Secrets (4 page)

“I think this whole stunt was aimed at her mother.”

“Yeah. I see that.”

“How old is Angie?”

“Sixteen. It’s the end of her sophomore year in high school.”

Sarah nearly groaned, God that was a ridiculous age for having a baby. “That’s young.”

“Yeah. That’s way young.”

Sarah cleared her throat. “Your girlfriend was wrong about my intentions.”

Scott raised his head. He frowned at her, his expression puzzled. “My girlfriend? Who? Vanessa? She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Who is Angie to you?”

“She’s my niece.”

His niece
? That is not how Angie portrayed it. But that would better explain who Scott is to Angie and Vanessa. It was all very confusing. “Niece? I thought you were Vanessa’s boyfriend.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Angie told me. She told me you were her mother’s boyfriend and she was Angie Delano.”

He stopped moving. “She said all that?”

“Yes.”

“Hell. She couldn’t just say I’m her uncle? Or tell me she’s pregnant? I don’t know what to do with her. Why is she playing all these games?”

“I think she’s in trouble. I think you’d better convince her mother of that.”

“Vanessa was sixteen when she had Angie. My brother, Angie’s father, was nineteen. He left town, and has nothing to do with either of them.”

“That fell on you?”

“Not at first. Not until later. But now, yeah, it falls on me.”

Sarah considered Scott, totally confused by him. He seemed in one way, careless, rude, almost belligerent, totally letting Vanessa get away with being so vile with no concern or apology. But on the other side Scott’s every action toward Angie was caring, warmth, concern, and devotion. She really didn’t get Scott Delano at all.

“You think Vanessa will come around?”

“Yeah, she’ll come around. She always does. Like I said, she loves Angie. She just gets it wrong sometimes.”

“Very wrong,” Sarah muttered.

Scott’s eyes narrowed in on her. “What did you say?”

Sarah straightened her spine and cleared her throat. In for a penny, she might as well be in for a pound. “Angie was acting out against a mother who calls her fat, and who she can’t tell her most terrible, adult-like troubles to. I think Vanessa Peters gets it very wrong.”

Scott regarded Sarah, his gaze cool. “You really don’t know shit about any of us. Maybe you shouldn’t be judging.”

Sarah tapped her finger on her desk, her gaze just as cool. “Maybe I shouldn’t.”

Scott suddenly smiled. She blinked and her stomach knotted in response. Holy crap, he was hotter than she first noticed. His eyes crinkled and his grin was off hand, kind of boyish charm. And it did a lot to make her forgive him for being such an ass over Vanessa Peters. “But you’re probably right in this instance. I guess this is where I owe you an apology.”

She relaxed her shoulders. “Probably.”

“I had no idea where this conversation was going. I might have been a little rude.”

“Yeah, you might have been.” And Vanessa? He had no concerns for the nasty things Vanessa had said?

“I owe you for this.”

“No, you don’t.”

He tilted his head as if studying her. “You went out of your way for Angie. Why?”

“I liked her.”

“You liked her even though she shoplifted from you?”

“Yes. I did. I can remember being a sixteen-year-old girl, and there is probably nothing harder.”

“Try being the parent of a sixteen-year-old girl.”

“Okay, maybe.” Sarah smiled chagrined. “You talked about making Angie get a job. Will you still?”

Scott shook his head in confirmation.

Sarah bit her lip and then blurted out, “Why don’t you let her work here at the shop, after school?”

“Here?” Scott looked around as if searching for the candid cameras.

“Yes. Here. Why not? The high school is close and it’s better work than most afterschool jobs.”

Scott’s eyebrows popped up near his hairline. His expression was of complete incredulity. “You want my niece working for you? My pregnant, shoplifting niece? Why?”

She didn’t know exactly why. She wanted to help Angie. And it most definitely was not along the lines of Vanessa’s accusations. There was something in Angie, in her lack of a mother, in Scott’s involvement with the two of them which made her curious about them and concerned for Angie. And suddenly Angie working there seemed like a good idea.

“Why not? I could use the help. I don’t pay a high school student as much as I do another adult, and she needs something to do, something that could give her some confidence.”

Scott opened his mouth just as the phone rang again. Sarah put her hand up in a sign of just a second and grabbed the line.

