Secrets (2 page)

He looked around her shop. His gaze stopped on her standing behind the cash register as she tried placing who he resembled.

“Mr. Delano?”

He stepped in front of the sales desk, rocking on his heels, thumbs stuck in his pockets. He nodded. “Yeah, I’m Scott. What did Angie do exactly?”

“She took this blouse and stuffed it into her backpack. We were the only ones in here. I have it on surveillance if you’d like to see it. I haven’t called the police.”

“Why didn’t you?”

She frowned. What kind of question was that? “Because I was doing what is in the best interest of all involved. Angie didn’t seem like the type of girl who usually would do this. By the way she went about it, I thought maybe she was, I don’t know, acting out or something. Maybe she wanted to get caught. Maybe she wanted someone’s attention. Yours perhaps?”

“Perhaps,” he said, frowning, barely sparing a glance at her as he looked around her shop. “Where is she?”

She gritted her teeth. She should have called the police and skipped this unpleasant encounter. She wished she wasn’t alone in the shop with Angie and Scott. She led Scott back into her office. Angie sat looking as lost as she had before. Was the poor girl stewing with fear over facing Scott Delano’s probably ruthless anger?

Scott stared at the teen for a moment as if waiting for Angie to gather strength and face him. Finally, Angie looked up, her eyes big, round saucers. Sarah felt sorry for the girl. Scott stood with his arms crossed over his chest, making him look even more threatening. Maybe the cops would have been a kinder route.

“What’s going on, kiddo?”

Sarah blinked and looked up sharply at Scott’s profile, her mouth open. The tone didn’t match the gruffness of the man. Angie shrugged in a halfhearted attempt to avoid him.

“Come on, you have to talk with me.”

Angie’s gaze dropped, and her hair slid down covering her face. Scott stepped closer, leaned down on one knee, and brushed the curtain of Angie’s hair back. She kept her gaze averted.

“You’re in trouble here. You’re lucky I was called and not the police. The police, Angie, you get that, right?”

Angie nodded and bit her lower lip.

“What were you thinking? You know better than this. Why did you do it?”

“I just…” Angie’s voice faded off.

“You what?” Scott pushed Angie’s hair behind her ear. He tucked two fingers under her chin and forced her to look him in the eye.

“I don’t have anything to wear.”

Scott sat back on his heels. His mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding me, I hope. You shoplifted because you have nothing to wear? You’ve got a closet full of clothes. What the hell is going on with you?”

Scott rose to his feet as he spoke, and started pacing. Angie glanced up at Sarah through her hanging hair and twisted her hands together in her lap. Sarah stayed silent.

“I do have clothes. But none of them fit.”

Scott missed a step, and stopped dead.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Angie’s voice quivered. “I’m a fat cow and nothing fits me anymore.”

Scott’s shoulders slumped, and his eyes turned flat. After a long pause he said, “You are most definitely
not
a fat cow, and I don’t want to hear you talk that way about yourself. But nothing excuses shoplifting. If you are having a problem you should talk with your mother, not commit a crime.”

“I have. She told me to quit stuffing my face like a pig so I could fit into what I already own.”

He stepped back as if Angie had pushed him. Sarah gasped, air hissing softly through her clenched teeth.
No wonder Angie had pulled this stunt.
Her mother’s insult would easily spur any fragile, overweight girl into acting out. Her self-loathing was evident from the way she slouched all the way down to how she shuffled her feet.

“Your mother said that?” Scott’s voice was hesitant.

“She did. She said I was eating like a fat cow and why should she buy me a new wardrobe because I had no self-control?”

Sarah stepped forward. “Look. No harm was done. I’m convinced this isn’t a habit of Angie’s so I’m willing to let it go. I think this time we can forget about it.”

Angie raised her head, her eyes hopeful.

“It isn’t a habit of hers. No way. However, she isn’t getting off so easy.” Scott glanced between them.

“But Mom—”

“Your mother and I will have a talk about what she said. She should never have said that. I’m sorry. But neither should you have responded by doing this. You should have come to me.”

“And said what? I’m too fat for my mother to buy clothing for?”

Sarah flinched at the raw self-hatred in Angie’s tone.

