Page 14 of Love Over Easy

A girl being raised by a houseful of men. That couldn’t have been an easy way to grow up. “I’m sorry, Shy. That must have been hard on a little girl losing her mother so young.”

She hands me the chosen shell and I wonder why she deemed this one a treasure. It looks like an ordinary shell to me. I stick it in my cargo pocket with the rest. She can pick up every damn shell on the beach and that’s fine with me.

“My dad… he wasn’t the best at parenting five rowdy kids. I’m afraid his disciplinary methods were vastly different from the Murphy’s.”

“Is that when the beatings started?” I ask.

She stops and turns, looking me directly in the eyes. “David. I told you, my father isn’t the one that put these bruises on me. He’s never hit me or even spanked me. There are other ways to discipline.”

I stare into her ocean blue eyes and ask, “Then was it a boyfriend or husband?”

She shakes her head and looks down. “No. I don’t have either of those. I don’t even date.”

It’s frustrating not knowing who hurt her. “Shy, you’re going to have to tell me.”

She gives me a sad grin. “My Gram used to call me Shy.”

Was she actually giving up a piece of information? “I’m sorry. I’ll stop using it.”

“No, it’s okay. I like it when you call me that.”

We continue our walk, going less than a dozen steps when she says, “David, I want to tell you, but I can’t, at least not yet. I came here for a new start and I don’t believe anyone would think to look for me here. I know I’m asking a lot of you to trust me, but I am not running from the law or anything illegal. I’m running away from the life I never wanted and nobody would listen to me. After years of the same thing, I decided I’d had enough, so I left.”

She’s telling the truth. I’ve been in the business long enough to know, but something still bothers me. “And the money?”

She bites her lower lip before carefully explaining, “The money is mine. Over a few months, I withdrew a little bit at a time from my own account until I had what I hope is enough.”

“Enough for what?”

She simply says, “My new start.”

I can understand someone needing to start over, but the abuse? That’s what I can’t accept. “What can I do to help you?”

“Keep me out of sight for a few more days. I’ll pay rent to the owners of the house I snuck into if they will let me stay there. I want to pay them anyway for staying there overnight. I was going to leave them a couple hundred dollars when I left.”

That tells me more about Shy than anything she’s said before. “You’ll stay with me. I have plenty of room, even if it does look like the ‘90s threw up inside.”

She laughs and my smile widens. “It’s not that bad. It looks like a loved home. It beats living in hotels. I’ll agree to stay with you, but I’m going to do the cooking and cleaning for you. There isn’t much I’m good at, but I can cook. My Gram taught me. Besides, with four brothers I had to.”

“Why didn’t your dad cook, or an older brother?”

“I don’t really remember. I didn’t mind. I enjoyed it actually. My Gram was an incredible cook, what I can remember anyway. On my birthday, she’d fix my favorites—smothered pork chops with mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. At least that’s the last birthday meal I remember.”

I sense Shy hasn’t had an easy life. My protective instincts make me want to do whatever it takes to not only keep her safe, but to also make her happy. She deserves that. “That’s a special memory. Maybe you can do that with your own kids someday.”

She shrugs and her gaze turns downward. “I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a mother.”

She may say that, but her face is telling me another story entirely. “Maybe, maybe not. You never know what life has in store for you.”

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