Page 89 of The Billionaire's Wife

I went into the closet and eyed the section where Faith had hung her clothes. The outfits I’d gotten her in Paris were neatly stored in the hanging bags that the store had provided with the purchase. I unzipped each one a little so I could tell which was which, then grabbed the hangers for the dark-rose option. I had a tie that would coordinate. And I’d loved it on her when she’d tried it on.

I eyed her small collection of shoes and winced before grabbing a pair that I thought would work. If not, hopefully I’d get points for trying.

I glanced at the time and hurried to finish getting ready. In under five minutes, I was heading back to the elevators and through the parking garage to the car. Another five and I pulled into a sweet spot just one shop down from the bookstore.

I grabbed the hanging bag from the trunk and strode to the store, my steps slowing as I took in the Halloween decorations that filled the front window. Nothing scary. Just campy and fun. Playful spiders with googly eyes and laughing mummies telling knock-knock jokes.

I grinned and pulled open the door, making the bell chime.

“Hey there, stranger.” Megan looked up from the book she was reading behind the register. “Been a while since you stopped by.”

“Sorry.” I fought the urge to hunch my shoulders. Megan knew I preferred to read on my Kindle. Or even my phone. Paper books were fine, but they took up space and they cost more and, unless it was a reference book or something that held a lot of nostalgia, I was much more likely to go the e-book route these days.

“Pfft.” She waved it away. “I don’t think you could single-handedly save the store.”

“Save it? It’s that bad?” I looked around again. There were no customers in sight. But it was a Tuesday evening. How busy were bookstores supposed to be?

Megan waggled her hand from side to side. “Cody thinks putting in a coffee bar will help.”

“Haven’t you been talking about that for a while?”

Megan groaned. “Yes. But I’m scared. I keep going back and forth.”

“You should just do it. What do you have to lose?” I looked around the bookstore again. It couldn’t get emptier. And Cody would be willing to invest to keep it afloat, if that was what Megan wanted, until the coffee idea had a chance for a good trial. “I thought the local author things were helping.”

“They were. Are.” She sighed. “Kind of. My problem is that I’ve been working with local authors who aren’t big names. And I haven’t been able to catch the eye of the big publishing companies to lure any of the authors who would actually draw a big crowd.”

“Have you written them directly to ask?” I didn’t know a lot about the publishing world. Or, well, anything, but writing was one of those professions that I often saw lumped into “starving artist” territory.

“No. Do you think it would matter?”

I shrugged. “It’s like the coffee thing. What do you have to lose?”

“I guess that’s a point. You want to write them for me?”

I laughed. “No. But I happen to know you have a new employee who’s actually really good at written communication and was, at one point, interested in marketing. She never got the degree she talked about in high school, but I bet she studied on her own.”

Megan’s eyebrows lifted. “You mean Faith.”

I nodded.

“Why wouldn’t she tell me that?”

I didn’t know quite how to answer. I knew why—but it felt like talking out of turn to explain. “She’s had it rough.”

“That’s not really—” Megan broke off as Faith came out of the back room.

“Hi.” Faith brightened. “I thought I heard your voice.”

“I was a little early.” I offered the hanging bag of clothes. “I thought you could wear this if you wanted.”

Faith peeked in and grinned. “Sure. I’ll go change.”

Megan waited until Faith closed the back-room door then smirked. “You two are so cute.”

“Like puppies.”

She laughed. “Pretty much. You really think she could help with getting more notice around here?”

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