Starfire(100)

“You’re weird.”

“You eat boogers.”

“Your whole head is made of boogers. And your butt.”

We traded insults until we got to the house.

Mom thawed out a meatloaf from the freezer, and we sat together and enjoyed our family dinner. I wondered how Dalton and his father and cousin were doing back at the resort, but mostly I relaxed and savored the comfort of being with my people.





CHAPTER 33


Monday morning, I arrived late to Peachtree Books, now open at the new location. I was shocked to discover the store was already open.

A brunette woman, about fifty, swept the front sidewalk clear of dirt and debris.

“Hi, boss! I’m Laura,” she said. “I would have waited for you, but I still had my key, so I hope you don’t mind. I called Adrian and got the alarm code. He said to say hello if you showed up.” She swept a little more, stirring the dust mostly into the air. “Adrian said to go get you a mocha if you didn’t already have one in your hand, so I’ll just go do that.”

“Interesting.”

She handed me the broom, then disappeared up the street.

I walked into the store, surprised to find three—no, four—customers browsing the books. They seemed to be shopping independently, which meant either our new location was going to be much better for business, or I was about to get flash-mobbed.

I darted back out the door and looked around for people acting suspiciously. Was there a flash mob waiting in the wings? The mailman waved, but that was it. Everything seemed normal enough.

I went back in and stood in the middle of the new store for a minute, feeling awkward. Everything looked perfect and organized, the way it had been on Friday.

Except for a few balloons tied to the tops of bookshelves, nobody would ever guess the store had only been open since Saturday.

Good job, Adrian.

The customers were browsing fine on their own, so I made my way to my spot behind the counter and dumped out the pens from the tin, to give them a good sorting.

Ten minutes later, Laura returned with two takeout cups, including a mocha for me. And a gingersnap cookie.

“Laura, I love you already,” I said.

Yes, things were going well.

Adrian thought he’d pull one over on me by hiring some woman without my permission, but I wasn’t going to freak out.

Laura and I talked some more throughout the day, and I learned she’d been an employee of Black Sheep Books until about a year ago, when she couldn’t stand the owners anymore. She did, however, love the books and the customers, and had brought her resume in on Saturday to give to Adrian. He hired her on the spot. On Sunday, she came in and trained to learn the point-of-sale software, and now she was mine. All mine.

Having a full-time weekday employee made me giddy… until the end of the day, when I closed up the cash register.

The sales for the day were up twenty-two percent from a typical Monday that time of year. That was good, but not amazing. We seemed to be busier at the new location, but not enough to justify two weekday employees. Sure, the sample size was small, but the writing was on the wall.

I didn’t say anything about my worries to our new employee, who looked so happy, and had been friendly and helpful with customers all day.

Either Laura or I would have to go.

I was getting married to a wealthy actor, whereas Laura was a single mom with two teenage boys.

She needed the job more than I did. She wanted the job, whereas I simply had the job and kept showing up.

Thinking about my future, I felt like I was up in a plane again, and everything below me seemed small in the distance.

We locked up for the day, and I told Laura I’d see her Tuesday.

Then I started the long walk home. I could have taken the bus and saved myself a couple of miles, but I had a lot of thinking to do, and I always think better when I’m walking.

I was a third of the way home when my senses tingled that I was being followed by a car. I whipped around to see a German Shepherd, wearing a cone around his neck, hanging out of a car window. He had the dog equivalent of a giant grin on his face.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Adrian called out from the driver’s seat.

I kept walking, because I still had a lot of thinking to do.

“You hate me that much?” he called out. “I hoped you’d be happy that I hired Laura to help out for a few weeks, so you could do all the wedding stuff.”

“You told her it was only a few weeks? By the way she was talking, she must think the job’s hers permanently.”

“I wouldn’t do that to you.” He waved for the car behind him to go around, and continued to roll along slowly next to the sidewalk while I kept walking. “Is this it? You hate me now? Because if you hated me, things could get less complicated.”