Chapter 50
Chapter Fifty
R elieved that no customers were waiting, Evie opened the shop and set up the signs outside. Looking at the clock, she thought how it had been worth opening half an hour late to say goodbye. Who knew when she would see them again?
A smile lit her face as Baker stepped inside the shop, the jingling bells hanging from the plastic fly strips on the doorway letting her know her first customer had arrived.
He wasn’t dressed in his uniform, and she thought how handsome and relaxed he looked in shorts and a T-shirt. ‘Morning Evie,’ he said as he walked up to the counter.
‘Morning, Baker. You look like you have a day off. Are you going fishing?’
He grinned and she smiled back, taken in by his white teeth and charismatic manner. ‘I am. I’m taking my brother up to Sandy Point. It’s good fishing.’
‘I’ve never been there.’
‘What? How long have you lived here?’
She muttered, ‘Too long.’ She smiled and pulled herself together. ‘No, not really too long. Three years, but I’m always working so I don’t get to go anywhere.’
‘I’d love to take you up there. It’s got big wide beaches that stretch for miles. Never anyone around and plenty of fish. Why don’t you come with me one day?’
She was taken aback. ‘Oh no, Bob would go nuts. He’d never let me.’
‘He doesn’t own you. You should be able to come with me. I’ll take a couple of my sisters too, and some of their kids. We all go as a family. I can’t see how he could find anything wrong with that.’
She sighed. ‘You don’t know him. He doesn’t like me going out with anyone. He just wants me to stay working here in the shop.’
Baker leaned over the counter, and she stared at his long eyelashes and kind eyes. His voice was soft and gentle, and she had the urge to reach out and hold his hand. ‘He doesn’t ever hit you does he, or rough you up?’
She drew back in shock. How did Baker know that? ‘No.’ That answer was a lie, as Bob often grabbed her by the arm or pushed her around, especially when she stood up to him or disagreed with anything he said. ‘Not really. He doesn’t hit me.’
Standing up straight, Baker took a deep breath, his eyes never leaving hers. She could tell he wanted to say more, but didn’t. She had said more than she should have. Bob would kill her if he knew she was telling anyone about their home life .
Baker stayed for a while longer, and that made her nervous in case Bob returned while he was there. She moved quickly to get the bait he wanted and breathed a sigh of relief when he thanked her and left the shop.