Page 26 of Shep
My eyes widened, then narrowed. Shit. I’d given her the code to the door thinking I could trust her, but now? Was she like Marv? It’d only been… eight hours?
“Were you stealing from me?”
Her eyes widened at my snarl and she shook her head. She tugged off the hat, her long hair down, but a mess. “No, I–”
“I took a chance on you,” I snapped, pointed at her. “After the last guy, I told Pops no, but I figured everyone deserves a shot.”
“Shep,” Colt said.
“I–” Frankie sputtered.
“Well?” I asked, ignoring both of them. All I could think of was Marv and his five finger discount. “Wasn’t the three thousand enough?”
“Please don’t fire me,” she said, her voice soft. At her sides, her hands shook.
“I don’t know about the three thousand, but she was sleeping there, Shep,” Colt said.
My gaze whipped to his. What the fuck? Sleeping at the shop?
“Sleeping there?” Ma said, sounding appalled.
Colt nodded. “Her car was in the bay. She defended herself with her toothpaste.”
I couldn’t miss the way Frankie’s cheeks flushed. Like she felt truly shamed.
Everyone started talking at once all around us. I stared at Frankie, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. She had her head down, eyes on her boots. A tear dropped to the wood floor.
What the actual fuck?
Ma went up to her, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tipped her head down so she spoke softly. “Honey, you don’t have a place to live?”
I knew that voice, the one she saved for when she was taking care of someone who was sick or hurt.
Frankie shook her head.
She didn’t have a place to live. She didn’t… she washomeless?
“Well, you’re staying here now for as long as you need,” Ma said immediately.
My anger seeped out of me like a punctured tire. I ran my hand down my face. I’d just yelled at her and accused her of stealing. Of having no integrity. Of being just like Marv. “Fuck.”
She didn’t have a place to live in this shitty weather? Her only option had been the shop? The muffin. Fuck, had the muffin been all she really had to eat? Had she had dinner?
“Have you eaten?” Ma asked, reading my mind.
She nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I had my leftovers from lunch.”
Leftovers.Fuckingleftovers. There was nothing wrong with them and their point was to actually eat them for a different meal. But she’d stopped short on her lunch at the diner with me tosavesome of it for dinner? I remembered her order of soup first. She’d ordered the cheapest thing on the menu because she couldn’t afford more. Then what would she have eaten for dinner?
“I’ll fix her a plate,” Molly offered, stepping out of Colt’s hold and heading to the fridge.
Ma steered her toward the kitchen island without looking my way.
I met Colt’s eyes over her head. He tipped his chin in their direction.
Shit. Shit. I was standing here like a fucking log. I’d been complaining about how hot the fireplace was with a full stomach while my girl had used my shop as shelter?
Yeah, I was a dick.
