She braced herself to hear that someone was shoplifting or one of her staff had been in an accident. What she didn’t expect was for Cheryl to suck in a breath, then blurt, “I’ve been reading the diaries.”
Jax stared at her. “What? No! Those are private. People trusted us. You can’t read them. Wait! You said you could be trusted. You’re a former first grade teacher who said she had a strong moral compass.”
“Oh, please. I said I was old and a former teacher so people would trust me. I never said I was actually trustworthy.”
“This isn’t the time to be clarifying that.”
Jax sank into her chair, trying to grasp what she’d been told.Given her job, Cheryl would have access to the storeroom. It would be easy for her to go in and read the diaries, but Jax had never thought she would.
“You have to stop reading them. It’s not right.”
“Thank you for stating the obvious.” Cheryl sat across from her. “I didn’t tell you to ease my guilty conscience. It’s something I read in one of the diaries that’s bothering me.”
Jax held up both hands. “It’s not my business. I don’t want to know.”
Cheryl ignored her. “One of the diaries is written by a child. He’s maybe eight or nine and he’s scared.”
Jax went cold. “Is he being abused?”
“No, but his mother works nights and leaves him alone. There’s not a lot of money so I’m guessing she can’t afford a sitter. She goes to work at nine. He’s supposed to be in bed, asleep, but he wakes up scared, then sits by the front window, watching for her to come home.”
Jax felt sick to her stomach. “That’s awful.”
“It is. He knows he can’t tell anyone because if an adult knew, his mom would get in trouble. He’s worried he’ll be taken away from her. He says she works the night shift because the pay is more and they need the money.” Cheryl’s eyes filled with tears. “My heart breaks for him. I want to help only I don’t know how.”
Jax wanted to help as well. “Wait. How do we know this is a current situation? People have been leaving diaries in the store for decades. He could be a forty-year-old plumber living in New Jersey.”
“He mentioned a food truck that only started serving the area last fall. He must have written in the diary in January. Do you remember any kids during Diary Days?”
“Sure, there were a few dozen. Sometimes teachers assign diaries to their students.” She tried to remember back to the January session. It had been busy as always with people wanting to write about the resolutions and hopes for the New Year. There was no way she could remember any one individual who might have written a diary.
But a little boy was scared and alone at night and that wasn’t okay.
“Do we go to the police?” she asked, even as she knew they wouldn’t. “Never mind. What are we going to say? That someone made a diary entry but we don’t know who he is or what his circumstances are now?”
“I’ll ask around,” Cheryl said. “There’s a limited population of single mothers in town. I have friends at the various elementary schools. I might be able to figure out who he is.”
Jax wasn’t comfortable with the snooping but she also didn’t want to do nothing. If the boy was still being left alone, then maybe the community could come together to figure out a workable childcare situation for him and his mom. But until they knew who he was and if he was all right, they couldn’t do anything.
“Let me know what you find out. Our small-business network is pretty extensive. I’m sure we could figure out a way to help.”
Ryleigh reread the application, checking for typos. When she was certain she’d filled out everything correctly, she moved her cursor to the submit button, but hesitated before pushing it.
Was she really going to do this? Apply for a teaching job in San Diego? Was she really going to move so far away from everyone she loved? Alex seemed to think she was. Maybe he could see her more clearly than she could see herself because she sure didn’t think he was trying to push her away.
She looked at the screen. The school district was great with plenty of family friendly neighborhoods around. The salary was more than she was currently paid, although the cost of housing would be higher.
She glanced at Lucy, who was sunning herself on the wide windowsill.
“What do you think, pretty girl? You’d look good in San Diego.”
Lucy gave her a slow blink in return.
“I’m doing it,” Ryleigh said and firmly pushed the button. Seconds later her email popped up with an autogenerated notice that her application had been received.
When her stomach lurched, she reminded herself she was only at the beginning of the journey. She could change her mind at any point. Until she accepted a job and signed a lease, she could always decide to stay right where she was.
She went into the kitchen to figure out what to have for dinner. As she prepared her meal, she once again thought about how she wasn’t missing Dustin at all. It was as if they’d never dated and she couldn’t figure out why she’d been so intent on getting him to propose.
