She crouched by Chett’s side. “Hey, buddy.”
“Are there any kids’ clothes?”
Bonnie’s smile widened. “Well, I actually have this special bag here.” She brought it forward and handed it to him. “This is for you and the other kids, and I think you might find a few things in your size. Do you want to go through it and see what you like?”
His little eyes lit up, and he nodded before taking the bag over to the girl he was playing with.
Bonnie rose as Sarah stopped beside her. The other woman touched her arm and lowered her voice. “Are you okay?”
“What do you mean?”
Sarah leaned closer. “I can see the bruise on your temple.”
Crap. She’d thought she’d covered it well with makeup. “I’m okay. The incident’s been…taken care of.” Ha. That was a lie if ever she’d told one. But she wasn’t about to share what had happened with any of the women at the shelter.
“So he’s been charged?” Sarah asked.
Well, she was hoping that Jesse called her with good news about Carlos cracking and admitting he was the culprit. But that was probably wishful thinking. “You don’t need to worry about me, Sarah.”
“You worry about all of us.”
“That’s my job.”
Sarah paused for a moment. “Hang on. I’ve got something.”
Bonnie frowned as Sarah disappeared up the stairs. When she returned, she had a small bottle of something in her hand.
“Pepper spray.” Sarah held out her hand.
“Oh, I don’t need—”
“I have plenty.” Sarah pushed it at her.
Bonnie sighed, still wanting to say no but not wanting to offend the other woman. “Thank you. How areyoudoing?”
Sarah smiled. It was the first real smile Bonnie had seen from her. “Really good. The counseling’s still helping. I’ve made some friends and I’m not hovering over Chett as much.”
Bonnie squeezed her arm. “I love that, Sarah.”
When the women were done grabbing everything they wanted, Bonnie took the almost empty box back to her office and grabbed her purse.
“Bonnie.”
She jumped at Shelley’s voice suddenly behind her. “Hi.”
“Did you take a one-and-a-half-hour lunch break today?”
“Yes, I did. My brother took me to buy a car, which I did. Buy, I mean. But I’ve stayed later to make up for the time.” Which had always been fine at her last job, but by the look on Shelley’s face, possibly wasn’t at this one.
Shelley’s brows pinched. “We don’t do that here. Please don’t do it again.”
Then she left.
Well, goodbye to you too.
What was frustrating was, she’d put in so many extra hours. Taking a slightly longer lunch break and staying late to make up for it shouldn’t be problem. Well, it wasn’t in Bonnie’s eyes anyway.
She turned off the lights in her office and left.
