Page 8 of Broken Heart

Shaking my head, I shared, “I was driving through downtown Landing when there was a massive gust of wind. It was so strong that one of the two by fours I had on top of the tarp flew out of the bed of the truck and right through the glass window on the entrance to the bookstore on the corner there.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“I wish. What a disaster.”

Understanding washed over him as he surmised, “So, you had to stick around and fix it.”

“Yep. But it’s only temporarily fixed. Now, I need to get this drywall inside and this hole patched up, so I can order what I need to order for this woman’s store.”

“Woman?” Ivy asked, her voice sounding oddly curious and excited.

Visions of Skye flashed before my eyes. “Yes, a woman. She owns the store.”

“Hmm.”

That was Ivy’s response.

I figured it was best to ignore that and returned my attention to Marco. “Did you get that hole prepped while I was out?”

“You were gone forever. I could have prepped a wall in every room on the entire third floor if I had to,” he retorted.

I rolled my eyes. “Do you want to give me a hand bringing in this drywall?”

“Sure. And if you want, I’ll take care of the hole while you go deal with ordering whatever you need for the bookstore repair. Then you can meet up with Liam afterward.”

“I appreciate that, Marco. Let’s go.” I turned to look at my sister and said, “See you later.”

She forced a smile onto her face. “Have fun.”

At that, I walked out of the hotel with Marco and got the drywall out of the back of my truck. Once we got it to the room where Marco was going to do the repair, I left to make some calls.

Considering how the day had been going, I should have expected I wasn’t going to get the answer I’d hoped for when I called about the replacement glass for Skye’s door.

Eight weeks.

It looked like I was going to have to change out that entire door frame. But since that was going to require me to come up with a few options to give her to fix it, and I desperately needed to get over to the amusement park, I was going to have to wait until later tonight to search for some options.

Then I’d call Skye at her store first thing in the morning.

The only bright side to my day would be knowing I’d have the chance to hear that sweet voice in my ear again.

3

SKYE

I hadn’t expected I’d ever find an upside to my newfound inability to sleep well at night, but I was wrong. Apparently, there was a bright side to it, after all. And it was Cooper who had pushed me to realize it yesterday afternoon.

I’d been going about my workday like normal, stocking a few new books to the shelves following the last of three interviews I’d scheduled for the week, when Joan walked up and said, “There’s someone on the phone for you, Skye.”

“Oh. Any idea who it is?” I asked.

She shook her head. “He didn’t say. I can ask if you’d like.”

I shook my head. “No, that’s not necessary. Would you mind taking over for me here while I take that call?”

“Not at all.”

“Perfect. Thanks.”

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