What I've Done (10 page)

Kalia takes a sip from an oversized coffee mug while perching on a stool beside the register. “Tasha, I am so happy to have you working for me. I was about to lose my mind trying to schedule around my small staff. But this place isn’t as busy during the week days in the off-season, so it’s just the two of us today.”

I smile back at her. “I just really appreciate the job, Kalia.”

She winks playfully. “You’re just lucky you found Gabe when you did.”

I am not sure how to take her comment, but it almost seems as if she is suggesting I found Gabe in a romantic way. I want to ask what the story is between them, but it is too soon for such intimate questions and I figure I better get to know her better first.

In the next hour we wait on a handful of tourists as well as a few high school boys dressed in similarly designed dark wetsuits on their way to catch some waves. But they seem to come in more to flirt with Kalia than anything and stand around her in a circle, laughing obnoxiously at nearly everything she has to say.

Kalia is getting ready to usher them out of the store when I look to the entrance and nearly swallow my gum. Melissa, the social worker who had been so kind on our shopping trip and in placing us with Svetlana, walks in.

She is dressed very casually in a relatively plain, long sleeved black and white t-shirt with dark torn jeans. Her naturally curly brown hair is not pulled back tightly like it had been when we first met at the sheriff’s office but falls loosely around her oval-shaped face. I almost don’t recognize her. When she doesn’t look all official she is actually extremely pretty. But with her presence in the shop, all the lies I have so carefully crafted in my life seem like they will once again crumble around me.

Kalia greets her in the same way she greets the other customers. After all, she has no idea that this woman has anything to do with me. “
Aloha
! Can I help you find something?”

The social worker smiles at Kalia and then me. “I just came in to see how my little cousin is doing.”

Now I do swallow my gum. I choke for a split second before recovering. “Melissa! Hi, how are you?”

Melissa turns out to be quite the actress. She walks over to give me a strong hug. I had liked her right away when she took us shopping as she is super sweet and actually made our gloomy situation somewhat enjoyable, but I am tempted to reach out and strangle her now for springing this surprise visit on me.

“I heard you got a job down here and just wanted to check it out,” Melissa says.

“It’s nice to meet some of Tasha’s family,” Kalia says, extending her hand to the social worker. “I’m Kalia. This is my shop.”

“So very nice to meet you, Kalia,” Melissa says just as cheerfully, shaking her hand.

A small, misfit group of middle-aged Midwestern men enters the shop—they are easily pegged as so with their pale skin and matching Iowa State t-shirts. Kalia excuses herself to help them and their eyes collectively light up when she approaches.

Pulling Melissa close, I whisper urgently in her ear. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s our policy to check on children placed in foster care to make sure their working environment is suitable,” Melissa answers in an equally quiet voice. “Other than your boss barely wearing what could be considered actual clothing, I have to say this place looks like it could be a lot of fun for you.”

“I just started,” I say. “I don’t want to get fired too badly right away because she thinks people are going to be checking up on me every day.”

She laughs and shakes her head. “Why do you think I told her you’re my cousin? I am not here to cause any waves. It is
my
job to verify that
you
do in fact have this job and aren’t out gallivanting around. I promise not to come back again without a fair warning.”

I look over to see one of the balding men with a protruding beer belly telling Kalia a story with his arms flailing about. He is obviously more interested in flirting with her than buying anything in the shop. I have begun to suspect this is the usual way in which things will go with customers here.

“Good,” I tell Melissa, pulling away from her. “Send my best to Auntie Gertrude, won’t you?”

She snickers at my joke and winks. “Sure will, kiddo. Call me if you ever need anything. I don’t live all that far away.”

“I know,” I answer.

We may be joking about the other things, but I know she is being sincere in wanting to help with anything she can. It would be so easy to tell her our secrets and ask for her help; however, in doing so I would be risking the chance of being sent back to Minnesota.