“
Sarah’s Secrets.
This is Sarah.”

The breathing started again. She hung up with a frustrated curse. She looked up and found Scott looking at her strangely. She waved a hand in the general direction of the phone. “I get prank calls as you can tell, but the worst are the stupid teens loving the name of my shop for their perverted word twists.”

“Word twists?”

“Sometimes. Instead of heavy breathing, they say things to make my store name sound dirty or perverted. That one was simply a heavy breather.”

“This happens often? Twice in an hour?”

She shrugged. Who cared? “Sometimes.”

“You shouldn’t blow it off.”

Sarah laughed and leaned forward in her chair, resting her hands on her desk. “It was my fault for naming my shop so suggestively. I didn’t really think I had, of course, but since its opening we’ve gotten such calls.”

“Why that name?”

“I don’t know. We wanted something snappy and memorable, to stand out more than the traditional,
Beach Treasures
or
Sea Shells
, or other beach-type gift shop names.”

“We? You and Kelly Reeves?”

“How do you know about Kelly?”

He rolled his eyes. “You do realize your best friend is literally a household name? Her living here has made most every major magazine? Kelly being partners with you is quite well known.”

“Of course, I know about Kelly. Anyways, we as in my family. My parents started the shop with me, a few years back, before Kelly came into the picture. She bought out my parents for half, and we now share it.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be so callous about those calls. Don’t be stupid and totally ignore pranks.”

Sarah rolled her eyes, surprised Scott took the pranks so to heart. “It’s Seaclusion, what the hell goes on here besides pranks? So do you want to try Angie working here?”

Scott studied her. “You sure you trust her?”

“I do. I think shoplifting was to bring her pregnancy to light.”

Scott stood and seemed to be ending the conversation. “She’ll be here tomorrow after school.”

“Don’t you need to check with her? Her mother?”

Scott paused from putting an arm onto his coat. “No. I have final say with Angie. She’ll be here.”

Sarah watched him leave, nearly shouting out “you’re welcome,” after him. He ran so hot and cold, one moment almost decent, the next rude. He was abrupt or just gone. What the hell had made her bring his niece to work for her? His shoplifting, pregnant, sixteen-year-old niece, who had the mother from hell? Was she looking for some kind of punishment?

Angie Peters came into the shop at precisely three o’clock the next afternoon. Sarah was helping an elderly lady decide between a beige or blue pants suit. She was always grateful for older ladies. They tended to like her merchandise and had the budget for backing up their tastes. There were no traditional malls or super shopping centers near Seaclusion. The only reason she stayed in business was ladies such as this who wanted to look nice but couldn’t drive the forty miles or more for the nearest urban shopping.

She did a fair business to the younger crowds who wanted stylish clothes, as well as to tourists wanting souvenirs which weren’t seashells.
Sarah’s Secrets
also sold paintings and art work, all by local artists, for tourists who wanted more traditional ocean-like memorabilia.

Sarah glanced at Angie gauging the teen’s mood. Angie’s shoulders were shrunk down, as if she was trying to fold in on herself, and the endless hair was draped over her face. Angie waited unassumingly off to the side of the cash register until Sarah was done ringing up the sale for the elderly lady. Sarah turned her full attention toward Angie.

She smiled kindly at the nearly trembling girl. There wasn’t a spark of teenage rebellion in her. What had Angie’s night been like? “So, I see your uncle talked to you.”

Angie blushed. “Yes, last night. He said you offered me a job working here after school. Are you for real?”

“You want to do this?”

“Are you kidding? This shop is like
the
place for buying clothes. Everyone who can afford to does, and those who can’t, want to. So yeah, it’s like, great.”

“Well that’s a good start, you wanting to be here.”

Angie traced a tile square with her toe. “I’m sorry I stole from you.”

“Me too. But I believe it was a one-time mistake. Prove me right.”

Angie jerked her gaze up to Sarah’s. “I will. And thank you, for, you know, noticing.”

Sarah nodded getting the gist of what Angie was saying. So there had been some kind of confrontation.

“I’m sorry if I got too into your business. I just thought someone should notice.”

Angie nodded. Sarah waited a heartbeat. “So was I presumptuous, or right?”

“You were right. I just don’t know what I’ll do about it yet.”

