Page 40 of Tempting as Sin
“I think her mom was in prison, too,” Lily said. “Something drug-related. Being with her grandmother is better than foster care, I guess.”
“You’re right.” Hailey sighed. “Well, what a shame. Poor thing. Poor both of them, actually. Must have about killed Karen all by itself, not having anyplace better for Bailey to go than back to her mom, unless she was too far gone on the drugs to care. My mom wasn’t the greatest in the world, and I sure wouldn’t have wanted her raising my girls. It makes you realize. But we can’t fix the world, I guess. I’ve probably talked away my whole break, too. Let me go get that shipment.”
After that, they got busy again, and the subject was dropped. Not that there was anything to say about it anyway. What could you do? Hailey was right. You couldn’t fix the world.
At one o’clock that afternoon, Bailey pushed the door to the store open. She wasn’t sure she was really supposed to come inside, even though Chuck was clean now and didn’t have any fleas. Lily’s store was really fancy.
“Hi,” Lily said, and smiled at her. Lily didn’t look like Ms. Swan—she was way skinnier, for one thing, and her hair was blonde. She was wearing a fancy dress today, too, like the rich girls in school, but she was kind of the same as Ms. Swan anyway. She smiled a lot, for one thing. Right now, she said, “I was about to eat that lunch. You’re just in time.”
“I brought a sandwich,” Bailey said. Chuck wanted to sniff around, so she hung onto his leash tighter. She wasn’t sure if he knew about not peeing inside buildings. If he peed in here, Lily would kick him out.
“I guess you’ll get to choose, then,” Lily said. “Your sandwich or mine, because I brought too much. There’s nothing like having a choice.”
It turned out that Lily had a place in the alley behind her shop where you could sit. Alleys were usually smelly, because that was where they kept the garbage, but Lily’s wasn’t. She had a teeny place for the table, like a patio but with rocks instead of cement, and she had plants in pots, too, with good-smelling flowers. Also a pretty fountain with a fairy sitting on the edge that Chuck took a drink out of, which made Lily laugh instead of making her mad.
Lily asked, “Chicken or ham?” and waggled two wrapped-up sandwiches.
Bailey said, “Umm…” She was pretty tired of peanut butter, and the sandwich had gotten kind of squashed in her backpack, but she wasn’t sure she should take Lily’s. People didn’t bring whole extra lunches just so somebody else could eat them. “I don’t care, I guess. Do you only eat brown bread?”
“You can have chicken,” Lily said, handing her one of the sandwiches. “I always feel a tiny bit like a cannibal when I eat it, even though I don’t eat my girls. Mostly, though, that’s becausenotcleaning and plucking a chicken is worth about a hundred dollars to me. And, yes, I only eat whole-wheat bread. I make it in a bread machine. It’s healthy, and it’s cheap.”
Bailey said, “Oh,” took a bite of sandwich, and started to rip off a corner for Chuck, who’d jumped to his feet as soon as Lily had passed the sandwich over, and was staring at Bailey’s hand, his whole body shaking.
“We need to stop feeding Chuck extras,” Lily said. “Chuck. Down.” Chuck looked worried, but Lily stared at him, and he flopped down and sighed.
“He’s hungry, though,” Bailey said. “He’s drooling again. I always share with him.”
“If he weighed a hundred fifty pounds and was as fat as a barrel,” Lily said, “he’d drool if you were holding a chicken sandwich. He’s had breakfast and lunch, he’ll have dinner tonight, and he needs to develop better habits.”
“You’re kind of like Ms. Swan,” Bailey said. “You sound like you’re nice, but really, you’re strict.”
Lily laughed. “Maybe so. That would be new for me, though. I haven’t been in charge for very long.”
“Grownups are always in charge.” Plus, Lily had a store and a house, and she didn’t even have roommates. You always had roommates, because you had to pay rent. If she could pay rent by herself, she must be rich.
“Not always,” Lily said.
“If you were a kid,” Bailey said, “you’d see.”
“Could be,” Lily said. “I understand your point.” That was another nice thing about Lily and Ms. Swan. They didn’t yell or hit or anything. Bailey’s second grade teacher had gotten mad all the time, but that was in Arizona. Maybe people in Montana didn’t get mad as much. Her grandma didn’t yell that much, either, as long as you were quiet.
When Bailey had finished her sandwich, Lily said, “I have to get back to work, but you can stay a while if you like. Either leave Chuck here when you do go, or take him and bring him back later. Just do it before dinner, so I can take him home.”
“I’ll take him,” Bailey said. “I like him. We can hang out at the park.”
“Do you sit under a tree and read books, by any chance?” Lily asked. “You just reminded me how my sister and I used to read books all summer. Paige always read adventures. She only liked books if they were true, and I only liked them if they weren’t. That was our favorite part of summer—the library and the pool.”
“Oh.” Bailey shrugged. “Not any more, since school’s out. I don’t have a library card. It isn’t like in Ms. Swan’s room. It’s a special card that you have to have.”
“You should get one,” Lily said. “It’s free.”
Bailey wasn’t sure what to say about that, either, so she didn’t say anything. Lily asked, “Why not? As long as you return your books on time, it doesn’t cost anything. And I know you love to read, with all those facts you know.”
“You have to fill out a form, though.”
“Oh. Well, that’s easy. You just go into the library and ask at the desk, and they’ll give you the form.”
“I did. Except Ms. Swan gave it to me. She said that about the card, so I filled out all the things and my grandma signed it. I took it back to the library and everything, but they said she had to come in and show them her driver’s license. She doesn’t like to go places. She can’t get enough oxygen, especially if you have to go uphill. The lady said I could read in there, but Chuck can’t go inside. Maybe if he stays here sometimes, I can go there. Or now that I have a leash, I could tie him up to the bushes. Even though he might bark.”
