed a distraction. “Why don’t you go clean up and come on down to my place? We can watch whatever you want, and I’ll make you dinner or snacks if you already ate.”