Sarah nodded wanting desperately to hug the girl. “I assume you had a rough evening last night.”

“Yeah. They fought pretty hard, and Mom cried. She didn’t believe me and is real mad at me.”

“And your uncle?”

“He was cool about it as usual. He worries about my feelings more than anything, you know, like a real dad.”

“Is that why you claimed him as your mother’s boyfriend?”

Angie blushed and shrugged. “I don’t know why I did. I just wanted to tell them, and I didn’t know how, and I thought my uncle might notice things more than my mom.”

Sarah nodded. “I get being a teenager, but don’t lie, okay?”

“Okay.”

Sarah put Angie to work. There was a new shipment of clothes waiting to be inventoried, tagged, and put on the shelves. She showed Angie how to ring up a sale and had her practice it. She showed Angie what her reaction should be like with each and every customer, even the irritating, angry, or annoying ones. She explained about Kelly working there sometimes, only for Angie to speak up for the first time.

“Kelly Reeves? As in the model?”

Sarah grinned. “Yes,
that
Kelly Reeves. She and I are business partners. We have another store in Los Angeles.”

“Why are you still here? Why don’t you work there? I would be out of this town so fast you’d never know I ever lived here.”

Sarah shook her head. “I have ties here which make it impossible for me to leave. Besides what would I do in LA?”

“You’re really friends with Kelly Reeves? I’ll, like, meet her?”

“Yes, to both. And she’ll surprise you with how not a model she is.”

“I heard she’s marrying Mr. Tyler. He’s my geometry teacher. He’s so hot. I mean for a teacher and all. Oh, can I say that? I don’t want him like, you know,
that
...it’s just, I noticed because most teachers don’t look like him.”

Sarah bit her lip. Even pregnant Angie was as wonderfully sixteen and clueless as any other sophomore. “Yes, to all. Luke and Kelly are getting married in three weeks when school is out.”

Angie’s eyes bugged. “You won’t tell him I said all that will you?”

“Lips are sealed, I swear.” Sarah laughed out loud. Angie was funny, and sweet, kind of wide-eyed about the shop, and Sarah’s life, and she found it flattering. She was surprised how much she already liked having Angie around.

As Sarah and Angie were closing up for the evening the door chimed. Sarah turned and dropped the shirt she was hanging up. Scott stood there.

“Uh, hi.” God, why did she become so lame around him? She bent picking up the shirt trying to be discreet she’d dropped it.

“How’d she do today?”

“Oh, Angie? Great. She was helpful and excited about all of this, to my surprise.”

Why did she feel the need to please Scott with her report on Angie?

“You were right,” Scott said abruptly.

“About her being pregnant?”

He nodded his expression stony.

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Sarah hesitated. Angie was back in the office cleaning the storage room. “How far along is she?”

“Far.”

“Oh. So she’s having it for sure?”

“Yes.”

“And Vanessa?”

“Still in denial. She needs time to get her head around this.”

“Yes, I imagine any mother would. Still—”

“Still, what?”

“I hope Vanessa does it quick, I think Angie needs all the support she can get right now.”

“Why are you so interested?”

Sarah rolled her eyes at Scott’s sudden stiffening and cold tone. “Compassion. I wish her well is all.”

“Do you mean that?”

Scott and Sarah turned. Angie had come up behind them. Angie pushed her hair back.

“Of course, I mean that. You’re a lovely girl. I’m very pleased with the job you did today.”

“Thank you,” she said as she turned toward Scott. “Hey, Uncle Scott.”

“Hey, kiddo. Ready?”

Angie rolled her eyes. “I got my license taken away, for like ever, because of yesterday’s stunt.”

“I see. So your uncle is your chauffeur now?”

“Exactly.”

Sarah wanted to groan at the thought of ending her day with Scott Delano’s un-cheerful disposition.

****

Angie worked the next two weeks without complaint. She didn’t buck Sarah on anything she had her do, including cleaning the bathrooms, dusting and vacuuming the store, and every other mundane chore. Scott came in each evening with little or no comment. So why did he come in? He obviously didn’t want to bother having a conversation. But he came in each day to collect Angie.

It wasn’t long before Sarah noticed the blonde dog that seemed to follow on Scott’s heels, in and out every day, waiting on the sidewalk while he was inside.