My jaw dropped at her brazen little move. Did I raise a hussy? Of course, I loved her more than life, but the thought did enter my mind.
“I’m Kael. It’s nice to meet you.” He shook her hand.
Bella giggled.
Whoa!
Why was she giggling?
And why was he holding her hand for so long? And looking at her like he’d looked at me?
“Nice to meet you too.” She tipped her chin to her chest and cocked her head to the side. Things were not good. Not good at all.
I cleared my throat and eyed their joined hands. “It’s the start of flu season. I’m not sure handshaking is advised by the CDC.”
The human mom had no boundaries when it came to protecting her young. And Bella was young and in need of protection from the vegetable-named gawker giving her way too much attention. We needed to get out of there and go straight to the doctor for pregnancy and STD testing. I knew it would happen. I knew Craig’s overprotectiveness and shaming at church would drive her in the direction of promiscuity. He refused to let her be on birth control, and religion taught abstinence.
“Sorry, Mrs. Smith.” He released her hand.
I glared at him through narrowed eyes for a few seconds when Bella wasn’t looking at me.
“I love your store. It’s so modern and … clean.”
Clean? Was my daughter implying my store was dirty?
“Thanks. We basically gutted the inside, left the exposed ceilings and duct work to give it a modern feel, and added more windows. I laid the flooring myself.” He tapped it with his foot.
“It’s beautiful.” Bella dropped her gaze to admire it.
“The carpet we removed was the most disgusting thing I’d ever seen. Talk about bad vibes from the moment you walk into a store.”
Bella laughed. “See, Mom … maybe if you’d get rid of the carpet, more people would come to the store.”
After her pregnancy and STD tests, we were going to talk about her lack of respect for the business that fed her for eighteen years.
“Oh, sorry, Mrs. Smith … I forgot you have carpet over there. My apologies. I didn’t mean for my observations to sound so harsh.”
He did. And I could see it in his barely restrained smirk and twinkle of asshole in his eyes.
“It’s fine. Your generation has no filter. I wouldn’t expect anything less. When you grow up, you’ll learn to think before you speak.”
“Mom …” Bella’s eyes widened. “That’s rude.”
It was rude, but necessary.
“Crap …” Bella glanced at her phone. “I forgot I told Nila we could hang out. She’s waiting for me. I gotta run. Bye, Mom.” Bella kissed me on the cheek. It was one respectful and loving thing she still retained. “Nice meeting you, Kael. I’ll be back later to buy some stuff.”
The girl had no money. Was she really going to muster the nerve to ask me for money to buy goods from my competitor?
“It was nice to meet you too, Bella.”
Kael and I watched her exit his store.
“Stay away from my daughter.” I snapped my attention back to him.
“Uh …” he chuckled. “Okay. That will be hard if she stops by again.”
“You know what I mean. I saw the way you looked at her. She’s a young girl.”
“I thought you said she’s eighteen.”
“Listen, perv …” I glared at him, stabbing my finger into his chest. “She’s a senior in high school.”
He glanced down at my finger pressed to his white apron, a smile on his lips mocking me. “You think I’m interested in your daughter?”
A customer passing us stole our attention, and we smiled at her on cue as I withdrew my finger.
Lowering my voice, I made a quick glance around to see if anyone else was in earshot. “I think you sell products because you flirt with anything that moves.”
His lips pursed to the side as if I wasn’t speaking English. “You know what I think? I think you’re upset that I’m nice to people. I think marriage and years of fearing God has made you paranoid that if you smile too big or shake someone’s hand too long, people will think you’re flirting and therefore cheating. Maybe if you smiled like you were offering your customers more than stale popcorn, even if you’re not, then you’d see long lines at your shop again. I bet your husband knew how to smile at customers. Now … I have work to do. Thanks for stopping by.” He winked. Winked at me like he