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Jacob gave a soft laugh at that, but the slight shadow which had crossed his face when he was talking about being sad or scared, was still there, and it made David do something he probably should’ve waited on until after the situation with Ashley was wrapped up. But he didn’t, because he realized it needed to be done, especially since David had no intention of ever letting Jacob be within a mile of Liam ever again.
“You know what will also help you if you’re sad, or scared?” David asked. “And help you in the future?”
“What?”
“Me.”
“You?”
“That’s right.” David leaned forward, setting his forearms on the tub’s edge, and holding Jacob’s gaze. “And one way I’m going to do that is to make sure you never see that man, Liam, again.”
At the mention of Liam, Jacob swallowed hard.
“Lauren told me about him tonight,” David said. “I know what he did to you when you were staying with your mom.”
Looking down at the soapy water, Jacob whispered, “He was mean to me.”
“Yes, he was.”
“I hate him.”
“I hate him, too.” David waited until Jacob glanced up. “And if I ever see him, you know what I’m going to do?”
“What?”
“I’m going to use my superpower and punch him in the face, really hard.”
“You will?”
David nodded emphatically. “A bunch of times.”
“Your superpower is punching people?”
Deciding that didn’t sound as good as he’d initially thought, David made a quick adjustment and raised his right arm, flexing it. Pointing at what he hoped looked like a really impressive biceps muscle, he told Jacob, “This is my superpower. Being really strong.”
“But you can use it to punch bad people?”
“Yes, but I can use it for other things, too. Like …” he trailed off, momentarily struck blank, before coming up with, “Moving heavy stuff. Remember when you told Paige that I can move heavy stuff?”
Jacob nodded.
“That’s why I can move heavy stuff, like chairs. Because of my super power.”
Jacob blinked at that, impressed. “How many bad people have you punched?”
He was clearly more interested in David’s punching abilities, than his ability to move chairs, so David decided to go with it. “Only one, so far,” he admitted, not sharing it had been way back in the eighth grade.
“Oh.” Jacob seemed a tad disappointed at that. “But you could probably punch out like, a hundred bad people if you wanted, right?”
“That’s right.”
David waited while Jacob appeared to be envisioning that scene in his head, before finally saying, “Okay.”
“I also know what he said to you,” David told Jacob softly. “Terrible things like you’re a ‘pain in the ass’ and a ‘little shit’, neither of which are true. Liam also told you I’d be mad at you for being a ‘cry-baby’ and a ‘tattletale’ if you told on him, and those aren’t true, either. It’s also not true that I wouldn’t love you anymore, or want you around, because I will always love you and always want you around. He was lying to you, trying to scare you, because he’s a horrible, evil person, and he deserves to be punched in the face every day, for the rest of his miserable life.” David’s voice lowered a notch. “And I swear that he’ll never hurt you again.”
“He won’t?”
“No. Because I’m going to make sure you won’t be spending any more time with him. Starting with this weekend.”
