Page 35 of Coffee Shop Girl
Her voice was stark. “I always have plans.”
“Not anymore.”
For a long moment, there was total silence. Then she let out a long breath. “I promise.”
“Thank you.”
With that, she scrambled onto her bed—a blow-up mattress with a pile of blankets on top. The answer was more than just willingness. For her, it was a sign of peace. Behind every door that lay on the path ahead, I feared that Ellie would just up and leave. Retreat to the mountains to try to live by herself. Or disappear the moment Jim showed up.
Her compromise was exactly what I’d needed without even knowing it.
I remained there for several minutes, the chilly breeze brushing over me from the open window. The quietclink clinkof Devin’s lamp rang from the canoe below. For a moment, I thought I felt Mama. Her touch on my arm. A whisper of her voice.
Then it faded.
I fell asleep on the floor next to Ellie, sliding deeply into the languorous waves for the first time in weeks.
12
Maverick
While I looked forward to going over Bethany’s business with a fine-tooth comb, I knew from the moment I woke up that the day would be an intense one.
Making people face all the places they’d failed was never easy. Most businesses took a nosedive because people didn’twant to see their problems, so they let them keep growing. In Bethany’s case, this wasn’t her fault. But there was still alotof ugly.
While I’d braced myself for defensiveness on her part—she didn’t strike me as the teary, hysterical type—I hadn’t expected to walk into the coffee shop to see three girls staring at me.
Bethany wore a dress that brushed her knees and a pair of strappy sandals. Her hair, pulled away from her face, still swept her shoulders. One of girls, a redhead, held a cup of coffee. A fortune cookie on the front of it said,Your life is about to change. Order more coffee. She extended it to me, lips pursed into a tempered smile.
Her voice was lyrical. “Bethie said you like it black, two sugars.”
She set it on my usual table, which was filled with piles of paper, several binders, and an open laptop. The girl retreated to another table by a stack of books. Behind the counter stood another young girl. Raven hair like Bethany, but her eyes were more seafoam than glacial blue. Her gaze darted to my prosthetic then back to my face without a flicker.
Bethany could have been her sister.
“Maverick,” Bethany said with a smile laced with ... something. “I’d like you to meet Lizbeth and Ellie, my half-sisters.” She motioned to the two girls with a sweep of her arm. “They wanted to meet the man who’s going to guarantee them a new home. I figured it would make sense for you to understand the urgency behind what we’re doing.”
I paused, halfway to the table.
Wait, what?
An awkward pause filled the room, instantly kicking my instincts to life.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, slipping into my best attempt at smoothing the situation into something more comfortable. Nerves made for terrible deals. When I looked back at Bethany, eyebrows raised in silent question, she almost smiled.
“Do explain,” I murmured, on guard already.
“Lizbeth, Ellie, and I share our mama. Their father is a pig and deserves to be shot, but since I can’t legally do that, I’m keeping them. We want to do everything we can to prove to a judge that the three of us can live together in better conditions than at Jim’s home, where they aren’t safe.”
The bartender at the restaurant had mentioned that Bethany’s date last night had been a local lawyer. The puzzle pieces slid together slowly.
The family-law attorney.
Pro bono work.
Worries about cash flow and the business.
Sugar in her grocery cart.