“That’s not true.” His brow wrinkled, and his jaw clenched.

“It’s true. Look at me. Everyone knows it.”

Scott’s mouth set into a tense line. He glanced at Angie, and Sarah’s heart softened for him. He was being kind, while so obviously out of his comfort zone in how to confront a distraught teenager over her self-image.

“I’m sorry your mother handled this so wrong. But you know I’d help you in any way I could, right?”

“Yes,” Angie said, with no hesitation. Whatever he was to Angie, she had no qualms about believing in him.

“You know I’d help you with this. Stealing wasn’t necessary.”

Tears filled Angie’s eyes. “Stealing is better than forcing you to buy me new clothes because I’ve gotten fat.”

Scott spread his hands palms up as if in surrender. “Why would you ever hesitate in coming to me?”

“You don’t look at me like everyone else. I don’t want you to start. So, if I asked for money, for clothes, you’d look and see why I needed it.”

Angie didn’t want Scott seeing her as fat
. Scott’s opinion in Angie’s world was top priority. Sarah was fascinated and confused by whatever relationship these two had, compounded by the mother who handled such a delicate situation in the worst way possible.

“I love you just as you are. You know that. You come to me when you’re in trouble, or when you’re thinking about trouble. No matter what.”

Scott stepped in front of Angie, nudging her toe with his, making her meet his gaze. Angie finally nodded. Sarah didn’t know what to say. The girl was screaming for acceptance, for help, and somehow this stern man who looked fresh from a construction site gave it to her. This man who couldn’t be more than ten years Angie’s senior. What the hell was Scott to her?

“Now you owe Ms. Langston an apology. She’s been more than kind. You’re lucky you stole from her and not someone who would have called the cops first and asked questions later.”

Angie squirmed as she peeked up through lowered lashes. She was so shy Sarah ached for her. “I’m sorry.”

“And she’ll be paying for the shirt.”

Sarah glanced at Scott. “It’s not one of my cheaper blouses.”

“I know what kind of shop you run here. Nothing is cheap. Angie will buy what she stole.”

Angie shot to her feet. “But I don’t have any money.”

“Of course, you don’t. You’ll earn every blessed dollar it takes to buy it.”

“Oh.” Angie sank back down, deflated. “How much?”

“A hundred twenty-four ninety-nine,” Sarah said reluctantly. There was no denying the price tag on the shirt lying across her desk.

“I don’t have that kind of money.”

“I guess you should have shoplifted from the dollar store. What did you think this place was?” Scott’s sarcasm stopped Angie dead. Angie dropped her head back down, and her hair slid back into place.

Scott dug out his wallet.

“You’re buying it for her?”

“She gets to pay me back.”

“We don’t have to buy it,” Angie said, her tone feeble.

Scott jerked his head around, his eyes blazing as he zeroed in on Angie now standing in the corner with her arms huddled over her middle. “Do you think because your mother was mean to you it somehow excuses what you did today? Do you really think I should let you get away with stealing? No way, little girl. You’ll earn every cent you stole until you realize how much money this is.”

“But how?”

“We’ll find you a job,” Scott said, his tone sharp.

Sarah took the money as Scott and Angie followed her toward the cash register. Scott rested his elbow on the counter, his gaze pinned on her as she worked.

Why was he staring so intently at her? “You really don’t have to buy this.”

“Yeah, I do. Angie must learn this lesson about her actions having consequences.” He crossed his arms over his chest. He seemed disinclined to explain any more of who Angie was to him, or where the mother fit into their situation.

“I know it isn’t my business, but I was a teenage girl once, and it can be the worst experience in life,” Sarah said after another long moment.

“I don’t think you know what someone like Angie is going through.”

“Why would you think I don’t understand her?”

“Because look at you,” Scott said, his gaze running from her hair, down her face, and over her chest. By his glare he didn’t like what he was seeing.

“It’s not about looks. It’s about how she feels inside. Why do you think I didn’t call the police? Having low self-confidence is complicated. Especially when—”

“They’re overweight. I got it.”

“I was going to say when they feel like no one understands them. Like their own mother.”

“Yeah, I caught that too.”

