Page 88 of A Spot of Tea
“I have something for you,” he said, holding a finger up. He slipped out the front door and reappeared holding an enormous piece of cardboard almost as wide as he was tall.
Eliza gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. It was a giant check. Handwritten on the check was her name, along with an attempt at a cursive one hundred thousand dollars.
“This isn’t the official check,” he said, frowning. “I picked it up at a novelty store in Seattle. But I did confirm with the bank that they’ll be crediting you for catching the robber.”
She had both hands on her face. “Joey!”
He looked down at the check and smiled. “My handwriting’s not the best, but I think it gets the idea across.”
“Where have you been?” she blurted, dropping her hands.
He set the check down and propped it against a chair. “I’ve been trying to find a way to show you I’m sorry. And to tell you…” He cleared his throat. “Tell you how much you mean to me.”
Eliza leaned in, squinting at his scrawled handwriting on the check. “You’re the one who wrote ‘aka Elizabeth Bennet’ on here?”
“Yeah.” He opened his mouth, then shut it. “Because ‘I fell in love with you the first day I met you’ wouldn’t fit.”
Her limbs tingled, her fingers almost numb. “I think I need to take a seat.”
Joey rushed forward and pulled out a chair, the wooden legs screeching across the floor. “Please.”
She sat down, the room spinning away.
He took a seat across from her. “I was a jerk.”
She put a hand up. “I accused you of being the bank robber. I get it.”
“You never believed that,” he said with a half smile.
She couldn’t tear her eyes away from that smile. “No. I didn’t.”
“You were right, though. I was planning to leave. Fly away, as you eloquently put it.”
“Is that eloquent?”
“It was, and kinder than I deserve. I’ve been running away for years.” He sighed. “Hiding, really.”
Those beautiful green eyes. “Hiding from what?”
He looked down, then back up, locking his gaze. “At first, it was thrilling to go to these places. Life was an adventure, but after a while, it all started to blend together. I wasn’t excited anymore. I wasn’t scared.”
A smile curled on her lips. “You like being scared?”
“I thought I did, but meeting you scared me more than anything; I wouldn’t admit it to myself. I just wanted to run.”
She laughed. “So cliché.”
“Oh, like you aren’t? A brilliant, beautiful prodigy with self-deprecating humor and a knack for catching criminals?”
Her breath hung heavy in her chest. “Beautiful, you say?”
Joey smiled and put his hands on hers. “Yes, beautiful.”
“Hm.” His hand was so warm and so soft. Her mind went fuzzy and all the muscles in her body seemed to melt.
He cleared his throat. “I need to tell you I saw Derek this morning.”
She tilted her head. “Derek?”