She interrupts Kalia’s unsuccessful sales pitch with a wave. Kalia waves back before Melissa is gone. I let out a sigh of relief. The last thing I need is for Kalia to find out I am being held in a foster home because they can’t uncover my real identity.

Kalia is still busy helping the family a few minutes later when Gabe walks in. My pulse speeds up at the sight of him wearing a white button down shirt in a blue hibiscus print and khaki shorts. His continuous great taste in clothing just makes him all the more delectable.

He smiles directly at me. “Hey! How’s everything going?”

If it is even possible, his eyes seem more alive than usual when he takes me in. I smile bashfully, turning to hide my cheeks as the heat settles in them.

“No fraternizing with the help,” Kalia says from behind me. She leans in to kiss Gabe on the cheek. “If you want to spend time with her I’m afraid you’ll have to take her out on her break.”

Once again, I try to let their intimate exchange roll off my back.

Gabe winks in my direction. “I was hoping you’d let me borrow her long enough for that. What do you say, Tasha?”

“Sounds good to me,” I say. “Let me just grab my phone.”

I run into the back room where I retrieve the cell phone from my bag. When I come back into the shop, Kalia and Gabe are standing super close, whispering furiously. Kalia has a funny little smile on her face that makes me uncomfortable. I am not nearly as jealous of her as I had been the first time we met, but I admit their strange little exchange bothers me.

They step apart when I clear my throat and both give me a strange little smile. What had they been whispering about and why do they both act like they have been caught doing something they didn’t want me to see?

“I don’t want her back for at least a half hour,” Kalia tells Gabe.

He smiles and reaches out to take my hand. “Yes ma’am.”

Shivers erupt across my skin when the familiar buzz passes between us.

Gabe leads me out of the store and down the beach. I am grateful for the lighter shirt I had picked out this morning when the now full sun greets us outside. It is the warmest day since our arrival in California and from the hoard of children and teens now occupying the shore I am not the only one who finds it welcoming. Many teenage girls of all shapes and sizes lay on their backs or stomachs to sun themselves while a pack of guys I think I may have seen at school pass a football back and forth nearby.

“So do you like your new job?” Gabe asks as we walk along the edge of the water, in no kind of hurry.

We had held hands for a short time at school today, but as he holds it now there is something calming and familiar, like we’ve been doing it for much longer.

“Yeah, I do. I really like Kalia.” I turn my head and watch him carefully. “I have to admit though, when you told me you had a buddy that owned a surf shop I had not been expecting a gorgeous woman. How did the two of you meet, anyway?”

It is hard not to add “and what were you whispering about just now?”

“I bought a surfboard from her a few months ago. We just kind of hit it off right away and have been hanging out together ever since. She’s really great.”

“Did the two of you ever date?”

The personal question is probably a bit bold to be asking, but I can’t help myself any longer. There is some kind of connection between the two of them that drives me crazy and I wonder if it is anything I should be jealous of—especially after catching them cozying up the minute I left them alone.

“No, it was nothing like that. I love Kalia and she’s a wonderful person. But she’s not my type. I am more into naturally stunning brunettes.”

He brushes the back of my hand with his finger and smiles. I only smile back, not sure what to say to that. The whole dating thing is unfamiliar territory. He may as well be asking me complicated physics questions.

We aren’t very far from Kalia’s shop when he pulls me inside a small café right along the beach. The black and white themed café is packed with what appears to be mostly tourist families with little kids. A young waitress with a slicked back blond ponytail seats us immediately at a little table underneath a white umbrella on the outside patio in the back.

There is a mirror-backed bar on the edge of the sand with a large canopy that seems to do its job of keeping the intense sun away. The black stools are lined with mostly men in suits that seem to either be watching the television above the bartender with a drink in hand or picking at their meal on a late lunch break. The waitress leaves us with little handwritten menus, promising to return.

“You made it through your first day at one of California’s largest high schools unscathed,” Gabe says, holding his glass of water up in salutation. “That in itself is reason to celebrate.”

