AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ten,” Summer corrects him.
“What’s that? Ten times?” Blake’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Antoine shakes his head in disapproval.
“No, only four times. I was ten years old the first time I boosted something from here.” She winces. “I’m sorry. We were at a homeless shelter at the time. My shoes fell apart and I didn’t want to tell my mother, so I got some shoes from here.”
“Well, I appreciate the honestly.” He gestures at Rayelle. “Go ahead and read that. She’d be working here about twelve hours a week. Three four-hour shifts. You would be paid to supervise her, and you would be with her at all times.”
Rayelle nods and reads over it. Then she gasps. “That’s too much money,” she protests.
“Shoplifting is an extremely expensive problem for my store. I would be paying your daughter a tiny percent of what I pay the rest of our security team, and she could potentially save our corporation a very large amount of money.”
“It actually sounds like tons of fun,” Summer says to her mother. “And like he said, I’d be using my powers for good instead of evil.”
“Well...” Rayelle looks up at Mr. Hudson doubtfully. “This is a very, very generous offer.”
“We could get a nice apartment and not have to worry about getting kicked out,” Summer points out. “You could quit all your other jobs and just work here in the café.”
“We have supervised childcare for all of our employees, as well,” Mr. Hudson continues. “When she is eighteen, if she’s interested, we do have college scholarships. She might want to major in criminal justice.”
“Wow!” Summer squeals excitedly.
Rayelle nods slowly. “If it’s what she wants to do...” She looks questioningly at her daughter.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Summer leaps up and does a happy dance, flinging her arms around.
Rayelle leans forward and signs the paperwork.
“Thank you very much, Mr. Hudson,” Paxton says to him.
“Don’t thank me,” Mr. Hudson says wryly. “Hiring a genius twelve-year-old is much better publicity for our store than prosecuting a child. Believe me, I always look out for our best interests. And now, Antoine will escort Summer and Rayelle to his office, where they’ll get started right away.”
Summer runs behind the desk and holds her arms out for a hug. Oh, no. I know what’s coming next.
Mr. Hudson stands up and awkwardly allows it.
Summer takes a step back, and holds up his wallet.
“I had a wallet chain!” he says indignantly.
“Well, you need a better one.” She hands it to him with a triumphant flourish. There’s a long pause, and I hold my breath, and then he bursts into laughter.
“Wow,” he says. “You are very good; I’ll give you that.”
Paxton and I say our goodbyes and leave the office.
“How the heck did you arrange that?” I say in amazement, as we’re taking the elevator downstairs.
“Your sister actually helped a lot. She’s got good connections with Mr. Hudson because he donates to her charity events. She also was the one who convinced him that pressing charges against a twelve-year-old and causing her and her mother to become homeless would not be a very good look.”
“Well, thank you for that. You literally changed their lives.” I blink away tears as I say it. I barely slept last night worrying about what would happen to Summer, and Paxton just handed them a little miracle.
“I mostly did it for you,” he says.
“No, you’re a secret softie. I promise not to tell any of the other hockey teams, though.” I smile at him, and he just shrugs, with a half smile.
We walk to the front door of Hudson’s. “I guess this is it,” I say to him.
“I guess it is.”
