“OVER HERE, BOOKWORM.”
My paintbrush stilled and I shot a smile over my shoulder at Wyatt down on the sidewalk. He snapped a picture of me on the ladder in front of the store, painting Pemberley Books over the stencil.
Instead of a faded gray like before, the front of the store was now a deep forest green. Even in the late afternoon golden hour glow, the color was magnificent. Rich, lush, and comforting.
Chatter, laughter, and the whir of a drill traveled through the open door below me. When I saw the new flooring Emmett, Holden, and Sam had installed, I had no words. The deep, cherry wood was a stark contrast to the gross old carpet, lying in a heap in the dumpster behind the store. Pemberley Books looked like a real store now.
It wasn’t even finished yet. The books stood in stacks in the stockroom, waiting for placement once Sam finished fixing the shelves in the alley. Naya worked beside him, painting the mural with headphones on, lost in her work.
My heart squeezed with gratitude. I never could have afforded the flooring or installation. I never could have done all this work by myself in one day.
Wyatt stepped back to capture another picture. “Nice choice on that color.”
I smiled to myself as I applied the petal-pink paint to the store name. It did look great, and if I changed my mind, I could paint over it.
Because everything was temporary, like Wyatt had said.
His words from the other night echoed in my head and my heart tripped.
I’m falling for you, bookworm.
Falling for Wyatt didn’t seem temporary. My stomach knotted and I shoved the thought away as I brushed more paint onto the sign.
In my back pocket, my phone buzzed. The music video clips had gone viral on Wyatt’s social media and the comments, likes, and messages had been rolling in. His fans thought the clips were hilarious and even Tula had commented and reposted. More brand sponsors had contacted me and he had a call with an agent tomorrow.
Holden stepped out the door and looked up at me. “You want me to install those lights now?”
“Oh. Sure.” I made my way down the ladder and Wyatt was at my side in a flash, ready to catch me if I fell.
The nurse at the ER thought you were my pregnant wife, he had told me days ago at his parents’ house. I liked the idea of it.
Wyatt’s gaze made my skin prickle with awareness. “Careful,” he said in a low voice, and I shivered.
If he was this protective now, what would he be like when I was pregnant?
My brain jolted. If. If I were pregnant. Which I never would be with Wyatt. We hadn’t even had sex. And it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t forever with him, as much as that pinched to think about.
His thumb brushed my jaw and I leaned into his touch. “You got some paint on you.”
Our gazes met and I bit my lip. He had woken me up this morning with his tongue, drawing slow, intoxicating circles on my clit. Heat streaked through me at the memory.
Beside us, Holden folded his arms over his chest in exasperation. I flushed and Wyatt laughed and slapped me on the butt before I followed Holden inside.
Elizabeth and Liya had almost finished applying the wallpaper. I covered my mouth to hold back a squeal. The giant flowers were like something out of Alice in Wonderland. Holy crap. The store was almost unrecognizable.
“Sorry,” I told Holden. “I know you have better things to do.”
Holden managed the construction company now. He hadn’t done wiring in years, but he was here in the store, helping me out along with his entire family.
He waved me off. “It’s fine.” He pointed at the boxes near the door. “Are these the lights?”
I nodded, pulled the box cutter from my back pocket, and sliced the box open.
When I pulled out the feathery orb, Holden grimaced. He regarded the light like it was about to bite him before he sighed and took it from me.
I stifled my laugh. “Thank you.”
“Ohhh, pretty lights.” Avery appeared behind me with a potted plant with big leaves. She held it up. “Chinese evergreen. Dana at the garden store said this would be good for low light.” She tilted her head as Emmett walked in the door carrying another potted plant. “We have a whole bunch in the car.”
I beamed at them. “Thank you. Do you want to set them outside until we move the bookshelves back in?”
I led them outside as Max and Div turned the corner.
“Whoa.” Max stepped inside the store.
Div studied the newly painted storefront with a small smile on his face before nodding once at me. “Looks good.” His gaze swung to my hair. “And your hair does too, I forgot to mention that the other night.”
My fingers came to the ends of my hair. My face was going to be tired tomorrow from all the smiling I’d done today. “Thanks.”
Div put his hands on his hips. “How can we help?”
“CONNOR FLIPPED her onto her back and kneeled at her soaked entrance,” Emmett read in between bites of pizza as we collapsed in giggles.
“Jesus Christ.” Holden’s eyes were wide from where he scrutinized the sturdiness of the hanging chair in the window. “I thought this was a hockey book.”
It was just after nine at night and pizza boxes lay open on the floor. Avery and Emmett sat with their backs against the desk. Div and Liya lounged in the squashy blue chairs we had dragged to the main area. Holden tested his weight on the hanging chair and studied the mounting brackets. Max returned from the washroom and took a seat on the arm of Div’s chair. Sam and Elizabeth had called it a day once the last book was on the shelf.
“It’s hockey romance,” Liya told Holden, as if that explained everything.
The store was like a fairy dreamland greenhouse. Like something out of a book, just like I wanted but better because it was real. Twinkle lights sparkled along the top of the bookshelves. The rich brown of the cherry floors matched the trees in the wallpaper, and the soft lighting doused the store in a warm glow. Avery had placed viney plants near the hanging chair in hopes that the vines would grow up the support to the ceiling.
The Main Character chair, I had called it. People could sit there and feel like the lead in their own story. I hummed with bliss.
“‘I’m going to make my pretty little wife come hard tonight,’ Connor growled, dragging a meaty finger through her wetness,” Emmett read. He took a bite of pizza, scanning the page. “Wow. This is a lot. Meaty.” He shook his head to himself.
