Page 19 of Not Another Beach Read
9
ELYSE
Things seemed to be going well with Holly. Most days, we would drive into the store together, and then she would hang around for a little while before going to take a walk through town.
Dunedin itself is a small town, beautiful and a lot of fun to walk through. With a great mix of local residents and tourists, restaurants, bookstores like mine, and some gift shops, there's a little something for everyone.
I liked spending those fifteen minutes in the car with her between Clearwater and Dunedin. It gave us an opportunity to talk without any other distractions. I wasn't sure what it was about being in the car, but for whatever reason, Holly always seemed a lot more talkative when we were driving than when we were home. I had a feeling it had something to do with being in that enclosed space with no other distractions around. Although we hadn't really gotten into any deep subjects or made any large psychological breakthroughs, just knowing that she was starting to talk a little bit more made me feel better. Overall, she'd been quieter than her visit just weeks before.
That Friday, when we got to the bookstore, Holly helped me open up, then put away a few boxes of books that I had added to inventory before I left the day before. When she was done, she walked over to the counter and waited for me to finish ringing up a customer.
"I'm going to go for a walk," she said.
I thought it was odd that she wouldn't meet my eye, but it occurred to me that she might need to run an errand to a drugstore or something that she still wasn't comfortable talking to me about.
"Yes, of course," I said. "Go walk around and explore. Take your time. If you would like, we can run over to the cafe for lunch."
"That sounds good," she said. "What time should I be back?"
"Let's say one o'clock."
"See you then," she said.
A moment later, she was gone, her crossbody bag over her head and her sunglasses pulled down over her eyes.
For the next couple of hours, I kept busy planning Paige's book launch and ordering a few copies of the latest romance novel. When the bell rang, I was surprised to look up and see Ben Alcott walking in with Holly. Ben wasn't just Paige's tall, dark, and handsome boyfriend (although she probably would cringe to hear me refer to him that way) he was also one of our local police officers who stopped in from time to time to chat. We had become friends since he had jumped in to protect Paige when Jenna's husband had destroyed her house in a fit of jealousy. Jenna had been spending more time with us as a group and was planning on helping out with breakfast at Paige's retreat, and as far as Craig was concerned, that just wouldn't do.
Craig had gone to jail, but had managed to convince a judge that he was capable of keeping his shit together. He wasn't. When Craig had gotten out and attacked Jenna in her newapartment above the cafe, Ben had jumped into action once again, dragged Craig down the stairs, stuffed him in the back of his cruiser, and hauled his sorry ass back to jail. Since then, Ben had regularly come to check on me and would stop in just to say hi from time to time.
"How's it going, Ben?" I said, looking up from the box of books at my feet. My eyes tracked Holly who was walking to the stock room with her eyes down.
"Hey, Elyse," he replied as he pushed his aviators up onto the top of his head.
He sounded a little sheepish, which wasn't like Ben at all. He was one of the most confident people I had ever met.
"It's going okay. How are you?"
"Well, I just got a call at the gift shop around the corner."
"Oh, yeah?" I drew out the last word, not wanting to hear whatever was coming next.
"I hate to even have this conversation with you, Elyse, but I wanted to let you know that they have Holly on camera slipping some items into her bag. Luckily, the shop owner mentioned her pink hair and I knew who she was right away. She's not pressing charges, but Holly is going to need to go in and apologize."
My whole body went cold. "I don't even know what to say. How do I even address this?"
"She's got a lot going on right now, so I would tread lightly, but this isn't the first time I've seen a troubled teen test the waters of a new home, especially during a time of crisis. Just sit her down and talk to her. She might not open up about how she's feeling, but knowing that she was caught, and that she has to go in and apologize may be enough to scare her straight. Plus knowing that you care this much about her is probably pretty scary. Everything about her life may feel like it's up in the air. So just tread lightly and let her know that you love her, but this kind of behavior isn't going to be tolerated."
My heart sank into my stomach. I had expected some abnormal behaviors from all the changes and turmoil in Holly's life; I just didn't expect it to pop up so quickly.
"I am not sure what to do here, Ben," I admitted. "I don't have a whole lot of experience with teenagers other than being one myself, and that was so long ago. I got in my fair share of trouble at this age, but my parents seemed to handle it all in stride, and all it took was them telling me they were disappointed for me to turn things around. I never stole anything, so I don't know how they would have handled it." I paused for a moment. "Any suggestions?"
Ben shifted his weight from one foot to the other and looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully.
"Truth be told, it was my own bad behavior that pushed me into law enforcement. When I was older, I had enough experience with cops that treated me with respect no matter what kind of trouble I managed to find myself in, and I wanted to do the same for someone else. I would say at this point, just sit down and talk to her. Let her know that she could have been in a lot of trouble today if I hadn't recognized her, and she'd be getting picked up from the police station instead of sitting in your stock room.
"If you talk to her and things don't improve, I'm happy to have a chat with her myself. But in the meantime, maybe keep her close by and just talk to her tonight."
"Will do," I said. "Thanks, Ben. How can we ever repay you for the many ways that you've saved our tails in the last year?"
