Page 10 of A Spot of Tea
Her heart leapt a little in her chest. “Why?”
“That’s when we start our search. I’ll see you then.” He smiled, picked up his coat, and walked out.
Eliza was left sitting there, her mouth hanging open as Granny came through the front door.
“Who was that?” she asked, a smile on her lips.
“A man with entirely too much confidence,” Eliza said, standing and picking up the plates.
Five
“Do you have five dollars?”
Sheila startled as Patty walked through the back door. “I don’t think I have any cash. Why?”
Patty pulled off her coat and scowled. “I owe Joey five dollars. I already gave him twenty, but technically I offered him twenty-five.”
“For what? Flying you somewhere?”
Patty looked at Sheila like she had two heads. “Where do you think I need to go? The mental hospital?”
“I don’t know. You’re the one begging for five dollars!”
Patty turned the water kettle on. “I asked him for a favor with Eliza.”
Oh dear. Sheila stood from the table. “I didn’t think Eliza had met Joey.”
“She hadn’t, which is why it was perfect,” Patty said with a nod.
“Patty,” Sheila said slowly, “you know how hard it’s been for Eliza. She doesn’t need any –”
“I washelpingher,” Patty hissed, spinning around with a box of tea in her hand. “Do you want a cup?”
“Yes, but –”
Patty cut her off. “There was a table of boys trying to harass her, and I don’t know how he did it, but he chased them off.”
Sheila shut her eyes and groaned. “She asked us not to get involved!”
“What good was that doing? She’s stopped eating, the bags under her eyes look like they belong to the mother of a newborn, and she spends all her free time hiding away in her room.”
Sheila took a deep breath. There was no need to argue with Patty. They were on the same side, Eliza’s side, and both helpless to get her out of this slump.
The entire thing was ridiculous. It wasn’t Eliza’s fault she’d walked into the middle of a robbery.
People could be so cruel.
She yanked two teacups out of the cupboard and plopped them onto the counter. “I’m well aware, Patty. Believe me. I don’t think of much else.”
Before the bank robbery, Eliza had been thriving and Sheila was thrilled. It seemed like her sweet, sensitive daughter had finally found something that worked for her, and it was right here on the island.
Selfishly, Sheila liked having Eliza living with them at the cottage. For so many years, she’d had to fret about Eliza from afar. After she left school, she only grew quieter. More closed off. Alone.
Now, she’d come back to life, reviving Patty’s tea shop and running it like a professional. She was home every night, and they got to spend so much time together – eating dinner, watching movies, baking. They even went kayaking once, and even though they didn’t make it far, it was wonderful.
Whydid she have to be at the bank on that awful day?
“People are acting like that bank robbery was Eliza’s fault,” Sheila said, shaking her head. “A man stopped me in the grocery store today to tell me Eliza would’ve thwarted the robbery if I’d raised her with any common sense.”
