Chapter 8

"Elizabeth, are you okay?" Joey said as he found her sitting down watching Will play.

"I'm fine…" she said quietly.

He sat down next to her, "You sure?"

"You didn't have to do that," she said bluntly.

"He shouldn't have been treating you like that. Why do you stay at that restaurant if he's always harassing you?"

"I don't have a choice, I have to make money in order to keep Will in school, feed Will, get Will what he needs for school—"

"Do you ever think about yourself?"

"Of course."

"Name one time."

"There was a time when—"

"Before you were a parent."

Elizabeth stopped, Joey looked at her sweetly, "Just for once, do what's right for you."

"What's right for Will, is what's right for me. He's the only family I've got left."

"You've got your husband."

Elizabeth looked away; she couldn't think she couldn't speak.

"Even though he's not here, he still loves you, okay."

"But what if I don't love him?" she said under her breathe.

"What?" Joey said confused.

"Like I said earlier, I don't know if I can love him anymore. What if he's changed? What if he's not the same man I fell in love with so many years ago?"

Joey wanted to say what he had felt for Elizabeth then and there but he couldn't. She was too weak for that.

"Come on dance with me," he said sweetly, "You don't have to but it might cheer ya up."

She thought about it for a moment and then stood up, "Okay but only one."

"That's all I ask," he said as they went onto the dance floor.

They started dancing, after a minute Elizabeth finally smiled for the first time since earlier when the argument started.

"You're a good dancer!" she laughed.

"Am I as good as Will?" he laughed.

"He's good but he dances wonderfully with Clara!" she joked.

"I meant big Will, your husband!" he laughed.

"Oh, well you still need more practice to get that good!"

They continued dancing and laughing through one dance that turned to two to three and so on. It came to the point where they had forgot everything else in the world.

"If you do need another job, I know my father is always willing to hire more people at his shops," Joey said sweetly.

"I could never do that to you Joey, I don't want special treatment from you just because you feel bad for me," she laughed.

"I don't feel bad for you! Where on earth did you get that idea?"

"Well you're always so sweet to me, your always helping me, you broke the wealthiest man on the islands nose for me," they both laughed until there was complete silence between them. Her looking into his eyes, him looking into hers.

"You have… beautiful eyes," He said breathlessly.

"You too."

"Elizabeth, I need to tell you something, I—"

They were so close, but Joey was interrupted by Will calling for Elizabeth. They both snapped out of the trance they were in and Elizabeth smiled to Will as he ran up.

"Momma! Momma! Can we play games now?" he exclaimed hugging her.

"Of course, a few good games sound good!" she exclaimed.

"Uncle Joey, wanna play with us?" Will said looking up at Joey.

Elizabeth and Joey looked at each other; they didn't know what to do.

"Uhhhhh," Joey didn't know if it was okay.

"Why not, Joey why don't you join us?" Elizabeth said fastly.

"Okay then," Joey smiled as they walked form the dance floor to the game area, "Games on me!"

"Really?" Will exclaimed.

"Yep, anything you want!" Joey answered.

"Joey, you don't have to—" Elizabeth said quietly

"Once again, yes I do. It's my money and I'll do what I choose with it. Now what game shall we play first Will?"

"Let's pl—ay… that one!" he said running towards a large booth with cans and baseballs.

"Ya comin'?" Joey asked as he looked back at Elizabeth.

"I'm gonna go grab something to drink, then I'll be over."

He nodded his head and ran behind Joey.

Elizabeth thought to herself standing there for a moment, watching Will and Joey. Her mind was racing, 'what am I doing? I need to just go up and tell Joey that this doesn't feel right. But what if Will doesn't show? Then could it work? No, no, no! Elizabeth Turner snap out of it! The minute you see your husband everything will rush back! Ugh! But what if….'

She went to the refreshment stand and bought some water. She then sat down for a moment to clear her mind before returning to Joey and Will.

"Izzy!" Chloe yelled from behind. Elizabeth didn't want to talk at the moment, especially to Chloe because she knew what she would want to talk about.

Elizabeth turned around and put on a smile. "Chloe!"

"How are you?" Chloe said sitting down.

"I just saw you earlier, I haven't really changed that much," Elizabeth laughed.

"No, I mean how are you? I heard about what happened with Mat on the dance floor."

"You did?" Elizabeth said confused.

"Yeah everyone's talking about it! I can't believe Joey would have the nerve to do that!"

"What?"

"He broke Mat's nose! Let's just say a lo—t of people are unhappy with him for that."

Elizabeth sat up straight, "Joey stopped Mat. Mat was trying to force me to dance with him. He almost broke my wrist."

"Well still it was none of Joey's business—"

"What is with you people? There's no telling what Mat would have done. Joey saved me. I don't know what all of you are thinking."

"Wow, listen to yourself," Chloe laughed.

"What?"

"You're defending him… that's the closest emotion I've ever seen you show towards a man that wasn't Will."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Elizabeth said trying to laugh.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, you're just afraid to admit it. Make up your mind, Will will be back in two days. It will only make it easier to decide."

Elizabeth was confused, "How did you know he's coming back in two days? I only said—"

Chloe formed a rather sly smirk, "Well, let's just say I took your advice a few weeks ago. Then, I overheard a rather interesting conversation between you and Joey…"

"Wait a minute. Your with—, you little—"

"Ha-ha-ha say what you want but I know your little secret now. All it takes is one kiss from your little shop boy over there and your Will will never come back. Bound to that so called plague ship… forever."

Elizabeth was in shock; Chloe had been backstabbing her for the who knows how long. Elizabeth thought they were best friends but really Chloe was just trying to get information out of her.

"I thought you were my friend, I trusted you to not lie to me. When really you been behind my back... with that idiot?"

"Yep…"

"I knew you were low Chloe, but I never thought you would go this low."

"It's every man or woman for themselves these days. I guess that it just takes longer for some to figure it out."

Elizabeth wanted to scream as loud as she could but she couldn't, not here, not now. So she began walking away fastly.

"Go ahead, Izzy. Run! Run along to your little boy. Don't forget what I said!" Chloe hollered still smiling as Mat walked up to her.

He took Chloe into a deep kiss.

"And that's… why I love you," he said quietly.

"I know," she said with evil in her voice.

"What do you think she'll do?"

"There's no telling, she's angry. When she's angry she takes out her anger through her emotions."

"Hmmmm, this could work in our favor."

"It could indeed."

"When's the husband coming back?"

"Two days, why?"

"Well, lets just s—ay, I've got a little plan of my own up my sleeve," she said smirking at her.

"Ohhhh, sounds fun. Please do tell."

They walked away as Mat informed Chloe of his plan against the Turners and Lyles.