Bringing my glass up to clink with his, I laugh. “One day down, anyway.”

He takes a sip and sets the glass back on the little round table separating us.

“What are your plans for after graduation?”

I drink in some of my own cool water before setting it next to his. “That is a good question. I really don’t know yet.”

Earlier in the year my guidance counselor at school had asked me the same thing. The only thing I could think of at the time was to get away from my mother. I hadn’t actually told her that, of course, but now things are so different I am not sure what I want other than to see Rose grow up to be taken care of.

“What about you?” I ask.

“I am enrolled at San Diego State,” he says.

There is not much excitement behind his words and they come out hurried. Either there is some reason for him to lie to me about where he is going, or he just really doesn’t care about college. His expression is blank, impossible to read.

“What are you going to major in?” I ask, confused.

“General classes, for now, I guess.” He laughs and shifts in his seat. “I haven’t really decided. Do you see yourself going to college?”

I am not used to being asked so many questions about myself and wish for a change of subject. I haven’t given much thought to what the future will bring, especially now that everything has changed. It would be great to have the chance to go to college one day, but for now I am just hoping to take care of my little sister.

I sigh and look out to the ocean. I could sit and watch the waves roll for hours on end. There is so much comfort in the salty air and quiet lull of the water sloshing against the sand. No matter what happens in life, the ocean is faithfully there, doing its magic twenty-four hours a day.

“I don’t really know what I want out of life,” I answer honestly. “But whatever happens, I know I can picture myself staying out here for a long time.”

“What about hobbies? What do you do outside of school? Maybe you can figure out from that what it is you might be interested in doing.”

I balk before I know I’m doing it. “No hobbies. I have always wanted to learn to play the guitar, but I just don’t have time for that.”
Or the money
I add to myself.

His face is transformed when his eyes light up. “Maybe you can talk your parents into taking lessons this summer. You’ll have your own money to do whatever you want with, right?”

Again, I feel this pull toward him that baffles me. I am drawn to everything about him, from his soft touch and musky scent to his mysterious dark eyes and the sound of his deep voice.

I sit forward in my seat. “I don’t understand. You are like this really attractive guy and super sweet. Why are you wasting your time hanging out with someone you just met? Don’t you have other friends—or a girlfriend, maybe? Kalia is the only person you’ve introduced me to so far. Surely you have friends out there somewhere who wonder why you’ve disappeared.”

One side of his mouth jerks up into a sly smirk and he leans in closer to me. “You think I’m really attractive?”

A smile wants to emerge on my lips at this but he has me too flustered to make them work properly. I just stare back at him, my face void of any expression.

He chuckles, letting me off the hook. “What if I just really like you and want to spend time with you?”

It is increasingly difficult to focus on the conversation when he is so crazy gorgeous in the way he looks at me. “I don’t really get it,” I mumble, a bit thrown off by his direct answer. “People like you don’t generally hang out with people like me.”

“What kind of people would that be? Beautiful and kind? Sweet and caring? Tell me what kind of person you are, Tasha, because I don’t see any reason why it would be considered odd for me to want to be with you.”

His voice doesn’t change but there is something in his eyes seeming to be miffed by my disbelief of his intentions. I want to apologize, but something in me holds back. No one has been so eager to help me before. There had been a young English teacher during my junior year that grew suspicious of what perils I faced at home once I allowed her to get close, but I was quick to shut her down when I feared she was ready to contact my mother or someone else

I sigh, agitated by Gabe’s unwavering good intentions. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“That’s why I’ve been hanging out with you all this time, Tasha. I’m hoping to learn more, although you seem reluctant to share much about yourself.”

Those charming dark eyes continue to mesmerize me. The longer I look into them the easier it is to become totally immersed and want to swim in them. I shake my head in a sluggish movement, looking past him so I won’t get sucked in by his eyes again.