“It can’t be easy having her own mother criticize what she is already feeling bad about.”

“I get it.” He clenched his jaw.

Was he gritting his teeth at her? Why
? She was simply pointing out why Angie could be acting out.

“Her mother isn’t a bad mother. She just gets things wrong sometimes. And Angie pays.”

And you?
Where was he in this equation? She handed Scott his change, and wrapped the blouse in tissue paper and put it into one of the custom bags emblazoned with
Sarah’s Secrets
in her silver and purple store logo.

He turned to leave, and then stopped and spun on his heel. “Have you figured it out yet?”

“What out?”

“Where you know me from.”

“I don’t know you.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, stretching the material of his coat at the elbows. “You’ve been staring me up and down since I walked in. You really don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“Come off it, prom queen. You really don’t know who I am?”

She had been prom queen her senior year in high school. Why would this man know that?

“We went to high school together. I walked with you around the gym during the homecoming assembly. Scott Delano, captain of the track team? Doesn’t that ring any bells?”

She narrowed her eyes. He’d recognized her right off. But…she still didn’t remember him. High school? Could be. She remembered a kid walking with her during the parade assembly where the ten wanna-be prom queens were escorted by captains of different sport teams around the gym. Afterwards the entire school had voted. But what the boy looked like…she couldn’t say.

“No. I’m sorry, I don’t—”

“Forget it,” he snapped. He turned on his heel. “Like it matters in the least.”

He took Angie’s arm and led her out of the shop. Sarah stared after them as they got into an older white pickup truck. She shook her head. That was the strangest confrontation she’d ever had. Scott’s intense gruffness—and his all-around disdain of her—was the antithesis of his gentleness with a teenage girl who wasn’t his, but who he treated almost as if she were. She couldn’t stop thinking about the incident which took no more than an hour of her life. So the overweight teen had a mean mother which prompted her to shoplift. So some guy from high school remembered her and she didn’t remember him. So what?

Why did the twosome linger with her throughout the rest of the afternoon? And why did she have a nagging feeling she was missing something about the situation? Something obvious and important.

The shop’s phone rang. She answered it to moans and heavy breathing. She slammed it down. There was no one in the shop, no one on the street. The phone call sent goose bumps up and down her arms. She got pranks at the store from time to time. Teenagers usually, playing on the
Sarah’s Secrets
name. This was just another one. However, today, she’d had it with teenage angst and pranks.

Sarah bit her lip to keep from laughing at her best friend while she twisted all around, studying the slim, simple wedding dress from every angle in the dressing room of the shop. What the hell could Kelly be looking for? It’s not like anything could look bad on her. She couldn’t be more than a size two, in perfect proportion everywhere, her physical perfection attested by the fact she’d spent over a decade as one of the top models in the world.

Then Kelly had fallen in love with Luke Tyler, retired from modeling, and spent the last year living in Seaclusion. Kelly had become Sarah’s best friend and was now co-owner of
Sarah’s Secrets
. Where once Kelly was the epitome of fashion and chic-ness, now she dressed so basic, bland, and boring it made Sarah want to scream. How could Kelly give up all those lovely clothes?

Kelly and Luke were to be married in a few short weeks. Sarah had made Kelly’s wedding dress. She fiddled around with sewing when she had the time or motivation. She wasn’t half bad when she bothered doing it. When Kelly couldn’t find the right dress she’d begged Sarah to make it for her.

“It’s perfect. How did you do it?” Kelly beamed at her reflection with her trademark grin.

Sarah rolled her eyes. “It’s real hard to make something look good being worn by Kelly Reeves, perfect model.”

“It’s just what I asked for! Thank you. I can’t tell you what it means to me.”

“I know what it means,” Sarah said softly. Kelly had struggled long and hard for a sense of normalcy in her life.

“You want me to close the shop for you tonight?” Kelly’s involvement in the store had skyrocketed sales. Kelly Reeves was her own name brand and her reputation had transferred to
Sarah’s Secrets
. Sarah loved the help, the increased sales, and the fact that now her entire family’s financial well-being wasn’t totally on her shoulders.

“Sure. But be on the lookout, we had a shoplifter yesterday.”