Holden stared at Emmett in horror. Liya and Avery were laughing so hard they couldn’t breathe. Wyatt and I exchanged a grin. Even Div wore a little smirk as he wrote an email on his phone.
“‘Connor, please,’ she begged. He delivered a sharp slap to her quivering folds and she gasped with pain and pleasure.”
Avery let out a loud cackle and stuffed a piece of crust in her mouth.
“A sex slap? Oh my god.” Max shook his head at me. “You sell porn.” He looked to Div. “Are the straights okay?”
Div didn’t look up from his phone. “They were never okay.”
My face glowed red but I couldn’t stop laughing. “I’m so glad your parents left,” I whispered to Wyatt.
He cringed and shuddered.
Emmett turned a page. “Throbbing, thrusting, aching cocks, yada yada yada.” He turned another page. “Here we go. Connor roared as his orgasm raced through him and his engorged member sprayed seed like a firehose, all over his wife’s ample breasts.” He closed the book and regarded us all with a satisfied sigh. “What a scene.”
Holden’s eyes were huge with disbelief. “This is what women read?”
“And Don,” I added.
“Firehose?” he whispered to himself.
Wyatt cut him a look. “Romance makes people happy. Things aren’t dumb because women like them.”
“I didn’t say it was dumb.” Holden blinked and rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s just horny.”
“Women are horny, Holden.” Avery held up the pizza box. “Who wants the last piece of this one?”
Wyatt pulled me closer to him on the window bench. “How you doing?”
I rolled my lips. My face hurt from smiling so much today. “Great.”
He nodded, hot gaze searing me. “Great. You look happy.”
“I am. This place finally feels like…” I sucked in a breath, surveying everyone. “Mine.” Sitting here with Wyatt, I knew I was meant to be here in the bookstore. Like all the uncomfortable stuff I went through to make the changes was worth it. Like it was fate.
But I also couldn’t wait to get back to Wyatt’s place tonight.
“Are you tired?” he asked in a low voice.
I matched his heated gaze. “Not that tired.”
He smirked.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket. When I peered at the screen, my dad’s picture flashed there.
Tension cracked my good mood and my spine went rigid.
“Just a sec,” I told Wyatt with a quick, tight smile as I stood and wandered to the back room. “Hi, Dad.”
“Hi, honey.”
“Um, what’s up? How’s Salt Spring?” My voice was weak and watery and I squeezed my eyes closed in frustration. I hadn’t thought about my dad once today.
I hadn’t really thought about my mom, either.
I slumped against the wall in the storeroom, glancing down at the stack of crime thrillers on the table. When we re-shelved the books, I had made the decision to leave anything non-romance back here. Romance books made up the majority of our social media posts and accounted for ninety percent of our sales these days. Over the summer, with the social media taking off, Pemberley Books’ brand had become all about romance novels. It didn’t make sense to take up valuable real estate on the shelves with books that didn’t fit our brand.
“It’s good. Keeping busy. It’s quite beautiful here.” He laughed. “They have a great ice cream shop down the road, we like to walk there every night after dinner.”
“We?” I frowned. “Is Uncle Rick back?” The idea of him and my dad walking to get ice cream was kind of cute.
His tone changed. “Um. No. Uh, the neighbor. Anyway, how’s the store?”
Oh, the store that was unrecognizable from when he left? That store? “Fine.” My voice strained.
My heart hammered in my chest. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t lie like this to him. It was wrong.
“I have to tell you something.”
He paused. “Okay.”
“Um.” I blinked and sucked a breath in before I let it out, nice and slow. You got this, bookworm, I could hear in my head. “I started social media for the store. We, um…” I cleared my throat and rubbed my forehead. “We weren’t doing that well.”
“Okay.” He drew the word out in three syllables.
“When people visit Queen’s Cove on vacation, they check out certain hashtags and the town social media pages to see what there is to do here.” I swallowed. “Um. So it’s important that we have an online presence and at least show people that we exist.” I dragged the toe of my sneaker along the edge of a cardboard box full of biographies. “It’s helped bring the store back into the black.”
My pulse beat in my ears while I waited for him to respond. He sighed.
“I didn’t know the store wasn’t doing well.”
“I wanted to fix it. I didn’t want you to worry.” My mouth twisted.
He hummed, thinking, and I could picture his uncertain expression. “I should have been around more. I should spend more time in the store once I get back.”
I could hear the reluctance in his voice.
I didn’t want him here, either. Having him in the store more would be a step backwards. The store had my stamp all over it now.
“I don’t think that’s necessary.” I picked at a drop of dried paint on my jeans.
This was the part where I should have told him about the renovations.
Wyatt stuck his head in the storeroom and gave me a questioning look with a thumbs up. Everything okay? he mouthed.
I nodded. “Dad, I have to go.”
Baby steps, I told myself. Today, social media. Next week I’d tell him a few more things.
“Okay. Call me if you need anything.”
“I will. Bye, love you.”
“Love you, too.”
There. That wasn’t so bad. Maybe he wouldn’t totally lose his mind when he saw that I had erased my mom completely.
Wyatt stepped into my space and I breathed in his scent.
“Everyone’s packing up.” He towered over me, looking down into my eyes with warmth. “I’m so proud of you.”
“For what?” I looped my arms around his waist.
He tilted his head out at the store. “For everything. Look at you go, bookworm, riding the wave. Shooting forward.”
His head dropped and he pressed a soft kiss to my mouth. I melted into him.
“Let’s go home,” he whispered, and I nodded against his mouth.
